Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2051 - 2075 of 4419
Another great loss to our Jewish community... I'm referring to Max Mogul, a longtime member of our Jewish community... for more than half a century at least. I wrote recently about the unfortunate passing of his beloved wife, Ruth. People who knew Max, knew how generous a man he was, especially to orphaned children. At his memorial service, people spoke so highly of him (which didn't surprise me) with much admiration, love and respect. Many also spoke of how he made them laugh! His daughter, Lyn... Full story
BERLIN (JTA)-For Sigmount Koenigsberg, the most searing scene in the U.S.-made "Holocaust" miniseries broadcast here 40 years ago was when a German child throws photos of a Jewish family into a fireplace. The pictures curl up and melt in the flames. The moment "somehow burned into me," recalls Koenigsberg, 58, a Jew who lives in Berlin. In fact, the four-part series starring a young Meryl Streep and James Woods-first shown in the United States in 1978-burned itself into the consciences of many... Full story
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-There's something uniquely American about an event that combines secular ritual with actual religion. In six states and the District of Columbia, but especially in Pennsylvania, shopping at Wawa is very much a ritual. It's the convenience store where you grab your morning coffee, your lunchtime hoagie and your overall feeling of regional pride. Performance artist Brian Feldman had the idea to combine this secular religion with his real one, Judaism. The result was Wawa... Full story
Almost every year during Passover, Rafi Layish's family would watch "The Prince of Egypt," an animated movie about the Exodus. He loved it. "It was a really cool movie all around for animation, soundtrack," said Layish. It was also the inspiration for what he wanted to do with his future. He loved the newspaper comics, too. "Pearls Before Swine" was one of his favorites. When he was a child, he and friends would spend hours drawing pages and pages of comics. And even today if he thinks of a funn... Full story
(JTA)—J.B. Pritzker’s great-grandfather slept in a train station on his first night in Chicago. Now his billionaire descendant is about to become the governor of Illinois. Pritzker, a Jewish venture capitalist and Democrat, defeated the Republican incumbent, Bruce Rauner, in the November election. Pritzker was sworn in on Jan. 14. He has an estimated net worth of more than $3 billion, but his family wasn’t always rich. Appearing on David Axelrod’s podcast, “The Axe Files,” Pritzker said that his family fled pogroms in Ukraine in 1881 with t... Full story
What if a dismembered corpse was discovered underneath your treasured family vacation home? How would you react? For one woman, this really happened to her family. Deborah Vadas Levison, an award-winning journalist, tells the extraordinary account of her parents' ordeals, both in one of the darkest times in world history and their present-day lives. The multi award-winning book "THE CRATE: A Story of War, a Murder, and Justice," which launched last summer, is the true story about Levison's... Full story
Bigotry at its worst... I read this recently and pass it along: "Following outrage from the World Jewish Congress and other leading Jewish groups, the online streaming giant Netflix cancelled the release of a documentary that celebrates the life of Nation of Islam leader and prominent anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan, who has had a long history of bigotry and anti-Semitism, recently delivered vile remarks referring to the 'Satanic Jew and the Synagogue of Satan.' He continues... 'Whenever... Full story
By Moshe Phillips Are you or a family member planning to go on Birthright in 2019? Are you looking for something more than the average “Israel Experience?” Here are some ideas on what to see if you chose to extend your trip and your mind. Don’t give in to the critics of Israel who want you to leave Birthright and see the Palestinian point of view when you know almost nothing about the Jewish struggle to free Israel from British control in the first place. Birthright may take you to the Kotel (Western Wall), the Sea of Galilee, the Yad Vashe... Full story
In 2005 a miracle happened in Israel, albeit with a technological assist. Sisters Hana Katz and Klara Bleier were reunited 61 years after being separated in the Budapest ghetto, each having survived the war thinking herself the only one. Decades later they both deposited testimony with Yad Vashem and, with the help of a new computerized database, realized that they were in fact not alone. As fate would have it, Hana and Klara had both settled in Israel and raised families a mere 45 miles apart.... Full story
By Lisa Levine If you are an American Jew, chances are good that you have encountered many non-Jews who know little or have misconceptions about Jewish religion or culture. So if you or a loved one were moving into a senior care facility, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to find that it did not occur to the non-Jewish caregiving staff to wish you a happy new year on Rosh Hashanah or offer you matzoh instead of a dinner roll on Passover. But in greater Orlando, most of the facilities have s... Full story
What a loss... The World Jewish Congress and its affiliated community in Lithuania recently marked the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, alongside Pope Francis and other notable personalities. "Seventy-five years ago, the Germans and local Lithuanian accessories nearly obliterated one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe, a hub of cultural and intellectual Jewish life for thousands of years," WJC President Ambassador RONALD S. LAUDER said. "But they did not... Full story
(JNS)-Reactions and memories from the Jewish and pro-Israel community have filled news pages and social media following the death of Moshe Arens, former Israeli Defense Minister and mentor of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday at the age of 93. "The Conference of Presidents mourns the loss of a great leader of Israel and dear friend of the Presidents Conference, Minister Moshe Arens. Minister Arens served Israel in many capacities, including as a very impactful and successful... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Bryant Johnson says pressure creates diamonds, and I think I just upped the carat level. Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s personal trainer did not know that his two other clients on the Supreme Court—Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan—are Jewish, too. Until I told him. “I never thought about it that way,” he says when I tell him that he’s responsible in part for the health of the court’s entire Jewish contingent. Ginsburg is 85, Breyer is 80 and Kagan is a spritely 58. Where Johnson takes the conversation from there is interesting—he... Full story
LONDON (JTA)-Like countless world-class pianists, Nelly Ben-Or began playing piano at the age of 5 and never stopped. That discipline helped Ben-Or, 86, became an international concert pianist and the person most widely recognized for adapting the Alexander technique for posture and movement improvement for musicians. But unlike most of her peers, much of Ben-Or's musical training in her native Poland took place while her family was hiding in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, where her mother, Antonina... Full story
In commemoration of International Holocaust Day, on Jan. 27, there will be a presentation by Holly Mandelkern, author of "Beneath White Stars-Holocaust Profiles in Poetry" at the Winter Park Public Library, located at 460 E New England Ave., in Winter Park. The event, a partnership with The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center, will be held from 2 p.m to 4 p.m. On this date in 1945, Soviet troops liberated the concentration camp in Auschwitz, Poland. International Holocaust Day pays... Full story
In his new book, “We Want Mashgiach Now—Tales From A Kosher Cop,” Allan Lieberman tells what’s really going on behind the kitchen doors in the Kosher food service business. Lieberman, a South Florida mashgiach (Kosher Food supervisor) has put together a witty and entertaining account of some of his on-the-job experiences. Always humorous, sometimes irreverent and often educational, each chapter tells the story of incidents that occurred at Kosher restaurants or events and in kitchens of Kosher... Full story
Butterflies. Beautiful butterflies. Blue. Yellow. Even black and white. I am so enthralled by them. But butterflies have a greater meaning to me than just their beauty. In 1993, I read a book called "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," a collection of short pieces, poems, and drawings completed by the children in one of Nazi Germany's infamous concentration camps. The eponymous poem was written by Pavel Friedmann, a 21-year-old man who was transported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp on... Full story
Memories... Back in 1964, when my husband, Irv, and I moved to Orlando, one of the finest restaurants in Central Florida was Al and Linda's La Cantina. More than half a century has past, yet, after going there with our son, RON, the other night (Irv is deceased), I have to say it is still one of the finest restaurants in the area! And the service was as good as the food. (Our server, a beautiful gal, happens to be the granddaughter of Al and Linda!) Uh Oh... upsetting news from Germany... "The... Full story
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-Despite its rustic charms, the dream home that Roxane van Iperen and her partner bought nearly ruined their marriage. Van Iperen, a 42-year-old novelist, underestimated the amount of renovating needed on the countryside estate east of Amsterdam. She bought the place in 2012 with Joris Lenglet as a home for the couple and their three children. "We almost separated by the time it was done," she recalled in a November interview on the NPO1 television channel. But amid "the arguing,... Full story
(JTA)-Officially and for the record, despite her Jewish-sounding name, Cher Horowitz is not a member of the tribe. In fact, the Valley Girl heroine of the iconic 1995 film "Clueless" was never intended to be Jewish, says her creator, Amy Heckerling. "I wasn't thinking in terms of this being a Jewish story," she said in a telephone interview. "I was taking the plot of Jane Austen's 'Emma' and translating it into that world." Wallace Shawn, the witty Jewish actor who played a teacher in the film,... Full story
Ask people in the Miami area if they have heard of Stephen Gamson, and the majority will say a resounding "Yes!" He is so well known that Dec. 3, 2018, was proclaimed Stephen Gamson Day by City of Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber and Vice Mayor Michael Gongora. The honor was bestowed upon Gamson during a pre-Art Basel party held on Fisher Island, an exclusive private island off the coast of Miami Beach. Gamson was the featured artist at the party, a forerunner of the art festival held in Basel,... Full story
(JTA)—In a genetic study of 6,589 people from five Latin American countries, about a quarter displayed traces of what may be Sephardic Jewish ancestry. Geneticist Juan-Camilo Chacón-Duque and his colleagues published their findings last week in Nature Communications magazine, in an article titled “Latin Americans show wide-spread Converso ancestry and imprint of local Native ancestry on physical appearance.” Converso is the Spanish-language word for people who converted from Judaism to Christianity during the Inquisition in Spain and Portug... Full story
Two years ago, Peter and Margaret Hunter, friends from England, visited us in our home in Kissimmee, Florida. They brought two bottles of Moet Chandon Brut Champagne, which we tucked away for a future occasion. Miracles and Relationships This week, the Hunters were back in Florida, and Peter asked us if we had drunk the wine. When I told him it was still sitting in the box, he admonished me. "That kind of wine doesn't age well," said Peter. "It doesn't last unless refrigerated properly. We'll... Full story
My Canadian roots... My mom was born in Montreal, Canada, and I'm sure I have some relatives still living there. I've been to western Canada, performing at the Calgary Stampede with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and I've done sight-seeing in surrounding areas, but I've never been to Montreal. It's on my "Bucket List." On the subject of Canada... I read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you: Speaking to a forum of the WJC, Canada's Foreign Minister, Chrystia... Full story
A 2,000-year-old ring with a solitaire gemstone was uncovered in archaeological excavations in the City of David National Park in Jerusalem. The ring was found by Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists in what appears to be an ancient Mikveh (ritual bath) on the Pilgrimage Road which dates back to the time of the second Temple period. The ancient paved road runs up from the Shiloach (Siloam) pool to the Temple Mount and is thought to have been the main thoroughfare taken by pilgrims to the... Full story
