Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Often, it is those "unexpected connections" that are made with the residents who are in our local living facilities that are the most rewarding. Such is the case of a dear couple who reside at Westminster Winter Park. Allow me to introduce ... William (Bill) and Adrienne Katz. They have been attending the Jewish Pavilion programs for years and they always welcome us with open arms and gentle hugs. They are both very active in their community and they have the most wonderful sense of humor....
Will it ever end?... (Probably, it will NEVER end!) I read this today and pass it on to you. (Why should I be the only one depressed?): "The Israeli Journal of Foreign Affairs, a publication of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations, has released a penetrating study revealing the extent of the resurgence of anti-Semitic discourse in Poland in the wake of its controversial Holocaust Law. (The law as it stands now still stifles any real discussion of the extent to which local Poles were...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-In the summer of 2011, Yuval Fenta saw two guys tossing a football on the beach in Herzliya. He asked to participate. "You're too small," they responded. A dejected Fenta retreated, but not before hearing them mention an American football league that played in Israel. Seven years later, Fenta has showed them. Now a 21-year-old running back for the Tel Aviv Pioneers, the son of Ethiopian immigrants for the past three seasons has earned the Israel Football League's Offensive Player...
(ISRAEL21c)—Guy Gardi, a founding member of 25-year-old urban Kibbutz Beit Yisrael in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo Aleph, doesn’t consider himself a pioneer like the founders of the nearly 100-year-old Kibbutz Ein Harod in the Jezreel Valley, where he grew up. Those original egalitarian communes (kibbutz means “gathering” or “collective”) struggled to establish fertile farms in long-barren soil, while today’s urban kibbutz is an intentional community working to improve quality of life and education in underserved neighborhoods...
(JTA)-When the Argentine-Jewish filmmaker Pablo Solarz was 5 or 6 years old, he asked his grandfather if he was Polish. On the phone recently, in heavily accented English, he described his grandfather's reaction. "He gave me a very dead face," Solarz recalled. "My father said that [Polish] is a very bad word, and I don't want to [talk about] it with my grandfather again. My grandfather never wanted to talk about his life in Poland." Solarz's grandfather didn't spend time in a Nazi concentration...
SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)-While growing up in Palo Alto, Raphael Bob-Waksberg was a serious consumer of popular culture. He would watch TV for hours on end and view movies over and over until he memorized them. In particular, he was a huge fan of "The Simpsons." "We used to talk about Bart and Lisa at the dinner table as if they were real people," said his mother, Ellen Bob. Nowadays, the conversation around American tables is more likely about "BoJack Hor...
Will it ever end?... I read this in a recent edition of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along: "The World Jewish Congress strongly condemned photographs that emerged recently in Bulgaria showing two boys at the Bulgarian Cup Football finals with neo-Nazi symbols scrawled across their chests. 'The WJC stands with the Organization of Jews in Bulgaria, Shalom, in categorically condemning the disgusting and cynical exploitation of children to spread messages of hate and...
(JTA)-For months author JK. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred. Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism. "Lethal White," the fourth series in Rowling's Cormoran Strike mystery series, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, features a pair of hard-left...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-Wandering the ornate streets of the city of Fes in northern Morocco, Noam Vazana heard several men singing a tune so familiar that it made her stop in her tracks. Vazana, a successful 35-year-old Israeli musician living here, was visiting her ancestors' country of birth for a performance at the Tanjazz festival in Tangier when she heard the tune. She began following the men through alleyways to a square where hundreds of locals were singing that same Arabic-language song at a...
WHIPPANY, N.J. (New Jersey Jewish News via JTA)-When Clifford Kulwin celebrated his 13th anniversary as rabbi at Temple B'nai Abraham in Livingston, New Jersey, he knew he had to mention another local institution. "I understand there are some present who do not consider this a 'real' bar mitzvah. To them I have just one word: Sam's!" he said before opening his suit jacket and pointing to the label sewn into the lining: Sam's Fine Men's Clothing in Livingston. "Eight hundred people there utterly...
Last week, Heritage ran a story about Kehilat Yonatan, a Reform congregation in Israel, winning a legal battle to build their synagogue. Heritage attempted to contact Lori Stein Erlich for comment. However, because of the High Holidays and the time difference between Israel and the States, a response wasn't received until the Sept. 14 issue went to press (we received her response about 10 minutes after the paper went to the printers). Erlich is a founder of Kehilat Yonatan and an immediate past...
(My Jewish Learning via JTA)-The central mitzvah of Sukkot is found in Leviticus 23:42, where Jews are commanded to dwell in a sukkah, a temporary hut, for seven days and nights. We do this in order to remember the experiences of our ancestors, both on the journey from Egypt to the Land of Israel and in a later era, when farmers brought offerings to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the harvest. But many people live in climates, neighborhoods or buildings that preclude constructing...
(JTA)-So much at the Jewish New Year is sweet: first fruits, honey, honey cake. By the time Sukkot rolls around, we're often looking for something savory to offset it all. Regardless of the time of year, we have some favorites in our house. One is smoked salmon with cream cheese and vegetables on an everything bagel. This menu is a riff on that very dish, but with a lighter and healthier take on the very foods that make the flavors so delicious. For a time saver, the fish can be crusted ahead...
Another great move... I read this recently and pass it along to you: "Speaking at a meeting of the Israel Council on Foreign Relations in Jerusalem, which operates under the auspices of the World Jewish Congress, Paraguayan President HORACIO CARTES expressed satisfaction over the moving of his country's embassy to Jerusalem. If anyone had any doubt about the appropriateness of the embassy move, Cartes said, 'just read the Bible.' Cartes added that this would be his final trip to Israel, as his t...
(The Nosher via JTA)-There can never be too many tomatoes. August's heat is always made more bearable for me by peak tomato season. I love to eat them cut into thick rounds and topped on crusty well-buttered toasted bread, or chopped small in a simple Israeli salad alongside cucumber and herbs. Stuffed vegetables of all kinds were regularly made and eaten in our home, just as they are in many other Russian Jewish kitchens. Stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers and stuffed mushrooms are regional...
By Rebecca Rosenthal (Kveller via JTA)-If you leave your kids home on the High Holidays so you can have grownup praying time, bring your kids on Sukkot. If you bring your kids to the High Holidays, then bring them back on Sukkot. Sukkot is the best kids holiday. You just might not know it yet. Sukkot is particularly awesome for kids who love building, engineering or arts and crafts (so, most kids). You get to build a sukkah at your home or synagogue, or if you don't have access to those, build...
WARSAW (JTA)-In the small park behind the only synagogue in this city to have survived World War II, Yoram Sztykgold looks around with a perplexed expression. An 82-year-old retired architect, Sztykgold immigrated to Israel after surviving the Holocaust in Poland. He tries in vain to recognize something from what used to be his childhood home. "It's no use," he says after a while. "To me this could be anywhere." Sztykgold's unfamiliarity with the part of Grzybowska Street where he spent his...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-Last year, Ron Simpson was still managing talent for a living. But within just a few months Simpson, a 34-year-old Jewish marketing professional and producer from Amsterdam with no experience in running a restaurant, launched an international chain of eateries with a partner. It is so wildly popular and innovative that seasoned food critics are celebrating it as a cultural symbol and zeitgeist indicator. As it turns out, all Simpson and partner Julien Zaal needed to take this...
More than 40 years ago a small group of Christians, under the leadership of Pastor Ken Garrison, chose to step away from traditional Baptist practices and began to learn about the biblical feasts found in Leviticus, and to be a support to Israel by following the calling to comfort His people. Over the years, Fellowship Church in Winter Springs, has led Passover seders to teach fellow Christians about how Christian beliefs tie into the celebration that the Jewish people have observed for more...
Each year for the High Holidays, the plaintive, soul-stirring sound of the shofar rings out in synagogues all over the world, and congregants are moved by that ancient tie to their ancestors. For the past several years, Jewish Pavilion volunteer Susie Stone has made sure that Jews in area senior living facilities are not left out. In many Jewish homes, a shofar is proudly displayed on a shelf or mantle, more an object of Judaica than an instrument used during High Holiday prayer. Maybe once or...
He was loved and respected... I wrote briefly about the late Senator John McCain in last week's column when I first heard about his passing. (I write well in advance of publication). What I want to add is that he was a true hero and I want him to be remembered in history as Winston Churchill, Presidents Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, etc., are remembered. I want my grandchildren, great-grandchildren, great-great-grandchildren, etc., to learn about him. Though a life-long...
(JTA)-For North American Jews, the Jewish year 5778 began with tensions between Israel and the Diaspora over egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and ended with more tension over a controversial nationality law. In between, North American Jews grappled with the impact of the #MeToo movement, the Trump administration relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and actress Natalie Portman made headlines for turning down a chance to collect a top prize in Israel. September 2017 Edie...
By MJL Staff (My Jewish Learning via JTA)-Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, starts at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 18. Traditionally one of the most somber days on the Jewish calendar, it's known for fasting and repentance-not to mention killer caffeine withdrawal headaches. However, the holiday has some lesser-known associations as well. 1. The word "scapegoat" originates in an ancient Yom Kippur ritual. Jews historically have been popular scapegoats-blamed for an array of ills not of...
(JNS)-Fasting is the most commonly known Yom Kippur ritual. According to a 2016 Pew survey, 40 percent of American Jews and 60 percent of Israeli Jews fast on the Day of Atonement. Of course, fasting is not exclusive to Judaism. It is an ancient practice whose purpose and benefit span across the three Abrahamic faiths-Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Fasting is mentioned in the Bible and the Koran, and although its practices differ across these religions, they each use food restriction and/or...
SOMERVILLE, Mass. (JTA)-On the first afternoon of Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Eliana Jacobowitz led her congregation on a walk to the Blessing of the Bay Boathouse on the Mystic River for tashlich, a centuries-old ritual when Jews symbolically discard their sins from the past year into a moving body of water. But instead of the customary bits of stale bread, breadcrumbs or even bits of matzah saved from last Passover, congregants tossed small pebbles. Members of Temple B'nai Brith, a non-affiliated...
