Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the next few days we'll celebrate Rosh Hashanah and herald in the new year 5779. It is a time of renewal and of family-filled with good food, traditions and wishes, hopes and prayers for the future. While the holiday is best known by the name "Rosh Hashanah," which literally means "head of the year," in the Torah the holiday is called "Zichron Truah," which roughly translates as "Memory Blast." Additionally, the only mitzvah, or commandment, that is directly connected with this holiday is to...
Picture a pretty welcome table in the lobby with Jewish calendars, apples and honey. Imagine a front desk clerk wishing all Jewish residents and their family members a happy New Year. Think about a holiday menu with challah, noodle pudding, tzimmes and apple cake. While these things were once unimaginable in Orlando, they are occurring today in over 70 elder-care communities thanks to the Jewish Pavilion. Seniors who are no longer able to travel to shul can celebrate the High Holidays with...
Shalom, friends, On behalf of the staff and Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, I wish you a sweet New Year 5779! Just over a month ago, I was elected president of the Federation, and during our annual meeting I discussed our strategic plan to refine and modernize Orlando's Federation model to better serve the modern local Jewish community. As we embark on a promising new year, it is apropos to reaffirm the principles that will fuel our progress in the months ahead. The Federation mission is built on four core...
27 was another spectacular year for the Rosen JCC. We saw continued growth in our early childhood, summer camp and senior adult programs, and increased membership, event rentals and community reach. Highlights include: • Reaching new highs in early childhood enrollment (over 200 children) and summer camp enrollment (over 400 children). We also opened our new state-of-the-art Noah's Ark Infant Room. • Programmatic partnerships with the Orlando Repertory Theatre, Orlando Science Center, Orlando...
Since the year that we met, my husband, Larry, and I attend Rosh Hashanah services. We hear the shofar, listen to melodies that we only hear on the High Holy Days, and greet our friends with L'Shana Tova-Have a good year! Attending High Holy Day services as an adult is different from my experiences as a child growing up in Keeseville, N.Y., a small upstate town of two thousand people about 90 minutes south of Montreal. My Uncle Paul had opened Pearl's, one of a chain of small department stores...
Date Honey Cake recipe Ronnie Fein (The Nosher via JTA)-As a kid I would shiver at the prospect of eating honey cake, which I thought was too sticky, too pungent and too spicy. My mother served it every Rosh Hashanah because it was my Aunt Belle's recipe and among the treasures of my father's family, where the women were prize-winning bakers. Tastes change. Years later, I actually looked forward to this once-a-year goodie. So I'd like to say that honey cake is an adult, acquired taste, but that'...
Who knew? department... When I was younger and much better looking (oh quiet!), I loved to wear the latest fashions and I adored the famous fashion designers. My favorite was RALPH LAUREN. I just found out that his real name is not Lauren, rather Lifshitz! (A landsman!) If you were born in 1925-1955... This is a note to all the kids who survived the 1930s, '40s and '50s. No matter what our kids and the new generation think about us, we are awesome!! Our lives are living proof!! First, we...
AMSTERDAM (JTA)-On July 19, Evelien Gans, one of the Netherlands' foremost scholars on anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, jumped to her death from her fourth-story Amsterdam apartment, where she lived alone. Gans, 67, a retired professor at the University of Amsterdam who had struggled with clinical depression for years, prepared her suicide with characteristic meticulousness. She left a carefully worded note for her life partner, Frank Diamand, and a last will and testament for her sister. Yet...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-Ask Ben Kingsley about why he was keen to portray Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann in the new film "Operation Finale" and he describes the traumatic childhood incident in which he first learned about the Holocaust. The 74-year-old British actor was then in grammar school and at home alone when he turned on a documentary about the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. "I remember my heart stopped beating for a while," Kingsley, who is not Jewish but believes he may...
(JTA)-When undercover Israeli agents captured Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in 1960, JTA's reporters were just as surprised as everyone else. An article dated May 23 of that year described an abrupt announcement of the operation by Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to the Israeli Knesset. JTA described his mood as "hushed, almost incredulous." Ben-Gurion's announcement did not include the place and time of the capture, which had taken place 12 days earlier in Argentina, nor how it...
The 2018 Hanukkah stamp will be issued sometime in late September or early October. The word "Hanukkah" is not on the stamp. The explanation given by the USPS is "Though the word Hanukkah is not on the face of the stamp, the words "Happy Hanukkah" are printed at the top of the stamp sheet." They go on to say "The USPS has received many public recommendations over the years to do a Hanukkah stamp without the word Hanukkah thus giving the Jewish community could choose to use the stamp beyond...
(JTA)-You know what Oreos are. They're two delicious chocolate cookies sandwiched around a creme filling. Oreos also come in Double Stuff, vanilla, birthday cake and pumpkin spice (really). There is debate on how they should be eaten, but everyone knows they're best when dunked in milk. What you might not know is that Oreos are just a copycat of Hydrox, a sandwich cookie first sold in 1908, four years before Oreos appeared on shelves. Even though (or maybe because?) they were second, Oreos came...
Spoilers for "BlacKkKlansman" below. NEW YORK (JTA)-In 1965, two young Jewish men, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, were murdered along with black activist James Chaney by Ku Klux Klansmen in a Southern horror memorialized in the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning." My own Jew-adjacent summer camp showed the film to us when we were about 12, with a non-Jewish camp director adding in an impassioned speech that while the days of the violent Klan had passed, it was our responsibility, as...
Anti-Semitism in France... As recently reported in the La Croix International, (and passing it along to you), some 300 leading French public figures signed a manifesto denouncing what they see as the new wave of anti-Semitism in their country. The manifesto was published recently in Le Parisien newspaper and was signed by politicians, as well as Jewish, Muslim and Catholic leaders. Among the signatories were two leading Catholic officials: JOSEPH DORE, Bishop-emeritus of Strasbourg, and Father...
This article ran in the Nov. 18, 2016 issue of the Heritage shortly before Myrtle turned 106. She passed away on Aug. 18, 2018. As I pulled into Myrtle Rutberg's driveway at the house she has lived in for 30-some years, her son, Gerald, greeted me at the door. "My mother likes visitors to come in through the front door," he said as he led me to the front porch. Myrtle's dear friend Karnine greeted me at the door. Karnine stays with Myrtle and their relationship is like a mother and daughter....
When Longwood's Vicky Countess sent her third and youngest son off to college in 2013, the full-time mom and part-time educator/office manager felt she had more to give. Fortunately, her husband, Ken, was an avid volunteer with Take Stock in Children, a nonprofit Florida organization that provides deserving low-income students with opportunities for success. Countess learned the program, which offers students college scholarships and volunteer mentors, was recruiting volunteers to mentor...
Jerusalem, the true capital... I read this in a current issue of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you: "BETTY EHRENBERG, executive director of the WJC, North America, joined with 70 other leaders from the Jewish and Christian communities in the U.S. and Latin America to meet with Guatemalan President JIMMY MORALES in Guatemala to show support for his decision to move the Guatemalan Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Guatemala was the first country to follow...
(JTA)-Gal Gadot is close to a deal to star in a limited series about Hedy Lamarr, the film actress who also was an inventor. The Israeli star of the 2017 megahit "Wonder Woman" also will executive produce the limited series, reportedly for Showtime, with her husband and producing partner Yaron Varsano, according to Variety. Lamarr, a Jewish native of Austria, was credited with creating a prototype for a frequency-hopping signal during World War II that could help the Allies disrupt...
(JTA)-Despite a career of more than two decades kvetching incessantly about life's absurd little annoyances, comedian and actor Orny Adams insists he's an optimist who's always been an early riser, eager to tackle anything that confronts him. "When I wake up," he says, "I find myself to be a very happy person, excited for the day. I love to forge ahead; I love a challenge." After a perfectly timed pause he adds, "And by 2 p.m., I just want to curl up and get into a fetal position." Adams truly...
TEANECK, N.J. (JTA)-For many Americans, no hamburger is complete without cheese. Whether a slice of no-fuss American or something fancier, the cheese melds the beef patty with the bun into umami-laden perfection. Until now, the cheeseburger was the stuff of daydreams for Jews observing kosher dietary laws that prohibit the mixing of meat and dairy. Sure, there are vegetarian meat substitutes and fake cheeses-made from ingredients such as black beans and brown rice, cashew nuts and soy-but the...
Praise for Israel... I read this recently in a copy of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along: "Speaking at a meeting organized by the Israel Council on Foreign Relations,which operates under the auspices of the WJC, Bulgarian President RUMEN RADEV noted that the Jewish community of Bulgaria remains an integral part of the country's society. He also stressed that Israel and Bulgaria "now enjoy better relations than ever." The event came at the end of Radev's official visit to...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Cantor Philip Sherman gives me a call after having finished two circumcisions before noon on Tuesday. That's a light day, he explains. On Thursday, he will be performing circumcisions for four baby boys; on Friday, he'll do five. Sherman, 62, is a mohel (in fact he was featured as one of "America's Top Mohels" in a 2014 JTA article) and has performed over 20,000 circumcisions, both for Jewish and non-Jewish families. But in between performing multiple circumcisions a day and...
(The Nosher via JTA)-There's nothing more comforting than a slice of babka and a glass of milk to break a long fast on. In my family, it's pretty much all we eat. But I don't always make babka, and I do always make challah, especially during the High Holidays season. So, for convenience, I started setting aside one portion of my challah dough, rolling it out like babka and filling it with chocolate, creating a babka-challah hybrid. It saves me time, tastes delicious and since my challah dough...
By Josefin Dolsten NEW YORK (JTA)-The National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene's new production of "Fiddler on the Roof" enacts a familiar story in an unfamiliar language. The actors sing about joy and hardship, and argue about the importance of tradition, in the language their characters would have spoken in the Old Country. But before rehearsals started in June, the majority of them had no experience with the language. Of the 26 cast members, only three spoke Yiddish fluently. Another nine had...
Life goes on... Today, Aug. 3, would have been Irv's and my 58th wedding anniversary. He passed on Aug. 20, 2015, after marking 55 years of marriage, and being blessed with three wonderful sons. When we took our marriage vows back in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1960, "Till death do us part," we really didn't focus on those words. But, life goes on. Justice finally... I read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along: "World Jewish Congress President Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder...
