Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2426 - 2450 of 4386
SAN FRANCISCO (JTA)-Lyla Maymon and Jane Shvartzman went to interview officials last year at the Larkin Street Youth, a local organization fighting homelessness among young people, to see if their programs were worthy of a philanthropic grant. Maymon and Shvartzman asked all the right questions, like what percentage of the group's budget was used for overhead and how it planned to spend the money. They had looked up its financials on GuideStar, a database of nonprofit files. So, perhaps not... Full story
When India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Israel last July and waded in the ocean with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that historic meeting not only paved the way for a stronger relationship between the countries, it spurred local doctors, Jewish and Indian, to have an informative, networking event together. Drs. Amish Parikh and Daniel Layish, friends who are members of the Central Florida Association of Physicians from the Indian Subcontinent and the Jewish Federation of Greater... Full story
Salute to all who are willing to sacrifice for our country... I am writing this column in advance. It is Veteran's Day and I am the proud mother of a Lt. Commander Navy, former Army vet who served in Iraq, and former sailor who served on a minesweeper in the Persian Gulf. I am also the widow of a Korean War Army veteran. (I never served, but wow, how I worried!) Speaking of Veteran's... I received this letter from AARP Fraud Watch Network. It began, "They protected us. Now it's time to protect... Full story
The great wonder known as the Dead Sea is shrinking at an alarming rate. This calamity has brought Dead Sea explorer and researcher Noam Bedein to lecture halls across the U.S. with the hope of bringing awareness on what changes we may be witnessing in the coming years. On Oct. 23, Bedein spoke to the students at the University of Central Florida. The event was sponsored by the student organization Knights for Israel and CAMERA on Campus. Bedein's stunning photography and virtual reality... Full story
(JTA)-Mark Zuckerberg wrote last December on Facebook that for him, "religion is very important." Looks like he meant it. The Facebook co-founder has been invoking Judaism a lot lately. In May, he quoted a Jewish prayer at Harvard's commencement. Two weeks ago he posted a picture of his daughter with a family kiddush cup. And on Saturday night, he posted a public apology at the end of Yom Kippur. It's quite a transformation for a public figure who once defined himself as an atheist. Although he... Full story
Do you know the history of the $1 bill? And do you know who Haym Solomon was? You may be in for quite a surprise! Looking at the backside of the One Dollar bill, you will see two circles. Together, they comprise the Great Seal of the United States. The First Continental Congress requested that Benjamin Franklin and a group of men come up with a Seal. It took them four years to accomplish this task and another two years to get it approved. If you look at the left-hand circle, you will see a... Full story
How sweet it is (or isn't)... Wow! What can't Israel do? They are leading the world in cures for many diseases, coming up with fabulous inventions that make our lives easier... and now... a new App that assesses fruit freshness! I read the following in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along: "As published in the Times of Israel, an Israeli startup-Aclar Tech-has developed a mobile app that monitors, in real time, the ripeness, freshness and quality of fruits. The AclaroMeter... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-I had heard the myth of chocolate cakes made with cooked quinoa and didn't quite believe they would actually be tasty. This cake is surprisingly moist and delicious. Note: This recipe is gluten- and dairy-free, and Passover friendly. You can make this cake up to three days in advance, and it also freezes well. This recipe is excerpted with permission from Paula Shoyer's cookbook "The Healthy Jewish Kitchen." Ingredients: For the cake: 3/4 cup quinoa 1 1/2 cups water Cooking... Full story
BERLIN (JTA)-In late 1943, the Germans were desperate to cover all traces of their death camp in Sobibor, Poland. They demolished buildings, bulldozed the evidence, planted trees. More than 70 years later, archaeologists led by Yoram Haimi of the Israel Antiquities Authority set about excavating the site, uncovering gas chambers, mass graves-and, late last year, a girl's silver pendant. It is engraved with a date, the place name "Frankfurt" and the Hebrew words "mazal tov." A cry from the... Full story
(JTA)-On a recent Friday, Eitan Press stood in Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda Market offering to apply balm to the beards of passers-by. Press was hoping they would get hooked on his product, an ointment that comes in a variety of Jewish-themed scents, including the popular Sukkot (myrtle, lemon, lemongrass and mint) and Havdalah (clove and cinnamon). The founder of the Aleph Male beard balm company, Press estimates that he has "anointed hundreds of beards" since its founding in July. "I've seen how... Full story
(JTA)-Of all the many loaded issues tied to the bloody history of Jews in the former Soviet Union, none is as sensitive today in that part of the world as their role in the 1917 revolution that brought the communists to power. The outsized prevalence of Jews in the ranks of the revolution that broke out a century ago on Nov. 7 has remained a mainstay of anti-Semitic vitriol in the area. During the Holocaust, it served as a pretext for the murder of countless Jews across Eastern Europe by... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—For many home cooks, spices are an afterthought, sprinkled on a dish lacking in flavor. Israeli-born, French-educated chef Lior Lev Sercarz wants to change that. “If you want to make good food and beverages you need to know about spices, and I would like to help you know more about it, whether you’re a home cook, whether you’re a professional,” Sercarz, 45, told JTA recently at La Boite, the small spice and biscuit shop he opened in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. Since opening La Boite in 2011, Sercarz has amassed... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-As Hebrew pop music blares, a half-dozen young Israelis swing around stripper poles. Clad in skimpy spandex outfits, the men and women dance, twirl and flip above the hardwood floor. On the sunny street outside the dance studio, passers-by stop to gawk through the picture windows. Some giggle guiltily, while others snap photos with their cellphones. They could be forgiven for assuming the performance was somehow connected to the strip club located across the beachside plaza. But... Full story
A body of an American solider lying peacefully in the snow in a battlefield in Belgium. A Jewish boy in Brooklyn orphaned twice by World War II. And the world-renown photographer who connected the two. This is their story. Samuel Tannenbaum was born on July 10, 1942, in Washington, D.C. to Henry and Bertha Fiedel Tannenbaum. Less than two years later, Henry was drafted into the United States Army, Bertha and Sam moved to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to be closer to their families. After... Full story
One hundred years ago, on Nov. 2, 1917, the British Government issued the Balfour Declaration. This month, British Prime Minister Theresa May stated, "we are proud of the role that we played in the creation of the State of Israel." Jewish Rights to Palestine were internationally guaranteed. In the first Report of the High Commissioner on the Administration of Palestine (1920-1925) presented to the British secretary of state for the Colonies, published in April 1925, the most senior official of t... Full story
(JTA)-"It was very peculiar," said Gilbert Gottfried, 62, about becoming the subject of the aptly named bio-documentary, "Gilbert." "The filmmaker, Neil Berkeley, came to me and said he'd always dreamed about making a Gilbert Gottfried documentary," the comedian told JTA in a telephone interview. "I told him you should set your dreams higher." When they first met in October 2014, Gottfried was not enthused at the prospect of the film. He was concerned about what he called the "'Wizard of Oz'... Full story
By Curt Schleier (JTA)-Turns out you don't actually have to be a guest on Henry Louis Gates' PBS show "Finding Your Roots" to, well, find your roots. Gili Rozenfeld, 29, a video editor who lives in Tel Aviv, caught a glimpse of the episode that ran Tuesday on Israeli TV showing actress Scarlett Johansson tearing up when she learns of ancestors who died in the Warsaw Ghetto. Rozenfeld was shocked when she recognized the names of Johansson's relatives, particularly Zlata Szlamberg, who was 15 at... Full story
I'm starting this column with some shout-outs... As many of you already know, I was in Florida Hospital-South, for 10 days due to my needing surgery for a heart valve. I am okay now (I hope) and I want to mention the following registered nurses who went "above and beyond" the call of duty to care for me. (I am very grateful.) For my pre-surgery I was on the sixth floor of the magnificent (like a hotel) Ginsburg Tower, built through donations from our own ALAN GINSBURG. There one of my nurses,... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-Shchi, or Russian cabbage soup, is among the more well-known soups in Russia. It is usually made with white or green cabbage, but some versions are made with other green leafy vegetables, especially spinach, sorrel or nettles. Shchi is usually served with sour cream and some black bread on the side. Unlike borscht, there are no beets in this soup. (This recipe was excerpted with permission from "Hazana: Jewish Vegetarian Cooking," by Paola Gavin, published by Quadrille in... Full story
Written by Paul Kaplan, Pelican Publishing Company, $24.95 Beyond the stereotype of elderly Jews visiting sunny beaches and stopping in at New York-style delis lies a rich history and Jewish cultural tradition. The area is populated by Ashkenazi Jews, Sephardic Jews with roots in Spain or Turkey, and those from Cuba and other Latin American countries. It's this cultural mingling that makes the Jewish way of life in South Florida so unique. "I realized there was a huge desire for these cultural... Full story
Written by Arlo Haskell, Sand Paper Press, $24, release date Nov. 15, 2017. A little further south of Miami is the dramatic story of South Florida’s oldest Jewish community and a major addition to the history of this unique island city. Long before Miami was on the map, Key West had Florida’s largest economy and an influential Jewish community. Jews who settled here as peddlers in the 19th century joined a bilingual and progressive city that became the launching pad for the revolution that toppled the Spanish Empire in Cuba. As dozens of loc... Full story
(JTA)-By his own admission, Rob Reiner was not the right person to direct "LBJ," a film biography of Lyndon Baines Johnson, the 36th president of the United States. "I had a lot of trepidation," he said in a telephone interview with JTA. In addition to a successful career as an actor, Reiner is one of the most bankable directors plying the trade today. His films run the gamut from lighthearted fare like "This is Spinal Tap," "The Princess Bride" and "When Harry Met Sally," to serious drama such... Full story
It all goes back to April 2014 when Jason Mendelsohn, now 48, received the heart-stopping news that he had squamous cell carcinoma on his right tonsil. He was shocked. He didn't smoke, it was just a small bump on his neck. Later, his doctor confirmed that is was stage 4 HPV-related tonsil cancer. He probably contracted the HPV virus while he was in college, 25 years earlier. Before the shock had time to wear off, he had a radical tonsillectomy, neck dissection (42 lymph nodes removed from his... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The Israel Defense Forces takes pride in its status as a "people's army." More than just a military, the IDF embraces its reputation as an equalizing force in Israeli society. Every soldier, rich and poor, is supposed to learn during mandatory army service what it takes to be a successful Israeli. "Israel is a country known as 'a nation of immigrants,'" the army wrote on its blog several years ago. "The leading assumption is that by integration into the IDF, assimilation into... Full story
According to my 93-year-old father, Arthur, the Witkov family had a ritual of sorts each time a son would go off to war. There would be a sendoff party of brave-faced family members, a new gift wristwatch presented by his Uncle Harry, hugs and handshakes, and a Blue Star placed in their Chicago Ashland Avenue apartment window (to show that a family member was serving in the armed forces). My dad's oldest brother, Sid, was the first to leave home. Next in line was brother Dave. And then it was... Full story
