Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2476 - 2500 of 4419
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
Israeli researchers have discovered that a specific protein is severely reduced in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Alzheimer's is a neurodegenerative disease caused by brain cell death. Currently there is no cure, but according to researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), we now know what may trigger it. Dr. Debbie Toiber, of the BGU Department of Life Sciences, and her team discovered that a specific protein-Sirtuin-6 (SIRT6)-is severely reduced in the brains of... Full story
Gloria Yousha could not write her Scene Around column this week because she recently had heart surgery. She wanted to let everyone know she is doing fine in her recovery, and thanks all her well wishers. Her column will return next week.... Full story
"That doesn't belong here." Peter Gutensohn stared at the large tarnished sterling silver piece almost hidden in a dusty corner of Lanier's Historic Downtown Marketplace. Peter had come in to the antiques mall in Kissimmee, Florida, on an early spring day in 2016 to look for a silver serving platter for his wife, Kelly. He was a frequent visitor, often successful in his search for a specific old, beautiful object. And sometimes he bought interesting items "just because." A few years earlier,... Full story
(JTA)-The time is just after the defeat of Nazi Germany. Two Orthodox Jews disembark from a train at a rural station in Soviet-occupied Hungary and, after offloading a heavy bag, they begin a silent, hour-long walk to a nearby village. The purpose of their journey is not known. But their arrival in the village sets in motion a series of tragic and violent events, as some residents worry the visitors will expose crimes they committed during the Nazi occupation, with potentially deadly... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—My final hike with Talia was an act of defiance and love. In July, I held her, my 23-month-old daughter, in a front carrier with extra support to prevent her head from lolling side to side. I pressed her tiny body firmly against mine in the hope that my body heat would comfort and warm her increasingly cold body. She was as weak as I had ever seen her, her body limp—a result of her brain’s inability to function. She was 10 days away from death, yet there we were summiting another peak together. To outsiders, we were a typical... Full story
Seventy-eight years ago, a Torah scroll was sentenced to death along with the Jewish people. Now it will be in Orlando, as part of a whirlwind tour that will include hundreds of Jewish communities all across the globe. On Kristallnacht, the "night of broken glass" when more than 1,400 synagogues were torched and 7,000 Jewish businesses were destroyed across Germany, 14-year-old Isaac Schwartz of Hamburg knew he had to act. Seeing a pyre of Torah scrolls and other Jewish sacred items left... Full story
Of all the interesting facts and statistics you will learn at Kehillah: A History of Jewish Life in Greater Orlando exhibition, perhaps the most fascinating will be the people you will meet-their stories, their accomplishments, and their role in building the Central Florida community. Did you know... A Jew helped write the charter of the village of Orlando? After opening Florida stores in Bartow, Fort Meade and Fort Ogden in the 1860s, Jacob Raphael Cohen settled in Orlando in 1873. He bought... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-Growing up in Seattle, it's easy to fall in love with pho. Nearly as ubiquitous as coffee shops or teriyaki spots (yes, teriyaki), pho restaurants seem to be just around every corner of the city. They welcome you in from the cold and the rain with their steamy glass windows and equally steamy giant bowls of soup. Pho (pronounced fuh) is a traditional Vietnamese soup that was popularized around the world by Vietnamese refugees fleeing the Vietnam War and its aftermath. Pho... Full story
Remembering Jewish and American history... We all remember the World Trade Center and the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City. (How could we ever forget?) DANIEL LEWIN, an American-Israeli entrepreneur and former Israeli commando, became the unofficial first casualty of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Born in Denver, Colorado, he moved as a teenager to Jerusalem where he enlisted in Israel's elite special forces commando unit-the Sayeret Matkai. (One of the... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-When it comes to women posing with firearms, the United States is fully loaded. Lithe models can be found showing off weapons at gun shows, in rifle magazines and on dedicated social media pages. Orin Julie may look like just another "gun bunny," as such models are sometimes called, but she is the industry's secret weapon. She is a former Israeli combat soldier who is trained to discharge the weapons she poses with. "I don't stand around in swimwear," she said in an interview at... Full story
COIMBRA, Portugal (JTA)-From its mountaintop perch, the University of Coimbra towers majestically over the downtown square that used to be the regional headquarters of the Portuguese Inquisition. It's a fitting location for the 737-year-old university, the seventh oldest in the world, which outsmarted and outlived the campaign of persecution against Jews and freethinkers unleashed by the Catholic Church and Portugal's rulers in 1536. "This place was almost literally an ivory tower of knowledge... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-For generations, Jewish grandmothers have spent hours and hours chained to their stoves perfecting their family chicken soup recipes. The prevailing thought was that the longer the soup simmered, the more flavorful the result. Fortunately for the current generation, technology has created new ways that we can achieve that slow-cooked flavor in a much shorter time frame. With the Instant Pot, or an electric pressure cooker, we've cut down the cook time without sacrificing... Full story
Congregation Ohev Shalom's Men's Club celebrated the holiday of Sukkot with fun, food, music and fellowship by holding an event titled "A Celebration and So Long in the Sukkah," held on Sunday, Oct. 8, at Congregation Ohev Shalom. The family-styled event was open to all congregation members and the community as a way to celebrate the holiday and to help everyone perform God's commandment to be joyous during Sukkot. It was also a great time to give best wishes to Howard Kaplan, COS Men's Club's... Full story
Jews and cancer... I received this information from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and pass it along to you in part: "This is about the three cancers Jews need to worry about most, and how to reduce the risks." (As if Jews don't have enough to worry about.) "Specifically, Jews are at elevated risk for three types of the disease: melanoma, breast cancer and ovarian cancer. The perils are particularly acute for Jewish women. The higher prevalence of these illnesses isn't spread evenly among a... Full story
"The Trust," By Ronald H. Balson, St. Martin's Press In 2013, Ronald H. Balson debuted his first novel, "Once We Were Brothers," an originally self-published title that reached great success and instantly became an international best seller. Over the course of just a few years, Balson would come to publish two more novels featuring the same compelling characters-lawyer Catherine Lockhart and private investigator Liam Taggart-and build a dedicated readership. Balson's fourth novel, "The Trust,"... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)-If New England Patriots star Julian Edelman retires from the NFL anytime soon, he clearly has a promising second career as a Jewish children's book writer. In front of about 400 children and their families Tuesday night at the Newton Centre flagship of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston, the 31-year-old wide receiver and Super Bowl hero read a special edition of a children's book he co-wrote last year. Unsurprisingly Edelman, who has Jewish ancestry on his father's side... Full story
CHICAGO (JTA)-Three days after a gunman killed 59 people in Las Vegas, a post in a Facebook group for Chicago Jews displayed a blurry photo of survivors fleeing the bullets. Next to it was a flier advertising ChiDefense Firearm Training with a Hebrew phrase underneath denoting that the company is closed for Shabbat. The post got a few "likes"-and plenty of hate. One commenter called it "vile and distasteful." Another wrote sarcastically that it displayed "impeccable logic." Another called for... Full story
