Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WeddingWire, the leading global online marketplace for the wedding and event industry, announced Always and Forever Florida Weddings as a winner of the 2017 WeddingWire Couples' Choice Awards® for Wedding officiant in Orlando. The Couples' Choice Awards recognize the top five percent of wedding professionals on WeddingWire who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness, and professionalism. The prestigious awards are given to the top local wedding professionals across more... Full story
If you do a search for The Coffee Shop in Casselberry, Fla., you will read that it is "romantic, cozy, casual." Casual for sure, but a breakfast-and-lunch restaurant that is described as romantic? Cozy? Never heard of that! But it is true. The Coffee Shop that opened last October in a little strip shopping center on 17/92 in Casselberry does have these qualities, plus great food! Owner and chef Chaleur Bastos has been in the restaurant business for 28 years. He owned Rueben's Deli in Apopka and... Full story
It's a dog's life... People who know me know that I prefer dogs to people... well some people. I've hardly ever been without a dog in my life. They give unconditional love (and don't care how I look without makeup.) I read this a while back in a magazine and want to share it with you: "We Americans love our dogs and nearly half of our households have one. They protect our homes (or think they do), play fetch, beg for attention (usually with great charm) and, if we let them, hog the sofa. Our... Full story
"At My Pace: Lessons from our Mothers," by Jill Ebstein NEWTON, Mass-At 81-years old, Jill Ebstein's mom signed up for a formal program in Jewish studies. Previously unable to attend college and now widowed, her mom set out to take care of unfinished business. Since the books seemed too heavy for her to lug around, her younger classmates chipped in to buy her a rolling backpack. When she completed the course and expressed pride in finally having a 'real graduation,' her children flew out for... Full story
"A Step-by-Step Guide To Finding Black Sheep In Your Family," by Carl R. Migden Do you enjoy reading "Who Done It" mysteries? How about a genealogical Who Done It? And one where the answer is all spelling out for you step-by-step? Interested? "A Step-by-Step Guide To Finding Black Sheep In Your Family," by Carl R. Migden, is just such a book. And a very different kind of genealogical book to boot. The author explores the particular research involved when a Black Sheep is discovered in his... Full story
The Amud Aish Memorial Museum’s (Amud Aish) Kleinman Holocaust Education Center division has launched its third annual Student Visual Arts and Literacy Contest, Born to Live: Remembering the Children of the Holocaust. Open to students in grades six through 12, this year’s contest focuses on children who lived through the Holocaust and the items they took with them when they escaped or were sent to a ghetto. There are six items that students can respond to in their entries: the Michelsohn letter, what may have been a father’s last words to hi... Full story
LOS ANGELES—Today the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation announced the details of its second annual “Inspired by Israel” video contest, which it launched this week in partnership with the 12Tribe Films Foundation. Hosted on Israelvideonetwork.com, the contest will ask entrants to submit videos that entertain, educate and inspire people about Israel. A total of $20,000 in cash prizes will be awarded to the winning videos, including an $8,000 Grand Prize. “This contest offers a vivid and dynamic way for us to show the amazing people,... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Many Israelis feel alienated by the marriage process in their country, fed up with the bureaucracy and strict religious requirements. Some seek to reform the haredi Orthodox-dominated Chief Rabbinate while creating alternatives to its monopoly on marriage and other personal status issues in Israel. But haredi Rabbi Yisroel Meir Riani thinks the Chief Rabbinate just needs better customer service. His rabbinical group, B'Noam, has made helping Israelis navigate the famously... Full story
In December 2003, the world of shidduchim (Jewish matchmaking) changed for the better. SawYouAtSinai, the online Jewish matchmaking network, was launched, and has since successfully matched an impressive 2,700+ of its members. This month it celebrates its bar mitzvah anniversary. SawYouAtSinai’s co-founder Azi Cutter remarks, “It’s hard to believe that 13 years ago, Marc Goldmann and I met at Starbucks and shared with each other our passions for changing the way people dated online, and specifically, how matchmakers communicated with both... Full story
Love cats? Then the Orlando Cat Café is the place to visit and possibly adopt a cat (or just play with them). It is the first of its kind to open in Florida, and owner Sandra Cagan is thrilled with its success. Since opening last September, more than 4,000 guests have visited the café and there have been 38 adoptions as of the end of the year. "If you are not familiar with the Cat Café concept, it is something that started in Japan where it remains very popular," Cagan explained. "Since ho... Full story
"My Jewish Roots" Workshops, sponsored by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Orlando (JGSGO) continue in February with the workshop: "The Changing Borders of Eastern Europe." Several years ago, an opportunity came out of the blue for me to visit Moldova and the Ukraine, staying in two different cities with family of my Indiana dentist. I jumped at the opportunity, never having imagined being able to visit the city of my father's birth (Bendery, Bessarabia). Jacob Moses Schwartzman (1888-1966),... Full story
Simon Wiesenthal Center reaction... This email was sent to me by Alyssa Brognano of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. It reads as follows: "It is unprecedented for an outgoing Administration to make such a draconian foreign policy shift-while simultaneously packing their boxes to leave Washington", Rabbis Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean and Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading Jewish Human Rights NGO declared. "Secretary Kerry makes it sound like it's the apartments... Full story
Using the term ‘occupied (territories)’ is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Why? 1) There is no such thing as ‘occupied territories.’ That area of land was lost by Jordan when they attacked Israel. This term is purely anti-Israel. 2) Jews are not ‘occupiers.’ Using this term is anti-Semitic.... Full story
By Eli E. Hertz True peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs cannot be based on a lie. Putting Israel and its Arab neighbors on the same footing totally ignores the asymmetry of the history of the conflict and something as fundamental as cause and effect. The truth is that one side - the Arab side - has been the aggressor time-after-time. The Arabs have been the initiators of more than five major wars, political and economic boycotts and unbridled incitement. The Palestinian Arabs have launched wave-after-wave of terrorism against... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-I was the only person in Miss Duckler's kindergarten class without a sibling. I had wished so long for a sister. But I had also wished on a star for a Baby Alive doll, and that never came true. So when my Aunt Jeannie picked me up from school and shared the birth of my sister April, I couldn't really believe it. I started cheering and skipping in circles. "I have a sister, I have a sister!" As we drove off in her silver Cadillac Eldorado, I was dying with anticipation. I... Full story
(JTA)-Josh Radnor is starring these days in Richard Greenberg's off-Broadway play "The Babylon Line." For the 42-year-old actor, it is the latest in a long and impressive list of credits. However, the odds are that no matter what else he accomplishes in life, for most people he will always be Ted Mosby, the man who spent nearly a decade telling his TV children-along with millions of viewers across the country-how he met their mother. The beloved sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" aired for nine seas... Full story
Some good news for a change... I just read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and pass it along to you: "Anti-Semitic incidents in France decreased by 64 percent in the first half of 2016 compared to a year ago, according to GILLES CLAVREUL, France's interministerial delegate for the fight against racism and anti-Semitism. He credited the decline to his government's policing around Jewish institutions. Following the murder at a kosher supermarket in January 2015, some 12,000 have... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—The Holocaust is unthinkable. To be a witness to its horrors takes strength. My children, ages 12 and 13, are too young to grasp it, so it made sense not to bring them with me on a recent trip to Eastern Europe. Instead my mother was my travel companion. Together we would go through seven countries, walking in a daze through concentration camps and ghettos. The experience would be profound in ways I can’t explain, particularly our visit to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Because I am a mother. I didn’t expect to stand where 1.5 milli... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Some couples argue over movies, others disagree about how to squeeze the toothpaste. But one of the earliest debates Yaelle Frohlich and Yair Shahak had was over which biblical figure was the most tragic. Shahak chose Jeremiah, the ridiculed and ignored prophet of doom. Frohlich picked Leah, Jacob's neglected wife. Nine years later, on a chilly Monday night in Manhattan, the couple sat in the library at Yeshiva University engaged in another spirited discussion-this time about Sams... Full story
Remembering Babi Yar... I read this in the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest. What a sad, inhuman reminder of another Nazi atrocity we must never forget! I pass it along to you in part.: "On the 75th anniversary of the murder of more than 33,000 Jews at Babi Yar, WJC President Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder and other WJC leaders travelled to Ukraine to take part in commemorations of the atrocity committed by Nazi Germany on September 29-30, 1941, in Kyiv. Speaking at a dinner event, Amb.Lauder... Full story
If there were Jewish saints, my sister would probably be one. Not because she is the devoted mother of three girls, or a busy interior designer, managing a business and a family along with community works. My sister has earned her honorary halo because she does all the above, while also managing the care of my mother, who suffered a stroke almost two years ago. I am the "long distance daughter," 1200 miles away from 'mom,' who now resides in a care facility in suburban Chicago. My long distance... Full story
Kaj Munk, a Danish cleric, identified as a rightwing political and cultural figure in the Denmark of the 1930s, became the center of moral and intellectual resistance to the Nazi occupation. He was murdered by the Gestapo and Danish traitors in January 1944 as an attempt to silence the growing resistance on the part of ordinary Danish citizens who found in their church a source of moral strength to resolutely oppose the evils of the Nazis. No other clergyman has better explained why Christians... Full story
I never knew Kristine Luken but I feel like I did. I feel that we were old friends, that I knew her well. It's strange because on one hand I know very little about her, but on the other hand I feel like I know most everything that was important. I feel like I know this because everything about her last day on this earth in so many ways personified her life. At the same time that I feel like I knew her well, I am sad and I feel a deep sense of loss at not actually having known her, and more so... Full story
I started my genealogy research 18 years ago with the information I had available-not much. My maternal grandparent's marriage record included the names and birthplaces of their parents. The name for that great-grandfather, Joseph Rosenberger (1851-1899), happened to be the same as my mother's brother, so I felt I was on the right track. I was not aware of my great-grandfather having any siblings on either side of the Atlantic, and could find no mention of siblings in any census records since... Full story
You are selling your car. A prospective buyer offers your advertised price of $4,500. You say yes. It's a verbal acceptance. A few minutes later (before anything is put in writing), another prospect arrives and offers you $5,500. Do you honor your acceptance to the first buyer, take the higher offer from the second person, or attempt to negotiate for more money from the first buyer? This is just one in a series of ethical dilemmas discussed recently with a teen group from Congregation Ohev... Full story
