Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2926 - 2950 of 4419
The Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista Hotel, part of the Rosen Hotels & Resorts family, has unveiled 2,400 square feet of new indoor event space specifically designed for weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, reunions, social events and business meetings. To celebrate, Clarion is offering a 25-percent discount off both the venue rental fees and event guest room rates through the end of the year. The new ballroom can accommodate more than 180 people banquet-style or 265 people for a reception. For smaller... Full story
PARIS (JTA)-The summer drizzle that soaked the French capital did little to dampen Yechiel Eckstein's enthusiasm as he arrived recently with his wife Joelle at the city's Great Synagogue for a private tour. But a run-in inside with a local community leader moments later-typical, perhaps, of this Israeli-American Orthodox rabbi's often strained relationships with the Jewish establishment-quickly changed the tone of the visit. Raised in Canada and living in Jerusalem, Eckstein, 64, was in Paris... Full story
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF. (JTA)-Back in the 1990s, the Fox series "Beverly Hills, 90210″ tackled eating disorders, gun safety, addiction and AIDS in a tone so earnest that it seems quaint in the era of "Girls" and "Broad City"-shows that eschew the moralizing of TV generations past. In what may be the most famous episode of the teen drama's 10-season run, West Beverly High School seniors get a lesson in student activism. The cause: overturning Donna Martin's school suspension. The movement's r... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-A warm night, a balcony overlooking the Mediterranean and a big bowl of watermelon with feta cheese: If we had to take a guess, that would be our mom's definition of the perfect summer dinner. If you've never tasted watermelon and feta together before, it may sound like a strange combination. But give it a taste and you will certainly be hooked. The sweetness of the juicy watermelon meets the rich, salty feta creating an explosion of flavor on every perfect bite. Inspired... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—This summer, as I put my 8-year-old on the bus to sleepaway camp, he turned to his friend and said, “Let’s get on the bus quickly before our parents can say goodbye and be so embarrassing.” As they ran toward the bus, I could not help reflecting that he is breaking away, just at the moment when I want to hold on tight. But what he doesn’t know is that I have a secret weapon waiting for when he returns from camp, and that is “Harry Potter.” For the past few months, we have made our way through the first six books. Even w... Full story
Can you imagine a world without children? Unfortunately, many seniors housed in eldercare can go months without a visitor of any age. Thanks to a recent grant from the Cherna Moskowitz Foundation, the Jewish Pavilion has created a pilot, intergenerational program for elders housed in long-term-care, appropriately titled From Generation to Generation. This program will bond the generations through a series of regular visits. Newly hired Intergenerational Program Director Jane Edelstein is... Full story
Altamonte Springs resident Barbra Resnick accomplished something she always wanted to do: Be a contestant on the TV game show Jeopardy! Not only was she on the show-she became a two-time champion, with earnings that totaled $20,000. Resnick, with her husband, Steve Arthurs; mom, Phyllis Resnick; and brother, Matt, flew to California to be on the show almost a year after she first tried out for the game show (Dad, Curt, stayed home). One does not just apply to be a contestant on Jeopardy! It's a... Full story
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. BALTIMORE (JTA)-Noam Efron popped in to an estate sale here recently he just happened across hoping to purchase some watches or gold to resell in his jewelry business. Instead he walked out with a paper treasure: a 12-by-17-inch black-and-white studio photograph of a uniformed soldier he didn't know but realized immediately had fought for Germany in World War I. He paid $9. Within a few weeks Efron, who had become... Full story
Leave it to Israel when it comes to medical advances... It seems many people I know have diabetes 2. According to the latest World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest, this could be a life-changing development. Read on: "Diabetic neuropathy, a type of nerve damage associated with the development of foot ulcers resulting from excessive pressure and poor blood supply, affects more than 130 million diabetic patients around the world. Diabetic neuropathy is also the leading cause of amputation. While... Full story
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)-When the 2016 Olympic Games opened on Friday, Aug. 5, the eyes of the world were on Rio-the first South American city to host the quadrennial event. True, the build-up to the massive event-which featured a record number of countries competing in a record number of sports-hasn't been easy, with reports of unfinished venues, polluted swimming and sailing sites and, most of all, concerns about the spread of Zika. The run of bad news has put a damper on what should have been a... Full story
This post, which was originally written in Russian, went viral in Israel and around the world. With the author’s permission, it was translated into English by Arkady Mamaysky. Yesterday I witnessed a common scene in Israel: I was standing in line at a supermarket register. In the lane next to mine, a soldier was waiting with a case of water bottles. He was in his field uniform, looking tired and dusty. Obviously, this was not his first day on duty. I live next to the so-called territories and there are many military guards around us. In heat a... Full story
In last month’s FYI column, we talked about the importance of community-to-community relationships, which are especially critical in a time of increased conflict. Those relationships are built on person-to-person mutual respect and understanding. At this time of so much global and local anguish and anxiety, it is easy to feel that we, as individuals, cannot do anything, that we are powerless to make positive changes in the face of the upsurge of anger, violence and mistrust that has impacted us all. But we can do something. We are not p... Full story
Years later, I can recall the moment when my friend's son got his head stuck between the wooden rails on our staircase landing. While we laugh about the predicament today, at the time it wasn't so funny for the little red-faced toddler who stuck his neck out in the wrong place. (We wiggled him out unharmed, except for the mommies, who became major head-cases during the extrication.) Let's just say that when we first moved into our house 16 years ago, we had quite a bit child-proofing to do.... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)-James Schamus remembers the block he faced while writing the screenplay for Ang Lee's 1994 film "Eat Drink Man Woman." Creating the right voices for the film's Taiwanese characters was not going well "and Ang Lee was getting very nervous." In a desperate effort to turn the script around, Schamus, who is Jewish, decided he would "just make them all Jewish in my mind," changing the names to Jewish ones during the writing and then changing them back to Chinese names afterward. The... Full story
The Virgin islands is a favorite tourist spot for Caribbean cruises. For Jewish tourists, there is an extra added attraction in the historic synagogues, cemeteries and active Jewish communities. The former Danish West Indies sold to the United States in 1917 has had a fascinating and little known Jewish presence to the point that in the 1830s some visitors coined the expression that the islands should properly be called “The Jewish West Indies.” Alone of all the Nordic countries, Denmark aspired to become a great maritime power with a col... Full story
"Oh Canada, Oh Canada"... I'm not singing the Canadian anthem. I am a proud American, believe me. But Canada is very special to me. My maternal grandparents fled to Canada from Ukraine because of rampant anti-Semitism. My mom was born in Montreal, Canada. With the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra, I performed in Calgary, Canada, at the world famous Calgary Stampede and also had the opportunity, with my spouse, to visit Lake Louise and Banff, truly beautiful places. Why am I writing about Canada, you ask?... Full story
On July 11, the History Channel reaffirmed its commitment to accuracy and truth by revising its “Albert Einstein: Fact or Fiction?” webpage to replace erroneous wording tending to negatively portray Israel: “Though he (Albert Einstein) was very sympathetic to Israel, he was never an ardent Zionist—he believed in ‘friendly and fruitful’ cooperation between Jews and Arabs.” There were two problems here: the erroneous characterization of Einstein’s attitude toward Zionism, and the erroneous implication that Zionism and Israel from the outset did... Full story
(JTA)-Gideon Grossman taps out rapid hip-hop beats on his compact setup of bucket drums. He beams at the camera. His drumming is so effortless, it's hard to believe he suffers from a sometimes-crippling gastrointestinal disease. In addition to flawless rhythm, Grossman has Crohn's disease, an inflammation of the digestive tract that usually manifests itself through chronic diarrhea and abdominal pain. As yet there is no cure. Grossman, 24, is a lanky and cheerful New Jersey native who's relying... Full story
(JTA)-As the Pokemon Go phenomenon grows, some institutions connected to European Jewry's darkest hour have taken precautions against it. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum in Poland has banned the addictive smartphone game, in which players viewing their environments through their device's camera run in search of animated figures that the game's application superimposes on the video feed in real time. Citing the need to respect the memory of the dead, the U.S. Holocaust Museum in... Full story
At around 1 p.m. on a cloudy day in April 2014, Frazier Glenn Miller Jr., 74, pulled into the rear parking lot of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City and opened fire. Shouting anti-Semitic slurs, he shot dead Dr. William Lewis Corporon, 69, and his grandson, Reat Griffin Underwood, 14, before fleeing for the nearby Jewish geriatric center, Village Shalom. There, he murdered 53-year-old Terri LaManno. Miller told the Kansas City Star in an interview after his arrest that he conduct... Full story
MIAMI (JTA)-Growing up, I always dreamed of being a mom. Even as a kid I would brainstorm baby names, tell my dolls bedtime stories and swear that I would be a cool mom and let them eat cookies for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had it all planned out, down to the soccer jerseys and frilly dresses my future children would wear. It all seemed easy enough-until it wasn't. When my husband Matan and I experienced difficulty getting pregnant, we worried that our lifelong dream of becoming parents... Full story
Oh no! Who broke in?... (Remember, I write way in advance.) In the early morning yesterday, maybe 2 a.m. or so, I heard a loud boom which sounded like someone kicked in my front door. Not only did I hear it clearly, my dog started to bark and growl. She was also alarmed. What to do? I called 911 and was told that they were getting hundreds of calls reporting the same thing. They also said I should calm down as it probably was the sound of a sonic boom! Calm down? She didn't know me! Sheriff's... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—It took 42 years, 4 months and 18 days, but I think I may actually now like my hair. No, not the hair I was born with, but rather a finely tuned version that has taken years to attain. Too long. Too short. Too straight. Too dark. Too light. Too frizzy. Too flat. I can’t win! One morning recently I was working when my mom called. “Rae, what are you doing at 1 o’clock today?” she asked. Umm, why? “Because I made you an appointment to get a keratin treatment. I am paying for it. I’ll be over in five minutes to drop off the money... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—I was pregnant with my first daughter when I stood above the steps leading into the mikveh. After years of study, private and at a synagogue, and months of preparation, I was converting to Judaism. Naked and heavily pregnant, with my husband and rabbi standing in witness, the room was full of light and the still water before me. It was fitting and symbolic for me to be converting so close to delivering my first child. As a third-generation Mexican-American, I had grown up in a cultural limbo. I grew up in a mostly black and La... Full story
(JTA)—Summer’s here, and whether from the heat or the humidity or the harrowing election cycle, we bet you could use an escape. So take our advice: Whether you’re lucky enough to be lazing on a beach or packed in like a pickled herring on a subway car, take some time to retreat into a good, Jewishy book. Here are seven fresh reads on the lighter side—because it’s too hot out there to get too heavy. “A Book About Love” (Simon and Schuster) By Jonah Lehrer OK, you will probably hate this book—which is totally why you’ll have so much fun reading... Full story
