Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2976 - 3000 of 4419
Since our last column, our Central Florida community has been changed indelibly. While the horrific attack at the Pulse nightclub brought immense grief and anger to our City Beautiful, the resulting collaborations to promote inclusion and unity have made us extremely proud to be Orlando Strong. As a Jewish community, it has been so heartening to see our clergy out in force with their counterparts from other faiths, to see our synagogues lead discussions on healing and to watch our community members participate as individuals in the various... Full story
The seed for the city of Cleveland's first professional championship in a major sport in 52 years may have been planted at the Shaw Jewish Community Center on White Pond Drive in Akron, Ohio, nearly 20 years ago. That's when a tall, lanky kid from Akron named LeBron James walked onto the hardwood court and changed the game of basketball forever. Coach Keith Dambrot, now the head basketball coach at the University of Akron, conducted those sessions that attracted between 50 and 100 players.... Full story
About Israeli boycotts... I read this in a recent issue of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) digest and will share it with you: "The World Jewish Congress welcomed a decision by the British government to issue binding guidance to all public authorities in the UK aimed at preventing them from boycotting Israeli suppliers and imposing stiff penalties on those who do. WJC CEO ROBERT SINGER called the new rules 'a significant step and a major victory against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)—It’s a truth universally acknowledged that if you have a child, random strangers will talk to you. They will comment on your child’s looks or behavior or on your parenting skills, or they’ll tell you about their own children, or they’ll offer unasked-for advice. Sometimes the best response is to politely yet briefly engage, then move on. Sometimes the conversation actually is interesting and you want to chat more. Sometimes it’s worth speaking up and pointing out the idiocy/offensiveness of what they’re saying. And sometimes... Full story
PARIS (JTA)-On a crowded sidewalk in the French capital, Yomi Peretz exchanges jokes and backslaps with customers who are waiting in a 20-yard queue in the rain to enter his falafel shop. This chummy interaction comes naturally to Peretz, a tall enthusiast of boxing and poker who owns and runs l'As du Fallafel (The Falafel Ace), one of the best-known eateries in Paris. But working the crowd also serves a commercial purpose. "I do it to keep up morale in the queue," Peretz said on a recent Thursd... Full story
(The Nosher via JTA)-I make chicken so often that my kids once told me we were all going to grow feathers and start clucking. But they never complained that it was the same old chicken because it never was. There are few foods as versatile as this worthy bird, so it was always easy for me to prepare it in a multitude of ways. Over the years I learned that chicken dinner never has to be boring. Chicken meat is so mild-certainly not as distinctive as, say, lamb or duck-that you can pair it with... Full story
This is a story about the power of letters to span both years and miles, and to unite the hearts of children and their parents when powers they can't control force them apart. More than a dozen years ago in Worcester, Mass., Prof. Deborah Dwork got a letter from a man in Switzerland she'd never heard of. Ulrich Luz told her about something he'd discovered packed away in a suitcase among his late aunt's belongings that might be of interest to Dwork. Indeed it was-so much so that she is now... Full story
(Kveller via JTA)-My dear innocent child, Something terrible happened. A very bad man took a gun and went into a place where there were many kind, innocent, loving people, and he shot them. He killed many and injured even more. No, none of our family members were hurt. No, no one we knew personally was there. No, that bad man is not alive anymore. "Why would one person hurt other people?" you asked me. I don't know. But he did. He hurt people who are gay and people who are straight. He hurt Jews... Full story
When our synagogue heard about the horrific tragedy that took place at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, it was at the same time that we were celebrating the festival of Shavuot, which celebrates God's giving of the Torah. As Orthodox Jews, we don't travel or use the Internet on the Sabbath or on holidays, such as Shavuot. But on Sunday night, as we heard the news, I announced from the pulpit that as soon as the holiday ended at 9:17 p.m. Monday, we would travel from our synagogue in Northwest... Full story
Former world heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali died Friday June 3, 2016, at age 74 after being hospitalized in Phoenix with a respiratory ailment. While the cause of death was not disclosed, Ali had been living with Parkinson's disease for many years. As expressions of grief and support have poured in from all over the world in the wake of his death, so have stories of Ali's complicated relationship with Zionism and the Jewish people. Muhammad Ali was born in Louisville, Ky., as a... Full story
When Susan Silverman landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she was on a mission. When she left, it was with a new member of her family, a little boy she and her husband, Yossi Abramowitz, named Adar. "We were matched with our son Adar on the holiday of Purim, which means lots," says Silverman, a Reform rabbi. "We were taking a chance, throwing lots, in building a family-because having kids means you take risks in terrifying ways, because the world is a dangerous place and, with kids, you put your... Full story
"When it comes to apartheid, Israel sucks." It's a key quote delivered by American comedian Brad Stine, a devout Christian and a featured personality in a new documentary film called "Hating Israel: In Search of the Truth Behind BDS." The premiere of the 90-minute film produced by Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of the Christian Zionist organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations (PJTN), was held in Jerusalem on June 8, in front of an audience of Knesset members, Israel... Full story
By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA)-When the 2015 movie "Freeheld" came out, featuring Steve Carell as the real-life LGBT rights activist Steven Goldstein, Goldstein sang its praises to publication after publication. How did he really feel? "It was painful to watch," he told JTA last week. "I detested the movie from the first time I saw it. The portrayal of me in the movie was downright anti-gay. The movie was a grotesque stereotype." The movie tells the true 2005 story of a terminally ill lesbian... Full story
Who carries a gun?... (If you do, please don't tell... and don't shoot!) What kind of introduction to a column is this, you ask? Well, my answer is, knowing that I write this column well in advance of publication, the worst massacre in U.S. history happened just yesterday in Orlando. What a nightmare this year has been for me. First, many months ago, losing Irv, my spouse of 55 years. Then a few days ago, hearing from my cousin that his dearest friend committed suicide and now this disaster.... Full story
Sometimes we sow seeds in life and don't get to appreciate the harvest. Recently I had the privilege to experience the result of my sowing seeds close to a decade ago, and seeing the full impact of the harvest today. In what seems like a lifetime ago, I had connected with Avi Liberman, a well-known comedian whose career was (and is still) taking off. During the beginning of what's known as Israel's "second intifada," Liberman resolved that his response was to fight terror with laughter. He... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-First there was "Tinder for bras." Now there's a Yelp for sheitels, the wigs worn by many married Orthodox Jewish women. ShayTell may be the first-ever online customer review site for wigs. It's certainly the most cleverly named. And if you've never considered the demand for such a site, consider this: When was the last time you bought, say, a computer, without knowing a thing about its quality, components and warranty? That's a predicament facing many observant Jewish women,... Full story
Some of you might have seen the piece I wrote for The Washington Post describing our visit as a congregation to The Fireplace on Monday night. (See page 1 of the Heritage). I received an enormous amount of feedback about our story--emails and messages of support from all over the world. Clearly the visit resonated with people. When we announced that we were doing it, we thought it was going to be a small local thing just to connect on a human level with some members of the gay community in DC. But it grew and grew. Just to show you the impact... Full story
"Writing is a messy process," says author Elizabeth Poliner. "People who don't write fiction would be surprised to see what early drafts could look like." But readers wouldn't know "what a mess it was for the longest time," as the Jewish author puts it, when reading Poliner's critically acclaimed latest book, "As Close to Us as Breathing." The volume garnered Amazon's "Best Book" designation in March 2016 as well as rave reviews from the New York Times, W Magazine, NPR, People, Good... Full story
Dr. Tim Shepherd raised his son Adam, a pre-law student at the University of North Texas, to become a devoted supporter of Israel. The Shepherds not only support Israel from their vantage point as Christian Zionists, but they also prioritize connecting fellow Christians to the Jewish community in order to foster deep, lasting friendships. "We need to be best friends," Tim Shepherd told JNS.org, detailing how he and his Jewish friends attend each other's birthday parties, bar mitzvahs, weddings,... Full story
(JTA)-"Septembers of Shiraz" is a film about a prosperous Jewish family in Iran caught up in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution that overthrew the shah. It's based on Dalia Sofer's well-received 2007 novel of the same name, which used her own family's experiences as source material. When the film debuted last year at the Toronto International Film Festival, the reviews were uniformly negative. One critic called it "a disappointing misfire." (The movie officially opens a commercial run in New... Full story
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (JTA)-A nascent Jewish community was officially born in Madagascar last month when 121 men, women and children underwent Orthodox conversions on the remote Indian Ocean island nation better known for lemurs, chameleons, dense rain forests and vanilla. The conversions, which took place over a 10-day period, were the climax of a process that arose organically five to six years ago when followers of various messianic Christian sects became disillusioned with their churches... Full story
Will it NEVER end?... We've all heard and repeated the saying "Never Again" referring to the Holocaust. Correct words... but unfortunately, it will take more than words to stop the rise of anti-Semitism that seems to be repeating itself in Europe and even here and there in this country. The following is just an example of attacks all over Europe in recent months: Manchester, England: While waiting for their train, four young Jews were attacked by four hatemongers, leaving the youngest, just 17 y... Full story
By Hillel Kuttler The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost friends and relatives. (JTA)-For over six decades, Chaim Schwimmer has thrown a kiddush every Simchat Torah, but it's not only to celebrate the joyful holiday. The food and the schnapps also mark the anniversary of Schwimmer's miraculous rescue in 1944 from certain death at Auschwitz. In October that year, the 14-year-old was pulled from a crowd just a few steps from being murdered in the concentration camp's gas chamber.... Full story
ISRAEL21c-YouTube makeup tutorials are extremely popular. New videos are constantly being added to the online library of how-to demos for covering blemishes and attaching false eyelashes. So when a former Los Angeles songwriter-turned-IDF-combat-soldier uploaded her Camo Makeup Tutorial on May 9, her parody could easily have gotten lost in the pile. But Hannah Laskow Defore and her friend Neta Avitan already have more than 250,000 people chuckling along to the utterly fabulous makeup tutorial... Full story
