Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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BALTIMORE (JTA) – Beyond the rusty orange leaves, the sky hugging the orchard flourished in pastel blue – a hue that surprisingly didn't define my mood while stretched out upon the grass, head nestled in interlocked palms that sweet October day. Surprisingly because the Sunday afternoon outing marked a jarring wrinkle in a cherished autumnal tradition. With one son serving in the Israeli army and another participating in a post-high-school one-year program in Jerusalem, this apple-picking for...
More reasons for depression... It is acknowledged by most that as a person grows older... really elderly... they may experience bouts of depression. It happens to me occasionally, even though I'm NOT elderly, (Shut up!) especially when I read things like the following story from The World Jewish Congress Digest (WJC): "One of the oldest functioning Jewish schools, The Carolineskolen in Copenhagen, Denmark, recently suffered smashed windows and anti-Semitic graffiti. The vandals, who perpetrated...
NEW YORK (JTA) -- Sharing their favorite Jewish chocolate experiences recently, a group of about 60 chocolate lovers didn't even mention Chanukah gelt. That is, until one woman at the New Jersey get-together shared her thoughts on the subject. "It is sucky," she said, meaning that the chocolate is waxy, flavorless and should remain wrapped in its foil on the holiday table. Francine Segan, an author and chocolate maven, echoed the feeling when she told me recently that her children, who were...
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-In text accompanying a new exhibition at this city's National Museum of American Jewish History, Sammy Davis Jr. is quoted on why he converted to Judaism. "I became a Jew because I was ready and willing to understand the plight of a people who fought for thousands of years for a homeland," the late entertainer said. What immediately follows is a curator's observation: "Davis knew that becoming a Jew also meant recording Christmas songs." The comment, while somewhat facetious,...
ERUSALEM (JTA)—When the Maccabees climbed the stairs of the Temple in Jerusalem, they lit the menorah with the knowledge that there was only enough oil to last for one day. Only a miracle could turn oil into a renewable resource. And the future of the planet urges us not to depend on miracles. The faith and initiative shown by the Maccabees can inspire us this year to take greater action, especially during a Chanukah that falls during the shmita year. Shmita is the biblically ordained law that has roots in agriculture and building a just s...
NEW YORK (JTA)-There's nothing quite like that first night of Chanukah: a platter full of hot, crispy latkes and the accompanying applesauce and sour cream. It's classic, delicious and a beloved comfort food for so many American Jews. But by the third or fourth night, I need a change of pace for my latkes. Or to be more specific, I crave some other toppings. While I love dipping my latkes into a healthy serving of rich sour cream, I also relish serving meat with latkes, specifically pulled...
The average Chanukah sufganiya (jelly donut) has between 300 and 400 calories of nearly pure oil and fat. In honor of the miracle God bestowed on the Maccabees, making oil meant for just a day last eight days, the delicious donut and other traditionally oily Chanukah foods become annual killers for your diet. For those who are health conscious but do not want to be deprived of the annual treat, here are three healthier recipes selected from Joyofkosher.com. Consider substituting or reducing...
Two San Francisco Bay area moms, Lisa Kinne and Susan Mayost, set up a new business they call Sweet Thrills Bakeshop, and their focus has primarily been on developing a new, creative activity for Chanukah-Chocolate Gingerbread Menorah decorating kits. "With our kids all now in school (ages 4-8), it was time for us to have some fun with our own creative ideas, not that playing Legos and having tea parties isn't endlessly satisfying," said Kinne. The idea was sparked by Mayost's own experience as...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-What can a buck get you on Chanukah? Maybe a gold mesh bag of chocolate coins or a lighter for your menorah. But Jewish continuity? At Chanukah time, when we get so wrapped up in gift giving, I propose that it's a single dollar of gelt (Yiddish for money) that has the power to keep on giving beyond eight nights. Chanukah gelt referred originally in Europe and later America to coins given as gifts to children and adults. Today, gelt brings to mind the chocolate coins wrapped in...
BOSTON (JTA)-Back in 1984, when Eric Kimmel was an up-and-coming children's book author, he tried his hand at a Chanukah story, one featuring goblins. Overly cautious Jewish editors rejected the manuscript, not knowing what to make of it, Kimmel recalled. "It was strange. It didn't look like any other Chanukah books and didn't fit into any neat category. It wasn't a folk tale and it was kind of creepy," he told JTA with his signature sense of humor and tell-it-like-it-is manner. Kimmel tucked...
SAN FRANCISCO (MyJewishLearning.com)—Chanukah is observed with joy and celebration in Jewish communities around the world. There are eight nights of lights and blessings the world over, but there are also many ways that different communities make the holiday uniquely their own. Here are eight customs and ideas to help you make your celebration just a little more global. • In Alsace, a region of France, double-decker Chanukah menorahs were common with space for 16 lights. The two levels, each with spots for eight lights, allowed fathers and son...
NEW YORK (JTA)-One of my favorite ways to celebrate Chanukah is over brunch. Yes, it's nontraditional-and you can't enjoy the experience of lighting the menorah together or singing. But it's a great way to change up the routine, especially if you have young kids and want to work around nap and bedtime schedules. Serve Dill Potato Latkes with Caper and Lemon Creme Fraiche and a seasonal winter Blood Orange and Goat Cheese Salad, and add tradition with sufganiyot. Sufganiyot are much more popular...
MINNEAPOLIS (Kveller.com)—The Chanukah I see in children’s books demonstrates families playing dreidel and eating latkes while the menorah shines brilliantly in the window. Then there’s the inevitable illustration of the kids’ utter elation when the parents unveil a bag of gelt night after night. The scene sounds delightful, but I can’t imagine it’s realistic in all Jewish homes. Let’s be honest: Starting in October, lots of Jewish kids obsess over the “holiday” (aka Christmas) catalogs that arrive daily in mailboxes across the country. Right o...
It may have been 47 years ago but Yossef Carasso remembers every detail of the night that he was taken to an Egyptian police station from his home in the city of Tanta, near Cairo. It was the first night of the 1967 war. "We were the only Jewish family still left in Tanta and at 10 p.m. there was a knock on the door," Carasso told The Media Line. "The policeman told my father, 'We're looking for your son and son-in-law. They took us to a police station and left us there all night.'" Carasso,...
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (JTA) – As Chanukah nears, let the grousing begin. Too much is made of a holiday that Judaism ranks as a minor festival—one whose rite takes no more than five minutes to complete each night—some American Jews will say. Some will complain about the season’s excessive commercialism or materialism. Yet most Jews will also participate in at least one of the many customs developed by American Jews to augment the holiday’s simple rite and express the enhanced place of Chanukah, which this year falls on Dec. 16, on the American...
MINNEAPOLIS (Kveller.com)—We Jews have two choices in our approach to the Christmas season: resent it or embrace it. I for one vote for a big, sloppy embrace. In the name of love thy neighbor and tolerance, I say we hug it out with Christmas already and teach our kids to do the same. Why? We expect our non-Jewish co-workers, friends and neighbors to show heaps of interest and concern in all things Jewish. During the High Holidays we ask our kids’ teachers not to assign big tests after those long days at shul. We offer unsolicited exp...
NEW YORK (JTA)-A Swiss museum's pledge this week to conduct a full search into the provenance of some 1,600 works of art it plans to accept from the estate of Cornelius Gurlitt, the son of one of Hitler's main art dealers, once again has thrust the issue of Holocaust art restitution into the headlines. The announcement by the Kunstmuseum Bern underscores the ongoing quest for the transparent restitution of Holocaust art, but we should remember that the problem is not Europe's alone. Here in the...
ALGEMEINER-Birthright Israel, the American organization that organizes visits to Israel for participants from 66 different countries, has terminated a partnership with the controversial New Israel Fund (NIF,) resulting in the cancellation of a December visit to the Jewish state assembled by the two groups. In an email to trip participants, Stephanie Ives, the New York director for the NIF, said that "we have been cut from the trip for three reasons that have been communicated to us: (1)...
Orlando Torah Academy second graders are forming yet another link in the chain of their Jewish heritage all the way back to Moses. On Friday, Nov. 7, these children reached a joyous milestone when they learned from inside the Chumash for the very first time. They began with the third parsha/portion in the book of Bereishis/Genesis, Parshas Lech-Lecha, where it talks about our forefather Abraham passing G-d-given tests. Their journey began in preschool where they learned the letters of the Aleph...
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-Henry Koster had a long and successful career in Hollywood, directing a string of hits from the 1930s through the 1960s, including "Harvey," the comedy classic that paired Jimmy Stewart with a 6-foot invisible rabbit. But perhaps the most important film Koster ever made was also his least famous. Koster's "From Europe to Hollywood I," a home movie he shot in 1936, followed his journey from Hegyeshalom, Hungary, to Los Angeles. For Koster the trip -across Europe, the Atlantic...
NEW YORK—Applications for the 2015-2016 Masa Israel Teaching Fellows are officially open. For the program’s fifth cohort, Masa Israel Journey will select 200 outstanding Jewish college graduates to teach English in Israel’s periphery and, for the first time ever, in Israeli youth villages for immigrant and at-risk youth. Masa Israel Teaching Fellows is a joint initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Education, Masa Israel Journey, and the Jewish Agency for Israel. The 10-month service-learning fellowship was created to address the achieve...
I love... I love a lot of things... my spouse of course; our three sons; our grandchildren; all family; dear friends; the United States... and Brig. General Dr. DANNY GOLD. (Oy vay! Relax Irving, and read on before you get crazy!) Actually, I love Dr. Gold because his "brainchild" is Israel's Iron Dome. The following article comes directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest (WJC). I pass it along to you with asides in parenthesis by me: "It's more than just the logo on Israeli apparel or the...
From Tevye the dairyman to Maroon 5's Adam Levine to "Let It Go" singer Idina Menzel, Jews have always been at the forefront of the music scene. Burt Sugarman and Mark Goodman are no different. As on of the pre-eminent television and film producers in history, Sugarman's rolodex of connections would make any A-lister blush. Goodman, one of the first on-air personalities for the MTV network, had his finger on the pulse of pop music for years. The two industry icons spoke to JNS.org about the...
NEW YORK (JTA) – If Rabbi Steven Pruzansky of Teaneck, N.J., had his way, Arab rioters and stone throwers would be shot with live ammunition. Arabs would be barred from the Temple Mount for six months. Any village from which two or more terrorists originated would be razed and its residents deported. Arab terrorists would be executed, their bodies cremated and buried with dead pigs, their families deported and their homes destroyed or given to Jews. "There is a war for the land of Israel that i...
Eighth-grade students at the Jewish Academy of Orlando collected Halloween candy for the brave men and women serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. The candy will be distributed by UCF students this December as part of their Birthright trip through Central Florida Hillel. The 8th-grade students of the Jewish Academy of Orlando will be going to Israel in March 2015 as a culmination of their Jewish learning at the school....
