Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Over 300 parents, grandparents and friends of the Jewish Academy of Orlando attended this year's annual gala on Nov. 1. This year's gala, titled "Jeans, Jewels and Jazz" honored the Bierman and Moreno families for two generations of commitment and leadership to the success and development of the school. Jewish Academy parents Nathalie Toledano Steinberg and Amanda Jacobson Nappi chaired the gala, which was held at the Hilton Orlando/Altamonte Springs. The gala featured silent and live auctions,... Full story
On Friday, Nov. 12, Shalom Families gathered in the park for a picnic Shabbat. Fifteen young families including many mommies, daddies, and several grandparents, came to enjoy the crisp fall evening. The group lit candles, said hamotzi, blessed the children, and sang songs to welcome Shabbat. Each family brought a dessert to share and the children were just tickled with the mountain of cookies and brownies to choose from. All families who attended were given a 'How-to Shabbat' kit to take home... Full story
This is upbeat... Why are you wasting time reading this column? It's "Black Friday"! The day after Thanksgiving! Bargains await! Go! Spend money! Be happy! This is definitely NOT upbeat... Five people were murdered and seven people wounded in Israel recently, after two Arab terrorists entered the Kehillat Bnai Torah Yeshiva Synagogue on Agassi Street during Shacharit (morning) prayers in Jerusalem's religious Har Nof neighborhood bearing guns, axes, and knives. The terrorists, shouting "Allahu... Full story
What message is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) sending to the Jewish community through its recent selection of White House aide and social entrepreneur Jonathan Greenblatt to succeed longtime National Director Abraham Foxman? While some are praising ADL for thinking outside the box with its hire and trying to appeal to a younger demographic, others are concerned that Greenblatt is too visibly partisan and that his past experience may signal ADL’s de-emphasis of the fight against anti-Semitism in favor of civil rights work. But most agree t... Full story
JNF CEO Russell Robinson (far left) met the staff and student leaders of Central Florida Hillel. Robinson came to Orlando as the guest speaker for the Orlando JNF's annual gala. Central Florida Hillel and the JNF work closely together on the college campus through Birthright trips, alternative spring breaks and speaker programs in order to create the Jewish community's next generation of leaders for Israel.... Full story
Two-hundred guests attended the Roth Jewish Community Center of Greater Orlando's "Party After Dark" on Nov. 8, benefiting its Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center and honoring Shayna's Village founders, Es Cohen, Justin Presser, and Matt Presser. Co-chaired by Michelle Kutschinski and Heidi Zissman, the evening raised $17,500 and featured the band Crash Reality, delicious food by Brio Tuscan Grille, the recently renovated Courtyard Playground (lit by Lightbulbs Unlimited), flowers...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Janna Gur's "The Book of New Israeli Food" has sat on my kitchen counter with my other favorite cookbooks for years, and I frequently pull it out for friends and family who are unfamiliar with Israeli cuisine, saying, "This is the book you need to buy to understand food in Israel." Gur's newly published sequel, "Jewish Soul Food: From Minsk to Marrakesh" (Random House), is even more beautiful than its predecessor and more accessible to an American audience. While in New York on a... Full story
(ISRAEL21c)—A first-in-class pocket-sized metered-dose cannabis inhaler helps patients and doctors control, monitor and fine-tune dosages. As medical marijuana debates heat up across the globe, a government-backed Israeli startup has developed the first device of its kind to administer cannabis as a pharmaceutical. Unlike the current methods—smoking joints, imbibing oil, rubbing in a salve or eating laced brownies—this medical device enables the patient to inhale metered doses of vaporized cannabis granules. The Syqe Inhaler is the brain... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-As the Jewish Federations of North America holds its annual General Assembly this week, newly emerging evidence from the Pew Research Center's 2013 "Portrait of American Jewry" points to enormous challenges facing federations, Jewish philanthropy and organized Jewish life, more generally. Virtually every Jewish institution is contending with a sharply diminishing base of people who give, join or even care. Though the Orthodox are expanding numerically and growing in strength, the... Full story
There is nothing like a General Assembly of the Jewish Federations for running into long-time friends and colleagues, for unexpected and exciting encounters, and for making new and promising connections. For Rhonda Forest, Loren London, Rabbi Maurice Kaprow, and myself this GA was rich with these experiences. Today, I would like to mention just a few of them. Saying hello and thank you to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, a former chief rabbi of the UK, and one of the greatest modern spiritual leaders of the Jewish people, is akin to coming close to... Full story
OXON HILL, Md. (JTA)-There was the vice president of the United States, two Supreme Court justices and an Academy Award-winning actress with a compelling Jewish story. There were Jewish professionals, lay leaders, clergy and recent college graduates. The West Point cadets' Jewish choir performed. The Israeli prime minister appeared via satellite from Jerusalem. Part pep rally, part training and part family reunion, this week's annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America... Full story
Chanshy Majesky was overcome with great sadness following the Hebrew month of Adar (March) that even the joyous effects of Purim could not lift. Two of her colleagues from the Chabad community, Rashi Minkowitz of Fulton County, Georgia, and Rivky Barber of Melbourne, Australia, passed unexpectedly, leaving behind motherless children and grieving communities. Majesky and her fellow schluchot (emissaries of the late Lubavitcher Rebbe who are sent out to spread Judaism to Jews around the globe)... Full story
Laurence Morrell wasn't looking for fame or shiny trophies. He signed up for the Golden Age Games in Sanford for "one last hurrah," as he put it, after a 12-year hiatus, and he got more than he bargained for. Not only was he pleased with how he did in the 500 gm javelin throw, 1K discus and 4K shot put throws, but he also won three medals-two bronze for javelin and discus, and a silver for his shot put throw. The Golden Games, held in Sanford, provide anyone 50 years of age or older who wants... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-As we prepare for our Thanksgiving feasts, a 90-year-old Jewish man named Arnold Abbott is stirring the pot in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., about hunger and homelessness in America. Or is it that Abbott, who in defiance of a controversial new city ordinance has been cited several times for feeding the homeless outdoors, is just asking us to pay more than lip service to our Jewish ideals? The ordinance limits where outdoor feeding sites can be located and requires permits. Groups... Full story
If I told you once... I told you a million times... I write this column well in advance of the publication date, so although Veterans Day is past when you read this, it has not yet occurred when I wrote this. I am NOT a veteran. I am the wife of a Korean War Army veteran; the mother of three sons, one a Lt. Commander in the Navy; also I am the mother of a psychologist who helped Navy recruits at Great Lakes Naval Base, Illinois; and the mother of my third son, a former sailor who served on a... Full story
Lowndes, Drosdick, Doster, Kantor & Reed, P.A., the largest law firm in Central Florida according to the Orlando Business Journal, is pleased to announce that it is celebrating 45 years in business. John Lowndes, who founded the firm in 1969, attributes much of the firm's success to its attorneys and staff, many of whom have been with the firm their entire career. The list of clients who have been with the firm since its inception is also long. "Our clients are our proverbial partners," said... Full story
EL AL Israel Airlines and JetBlue Airways signed a codeshare agreement, providing travelers to Israel with expanded options and easier connections. Travelers living in 38 cities in the U.S. can now experience convenient connections to their EL AL nonstop flight to/from Israel. Luggage is automatically transferred between the JetBlue and EL AL flights, Matmid frequent flyer points are earned on the JetBlue domestic flights and passengers need only purchase one ticket through one transaction for... Full story
When young independent music enthusiasts descended on the antiquated Jewish resort of Kutsher's for an international indie rock concert series in 2008, it was "kind of like 'Cocoon' meets 'The Shining,'" Barry Hogan recalls in the forthcoming documentary film "Welcome to Kutsher's: The Last Catskills Resort." The comment by Hogan, founder of the All Tomorrow's Parties music festival organization, exemplifies the widening generational gap that ultimately forced Kutsher's to close in December 2013... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Mementos of Jacob Goldstein slide across the 3-foot-by-4-foot horizontal screen like cards being dealt at a casino: his photograph, his name, an Operation Urgent Fury headline denoting the 1983 military campaign in Grenada, Goldstein's explanatory text summarizing his role during the invasion. Even more striking than the photograph showing the uniformed rabbi wrapping tefillin on the Grenada beach with his rifle resting atop a mound of sandbags is his recollection of going from... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-There were bagel breakfasts, a Friday night kiddush in English and Hebrew, and plenty of talk about how to keep the grandkids Jewish. In some ways, the inaugural conference last weekend of the Israeli American Council was much like other Jewish gatherings, except the Jews were Israelis and a lot of what makes Jewish America what it is remains alien to them-for instance, bagels, bilingual blessings and fears of assimilation. "We need to know each other better," said the IAC's... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)— Each year on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, we recall the opening salvo of the violent assault on Jews that foreshadowed the Holocaust and ask ourselves what should have been done at that moment. In thinking about Kristallnacht, we should also consider the outpouring of violence against Jewish communities in Europe this summer and draw the right lessons for today. It is rightly said that the Holocaust began not with gas chambers but with words. The significance of Kristallnacht in the history of the Holocaust is the passage f... Full story
As a volunteer for The Jewish Pavilion, I am familiar with their slogan "Imagine what it would be like to lose your health, your spouse and your home. No one wants to grow old alone!" Last week, along with Gloria Green, a program director of The Jewish Pavilion, I had the pleasure of meeting 88-year-old, Phillip Schwartz. He is as sharp as a tack and regaled us with vivid recollections of his life. His wife, Adelle, died in 2007 and he still misses her. Schwartz was born in Montreal, Canada. He... Full story
In honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the signing into law of the Civil Rights Act, The Heritage has been running a series of articles about members of the Orlando Jewish community who helped bring about racial changes in Central Florida. This is the fourth of a series. Florence Gluckman, better known as Flossie Gluckman, was a lot like her brother, Jerry Bornstein, when it came to justice, fairness, and respecting human beings simply because they are human beings. "Making a difference was in... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—There was the convert who was barred from a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the Jamaican convert whose boyfriend’s rabbi offered him a coveted synagogue honor if only he’d dump her, the grandmother who told her granddaughter she’d be going to hell because she became a Jew. The road to conversion can be long and difficult for many prospective converts to Orthodox Judaism, filled with uncertainties and fear about gaining final rabbinic approval. Yet even once they emerge from the mikveh as newly minted American Jews, many find the cha... Full story
Among the things that Jewish women value most about the mikveh (ritual bath) experience is the feeling of seclusion, sanctity, and safety. "But the need to feel respected and comfortable is the most important," says Chaya Sett, who since making aliyah from Brooklyn has been a self-described "regular" in the mikvehs of Jerusalem's Old City. "It has to be a very safe place in your life because it's also when you are at your most vulnerable." Sett speaks for many mikveh-going women in the wake of... Full story
