Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(KVELLER.COM)-Zach Braff's new movie, "Wish I Was Here," offers plenty to talk about. I sat down with three of the film's stars, Zach Braff, Kate Hudson and Mandy Patinkin, to talk about their Jewish connection to the movie, being a child no matter how old you are and the hardest part about playing the role of a dying man. On the role Judaism plays in the film: Zach Braff: My brother Adam and I wrote this, and he's 10 years older than me. When he was a kid, my parents put him in yeshiva. By the... Full story
The wider world of traditional Judaism is moving in fits and starts toward a renegotiation of the terms of halakhic observance. At question is the importance of social change in the understanding and application of the legal logic of the sages of old. In the last several years, voices from within the Orthodox fold have raised a formidable challenge to certain established norms of Jewish life and law, especially regarding the possibilities of female religious leadership. Though not as... Full story
From passionate lovers... Okay, I'll finish the sentence! We went from passionate lovers to angry roommates! Of course I refer to my spouse and myself as we get ready to celebrate our 54th wedding anniversary on Sunday, Aug. 3. Irv says "That date will go down in infamy." (Only kidding, of course. The spark is still there... only now it seems more like heartburn than a smoldering fire!) We actually started celebrating this fabulous event several days ago with a visit to Disney. We "hung out"... Full story
By Uriel Heilman (JTA)-Rebecca Scoggin lived in a lot of places growing up: Juneau, Nome, Fairbanks, Homer, Anchorage. But except for the two years she lived in Seattle after high school, she never lived outside Alaska. At least she hadn't until a few months ago. Inspired by a Birthright trip she took at age 19, Scoggin decided to pick up and move to Tel Aviv. "It was kind of a random decision. There was no real reason for it," Scoggin, 23, told JTA in a recent phone interview from Anchorage, wh... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Josh Orlian cracked up the judges on "America's Got Talent," but his Orthodox day school wasn't laughing. The 12-year-old kippah-wearing comic made his national television debut with a raunchy routine packed with sexual innuendo. The show's celebrity judges and studio audience seemed both stunned and entertained by the pre-bar-mitzvah-age cut-up's dirty jokes. While the sixth-grader's shtick garnered the approval of the four judges-they unanimously advanced him to the... Full story
Now that we know... This comes directly from ABRAHAM H. FOXMAN, national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) with an aside by me: "Even after 100 years of remarkable progress against anti-Semitism, dangerous attitudes about Jews still persist throughout the world. Overall, 26 percent of the world's population, a little more than 1 billion people, harbor anti-Semitic attitudes. The index of anti-Semitic attitudes ranges from less than 1 percent in Laos, 3 percent in the Philippines, and... Full story
(JTA) – Fifteen years ago, Sarah Starr snooped. That would set her on a path leading to Israel, where she lives and hopes to remain. To do so, however, Starr wants to prove that she is Jewish, which means locating her natural parents. Growing up in northwest London, Starr sensed she didn't belong. She didn't look like her parents or relatives, never felt connected to their Greek Orthodox religion and culture. When she would make a minor mistake, like breaking a dish, the parents remarked that t... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)-In the years after coming out as gay, lacrosse player Andrew Goldstein recalls being asked on panel discussions whether major American professional sports leagues would include openly gay athletes. It's a question, Goldstein said, that is no longer relevant with Jason Collins in the National Basketball Association and Michael Sam, who was drafted recently by the St. Louis Rams of the National Football League. "We're in a new era, and at the very least, kids in high school who... Full story
Before I even begin this column... Whatever happened to "Give us your tired, your poor" at the base of the Statue of Liberty? This country once sent back an entire shipload of Jews fleeing the Nazis because our State Department (at that time at least) seemed to be anti-Semitic. What will happen to these little children now at our borders? (I'm just saying.) Israel in turmoil... I have mentioned many times before, that I write this column far in advance of publication, so I really don't know what... Full story
Mainstream Western media coverage of Israel is laced with expressions intentionally crafted to delegitimize the Jewish State. The good news is that these terms weren’t written in stone 3,300 years ago, but are post-Israel independence creations. By forfeiting this language, we forfeit our history. Here are 13 phrases we must stop repeating. 1. “West Bank”: Claims that “Judea and Samaria” is simply the “biblical name for the West Bank” stands history on its head. The Hebrew-origin terms “Judea” and “Samaria” were used through 1950, when in... Full story
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA) - The regular phone calls stopped, the letters went unanswered. For Lily Kraut, living in Judea and Samaria, communication with her mother, Regina Ament, all but ceased in late 2008 after the latter suffered a stroke. Then last late November, Kraut heard the terrible news – her mother had died in Florida several months earlier. This week, she will observe the first yahrzeit, the Hebrew anniversary o... Full story
Washington Jewish Week Religious freedom, family values, fiscal policy, and Israel were the primary drivers of discussion as faith activists and Republican politicians recently gathered in Washington, DC for the Road to Majority 2014 conference, put on by the conservative Faith and Freedom Coalition. Despite the group’s reputation as being mostly focused on evangelical Christians, Jewish speakers, pundits, and issues were prominent on the agenda, as was quoting the Old Testament, an apparent nod to the broad range of inclusion that the group c... Full story
I'm very bitter... And well I should be! Surely among the six million Jews slaughtered in the Holocaust by Hitler's Nazis (while much of the world looked away and did nothing) were many very gifted people. I feel certain there would have been all kinds of inventions to better our lives; we could have had cures for many of today's ills as well. For instance, all kinds of cancers; kidney and liver diseases; diabetes; blood diseases, etc. I also feel certain that global warming issues could have be... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Bailey Dinman was surprised when she learned that homelessness was a struggle for many in the affluent Washington, D.C., suburb where she lives. "I was shocked by the statistics," said Dinman, 16. "In ninth grade, through my Hebrew school, I started volunteering at a shelter very close to my home." According to the Montgomery County Coalition for the Homeless, on any given day in the Maryland county 1,250 people experience homelessness, including 325 children. Dinman sorted... Full story
AYANOT, Israel (JTA) - An Iranian-Israeli director and a group of Iranian-born actors are making a movie in Farsi, the language of Iran. "Baba Joon," a story of familial conflict between three generations of Iranian Jewish men set to hit theaters next year, is the first Farsi movie ever to be made in Israel. Set in an Israeli agricultural village settled by Iranian immigrants, the film tells the story of Yitzchak, a Persian Israeli who, like his father, tends a turkey farm in a rural village in... Full story
(JTA) - Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi was one of the world's most innovative and influential Jewish spiritual leaders. To his followers, he was their Hasidic rebbe. But what other rebbe had dropped acid with Timothy Leary and dialogued with the Dalai Lama? Schachter-Shalomi, who died in his sleep on July 3 at his home in Boulder, Colorado, after a short bout with pneumonia, wasn't the only rabbi who tinkered radically with Jewish tradition. No one else, however, did so with the sense of... Full story
"Some of My Best Friends, A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Antisemitism," by Ben Cohen. Edition Critic (May 2014). 230 pages. JNS.org columnist Ben Cohen's new book, "Some of My Best Friends, A Journey Through Twenty-First Century Anti-Semitism," is a collection and analysis of previously published essays, reporting, and commentary that meticulously capture the current climate of anti-Semitism around the world. Throughout a turbulent, modern decade dominated by war and economic... Full story
A Jewish upbringing taught Paul Shaffer, David Letterman's musical director and sidekick for 32 years, the value of giving back. After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, Shaffer served as musical director for "The Concert for New York City," and in 2012 he accompanied Adam Sandler in "12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief," a fundraiser for people affected by Hurricane Sandy. He was also the national spokesman for Epilepsy Canada. "My mother taught by example," Shaffer said in an interview with... Full story
Happy Fourth of July!... How lucky we are to live in this glorious country, the United States of America. As a second generation American (I was born in Brooklyn, N.Y.; My mom was born in Montreal, Canada, but came here as a child; My dad was born in Brooklyn, New York) I realize what my ancestors suffered, coming from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. Because they fled when they did, I and my offspring enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) a life of freedom and happiness! Unfortunately, not everyone can feel this way. Friendly neighbors?... Here are some... Full story
NEW YORK—“Pew-ish,” an unusual new project to expand the conversation about Jewish identity, especially among unaffiliated Jews, launched with a special dramatic production of 10 new plays on June 26 at the Loft at Judson Memorial Church in New York. Participating playwrights include Bekah Brunsetter (ABC’s Switched at Birth, upcoming “Cutie and Bear” at Roundabout Theatre), Jonathan Caren (“The Recommendation” at the Flea) and Anna Ziegler (“Photograph 51” at Theatre J). Additional playwrights include Matthew-Lee Erlbach (“Eager to Lose” at Ar... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-It's Friday night, and patrons are sitting and chatting over plates of tajine and hummus waiting for the evening's main event, a stand-up comedy show. It could be any nightspot in this city. But a closer look reveals a bolder agenda than just good food and entertainment. The comedy show, part of a long-running series called "The Sultans of Satire," features Muslim and Jewish comedians with roots in Iran, Afghanistan and Morocco. The room's walls, meanwhile, display an art... Full story
By Joseph Telushkin NEW YORK (JTA) — Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, was inarguably the most well-known rabbi since Moses Maimonides. Hundreds of prominent rabbinic figures have lived in the intervening 800 years since Maimonides died. But how many can be named before an audience of Jews from the United States, Israel, France or the former Soviet Union — the four largest Jewish communities in the world today — and be so widely recognized, without the speaker needing to add several sentences explaining who the p... Full story
WESTFIELD, N.J. (N.J. Jewish News) — Over the years, Temple Emanu-El of Westfield, the largest Reform synagogue in New Jersey, has been on the receiving end of public criticism for a variety of reasons. As a newly arrived rabbi in the late-1960s, I learned how our temple was upbraided because our members were supporting fair housing practices in the Westfield area. Then we opposed a church-like Christmas pageant in the public high school. (A federal judge upheld our cause.) In the 1970s, the national media reported that prior to a visit of V... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Handing out sandwiches to the homeless in a Washington, D.C. park proved to be a seminal moment for Joe Goldberg. "It was a turning point and opened my eyes to what the world is like," Goldberg, 18, said of his 10th-grade confirmation trip two years ago to the nation's capital. The St. Louis native is currently serving as the international social action/tikkun olam vice president for United Synagogue Youth (USY), the Conservative youth group. Goldberg assumed his... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA) - Robots can hold a conversation, but should they count in a minyan? A chatbot at Britain's University of Reading was heralded this week as passing the Turing test, showing a conversational ability that managed to fool people into thinking it was human. Using the fictional identity of a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy with the name Eugene Goostman, the robot convinced a third of a panel's members that they were interacting with a fellow human being. While some have expressed skepticism... Full story
