Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3926 - 3950 of 4470
"Start in your own backyard"... That sounded like a solid piece of advice so I am going to reach out via this column. With all the reports of stolen passports in the news lately, I decided to look for my own passport just to make sure it was safe. During my search I came upon a paper with a piece of information that I want to check out. It contained the names Boris and Rebecca Berestesky, Montreal, Canada, and said that they were the people who sent steamship ticket money to my maternal grandpar... Full story
(JTA)—A book on Yiddish published by a Polish Jewish group has won first prize at one of the world’s leading professional fairs for children’s literature. The book, “Majn Alef Bejs,” was announced this month as the 2014 winner of the first prize in the nonfiction category of the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, which will open March 24 in the northern Italian city. “A stunningly produced alphabet of Yiddish poems, this book instantly united the Jury as the outright winner for the Non-Fiction category,” the jury wrote on the website on the... Full story
Rogen’s Jewish jokes HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)—Longtime pals Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, a comedy team extraordinaire, are at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas, for the screening of “Neighbors.” The movie is about new parents (Rogen and Rose Byrne) who move in next door to a frat house headed by Zac Efron. The Hollywood Reporter chatted with the pair about growing up on screen and off, Alzheimer’s, and the N word. And, of course, it wouldn’t be a Rogen/Goldberg interview if things didn’t get a little Jewy. A lot of jokes in “N... Full story
Scarlett Johansson is pregnant HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-B'sha'ah tovah to Scarlett Johansson! The 29-year-old "Her" star, of recent SodaStream fame (or infamy, depending which side you're on), is expecting her first child with French fiance Romain Dauriac, E! News reports. The couple, dating publicly since November 2012, announced their engagement six months ago. Prior to this relationship, Johansson dated ad exec Nate Naylor for a year. She split with husband Ryan Reynolds in 2010 after two years... Full story
Who knew?... Last month I heard about the Monuments Men (and women) of World War II for the very first time. That was completely news to me and I suspect, to many of you as well. (Check out the movie to learn even more.) The other day I received a few emails about a Jewish major league baseball player, Morris "Moe" Berg, who was also involved in World War II. Another surprise to me... really! Read on: Moe Berg was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. It is known that his affinity for... Full story
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA)-All Zipora Saar had were some letters, names and pictures of American relatives she never knew, people last heard from a half-century ago. Saar fancied turning up descendants of her mother's first cousin, Filippus Mosesco, and his second wife, Lillian, who sent the letters from their farm in Macungie, Pa. Filippus was known as Feivush before emigrating as a young boy in about 1902 from the extended... Full story
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)-Celeste Morello isn't Jewish or a sports fan, and has never attended a professional basketball game. But a passion for history-particularly Philadelphia history-prompted her to seek recognition for the hoops pioneer Eddie Gottlieb. Morello succeeded last week when the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission approved her application for Gottlieb, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, to be featured on an official state historical marker. The... Full story
(JTA)-One evening, during a retreat for his Diller Teen Fellowship, Philip Caine told his fellow teens a truth about himself. At the age of 17, he had already undergone two open-heart surgeries. To his surprise, another teen told him that she had needed heart surgery as well. Together they decided to launch "Youth with Heart," to serve as an educational, mentoring and support group for other teenagers with congenital heart defects. Modeled after "Moms with Heart," an American Heart Association... Full story
By Julie Wiener NEW YORK (JTA)-A Religion News Service article about the PJ Library is headlined "Free books-10 million of them-help keep Jewish kids Jewish." Now the foundation behind the widely lauded nine-year-old program-which distributes free books to more than 130,000 Jewish children in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia-is also helping keep Arab Israeli kids engaged in reading. The Massachusetts-based Harold Grinspoon Foundation recently launched Maktabat al-Fanoos, Arabic... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Away for the summer at her New Jersey YM-YWHA Camp, Jessica Baer watched a video about children enslaved in Ghana. Baer, who was 10 years old at the time, realized just "how different my life was from theirs. I was hooked right away." The presentation was organized by Breaking the Chain through Education, a nonprofit that works to rescue child slaves and help eradicate slave trafficking by building schools in Ghana. By establishing local schools in poor villages, the group...
By Alan Kornman After sharing his harrowing story of endurance during the Nazi occupation of his home country, then recalling his internment in Auschwitz and liberation in Buchenwald, Irving Roth came face to face with one of his American liberators. His audience was held in rapt attention as Roth began the evening sharing his memories. "It was a balmy evening in May of 1944, I was 14 years old, I had been locked up in this cattle car for three days and three nights, with no place to sit, no... Full story
Gaga playing Tel Aviv HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-The upcoming Lady Gaga concert has an official date and location: Sept. 13 in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park. The news was announced last week on the Israeli show "Good Evening with Guy Pines." Other acts set to perform in the Holy Land over the next few months include the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, Justin Timberlake, Justin Bieber and the Pixies, among others. Get busy Roger Waters-looks like you have some serious open letter writing ahead of you. Lena... Full story
When former New York Times reporter Leslie Maitland first heard that Amy Adams would be in "American Hustle," she smiled, thinking the actress would portray her. In director David O. Russell's film about the Abscam scandal, Adams stars alongside Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, and Jennifer Lawrence. The movie received 10 Oscar, tied with "Gravity" for the most nominations this year. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Maitland was the reporter who broke the Abscam story. But Adams does not p... Full story
Literary genius to say the least... Literary genius and hero for sure! The following information comes from a TV program and also confirmed by me on the Internet. While watching ABC World News with DIANE SAWYER tonight, I saw a wonderful story about a young boy and his friend in Gainesville where research is being done at the University of Florida Health, with Dr. DAVID WEINSTEIN. Read on: "To 6-year-old Dylan Siegel of Los Angeles, JONAH POURNAZARIAN is a 1-in-a-million kid. So why not try to... Full story
The "Seeking Kin" column aims to help reunite long-lost relatives and friends. BALTIMORE (JTA)-The tattered book with the beige cover was just the sort of thing Tara Lotstein was looking to purchase when she found it online in late 2012. Its title was "A Jewish Woman's Cookbook" and after the book arrived by mail, it joined a special, short stack of Lotstein's acquisitions that includes a Siddur, a High Holy Days machzor and a Passover Haggadah. All four books are in Hungarian, a language... Full story
A new sponsor for Jewish Pavilion Helen Tishman, (l) Jewish Pavilion volunteer and Chambrel resident, with Mary Carter Eick, of Griswold Home Care get acquainted at a recent Shabbat service conducted by Jewish Pavilion volunteers and staff. Griswold Home Care is a recent sponsor for Jewish Pavilion and a new friend to the seniors of Chambrel. Carter volunteered her time to get acquainted with the residents and the wonderful program Jewish Pavilion offers.... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA) – When a 16-year-old Lubavitcher named Ari Halberstam was gunned down on the Brooklyn Bridge on March 1, 1994 by a Lebanese livery cab driver, the killing seemed to be a cut-and-dried case. The shooter, Rashid Baz, was captured the following day and confessed to police. After a trial several months later, he was sentenced to 141 years in prison. But a murder conviction was not enough for Ari's mother, Devorah Halberstam. She saw a terrorist conspiracy behind the shooting and c... Full story
In its continuing quest to “empower Israel’s children...beyond tennis,” the Israel Tennis Centers Foundation (ITC) announced its 2014 winter exhibitions scheduled for several Florida cities in February and March. This includes special fundraising events at the Academia and Tennis Club Sanchez-Casal in Naples on March 9 and the Longboat Key Club Resort on March 11. A diverse team of Israeli players and coaches will be flying to the U.S. to meet members of these communities who are interested in learning more about the important work of the I... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-In the coming months, six young Jews with disabilities will start paid internships at major Jewish federations through a pilot program. If successful, the program will expand to communities throughout North America. In the fall, Manhattan's first Jewish day school for children with special needs will open. Meanwhile, the Foundation for Jewish Camp is seeking to raise $31 million for a multi-pronged effort to more than double the number of children with disabilities attending Jewis... Full story
Cantor Alan Robuck of Congregation Ohev Shalom dedicates his time, musical talents and teachings to the residents at Village on the Green the second Friday of the month at 3 p.m. Cantor Robuck leads the group in prayer and song followed by challah wine and nosh. Dr. Zena Sulkes leads the group in stimulating discussions related to the torah portion. All are welcome and encouraged to attend. The next gathering is scheduled for March 14 for Purim festivities and hamentashen.... Full story
Amid the celebrations and hoopla surrounding the 50th anniversary of the Beatles' arrival in America and their appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show," the man Paul McCartney called "the fifth Beatle" is not often mentioned. But experts say that without him, the Beatles as we know them would not have existed. That man is Brian Epstein, the band's Jewish manager, who died of an accidental drug overdose in 1967. Epstein's grandfather, Isaac Epstein, was from Lithuania and arrived in England in the... Full story
While methods of insulin administration have improved and modes of measuring how much insulin to give are far superior than they were in the 1920s, when insulin was discovered, there have been no major advancements toward a cure for Type 1 diabetes for almost a century. Until now, Dr. Eli Lewis believes. "Tissue damage actually plays a role in Type 1 diabetes... but it is often overlooked and under-studied," Lewis-a world-renowned expert on autoimmune disease and the director of the Clinical... Full story
Where are fellow Jews?... This interesting and informative report comes directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest. It was checked for accuracy by me: “A new study utilizing data synthesis, rather than polling, estimates that 6.8 million Jews live in the United States. The extrapolated results identify 1.6 million Jewish children, 4.2 million adults (who self-identify as Jews) and 1 million non-religious (who say they have a Jewish background). Six states account for 65 percent of American Jewry; New York (20 percent), California (14 percen... Full story
"We are amazing," Eva Schloss said of the Jewish people. "We will be here forever and have to stick together," she proclaimed affirmatively. On Feb. 9, more than 500 people sat spellbound at the Hilton Altamonte Springs as Holocaust survivor Eva Schloss spoke about her childhood in Vienna, Austria, before the war; her life in hiding and in Auschwitz; and her friendship with Anne Frank. The hour-long presentation, hosted by Chabad of Orlando, was held in an interview format conducted by Greg Daws... Full story
