Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 4061 - 4085 of 4518
Sad opinions... This opinion piece comes directly from a recent World Jewish Congress digest. Read it and weep: "As Hamas rises, peace prospects (in Middle East) sink," says an analysis by two USA Today journalists, MICHELE CHABIN and OREN DORELL state that the ascendancy of the hard-line jihadist movement, which controls the Gaza Strip, will likely scotch any movement toward a two-state solution. Calling Hamas a 'spoiler' for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, the journalists say that... Full story
Just as Judaism is an ethical and spiritual lighthouse, so too were The Beatles. Most religions have their roots in spiritual awakening. The Beatles had a powerful appeal to a generation in calling forth a spiritual bonding. They sought out wonder, meaning, and innocence in their lives and music. Similar to Judaism, the religious allure of The Beatles was a vital factor in allowing the group to endure. They were spiritual apostles that evangelized a kind of gospel that resonated with tens, if... Full story
Jewish Pavilion volunteers celebrated Chanukah at more than 35 senior care facilities in Central Florida.... Full story
NEW YORK—EL AL, Israel’s national airline, helps keep passengers connected with a number of technology improvements and new services. Tech-savvy passengers can now plan a trip using a user-friendly free vacation-planning app, download a free mobile app for pre-flight convenience and enjoy Express Check-In. With a new user-friendly Plan My Trip free EL AL app or by visiting www.elal.com, EL AL passengers have the option to plan a comprehensive vacation, saving time and money. Both the app and the EL AL website allow travelers to make their vac... Full story
CATSKILL, N.Y. (JTA) – The past escorts John Thorn home from the moment he greets a visitor at a 139-year-old railroad station, crosses the Rip Van Winkle Bridge and arrives at his residence, a county historical landmark. Clad in a facsimile jacket of the defunct Negro Leagues' Kansas City Monarchs, he enters the billiards room of his home in this Hudson River town 35 miles south of Albany, N.Y., its walls crammed with old framed prints and theater posters. The environment befits the official h... Full story
(JTA)-I grew up Jewish. Simply Jewish. My late father, Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, raised us in an observant Orthodox household. Our lives were filled with beautiful ritual and we celebrated the wonder of a familial spiritual connection. That said, we also danced along the fine line of progressive Judaism. My father's Torah was an expression of the beauty of Judaism. He taught the world to love and cherish Shabbat-even on a Tuesday-and to love Jewish rituals in an open hearted, expansively... Full story
Katie Couric hosts for AFMDA HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-American Friends of Magen David Adom apparently has some pretty big-name friends. In attendance at the organization's sold-out Manhattan fundraiser last week were New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and host Katie Couric. The event raised $1 million, all of which will go toward ambulances and lifesaving equipment used to respond to emergencies in Israel. "MDA's willingness to help save all lives is something we should rally behind," said Couric,... Full story
Billy Joel's monthly gig HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-Can't get enough Billy Joel? You're in luck-at least if you live in the New York area and have a hefty concert ticket budget. Beginning in January, the legendary singer will be playing a monthly show at Madison Square Garden. The monthly gigs will continue for "as long as the audience demands," said Joel, who will be performing on his 65th birthday, May 9. That could be awhile-at least the first four dates already are sold out. "Having [Joel] as... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Natan Zaidenweber thought the mohel was kidding. His wife, Linda Raab, thought it was some kind of religious formality and didn’t give it a second thought. But the mohel, Cantor Philip Sherman, was serious. Though most fathers demur when he invites them to perform the bris on their sons by clipping their foreskin, preferring to delegate the task to someone professionally trained in the procedure, Sherman finds that about 5 or 10 percent of dads agree to do the cut. “It is the father’s mitzvah to actually perform the bris as... Full story
What next?... Somehow I get the feeling that the Holocaust started off this way... little by little... attacking Judaism and its rituals. The following is a report directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest: "Yet another circumcision challenge has arisen in Europe, a challenge being fought vigorously by the World Jewish Congress (WJC) and its European arm, the European Jewish Congress. This past summer the Council of Europe voted in favor of a resolution calling male circumcision a... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Jazz music drifts from speakers down to the cherry wood tables of the West Cafe in Brooklyn as the Israeli artist Nurit Bar-Shai prepares to show examples of her latest work. With deft, freckled hands, she opens a manila envelope and slides three petri dishes across the table. In the dishes are billions of Paenibaciullus vortex bacteria arranged in delicate whorls of blue. The series, which Bar-Shai calls "Objectivity [tentative]," displays "chemical tweets" of bacterial communica... Full story
By Hillel Kuttler BALTIMORE (JTA)- Round faced and wavy haired, the little girl in dark overalls is standing on a traditional easy chair in her family's Chicago apartment on Winthrop Street. She is cradling a doll- perhaps a newly opened gift for the second birthday she is celebrating. The black-and-white photograph from New Year's Day 1959 is significant now for a mundane scribble on its back. "Pamela Beth Graff," her father, Irving, had written before enclosing the picture in a letter to his... Full story
On the sixth night of Chanukah what would have been a simple twist of the light bulb for one staff person before the end of her shift, became a meaningful joyous occasion when the Stack and Goldman families (who are also Jewish Pavilion volunteers) sang the blessings over the Chanukkiah with the residents of Springhills of Lake Mary. Shown here are (l-r) Alexandra, Andrew and Lisa Goldman with resident Dill Hurwitz. The Jewish Pavilion wishes to thank these families for sharing this mitzvah... Full story
The Chanukah festivities continued all over town well before and after the holiday, even on 'Black Friday' for this party. Shown here are volunteers and residents at Lake Mary Health & Rehab where residents enjoyed a Chanukah luncheon with live entertainment. The Jewish Pavilion thanks all who came to help and cook. Shown here(standing, left) Amy Shwartzer and Norma Ball; seated, residents Gussy and Patty.... Full story
Internet terrorism... Sounds frightening... and it is! According to the Simon Wiesenthal Center, "There is a new battlefield in the war against terror: the Internet and the dynamic world of social networking. "Today, this technology that brings people together from across the globe also provides aspiring terrorists unprecedented access to vast libraries of step-by-step terrorism tutorials. "Recipes for the pressure cooker bombs and radio signals deployed by the Tsarnacv brothers to murder and... Full story
Gaga returning to Israel HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (6NoBacon)—Pop superstar Lady Gaga has plans to perform in the Holy Land this summer, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. The show, which will be Gaga’s second in Israel, will likely take place at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park and will likely not feature a kosher-meat dress, although that would be pretty great. Elsewhere on the American music scene, Beyonce, who was set to play Israel in the spring, may not make it due to what Haaretz calls a “snag” with an Israeli concert production company. But Israeli Beliebers wil... Full story
A weekly sing-a-long at Savannah Court, sponsored by the Jewish Pavilion, has inspired more than 50 residents of Savannah Court and more than a dozen Pavilion volunteers throughout the year. Periodically, the children from the Jewish Academy of Orlando join in the festivities. Mondays at 3:30 p.m., residents gather for hors d'oeuvres and desserts provided by Gloria Newberger and her cadre of Jewish Pavilion volunteers. After everyone is served, the singing, led by Morris Rashy, Zelda King and... Full story
“I could scarcely believe that such a thing could occur in a 20th century civilization,” President Franklin Roosevelt declared in the wake of the Nazis’ Kristallnacht pogrom, which devastated the German Jewish community 75 years ago this month. Most Americans, like their president, were appalled to read of Nazi storm troopers burning down hundreds of synagogues, ransacking thousands of Jewish-owned businesses, murdering some one hundred Jews, and hauling 30,000 more off to concentration camps Nov. 9-10, 1938. In the days following the pogro... Full story
MARLBOBO, N.Y.-The oldest Jewish site in North America is not Newport's famed Touro Synagogue, or any other synagogue. Rather, it is a stone structure tucked away on the west side of the Hudson River, about 60 miles north of Manhattan. Due to its multiple uses and inhabitants over the centuries, the Gomez Mill House-built in 1714 in Marlboro, N.Y.-is one of the best-kept secrets in American Jewish history, and also holds a unique place in greater American history. With its 300th anniversary... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)-The basketball goal that Ellen Schneeweis bought for her four sons as a Chanukah present in 2008 drew Andrew, the second oldest, to practice shot after shot. Some attempts came from a pretty fair distance-like the sidewalk in front of his neighbors' house in Englewood, Colo., on the other side of East Berry Drive. His diligence paid off: On Aug. 24, Andrew Schneeweis, now 18, swished a half-court shot at Colorado State University's Moby Arena to earn a free year of tuition. The... Full story
BERLIKUM, Netherlands (JTA)-In a windswept parking lot near the North Sea shore, Klaas Zijlstra stands motionless as he admires his latest creation. It's the first time he is testing the 36-foot menorah he has spent weeks designing and building in the shape of a Star of David in his metal workshop in the northern tip of the Netherlands. Despite strong winds, the menorah holds, thanks in no small part to its 6-ton base. This isn't just any mega-menorah. For one thing, it may be the largest in... Full story
By Pamela Ruben Our daily lives are filled with stress; we are faced with stressors in the workplace, stressors on our commute as we make our way home, and family stressors as we walk through the front door. On Sunday, Oct. 19, Chabad of North Orlando presented Dr. Gill Heart who delivered a seminar on taking control of these stressors that impact our daily lives. Dr. Heart, who holds a PhD in biomedical engineering, honed his skills in stress management on the job as a special operative of the... Full story
By Hillel Kuttler BALTIMORE (JTA)-Arie Glazer smiled and his large eyes lit up as his iPad displayed photographs and comments on the Facebook page of Shenkar Elementary School's Class of 1977. The Baltimore businessman was just back from a visit to his native Israel to attend the class reunion of Shenkar, now in its 69th year of operation on Ahad Ha'Am Street in Holon, a town just south of Tel Aviv. Glazer very nearly could have flown home without a plane, such was his high from the Oct. 9... Full story
The Jewish Pavilion partners with senior living facilities to bring Jewish culture and tradition to the residents. This past Chanukah, several facilities hosted some very elegant affairs. Thanks to the Jewish Pavilion, holiday parties get better every year. Shown here are three of the beautiful Chanukah parties that were held. (Top) Lori Okeon, executive director of Atria at Lake Forest in Sanford, posing with two lovely ladies; (middle) Jewish Pavilion program director Emily Newman is shown at... Full story
Hoffman-Sandler comedy HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (JTA)-Adam Sandler is a Jewish comic actor with a serious streak. Dustin Hoffman is a serious Jewish actor who can be pretty freakin' funny. Put them both together and what do you get? "The Cobbler," a comedy starring Sandler and, according to The Wrap, now Hoffman, too. No word on Hoffman's role, but Sandler will play a shoe repairman who has powers that allow him to step into the lives of the people whose footwear he repairs. Steve Buscemi also just... Full story
