Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 4176 - 4200 of 4463
Big bucks for Portman and Kunis NEW YORK (6nobacon.com)—Forbes just released its list of Hollywood’s highest paid actresses, and (drumroll, please) two of the 10 stars are Jewish. Not bad, ladies! Natalie Portman comes in at No. 8, having earned $14 million this year. While the Oscar winner has been in the news lately for her upcoming directorial debut, it’s blockbusters like “Thor” that are bolstering her impressive paycheck. A spot behind Portman is the Ukraine-born Mila Kunis with $11 million. Kunis is a newcomer to the Forbes list than... Full story
Yet another well-deserved honor... This comes directly from the World Jewish Congress Digest: “Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish ambassador to Berlin who saved many thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, has received yet another posthumous recognition... Australia’s conferral of its first-ever honorary citizenship.” In announcing the honor, Prime Minister JULIA GILLARD said, “The lives of those he rescued are Mr. Wallenberg’s greatest memorial, and Australia is honored to have survivors he rescue... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—“You live in Brooklyn now. Stay there!” my father screamed at me. He slammed the door to my parents’ renovated tenement apartment in my face, exiling me from the Manhattan home and Lower East Side neighborhood in which I had grown up. I was a 20-year-old college dropout, a disgrace to my education-obsessed Jewish family. My mother had earned her doctorate in neuropsychology and spoke fluent Yiddish, Hebrew, German and Spanish. Her mother, my bubbe, had a doctorate in child p... Full story
Whether it’s a navigation aid you’re seeking, or a city bus or parking, these apps have you covered. One will check your tire pressure and another checks your breath to gauge if you’re too tipsy to drive—and it’ll even hail you a cab if you are. 1. Waze Waze was a global household name even before it was judged the world’s best mobile app and Google plunked down $1.03 billion to buy it in June. The free crowdsourced navigation app allows users to share traffic information automatically in real time simply by following their GPS tracks. Waz... Full story
When immigrants move to a new country, they often find it necessary to reinvent themselves. Some transform their lives in order to survive in a different environment. Others seek a fresh start so they can forget the past. Still others disguise their identities, for example, using a new name to mask their innermost self. The theme of re-invention serves as the core of Nancy Richler’s moving novel, “The Imposter Bride” (St. Martin’s Press). Richler’s insight into her characters shows just how difficult it is to make connections, while still off...
Long before Magic and Michael, before Kobe and LeBron, there was Ossie, the first scoring leader in the National Basketball Association—at least for a few seconds. Ossie Schectman, a Knicks guard and a onetime all-American at Long Island University in Brooklyn, died on July 30 at 94. According to The New York Times, he was remembered as a central figure in the NBA’s creation tale. He scored the first 2 points in the league’s history and became something of a celebrity when the distinction was u... Full story
Dr. Jill Gabrielle Klein is author of “We Got the Water: Tracing My Family’s Path through Auschwitz” My father had to cope with an unfathomable situation: at the young age of 16, he was a prisoner in Auschwitz. He was deported from Hungary in the spring of 1944, was separated from his family and friends, and spent a year in Nazi concentration camps. Today he is 85. In the decades since the war ended he has enjoyed life to its fullest, having decided the day he was liberated that he would not give any more of himself to his captors by conti...
Princesses’ gig a teacher’s nightmare NEW YORK (6NoBacon.com)—When Stefan Serie appeared as an extra on Bravo’s “Princesses: Long Island,” he did what the female stars on the show do practically every episode—prance around a party wearing minimal clothing. The difference between Serie and the ladies (one of the differences, anyway) is he actually had something to lose: a job. The 30-year-old health teacher in Merrick showed up shirtless on the series premiere at Erica’s bash in the Hamptons, h... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The show was supposed to be a celebration of glamour and glitz, but in the second episode it dropped a bombshell: One of the protagonists’ husbands died of cardiac arrest. The five stars of “Meusharot,” Israel’s version of the “Real Housewives” reality series, handled the news in their own ways. One grappled with her feelings about death. Another baked a cake to bring to the shiva. Jennifer Snukal tried a different approach, arranging a sexy photo shoot that aimed to produce an... Full story
Right around the corner... When you read this column, hopefully I will have returned safely from Las Vegas... but actually, I don’t fly out there for another day. I hope my airport experience is more pleasant than on my last flight, which was round trip to Chicago from Orlando. It was an especially long wait for me on the TSA lines because the guy in front of me had to remove his ear pierce, his nose pierce, his tongue pierce, his belly-button pierce... (And I’m grateful not to have to remove my... Full story
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA)—Hours after assailants shot Rabbi Artur Ovadia Isakov on a street in the Russian republic of Dagestan two weeks ago, mainstream Russian media were still scrambling to ascertain his identity. But Isakov’s name and condition already were known to the readers of Jewishnet.ru, a growing social network with 80,000 daily users that has relied on user participation to cover Jewish news and help connect fast-assimilating Jews across the Russian-speaking world. The first report abo... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)—For Howie Perlman, a kibbutznik in Israel, hearing about the New York reunion of his Yeshiva of Central Queens Class of 1973 spurred him to post a few period photographs on Facebook. Then he had an idea: Let’s hold a reunion in Israel of the 15 or so YCQ graduates living there. Perlman was looking for a way to honor his parents, Martin and Zelda, who had died one month apart last fall. What better way to remember them, he figured, than recalling his time at a school for whi... Full story
Seeing the green scaly skin and long snouts on the characters, you might not guess at first that Ed Shankman’s latest book is about a child’s visit to his grandmother in the Sunshine State—inspired, in fact, by his own two Jewish bubbes, one assimilated and sophisticated, the other the embodiment of Yiddishkeit to her core. “Both these women were amazingly influential in my life, taught me all kinds of stuff, and showered me with unconditional love and appreciation,” he told N.J. Jewish Ne... Full story
By Abigail Klein Leichman Israeli rescue equipment helped workers save the lives of at least eight trapped miners in South Africa on July 28, after a nightmarish three-day ordeal underground that left three dead, allegedly at the hands of an armed rival illegal mining crew. The Agilite Instant Harness was used by Riga Rescue volunteer Graham Holmquist to lower a South African police interpreter down into the shaft to communicate with the injured miners regarding the procedures to follow. The product is designed for scenarios where military,... Full story
Inviting the museum visitor down hallways and through rooms of rendered memories and memorials, the Gary Baseman show at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles uses a design based on the artist’s Jewish childhood home to offer up a retrospective of his extended family of characters, related artworks, and family memorabilia. The show’s title, “The Door is Always Open,” is taken from a remark Baseman’s Yiddish speaking father made while explaining his attitude about hospitality: “Gary, th... Full story
Almost 70 years after the Holocaust and 50 years after Germany and Israel established diplomatic relations, a textbook commission is shedding light on how the two countries are promoting their sustained cultural and historical connection. Dirk Sawdowski, chairman of the German-Israeli Textbook Commission, describes that there is a fundamental difference between the German education system and the Israeli education system that “finds expression in each country’s secondary and high school textbooks.” “Although both systems try to impart western... Full story
Jewish names speak to our very essence. As the world celebrates with William and Kate over the birth of their baby boy, speculation over what they will name their son is over. They chose George Alexander Louis. But you can call him His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge for short. A name is one of the first gifts new parents bestow on their children. Names convey powerful symbolism about our hopes and dreams for our kids. Modern researchers have even found that names can correspond to our life choices and circumstances, indicating how... Full story
Tel Aviv—The ionosphere, one of the regions of the upper atmosphere, plays an important role in global communications. Ionized by solar radiation, this electricity-rich region is used for the transmission of long wave communications, such as radio waves. Now Professor Colin Price of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geophysical, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, working alongside Ph.D. candidate Israel Silber, has discovered that the radio waves reflecting back to Earth from the ionosphere offer valuable news on climate change as well. The... Full story
Penny D’Agostino’s musical performance, on behalf of the Jewish Pavilion, at Horizon Bay brought smiles and joy to more than 40 seniors of all faiths, who love to sing old tunes from the 1920s and ’30s. The ice cream sundaes, prepared by Emily Glickstein and Lee Goldberg and served by Pat Rubenstein’s granddaughters, added to the festivities.... Full story
Egypt still in the headlines… As we go to press, Egypt is still making news so I thought I would write about the new head of Egyptian Jews. I wrote about the passing of Carmen Weinstein, head of the Egyptian Jewish people in last week’s column. This information comes directly from the World Jewish Congress (WJC) Digest about her replacement: “With the passing of Carmen Weinstein, MAGDA HAROUN, 60, has been unanimously elected to preside over Egypt’s thinning Jewish communities. The daughte... Full story
Portman’s film in Jerusalem NEW YORK (6NoBacon.com)—Natalie Portman is working on a special homecoming. The Jerusalem-born actress will be heading back to her hometown to shoot an adaptation of “A Tale of Love and Darkness,” the autobiographical novel by Israeli author Amos Oz. Portman is expected to star in the film, as well as direct and write the screenplay. She first expressed interest in adapting the novel six years ago and discussed filming the movie in Hebrew. It’s unconfirmed if that’s... Full story
First person by Alice Feiring NEW YORK (JTA)—When I received the Evite to my yeshiva high school’s 40th reunion, I reverted from an East Village-based traveling wine writer to the awkward, alienated high school student I once was. Back then, the others wanted to go to Israel, but I longed for New York City. They wanted religion, but I longed to drop acid. They wanted to have babies, but I longed for books. I was lonely, rebellious and filled with nearly unbearable needs. Shabbos felt cla... Full story
(JTA)—Standing beneath the chuppah during his wedding in May, Doug Friedlander said he felt a “magical moment,” and it wasn’t just because of his blushing bride. Theirs was the first Jewish wedding in Helena, Ark., in more than 20 years. An ailing Mississippi River town of 12,000, Helena once was home to a Jewish community of 150 families. Today, fewer than a dozen Jews remain, most of them 85 or older. By 2006, the community could no longer support a synagogue, and Temple Beth El was turned... Full story
PHILADELPHIA—Michael Lucas had a coming-out party on July 14. That afternoon saw the Philadelphia premiere of the gay porn icon’s first foray into mainstream film, “Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land,” which was screened as part of QFest, Philadelphia’s LGBT-themed film festival. The documentary, despite its suggestive title, is a straightforward affair (no one undresses), as Lucas takes viewers from Tel Aviv nightlife to openly gay members of the Israel Defense Forces to same-sex w... Full story
TEL AVIV—Heart tissue sustains irreparable damage in the wake of a heart attack. Because cells in the heart cannot multiply and the cardiac muscle contains few stem cells, the tissue is unable to repair itself—it becomes fibrotic and cannot contract properly. In their search for innovative methods to restore heart function, scientists have been exploring cardiac “patches” that could be transplanted into the body to replace damaged heart tissue. Now, in his Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory, Dr. Tal Dvir and his Ph.D. stude... Full story
