Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the past, the major literary distinction was between prose (defined as ordinary speech or language) and poetry. The recent boom in graphic works offers yet another literary possibility. Although graphic novels and memoirs were once dismissed by some critics as high-brow comic books, authors and illustrators currently aspire to something far greater. Three recent books show just how far the genre has expanded: the works being reviewed offer a family portrait of Jerusalem in the 1940s, a... Full story
The scene in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, was not typical. Dozens of Arab women, most of them from villages in northern Israel wearing traditional dress, packed into the Galil Hall for a discussion about Israel’s national anthem, “Hatikva,” (“The Hope”). They came alone, without their husbands, and participated frequently in the discussion. Many of the speakers, which included several Arab members of Knesset, said the lyrics of the anthem are alien to them. The verses in question, written by Naftali Herz Imbar, who immigrated to Palestin... Full story
Edward Schnitzer remembers his father dropping him off every week for Sunday school and hanging out at the men’s club while the kids sat in a classroom. “I don’t remember any of it with the family together,” he says. But for his daughters, who are 10 and 7, Hebrew school is family time: Schnitzer and his wife, Cindy, join the girls—and about 30 other families in Temple Shaaray Tefila’s Masa program—in the basement social hall for a two-and-a-half-hour session, participating in activities and discussions, singing and sitting together for... Full story
CAIRO, Egypt—Political satire apparently knows no borders, based on the recent appearance of Jon Stewart, host of America’s hit political satire program “The Daily Show,” on Egyptian television’s “Al Bernameg,” (The Program) that is frequently described as “the Egyptian Jon Stewart program.” Host Bassem Youssef introduced his special guest dressed as a captured spy, with a black hood covering Stewart’s head. The move was a jab at recent calls by Egyptian military and political officials to be wary of foreign spies seeking to spread chaos thr... Full story
TOPANGA, Calif. (JTA)—Few world musicians get to play with rock bands, but 15 years ago, Hani Naser christened his new electric oud performing “Blister in the Sun” with The Violent Femmes. In May, when the 1980s folk-punk band reunited at the Bottlerock Music Festival in Napa Valley, Calif., Naser joined in again, strutting his stuff alongside Femmes front man Gordon Gano, this time playing the hand drums. A master percussionist and oud player, Naser has made music with the likes of Ry Coode... Full story
Seated cross-legged in the sunny backyard of her north Oakland home, wearing loose, tie-dyed pants, beads around her neck, her hair in tousled braids and sipping kombucha tea—her drum is tucked away for now—Taya Shere brings a few different stereotypes to mind: Hippie. Earth mother. Hebrew priestess. Hebrew priestess? It might not be a familiar archetype, but it is an absolutely accurate term, says Shere. No one bestowed this title upon her at birth; she grew up in Washington, D.C., where she... Full story
JERUSALEM—The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, affirmed Israel’s “right to exist in security and peace” during his visit to the Jewish state last Thursday. Welby, on a five-day tour of Egypt, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories last week, met with members of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, and prayed at the Western Wall. “The clear policy of the Church of England, [and] my own very clear and very fluent feeling, is that the... Full story
NEW MILFORD, NJ—When Yitayish “Titi” Ayenew, the first black Miss Israel, was a young orphan who moved from Ethiopia to Israel, it was learning the Hebrew language that turned around her fortunes. “Then, I was a scared child,” Ayenew, 22, told students at Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, N.J., last month. “I did not know what would be my future, or that I would do the things I am doing today. For me, an inner change occurred when I overcame the obstacle of learning Hebrew. I a... Full story
Herman Wouk dreamed of writing a novel about the biblical Moses since the 1950s. In 2000, he noted that “‘The Lawgiver’ remains unwritten. I never found the way to do it.” When trying to work on the manuscript, he was never able to answer some basic questions: From whose point of view should it be told? How can anyone portray not only the greatest leader in Jewish history, but the miracles performed by him under God’s command? Yet, even in his 90s, Wouk never stopped thinking about the novel. That led him to finally write a version of “The L... Full story
A year after finishing last in the Israeli Premier Basketball League, the Maccabi Haifa Heat won its first championship in a stunning turnaround for the team and its owner. Former MetroWest (N.J.) resident Jeffrey Rosen, who bought the team in 2007, was reveling in the afterglow, the recipient of hundreds of congratulatory phone calls and messages. “The feeling is just fantastic,” Rosen said in a phone interview, and Haifa “is just charmed by the surprising win. Having a good season would have been gratifying, but to have a chance at—an... Full story
Oy Gevalt… Please excuse the language but these two words express exactly how I felt after reading the following report from the World Jewish Congress Digest: “A new study by Israeli researchers reports that anti-Semitic violence worldwide soared 30 percent in 2012. Sponsored in part by the World Jewish Congress affiliate European Jewish Congress (EJC), the study conducted by Tel Aviv University’s Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, recorded 686 attacks (including vanda... Full story
6NoBacon.com Stone’s Israeli instinct Movie star Sharon Stone, who also came to celebrate Israeli President Shimon Peres’ 90th birthday, stopped by at the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to meet with Israeli and Palestinian children. What mostly attracted the attention of the Internet community was a photo of Stone next to an Israeli guy wearing a T-shirt with a photo of the famous interrogation scene from the film “Basic Instinct.” The photo was uploaded to social networks and became an instant... Full story
It is a testament to the amazing variability of Jewish synagogue life in America that the summertime fast of Tisha B’Av is for some a time of momentous communal mourning, and for others a normal and unremarkable day. In contrast to Yom Kippur, which sees widespread observance in one fashion or another across the denominational spectrum, Tisha B’Av and its ritual restrictions (which are nearly identical to those of Yom Kippur) are unfamiliar to a sizable contingent of American Jews. A bit of ane... Full story
June 27 was Helen Keller Day—the annual occasion when students across America learn about the disabilities activist whose remarkable achievements inspired her generation, and every generation since. Less well known, but no less deserving of commemoration, was Keller’s powerful outcry against the Nazis. One of Adolf Hitler’s top priorities when he became chancellor of Germany in 1933 was to prevent schools from using books that the Nazis regarded as “degenerate.” Eighty years ago this spring, G... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)—Ora Bogomolny sounded subdued, as if the phone call to her Israel apartment had disturbed her sleep. Indeed, she had experienced a nightmare just hours before receiving the call from “Seeking Kin” on June 13. Bogomolny had learned that Avraham Siton suffered a fatal heart attack in a Manhattan hotel room mere hours before his scheduled flight for Israel to attend a reunion of their Tel Aviv elementary school class—an event spearheaded by Bogomolny. The previous night’s get-toget... Full story
(JTA)—Singer-songwriter-actor-director—now Barbra Streisand can add another hyphen to her description. On June 17, the entertainer was awarded an honorary degree of “Doctor Philosophiae Honoris Causa” in front of a packed auditorium at Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus. The honor came 29 years after her last visit to the Jewish state, when she came to the university to attend the opening of the Emanual Streisand Building for Jewish Studies, which she helped fund and which was named in... Full story
(JTA)—Five years ago he was D-Black, a hip-hop artist rapping about the violence, gang activity and drugs of his African-American ’hood. Today he’s Nissim Black, an Orthodox Jew davening in a Sephardic shul in Seattle and writing songs he describes as rap/urban alternative that “speak a message of hope and inspiration.” The shift in his musical message will be on full display with his new album, “Nissim,” due for release July 16. Meanwhile, the changes in his personal life were underscored e... Full story
FunkKit, an Israeli product for adding temporary customized artwork to footwear, was conceived on a shopping trip. It was 2006, and Israeli college student Moran Nir was in England on a Jewish Agency summer program. “I went shopping with a friend who loves hats—he has one for each outfit,” Nir tells ISRAEL21c. “We went to a shoe store and he bought six pairs of the same shoes in different colors, in order to match his hats. That was my eureka moment.” Nir got on the phone to classmate... Full story
Tall, dark, handsome and a mensch, Sheldon Low is one of Jewish music’s hottest stars. Low’s constant touring of America’s Jewish camps, schools and community centers has won him legions of fans. From preschoolers to teenagers to baby boomers, throngs of Low’s fans rock out to his original compositions and his contemporary interpretations of Jewish songs. The 30-year-old St. Louis native is the artist-in-residence at Temple Israel of the City of New York and has four albums to his credit.... Full story
By Abigail Klein Leichman ISRAEL21c Anybody can go to a show or take a walking tour while visiting Israel. But if you join ISRAEL21c’s exclusive Journey to Israel from Oct. 20-27, you will discover more exciting ways to take in the culture of the country. Our itinerary, planned especially for our readers by ISRAEL21c and Keshet: The Center for Educational Tourism in Israel, places an emphasis on experiential opportunities you’ve read about on our website. Have you seen our video showing a Seg... Full story
About half of all people at risk of death from heart attacks could gain the chance to live, once Israeli entrepreneur Leon Eisen’s new Oxitone device goes to market in about 18 months. Using two optical sensors, and another special high-tech tool, he’s developed the world’s first “watch” that can just about tell when your time may be up. It’s no joke: Oxitone was developed to cheat fate. Eisen tells ISRAEL21c that about half of the people who die from cardiac or pulmonary arrest would be al... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—How do you confront hatred when it has no fixed address? Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League national director, attempts to pin down an answer to the question in his latest book, “Viral Hate.” Co-authored with privacy lawyer Christopher Wolf, the book chronicles the complications of countering hate on the Internet. The takeaway? It’s up to us. “Let’s take back responsibility for our culture—both online and off” is the book’s main conclusion. “Public involvement, concer... Full story
BETHESDA, Md.—Did Pope Pius XII, the leader of the Catholic Church during World War II and the subsequent decade, suppress a landmark Vatican document that his predecessor, Pius XI, had commissioned, a document that would have unambiguously criticized racism and anti-Semitism? And did that document—an encyclical, in Vatican parlance—actually exist? Historians and theologians have been asking these questions for decades. The so-called hidden encyclical has played a role—contrasting the attitudes and personalities of the two popes—since the end o... Full story
A month ago, Rita Margulis and her fiancé Amit (as a career army officer he asked not to use his last name) got married at the Safari in Tel Aviv. There was a Reform rabbi and 450 guests. But according to the state of Israel, the wedding never happened. That is because Margulis, who immigrated to Israel from Ukraine at age 4, is not Jewish according to Jewish law, because her mother is not Jewish. Jewish law states that only someone born of a Jewish mother or who had an Orthodox Jewish conversion is Jewish. And since there is no civil... Full story
SAN FRANCISCO—Fifty years ago, a hit single took America by storm, one unlike anything on the top of the charts: ”Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah,” a paean to summer camp angst, sung by a pudgy Jewish guy in horned-rims and a crew cut. That song about Camp Granada, where “all counselors hate the waiters, and the lake has alligators,” cemented Allan Sherman’s reputation as the nation’s great song parodist. More than that, it opened pop culture to a Yiddish-inflected humor later perfected by... Full story
