Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Barbara Walters retiring NEW YORK (JTA)—After 37 years at ABC, Barbara Walters is calling it quits, the network announced. “It’s time,” said Walters, 83. “I keep thinking of the line from ‘Cabaret’: ‘When I go, I’m going like Chelsea.’ When I go there is not going to be any, ‘Please can I have another appearance?’ I don’t want to do any more interviews. I don’t want to do any other programs. I’m not joining CNN. This is it.” Over the course of her 50-year career, Walters did more than interview an endless list of VIPs. As the nation’s first... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—“You have night blindness,” the Israeli army doctor announced unsympathetically at my pre-service medical examination. “You’re dismissed from your IDF mandatory army service by law,” he said and called the next soldier-to-be. I was frightened by the diagnosis. I had worn glasses since I was 3, but I never thought I would lose my vision at 18. It turned out not to be as serious as it sounded: My eyes just didn’t get used to darkness as quickly as they should. It took me time to digest the enormity of the news: I didn’t need t... Full story
”Oy am I fahklempt” department… You know what fahklempt means… eyes tear up and a lump in the throat. That’s how I felt after just seeing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” on television with James Cagney. (I know very few actor’s names these days. It feels great to see a name I recognize.) Anyway, although I know that Hollywood movies take liberties with the whole truth, it was still nice to hear the story of George M. Cohan, who at the turn of the last century, wrote songs like “Give my regards to Broadw... Full story
Becoming a reviewer has made me a better reader. Instead of dismissing works I don’t enjoy, I now analyze why they didn’t appeal to me: Is it something personal, for example, did a character or plot line trouble me? Does the author’s prose or writing style enhance the telling of the story for me or distract from it? Would other readers relish the book even if I didn’t find it to my taste? Two recent novels—“The Middlesteins” by Jami Attenberg (Grand Central Publishing) and “A Town of Empty Rooms... Full story
“I don’t think I’m in any way a sociopath,” said Ariel Vromen, the Israeli-born filmmaker behind “The Iceman,” inspired by the true story of one of America’s most notorious mob hitmen, Richard Kuklinski, who died in prison in 2006. Yet Vromen remembers watching an HBO documentary about Kuklinski in 2007 and feeling a kind of empathy, even a connection, to the 6-foot-5, 300-pound killer who claimed to have whacked at least 100 men between the 1960s and the 1980s, all while maintaining his double life as a devoted family man in suburban New Jerse... Full story
On a warm Sunday morning last month in Washington Square Park, parents were leisurely pushing strollers, sunbathers were strewn about on the grass, and people of all ages were lounging on the wooden benches and sipping coffee. Meanwhile about 15 sixth graders darted around in groups of two or three, their heads bent over iPhones and iPads, shouting out things like, “I just found the foreman. He gave me the money!” “We have to go back to Rose,” and “The shtarkers are after us!” The kids, students at Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s religious sch... Full story
PRAIA, Cape Verde (JTA)—A Portuguese rabbi and a Moroccan diplomat stood shoulder to shoulder in a Catholic cemetery here while 200 mourners howled in grief as they buried a resident of this island off the western coast of Africa. The foreigners had come to Cape Verde’s main cemetery earlier this month not to bury a local, but for the rededication of 10 gravestones of Moroccan Jews—members of an extinct community whose roots trace to the 1860s. With virtually no practicing Jews on Cape Verde... Full story
PHILADELPHIA—The summer of 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty good one for the former Melvin James Kaminsky, better known as Mel Brooks. In addition to his son Max’s bestselling zombie apocalypse oral history, “World War Z,” being made into one of the year’s most anticipated blockbusters, Brooks will be given the 41st Life Achievement Award of the American Film Institute in June. The recognition is only surprising in that it took so long; three of Brooks’ films are ranked in the AFI’s Top 1... Full story
When Alexander Stille’s mother died in 1993, she left few papers behind—just some letters, photographs and remnants of the lists she maintained to organize her life. Everything was in its proper place; her bills were paid and her will was signed. His father died about two years later, surrounded by mountainous piles of newspapers and books. A man who had been displaced twice in his life—first from Russia and then from Italy—leaving everything behind, he had a hard time throwing anything out. “His closet was kind of a rest home for retired c... Full story
When Rabbi Baruch HaLevi took over as spiritual leader of Congregation Shirat Hayam in Swampscott, Mass., which is just outside Boston, Shabbat attendance was anemic and two small rival factions in the synagogue were always arguing over which group was being called to the Torah more often. These days, 300 to 500 people take part in the Conservative congregation’s Shabbat offerings and the place is now considered among the most dynamic in the country. It has been mentioned by some as a suburban version of B’nai Jeshurun on Manhattan’s Upper... Full story
This year, at least seven Jewish athletes will ply their trade on Major League rosters (two more are on the disabled list). It might be argued that a much larger contribution to the game has been made by the scores of Jewish men and women who write about the national pastime. “501 Baseball Books Fans Must Read before They Die” includes several such titles by sportswriters, historians, statisticians and novelists. While these may not necessarily be the best books on the topics, they enc... Full story
Writer Jonathan Ames, creator of the HBO television series “Bored to Death,” is known for his fearless and exhibitionistic persona. One can find YouTube videos of him eating herring and boxing at the same time, having knives thrown at him by a person called “Throwdini,” and ranting drunkenly at an awards ceremony. And when it comes to writing, Ames’s essays tend to cover racy topics. Given these exploits, it’s a bit surprising to learn that Ames’s recent trip to Israel made his Jewish mother hap... Full story
The first time that Sid Kaplan saw a photograph being developed he was 10 years old. In a makeshift darkroom in the corner of a bedroom in a friend’s Bronx apartment, he watched the image emerge onto the paper in a bath of chemicals. “I just got hypnotized and addicted to the whole thing,” says Kaplan, now 75 and many, many images later. You may never have heard of Sid Kaplan, but his hand and eye are behind many of the greatest photographs that have been on view in museums and galleries since the 1960s. A master printer, he has done darkr... Full story
If Peter Max’s life had turned out the way he originally planned, he wouldn’t be an artist. “I always thought I was going to become an astronomer because I loved astronomy so much,” Max says. “I thought art was something that kids do, a hobby.” Max’s “hobby” has made him one of the most popular artists of the last 50 years, a painter whose dazzlingly colorful, easily recognizable work is among the most collectible in the art market. He has painted everything from musicians Jimi Hendrix and... Full story
EFRAT, West Bank (JTA)—One Christmas eve, as Jews across the country headed for Chinese restaurants, I found myself in a church choir. The church, on the outskirts of Boston and straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, had hired me to sing for their service. As the clock struck 11, I entered the sanctuary with the choir, our robes and music illuminated only by the candles each of us held. “Once in royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,” we intoned in a near-whisper as the organ w... Full story
If you’re ever having trouble finding common ground among the generations at a family event, here’s a tip: Bring up David Steinberg. The 70-year-old Steinberg has been making people laugh ever since he began his career with the Second City comedy/improv group in Chicago in 1964. In the ensuing decades, he has cemented his place in the front rank of comedy, performing “sermons” on “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in the 1960s, doing standup gigs and spending more time with Johnny Carson than... Full story
There might not have been a State of Israel if a Jewish Russian immigrant boy hadn’t found a banana in a back alley by his uncle’s dry goods store in Selma, Ala. That young boy, Sam Zemurray, “fell in love” with the exotic and expensive fruit—they were sold after being cut up at 10 cents per piece in 1876—and became determined to make bananas widely available to the public. Through determination, business acumen, and ruthlessness, Zemurray did just that, in the process controlling armies and... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—Yosel Tiefenbrun looked in the mirror and he liked what he saw. The 23-year-old Chabad rabbi and apprentice at Maurice Sedwell, a bespoke tailor’s shop on London’s Savile Row, was wearing a vintage double-breasted jacket with gold buttons, tasseled Barker shoes, a claret bow tie and matching handmade hat and square handkerchief. Then he ran out the door to attend the “Oscars of tailoring”—the Golden Shears Award ceremony honoring the best in British fashion. Several of his colleag... Full story
Talia Joy Castellano, of Goldenrod, a one time member of Congregation Ohev Shalom, has been fighting cancer for nearly seven years and last August she was told she has a new second kind of cancer. The 13 year old was already a YouTube sensation with her makeup tutorials. When she delivered the news about this new form of cancer, she said, “Life is like a journey. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. And I guess my journey is nearing the end.” This video went viral and Talia went from 25,... Full story
“Brasil, where hearts were entertaining June…” Trust me… Brasil is spelled correctly. It is not spelled “Brazil.” I have been to Brasil four times… to record my CDs, to perform shows, to do television, etc., so I know that is the correct spelling in Brasil. My agent is a Brasileiro, born and raised in Sao Paulo. He is also a Jewish man, an entertainment lawyer and owner of his own recording company. His name is ROBERTO DRATCU. Roberto has been here in Central Florida many times to work with me.... Full story
Park named for Beastie Boys’ Yauch NEW YORK (JTA)—New York City honored the late rapper Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, by bestowing his name on a Brooklyn playground. The park, formerly called Palmetto Playground, is just a couple of blocks from where the musician grew up. At the recent dedication ceremony, speakers included bandmate Adam Horovitz (a.k.a. Ad-Rock); Yauch’s parents, Frances and Noel, and Borough President Marty Markowitz, who rapped his own version of the Beastie Boys’ “Ope... Full story
By Ben Harris NEW YORK (JTA)—When the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews opened its doors to the public recently after years of delays and tens of millions of dollars in spending, it was in no small part thanks to the work of Tad Taube. A successful San Francisco businessman and philanthropist, Taube (pronounced Toby) has been directing the considerable resources of the Taube Philanthropies and the Koret Foundation, both of which he helms, to support efforts to revive Jewish life in P... Full story
“I think Hank Greenberg was the great American hero,” Washington filmmaker Aviva Kempner says. “What he did on Yom Kippur. What he faced. He was our Jackie Robinson.” Thirteen years after the debut of “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg,” her documentary about the baseball great, Kempner is rereleasing the film on DVD—including an additional two hours of interviews that didn’t make the original cut. Greenberg, known to Jewish fans as the Detroit Tigers’ power hitter who sat out an important game during the 1934 pennant race because it fell on... Full story
By Steve Lipman New York Jewish Week WARSAW, Poland—At a corner table in the Pod Samsonem restaurant, under framed etchings of the Bible’s Samson and of old Warsaw streetscapes, a middle-aged woman cuts up her “Jewish style” trout one recent evening. At other tables, next to walls lined with framed photographs of rabbis, and menorahs on a small shelf, other customers eat their entrees of “Karp po żydowsku” (Jewish-style carp) and “Kavior żydowski” (Jewish caviar). Pod Samsonem (the name means “under Samson”) is a prominent example in... Full story
Newspaper and magazine articles note how, although most Americans own far more material goods than their ancestors, they’re less content than former generations. The idea that our possessions do not bring happiness is commonly found in religious tracts; those writers suggest the key to contentment is focusing less on the material and more on the spiritual. Rabbi Edwin Goldberg, D.H.L., explores this idea from a Jewish point of view in “Saying No and Letting Go: Jewish Wisdom on Making Room for What Matters Most” (Jewish Lights Publi... Full story
