Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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I don’t know what the tradition is in your family, but in ours, seder night is a dress-up affair. Suits and ties, dresses, new clothes for the kids — “Shabbes” clothes we call them. Imagine our surprise when one year we arrived for seder at the door of our friends David and Shira Milgrom-Elcott in our dressy clothes, and they greeted us wearing the long, flowing robes of Bedouins! “Welcome to our seder!” they exclaimed. “Please take off your shoes before you come in.” We dutifully took off our shoes and entered their home. On the right, we s...
(JTA) — Just over 100 years ago, in April 1922, my great-grandparents emigrated to the United States with their four children, fearing for their lives in Kremenets, a Russian city in present-day western Ukraine. My great-grandfather, Aaron Shimon Shpall, an educator and journalist, recorded his thoughts about leaving “the city that we were born in and that we spent years of our lives in,” acknowledging how hard it would be “to separate from our native land, and our birthplace and our father’s house.” But he was clear that the Russia he k...
(JTA) - For millennia, Jews have eaten matzah. And for years, Jewish patrons of Trader Joe's have been able to purchase matzah off the shelves of the tiki-themed grocery chain - which has gained its own quasi-religious following. Now, for the first time ever, Trader Joe's will be selling matzah under its own famous private label. The question, even among the store's diehard Jewish fans, is what makes Trader Joe's-branded matzah different from all other matzah. The grocery chain with more than...
(JTA) — Olives. Tomatoes. Oranges. Artichokes. Dates. Cotton balls. And, now, sunflowers. This list might seem like a setup for a logic puzzle or a grocery run. But it is, instead, a (non-exhaustive) list that I have seen of additions to the seder plate, items to highlight and include stories and histories that are not, at least explicitly, part of the Passover seder. On its surface, it is a noble goal — why shouldn’t we consider the plight of Ukrainians in spring 2023 (sunflowers), or remem...
(JNS) - There has been a lot of discussion about what Holocaust memory will be like as fewer survivors remain. Less discussed are those who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II. The German-born doctor Traute Lafrenz, who died on March 6 at 103, was the last known surviving member of White Rose, which formed in Munich in 1942 and advocated nonviolent resistance against the Nazi government. As young German college students allied against their country's government, the group...
(JTA) - Next Sunday marks the 90th anniversary of Philip Roth's birth. In celebration of the famed novelist's work, a scholarly conference titled "Roth@90," sponsored by the Philip Roth Society, will be held starting Wednesday at the Newark Public Library. That will be followed by a weekend of high-profile events - staged readings, panel discussions, a bus tour of Roth's old Newark neighborhood - co-presented by the library and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Exactly 10 years ago, we...
There is a long history of Jews working in the alcohol industry, from running the majority of taverns in Poland in the mid-19th century to founding distilleries and wineries that are still in operation today. You may even be familiar with some of these businesses, such Herzog wineries, Seagram or the Carmel Winery. But what you probably don’t know is that Baileys Irish Cream liqueur was invented by a South African Jew. Turns out, Baileys does not have deep roots in Ireland as its label, which d...
A Lady Bird deed in Florida is a legal form that transfers property upon death inexpensively and without probate. A Lady Bird deed allows the current property owner to use and control the property during the owner’s lifetime, while the property automatically transfers upon death to designated beneficiaries. In Florida, a Lady Bird deed is also called an enhanced life estate deed. To be valid in Florida, a Lady Bird deed must include: Grantor — The current owner of the property. This person is splitting their fee simple legal interest in the...
MIAMI (JTA) - They didn't call it the "Pool of Death" for nothing. After a 3-1 come-from-behind victory over Nicaragua on Sunday, Israel finished the World Baseball Classic with only one additional run over the next three games. Israel lost 10-0 to both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, recording only one hit across the two games, both of which were cut short by the WBC mercy rule. On Wednesday, Israel's bats came alive in the final game, with nine hits, including three for Noah...
(JTA) — Dylan Geller has taken great pride in his work as a student manager of Duke University’s men’s basketball team since landing the gig as a freshman in 2019. But things felt different this season, and not just because the Blue Devils had a new head coach, Jon Scheyer, after 42 years under the legendary Mike Krzyzewski. “Coach Scheyer is such a role model to me, being a young Jewish man myself with aspiring hopes and dreams in basketball,” said Geller, a senior from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. “Seeing him do it so successfully, he’s defini...
(JNS) — Until recently, French Impressionism was a Cinderella story. Derided in the late 19th century and excluded from the French academy (Salon), Impressionism—whose name derives from a critic’s mockery—became one of the most beloved art movements. Impressionist sections are among the most trafficked in art museums, whose gift shops hawk umbrellas, tote bags, ballpoint pens and other accessories decorated with works by Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro and others. Those artists’ fortunes rose so much th...
(My Jewish Learning) - In the Hebrew Bible, the word shalom, usually translated as peace, means more than the absence of conflict; it connotes a secure sense of well-being and wholeness (the latter is perhaps the best literal definition). The word appears hundreds of times in the Bible, in all kinds of contexts: individuals, cities, nations and even the whole world at various points seek peace and, in the words of the psalmist, pursue it. In fact, the rabbis even taught that Shalom is one of...
On Sunday, March 12, the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, the Casselberry Historical Society and the Seminole County Historical Society erected a marker honoring Hedy Lamarr. Lamarr is most remembered for her acting career, starring in more than two dozen movies. She is not as well remembered as the inventor, with George Antheil, of a secret communication system, patented in 1942. This system was used by the Allied Powers against Nazi Germany during World War II and allowed...
The Jewish Pavilion hosted Purim party celebrations with residents at Harbor Chase/ Dr. Phillips & Windsor of Celebration. Costumes, decorations, a play and Hamentachen cookies were enjoyed by all. — Judy Appleton...
(JTA) - For tuned-in baseball fans, Jeff Passan is everywhere. As ESPN's senior MLB insider, he frequently breaks some of the sport's biggest news and appears on several of the global sports network's television, radio and podcast programs. After two decades of reporting, can anything make him nervous? There is one athlete who does: Jewish legend Sandy Koufax. "Generally speaking, when I'm talking to people, I'll call them by their first name. He was Mr. Koufax," Passan told the Jewish...
(JTA) - As part of his journey after a tumultuous decade and a half in the spotlight, former New York Mets star Darryl Strawberry is speaking at a pro-Israel event in his second career as an evangelical minister. Strawberry, an eight-time MLB All-Star-turned-traveling-preacher, will be a panelist on Thursday at Extending the Branches of Zionism, an event taking place in New York City and organized by the Jewish National Fund-USA focused on support for Israel among non-Jews. The panel will...
(JTA) — The film producer Daniel Dreifuss has only one surviving photo of a distant relative: his grandfather’s cousin, who fought for Germany in World War I and died in combat two days before the war’s end. He has a few more photos of his grandfather, who also wore the German uniform in WWI — only to be rounded up by the Nazis two decades later during Kristallnacht and thrown into a concentration camp, as even the Jews who had fought for their country were not safe from its campaign of race extermination. Dreifuss, who was raised in Brazil aft...
If an alien spacecraft landed in Dr. Avi Loeb’s backyard tomorrow, he would readily step on, leave his family behind and take off to discover the great beyond. Obviously, he’d be giving up a lot, but it’s for an essential cause, he says: Humans need to explore the possibilities for human life beyond earth. “We know the sun will burn up the surface of the earth within a billion years,” he says. “We won’t be able to stay here.” Loeb, an Israeli-American astrophysicist at Harvard University, shared these thoughts recently in a podcast convers...
Exorcism is a ritual of power performed in order to drive an evil spirit, whether demonic or ghostly, from a possessed person, location, or object. The Christian scholar Origen credits Jews with a special talent for exorcising demons (Against Celsus, book 4). The first allusion to exorcism appears in the Bible, in the youth narratives of David (l Samuel). But while the biblical David seemed to be able to effect a temporary expulsion of Saul’s evil spirit using music, the book of Tobit contains the first explicit description of an (informal) e...
(JTA) — As a Roman Catholic in Warsaw during World War II, Jan Karski could easily have ignored the horrors unfolding behind the walls of the Jewish ghetto. Instead, as a member of the Polish Resistance, he donned a yellow Star of David and infiltrated the Warsaw Ghetto to report on what was happening to the Jews there. Karski’s reconnaissance in the ghetto and elsewhere provided the West with some of the first eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust. He even met with U.S. President Franklin D....
When Rachel Wojnilower was an undergraduate at American University in Washington, D.C., she did all kinds of activities with her Jewish sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi. Now 36, Wojnilower has let most of them fade from memory. But in retrospect, one in particular stands out. That's because about five years after graduating, Wojnilower got married and underwent genetic testing along with her husband as they both prepared for future children. They were surprised when they each tested positive as...
(JTA) – With seven nominations for his most personal film ever, this could have been Steven Spielberg’s biggest year at the Academy Awards. But the hot-dog fingers had other plans. “The Fabelmans,” the director’s highly personal dramatization of his Jewish upbringing, didn’t win a single one of the Oscars it was nominated for Sunday night. Spielberg’s film lost out on the biggest categories, including best picture, director, actress, and original screenplay, all to the same movie: chaos-theory multiverse comedy “Everything Everywhere All...
Jewish Heritage Night was an ideal evening for the Jewish Chamber to partner with the Eatonville Chamber to enjoy a Solar Bears Game together in the Silver Suite. Participants had the opportunity to network, meet Shades the mascot and chat with Chris Charmichael, VP of Sales for the Solar Bears, along with his leadership team. Pictured are many of the participants....
(JNS) - A mysterious hand imprint carved into a thousand-year-old rock-hewn moat that was part of the ancient fortifications of Jerusalem has been uncovered next to the Old City's northern wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The discovery, which is part of a defensive moat that surrounds the city walls and is likely to date to the 10th century CE or earlier, was made along Sultan Suleiman Street ahead of planned city infrastructure work, the state-run archaeological...
(JTA) - As children in upstate New York, twin sisters Julia DeVillers and Jennifer Roy went to Hebrew school three days a week, spent their summers at a JCC summer camp and got to know local Holocaust survivors through their father, who survived the Nazis as a child in Poland. They also celebrated Christmas with their mother's family. Aware of their dual religious and cultural backgrounds from a young age, DeVillers and Roy personally sent their public elementary school principal a letter...
