Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The “evil eye,” ayin ha’ra in Hebrew, is the idea that a person or supernatural being can bewitch or harm an individual merely by looking at them. The belief is not only a Jewish folk superstition but also is addressed in some rabbinic texts. The term is also sometimes used to describe evil inclinations or feelings of envy. In several pieces of Midrash, rabbis suggest that the evil eye played a role in various incidents in the Torah. For example, they say that Sarah cast an evil eye on Hagar while Hagar was pregnant, causing her to miscarry bef...
Wow! May 20 was my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday in Heaven, Mom. I love you and always will! Do you believe these names?... Remember Eppie Lederer? (Of course you do!) Esther Pauline "Eppie" Lederer might have been known to you by her pen name, Ann Landers. AHA! See I told you! Ann was born on the 4th of July in Sioux City, Iowa. She was a super-famous newspaper advice columnist and Jewish, of course! (Okay, so I don't give advice, but I'm Jewish too!) Ann Landers was a pen name created by...
Blintzes are one of Shavuot's most popular dishes. Long associated with Ashkenazi cooking, the light and airy hug of the blintz pancake envelopes pillowy fillings such as whipped farmer's cheese or fruit compote. To call it a crepe is like calling chicken soup consommé. It sounds more fancy, but it lacks the tradition and warmth. For Florence Tabrys, a Holocaust survivor, blintzes were a lifeline to her former life near Radom, Poland. As a child, Florence and her sister were separated from their parents in 1942 and sent to work in a munitions...
(JTA) - The series "Heirs to the Land" that dropped on Netflix last month looks, at first glance, like just another installment in the fast-growing genre of Spanish period dramas. In some ways it is, featuring the familiar mix of romance, violence and a liberal dramatization of key historical events in medieval Spain that have made international hits out of several recent Spanish productions such as "Isabel" and "El Cid." But "Heirs to the Land" also takes a deep dive into what it meant to live...
Hatred of Jews has been a feature of world history for centuries. But only in the late 19th century did a new specific word emerge to describe it. What prompted the coining of the neologism "antisemitism" was the perception of an altered relationship between Jews and the peoples among whom they lived that could not accurately be described as mere "Judeophobia" or "Jew-hatred." The felt need for a new word affected not just self-identified anti-Semites. It was recognized by Jews and non-Jews thro...
So many celebrities ... not at all surprising... Of course we've all heard of WOLF BLITZER, famed journalist on CNN television. Well, Wolf, whose middle name is Isaac, had a most exciting upbringing. He was born in Augsberg, allied-occupied Germany after WWII in 1948. His parents were both Polish Jewish refugees who survived the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Unfortunately, his grandparents, two uncles, and two aunts on his father's side did not survive. Wolf was raised in Buffalo, New York. He i...
Cate - Central Florida Hillel and the Jewish Academy of Orlando library At Hillel Cate has the important job of getting the ballroom set up for over 200 students for the weekly Shabbat dinner. She also works diligently to keep the common areas of Hillel sparkling, to replenish snacks, to organize the supply closets and take inventory. At Jewish Academy, Cate works as an art teacher assistant. She prepares materials for the children, helps children with art projects, keeps the art room clean and...
They say that to travel is to live, and for 25 participants, attending one of Jewish National Fund-USA’s missions to Israel felt like “sunshine” during their first international trip since the start of the pandemic. According to Dianne Ruderman, a JNF-USA partner (donor) and Sunshine Tour participant, the group of active adults ages 55+ were “treated like royalty,” during the 10-day luxury “bucket list” vacation and got to experience “the Israel [they’d] never heard about.” Although Ruderman had been to Israel before, this was her first time...
God split the sea. What miracle can we do? Imagine. The Egyptians are chasing after you and the sea is in front of you. There is nowhere to run. At the moment when all seems lost, the sea suddenly splits before your eyes. What kind of reaction would you have? Now imagine an alien coming down to earth, and he sees both the splitting of the sea and the birth of a baby. What would he (or she…or it…) think is a greater miracle? The inexplicable development and birth of a new human being from another seems to be more impressive than water mov...
My mother loved Judy Garland and Deanna Durbin. She would have loved Melanie Gall. My husband, Larry, and I first became acquainted with Melanie Gall, a Canadian chanteuse, in 2019, through our friends Mike and Teri Chaves. The three had met in a Cancun resort, where Melanie was on vacation the week before her performance at the Orlando International Fringe Festival. The Chaves, with whom we had already made plans to go to the event, insisted that we join the three of them for dinner. Over...
By Rafael Medoff (JTA) — Comic artist Neal Adams, who passed away at age 80 in New York City on April 28, is best known for having revolutionized Batman and other iconic comic book characters for both the DC and Marvel brands. But Adams himself was also a fearless crusader: He battled comics publishers for the rights of artists and writers, rescued Superman’s Jewish creators from abject poverty and campaigned for a Holocaust survivor to regain portraits she painted in Auschwitz. Adams, who was born in New York City in 1941 and spent much of...
(JTA) - It sounds like it could be the story of Purim: A Jewish woman uses her sex appeal to enter the upper reaches of a group whose members are hell-bent on destroying the Jews. But instead of Esther with King Ahasuerus, imagine her becoming romantically involved with Haman himself - and instead of the Persian Empire, it's the British Empire, circa 1962. "Ridley Road," a gripping and provocative four-part miniseries debuting on PBS's "Masterpiece" on Sunday after airing on the BBC last year, i...
Being a part of a caring community, whether it’s family, friends or an organization, is known to reduce stress. When determining whether it is time for senior living, ask yourself or family member the following questions: • Are you frequently socializing and connecting with others? • Are you exercising regularly? • Are you eating fresh, nutritious meals? • Are you setting goals and enjoying a sense of purpose? If you answered “no” to any of these questions, it may be time to consider senior living. While most seniors face major adjustments w...
This is "Be Kind To Animals" week. I'm still grieving the loss of my dear Chloe, my baby, my dog who died yesterday, April 22. (I write this column more than a week in advance). Chloe and I were twins... same eyes, same nose, same lips, same thighs, same tummy!) I wrote this poem for her: Chloe was my "little girl", she really was my heart, Her little stub tail had no curl, (Can I live when we're apart?) She was with us from 7 months to 13 years and some, She loved us too (I know that's true,)...
(JTA) - Despite his name, Norman Jewison, the director of the 1971 film adaptation of "Fiddler on the Roof," is not Jewish. The 95-year-old Jewison has often spoken about how, when asked to helm the movie version of the popular Broadway musical about an Old World shtetl, he felt the need to sheepishly inform the producers that he was a goy. Less well known is that, following the worldwide success of the "Fiddler" movie, Jewison actually wound up embracing the Jewish faith. Though he has never...
Time-honored practices and mental exercises to help you be your best self. 1. Map out your future Just as every building begins with a blueprint and every bulls-eye starts with a target, a purposeful life begins with intention. Setting goals can feel scary since it sets us up for the possibility of experiencing failure. But it’s almost impossible to succeed without envisioning your goals and creating an actionable plan to achieve them. Try this mental exercise: Set aside 10 minutes to envision your ideal life. What do you want it to look l...
Harry Haft’s real-life story is shocking and little known. He was imprisoned in Jaworzno, a concentration camp that was part of the vast Auschwitz complex, and was forced to box his fellow inmates. The loser of each fight was murdered by Nazi guards, who enjoyed watching this macabre spectacle. Haft was forced to fight in 76 matches. The horror of his experiences never left him. His story is portrayed in HBO’s new film, “The Survivor,” directed by Academy Award-winner Barry Levinson and starring Ben Foster, who visited Auschwitz and lost 30 lbs...
(JNS) - The small Jewish boy from Berlin stood a few meters from Adolf Hitler. He waved the salute, ran away and told his parents. Shaken and called crazy for wanting to leave to go to a desert - this was years before Kristallnacht in November 1938 - the family decided to leave Germany and head to Palestine. Ronen Israelski tells this story about his father in his award-winning documentary "The Day I Met Hitler." Israelski grew up in Herzliya, Israel, and moved to Canada in 2015 when his father...
Last year, when Heritage requested nominations for a Human Service Award recipient, Marvin Friedman of Oviedo told the editor, Christine DeSouza, he wanted to nominate Rabbi Sholom Dubov. DeSouza thanked him for wanting to nominate Dubov, however, she explained a Human Service Award recipient must be someone who is not financially compensated for his/her work in the community. Friedman understood this, and still wrote his letter of recommendation of Dubov, saying, "To be clear, I understand...
(JTA) – That's one way to "never forget." A peculiar item of clothing went viral this week after a comedian tweeted about a pair of leggings emblazoned with artwork inspired by "Schindler's List," Steven Spielberg's 1993 Holocaust drama. The pants show an artist-made poster with characters from the film. The symbolic "girl in the red dress" is featured most prominently, standing on train tracks overlooking the Auschwitz death camp. Beside her float the heads of Liam Neeson, as German factory o...
(JTA) – The online design marketplace Redbubble said it had “restricted” sales of a “Schindler’s List”-inspired design on its site after the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported on a pair of leggings featuring characters from the movie that lit up the Internet this week. “The artwork referenced in this article has been restricted and we are adding additional monitoring measures as a result,” Redbubble spokesperson Marissa Hermo told JTA in a statement. The leggings in question, which were first spotted at a Los Angeles thrift store, sported...
What a surprise! ... If I only knew that this "heart throb" was Jewish, I would have been shocked! I'm talking about actor HARRISON FORD, a longtime favorite of mine. I would also add that he seems to be a favorite of many, seeing that his films have grossed more than $5.4 Billion in North America and more than $9.3 Billion worldwide. He is the seventh highest grossing actor in North America. Harrison was born in Chicago, Illinois, to a Catholic father and an Ashkenazi Jewish mother. His...
Leave it to Sephardic Jews to make even a pedestrian dish - the ubiquitous matzah brei, a mash-up of fried matzah and egg - into something sublime. In his landmark book, "The Sephardic Kitchen," published in 1996, Rabbi Robert Sternberg introduced many of us to the flavors and pleasures of Sephardic Jewish cuisine. Masa Tiganitas is a Passover recipe of the Greek Jews - tiganites is the Greek word for pancakes, and, according to Sephardic cook and author Jennifer Abadi, tiganitas is related to...
(JTA) - A few years ago, Rachel Picado attended a Utah Jazz game in Salt Lake City with Israeli diplomat Eitan Na'eh, who was visiting from Los Angeles. During the closing seconds of the game, which the Jazz won, the two heard a familiar song coming from the speakers in Vivint Arena. "We were both looking at each other like, why on earth are they playing 'Hava Nagila'?" Picado recalled. She asked the Jazz employees who were hosting her group about the musical choice, and "they were confused...
A surprising answer to why so many Jews become comedians. When Robin Williams, arguably one of the greatest comedians died, some people gave him an interesting title: “honorary Jew.” Why the Jew label? Couldn’t he have been left as a brilliantly comedic non-Jew? Well if you look back at most of the great comedians from the previous generation, they were predominantly Jewish. This is a group it seems some people badly wanted him to be part of. Here is a short list of some Jewish comedians, with their real names: Jack Benny (Benjamin Kubel...
