Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Submitted by Jewish Pavilion Senior Services When a loved one undergoes major surgery, it can be one of the most emotionally taxing days a caregiver will face. The hours spent waiting can feel endless, filled with worry, uncertainty, and the responsibility of being the patient’s advocate. For many older adults served by Jewish Pavilion Senior Services and the Orlando Senior Help Desk, family members and friends often step into the role of caregiver – sometimes unexpectedly. Preparation can make a meaningful difference. Having a tho...
"Emmie Arbel: The Colour of Memory," by Barbara Yelin. Translated by Heige R. Dascher and edited by Charlotte Schallie and Alexander Korb. SelfMadeHero. 192 pps. $27.99. The theme of this latest entry into the growing, and increasingly respected, field of graphic novels about the Holocaust is amply expressed by the pair of nouns in the book's title: color, and memory. (The book – released in time for Yom HaShoah last month -- was published in London, and "developed" with the support of the S...
Apple Pie Serves 8. Make a top and bottom crust for 9" pie. In food processor 1 1/2 cups cold butter, cut in pieces 3 3/4 cups flour, plus more for rolling dough 1 tsp. white vinegar 2 T. sugar 1 tsp. salt 3-4 T. Ice cold water. Process dough until it just forms a ball about 1 minute. 1 egg, lightly beaten, to brush top crust before baking 2 T. granulated or turbinado sugar sprinkled over assembled top crust before baking. Divide dough in half. Refrigerate dough pieces for 1 hour or overnight...
Part One of a Six Part series On May 15, as has been done for decades, Palestinian Arabs, their supporters and Israel detractors observed the “Nakba” or the catastrophe of Israel’s birth in 1948. In order to understand the veracity of that narrative and how it’s been conflated in modern dialogue and reporting, it’s important to understand what lies behind that. A name with a history My father was a Palestinian. A Palestinian Jew. He was born in Palestine in 1937, at a time when the only people commonly referred to as “Palestinians” were the Jew...
(JNS) — At sundown on Thursday, May 21, Jews around the world will start the two-day holiday (which lasts only one day in Israel) of Shavuot. Also known as the Festival of Weeks because it marks the completion of the counting of the Omer period — which is 49 days long, or seven weeks of seven days—Shavuot is one of the Jewish calendar’s shalosh regalim pilgrimage holidays. Unlike the other two pilgrimage festivals — Passover, which is marked through the retelling of the Exodus story at the se...
(JNS) — Historically, Shavuot is the celebration of the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai, beginning seven weeks after the first day of Passover. Agriculturally, it commemorates the time when the first fruits were harvested and brought to the Temple, thus the “Festival of the First Fruits.” Indeed, fresh fruit and flowers are the hallmark of the holiday, as is wearing white clothing. It symbolizes the purity, joy and the spiritual “marriage” between God and the Jewish people. This year, the holiday starts at sundown on May...
I visited with a friend named Linda recently whom I had not seen in 40 years, but who has been my neighbor for the last 20. In 1985, as young students, Linda and I had planned to visit the Soviet Union together as part of our respective and collaborative activism on behalf of Jews in the USSR. Other than catching up on our children, grandchildren, and careers, we reflected on how the movement among Western Jews like us to free Soviet Jews was in many ways the movement that strengthened us and...
Confronted with absolute evil, Henry Lesser asked himself, "Why?" What could make a person so completely hateful, so completely psychopathic? Henry Lesser was a 26-year-old, idealistic Jewish boy from Falls River, Massachusetts. He took a job in Washington, D.C.'s prison system as a jailer on March 1, 1928. Criminology was a deep interest of his. What was the nature of good and evil? Was it nature or was it nurture? Growing up, Lesser had been exposed to seemingly contradictory Jewish answers. J...
Submitted by Jewish Pavilion Senior Services Caring for an aging loved one is challenging under any circumstances, but caregiving becomes even more complex when families live far apart. Adult children and relatives who provide long-distance support often miss the subtle day-to-day changes that signal a need for additional help. Small shifts in appearance, household organization, or health can go unnoticed until concerns become more serious. With thoughtful planning, observation, and the right local resources, long-distance caregivers can play a...
(JNS) — It is no small thing to get a street in Manhattan named after you, but the creator of such timeless superheroes as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, Ant-Man, the Hulk and Iron Man received that honor on Monday, when the Lower East Side block where he was born was named “Jack Kirby Way.” Kirby was born Jacob Kurtzberg in 1917 near the corner of Delancey and Essex Streets, which is now home to a McDonald’s but in his youth was filled with horse-drawn carts selling all manner of produce...
How is the holiday of Shavuot different from all other holidays? Cheesecake is one way — along with a whole lot of other dairy foods. But especially the cheesecake. Oh, my goodness; it’s overwhelming. I think of the many varieties of this delicious dessert. Then, whatever flavor you choose there’s also the decision of whether or not to add a flavored topping and also a dollop or squirt of whipped cream. And closely related is the memory of my hometown and Philadelphia cream cheese. What a great...
COVID taught us a word most of us hoped we could forget: “quarantine.” Now the word has returned to the headlines, with passengers exposed to the Andes strain of hantavirus being flown into the United States and elsewhere for monitoring and isolation. While the risk to the public may be low, the practice is routine: separate those who have been exposed, protect the general population, and wait for the danger to pass. That headline made me think of Odessa, once part of the Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire. Odessa was a cosmopolitan por...
(JNS) - An Israeli man completed the study of a Talmudic tractate atop Mount Everest but fell short of setting a world record. Moshe Frei, 56, from Petach Tikvah, was trekking Mount Everest with three friends when he completed the Menachot tractate on Monday. "The timing was right, and it was a great place," Frei told JNS from Nepal on Wednesday. His friends filmed a nearly four-minute video of him reading from the Jewish law book and posted it on social media. The attorney said he has been...
In 2014, my husband, Larry, spent eight days in New Jersey as the New York State triathlon coach at the Special Olympics USA National Games, an experience he stated was “incredible” and “life-affirming.” As soon as he arrived home, he tried to catch up on his sleep, as he got less than five hours a night for the entire trip. How he got to this nirvana of sleep deprivation is part of Shapiro family lore. In 1995, Larry announced at the dinner table that he had signed up our family to volunte...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has called for Jewish Americans to observe a national Shabbat from sundown May 15 to nightfall May 16 in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month and the nation’s 250th anniversary. Rabbi Steven Burg, CEO of Aish, told JNS that he was "very moved" by the president's message because it shifts the narrative from Jew-hatred to Jewish faith. "One of the things people lose in all of this antisemitism is that we're a proud religion," he said. Burg told JNS that the call for a national Shabbat observance is "mo...
Panna Cotta Shavuot is an important two-day holiday that takes place seven weeks after Passover in 2026 on May 21-23. It commemorates the giving of the Torah. It is celebrated by studying the Torah all night, eating dairy foods and having flowers in the home. Panna cotta is an Italian dessert that is a good accompaniment to a Shavuot dairy meal. Serves 4. 1 envelope unflavored kosher (1/4 oz.) gelatin 1 cup whole milk or almond milk 1 cup heavy cream 1/2 cup sugar 1/4 tsp. salt 2 T. sour cream 1/4 tsp. fresh lemon juice 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg 1...
Flu season arrives each year with new challenges, and while vaccines and treatments continue to improve, prevention remains the best protection — especially for older adults and those with underlying health conditions. Even in years when the flu vaccine is not a perfect match for circulating strains, it can still reduce the severity of illness and help prevent serious complications. Here are some simple but effective ways to lower your risk of getting the flu: • Get a Flu Shot. Even when the vaccine is not targeted exactly to a specific strain,...
You name it "Let me call you Sweetheart I'm in love with you Let me hear you whisper That you love me too" It was a musical dream that came true at Metro Diner recently. I was looking at the menu when the young waitress came over and gushed "Hi, sweetheart! I haven't seen you for a long time!" It must have been ages since she had served me. Or maybe we really were sweethearts in a previous lifetime. I could tell you that I don't have a clue except that I do have a hunch. It's just what they do...
Usually, my iPhone recognizes me instantly. But on rare occasions, I am holding my own phone, looking straight at it, and it tells me: “Face Not Recognized.” If you have ever had that moment, you know how unsettling it can feel. What changed? Did I pick up someone else’s phone? Sometimes it is something simple: the tilt of the phone, poor lighting, or a smudge on the lens. But other times it is not so simple. You may be tired, slightly swollen, not well. I find myself wondering: were my glasses off? Was I dehydrated, or just different enoug...
Smoke-filled hotel and country-club dining rooms with middle-aged men puffing on cigars. That is my main memory of the countless events I covered during my early career as editor of the weekly Jewish newspaper in my Buffalo hometown. The annual dinners were the social and economic highlights of the city’s Jewish Federation and of the Israel Bonds office. Every year I sat in the stuffy rooms, taking notes and photographs, while the well-heeled men who sustained the Jewish community’s philanthropic endeavors puffed away, standing at their tab...
An elderly lion dies at the Bronx Zoo in 1957. Inside its body: a silver SS ring. This is the opening to “The Girl Who Rode the White Lion,” the forthcoming novel by National Jewish Book Award–winning author Yishay Ishi Ron. The story spans Nazi Germany and postwar New York, uncovering long-buried secrets through a striking and highly original narrative. In this new release, Ron delivers a sweeping story of courage, survival, and unlikely sanctuary set against the dark backdrop of Nazi-...
(JNS) — Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s book, When We See You Again, has reached the top spot on The New York Times nonfiction hardcover best sellers list, a week after its national publication. Hamas terrorists executed Goldberg-Polin’s son Hersh Goldberg-Polin in cold blood in an underground tunnel in Gaza, 330 days after he was taken hostage from the Supernova music festival on Oct. 7, 2023. The book is “a searing portrait of a mother’s grief and strength in the wake of unthinkable tragedy,” publisher Random House writes. Goldberg-Polin is an Ameri...
For many, this is an absurd question. Actually, for "experts," it is a question not even worth discussing. Yet, it is a true story that the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation has been trying to advance for nearly a decade. Only now, because of an exhibition that opened at the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia on April 22, is the answer gaining traction. In the past few days, a flood of articles has come out in the media, especially the Jewish...
I was talking to a neighbor in the elevator of our building the other day. In Israel these days, there’s a shorthand in our speech and mannerisms that are just understood and can be discerned quickly in under five floors. Talking about life and our families, and the living between the ceasefires, she said, “It will never really change so appreciate the quiet now.” The message was clear and sound. In 78 years we have always been attacked by one enemy or another. Today many of them have long range rockets, missiles and drones, the detec...
Coconut Green Beans Serves 8. 1/4 cup Panko, fried 1 minute in 1 T. olive oil. Reserve for garnish. 12 oz. green beans, trimmed and cut in 2-3” pieces 1/2 cup diced onion (1/2 small onion) 3 tsp. olive oil, divided 2 cloves garlic, finely diced 1/2 tsp. ground ginger 1/4 tsp. pepper 2 tsp. flaked coconut 1 cup coconut milk and 1/4 cup more if beans are too dry. You can also use soy or almond milk. 1 packet low sodium bullion 1 tsp. fish sauce or 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt Fry onion in 2 T. Olive oil until translucent. Add rest of ingredients, e...
