Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Last year about this time, The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando began The Central Florida Jewish Community Study, conducted by the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University with the assistance of UNH Survey Center. The Cohen Center is one of the most reknowned research organizations in the Jewish community. Keith Dvorchik, CEO of the Federation, shared with Heritage that the 104-page study has a lot of information for our community - which has grown to about 51,400...
Rabbi Yanky and Chanshy Majesky, co-directors of Chabad North Orlando and Nate's Shul on Markham Woods Rd., are planning to lead a trip to Israel called the Land and Spirit Israel Experience. No affiliation is needed to join and everyone is invited to participate in an eight day, one-of-a-kind VIP experience as they journey to Israel through Judaism's most holy and historical sites. From March 21 - 28, 2022, participants will be treated to a 5-star experience that will feed their hearts, minds,...
Upcoming events at the continuing Chanukah festival include: Dec. 5, 11:30 a.m. – 2 p.m. Festival of Lights Celebration Join The Roth Family JCC for Festival of Lights. Enjoy latkes, DIY dreidels, and more at this can’t-miss celebration. Here are more ways we’ll be lighting up the night: Overnight Camp Fair, where kids and parents can learn about all of the fun options in store for summer 2022; Compete in the Chanukah Costume Contest for great prizes—the contest will be split into adult, child, and family categories; Check out the kid-fri...
Friday, Nov. 19 was a great day at the Cascade Heights in Longwood. The Jewish Pavilion had the pleasure of facilitating Shabbat services with staff members and volunteers. Residents were engaged in candle lighting, making the blessing over wine and challah. It was wonderful to see so many residents participate. Shown here are Bernice, a resident, with Alex Lehrer. The staff at Cascade Heights facility was welcoming and inviting. - Alexandra Lehrer, Jewish Pavilion administra...
(JTA) — Polish nationalists shouted “death to Jews” as they burned a book representing a historic pact protecting the rights of Poland’s Jews. The book burning Thursday at a rally in Kalisz, a city of about 100,000 inhabitants situated 120 miles southwest of Warsaw, was part of a series of nationalist events on Nov. 11, National Independence Day, which is the anniversary of when Poland regained its sovereignty in 1918. Videos and eyewitness accounts on social media show that Wojciech Olszański, a far-right activist, lit a red-covered book tha...
(JTA) — When Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris, picked a favorite memory from the last year for a reflective Thanksgiving-themed tweet on Thursday, he didn’t turn to the day in January when his wife was sworn in or mention their first diplomatic trip together this week. Instead, he shared pictures from the day his family affixed a mezuzah on the doorframe of the vice president’s mansion. Mezuzahs are tubes containing the text of the Shema prayer that Jews traditionally attach to their doorposts. Emhoff is the first Jew t...
Palestinian human-rights activist Bassem Eid filed a complaint in New York state recently against Ben & Jerry’s over the ice-cream maker’s decision to boycott Israeli territories. Eid filed the complaint last month with New York State’s Division of Human Rights against Conopco Inc., the U.S. division of Ben & Jerry’s parent company Unilever, reported the New York Post. Eid alleged in his complaint that Ben & Jerry’s announcement in July to stop selling its products in the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and parts of Jerusalem is “counterp...
(JTA) — American officials have warned Israeli officials that their country’s repeated attacks on Iran’s nuclear program have been counterproductive, arguing that Iran has continually rebuilt the destroyed facilities to be more effective, according to a report in The New York Times. Israeli officials have ignored the warnings, according to the report. The report comes ahead of a planned meeting in Vienna between Iranian officials and the countries still remaining in the 2015 Iran deal to discuss the country’s nuclear program. Despite Preside...
(JTA) - An 11-year-old girl found a rare silver coin dating from approximately 67-68 CE in dirt from excavations at the City of David park in Jerusalem. Liel Krutokop was visiting the site with her family recently to sift dirt from an archeological dig when she found the coin, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. "We poured the bucket with the dirt on the strainer, and as we filtered the stones that were inside, I saw something round," Krutokop said of the moment when she found the...
(JNS) - Lebanon, the least stable country in Israel's environment at this time, is home to Iran's strongest proxy, Hezbollah, which continues to get stronger despite the many crises plaguing its host country. Lebanon's multi-faceted dysfunction at the political, economic and social levels has seen its citizens plunged into misery with many of them staring into the abyss of a humanitarian crisis (the country has recently declined Israeli offers for humanitarian assistance). At the same time,...
The Mega Challah Bake has re-introduced the joy of challah-making to women throughout the Orlando area, following a year and a half Covid break. On Thursday, Nov. 11, Orlando's Chabad Centers brought the Mega Challah Bake back to Central Florida. One-hundred and fifty Jewish women of all affiliations joined together to prepare and bake challah as a collective, representing participation from all eight of Central Florida's Chabad Centers (South Orlando Chabad held their event on the same night...
Sally Rooney’s boycott of Israel publishers gets backing of 70 writers By Asaf Shalev (JTA) — Seventy notable writers and publishers including Rachel Kushner, Francisco Goldman and Eileen Myles have signed a letter supporting Irish novelist Sally Rooney in her refusal to have her third novel translated into Hebrew by an Israeli publisher. The letter calls Rooney’s boycott of Israeli publishers “an exemplary response to the mounting injustices inflicted on Palestinians.” Rooney published her newest novel, “Beautiful World, Where Are You,” in Se...
(JTA) — In what some are heralding as a watershed moment in the Orthodox world, reports of sexual abuse by a prolific author of children’s books have now led multiple booksellers to stop making his work available. Meanwhile, advocates and at least one leading rabbi are urging Orthodox parents to remove books by Chaim Walder from their homes. Many are doing so. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an investigation last week alleging that Walder, a therapist as well as a writer, psychologically groomed multiple minors before proceeding to abu...
(JTA) - The only Jewish kicker in the NFL for years now, Greg Joseph is used to how mentally taxing the position can be. On Sunday, he found himself in another one of its do-or-die situations. With two seconds left to go in a tied game against the division-leading Green Bay Packers on Sunday, Joseph kicked his Minnesota Vikings to victory with a 29-yard field goal, keeping the team's playoff hopes alive. He was carried off the field by his teammates. Joseph, who attended Jewish schools in...
A Town Square is defined as an open public space found in the heart of a traditional town, used for community gatherings. In its new direction, the Rosen JCC is adopting a form of the town square concept. In many of the recent articles about upcoming events, The Rosen JCC has referred to itself as "Your Town Square." Is this a new marketing tool? Not really, but it is a different way of envisioning the traditional Jewish Community Center. The Southwest Orlando JCC originated back in 1994 as a sa...
The next event for the Jewish Chamber of Commerce is a breakfast at Toojays on Thursday, Dec. 16, at 8 a.m. Participants will order off the menu. An RSVP is not necessary. The Jewish Chamber of Commerce is open to everyone in the community. It offers a great place to network for business and make new friends. Networking is what the Jewish Chamber of Commerce is all about. On Nov. 16, a large crowd convened at Firebird for drink and hors d'oeurves. The Jewish Chamber of Commerce of Greater...
Join the COS Men's Club online Bridge group, which meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. All are welcome - no age limit, no experience needed and no other forms of discrimination, only a desire to have a fun time learning and playing Bridge. All that is required is Internet access and a laptop/computer to access the game, which is played while on a Zoom call, so participants can kibbitz (explain, question or teach) while playing. The Zoom can be on a cell phone or just leave the zoom app open in...
On Sunday, Nov. 28, Celebration Jewish Congregation will welcome the beginning of Chanukah with the lighting of the community menorah located in Market Street Park near the fountain. For those new to Celebration, it’s at the intersection of Celebration Avenue and Market Street, directly across from Celebration’s original Town Hall and the Post Office. The service will start promptly at 5:15 p.m. Traditional Chanukah prayers will be chanted and lots of great Chanukah songs will be sung to remind us of the miracle of the Chanukah season. All tho...
Two seemingly parallel and completely unrelated things happened this week with an astonishing response. Running a nonprofit, the end of the year is an opportunity to tie up loose ends and be sure that in the last weeks of the year, the level of financial support is at least maintained. While planning some traditional year-end appeals on behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation, I realized that Israel was in a bit of a crisis, with my organization and many others facing a financial deficit. In...
(JNS) — The United States voted last week to abstain on a resolution concerning the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the U.N.’s agency that handles Palestinian refugees — part of several resolutions put forth in the U.N. General Assembly concerning the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that largely targeted Israel for its treatment of Palestinians. The text, called “Assistance to Palestinian Refugees,” demands “compensation” for descendants of Palestinian refugees who lost property when they fled their homes, as wel...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden held an outdoor ceremony at the White House on Monday to sign the hard-won Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, otherwise known as the infrastructure bill, joined by legislators and politicians from all over the United States who helped craft and promote the legislation. Nathan Diament, executive director of Orthodox Union Advocacy Center, was there celebrating the inclusion of another part of the bill — a $50-million pilot program for nonprofit organizations to apply for a grant to reduce energy con...
(JTA) — Danny Fenster, a Jewish American journalist who has been imprisoned in Myanmar since May and was sentenced to 11 years in prison Friday, has been released just days later, according to reports. Former New Mexico governor and former diplomat Bill Richardson, who was in the country on a humanitarian visit, told reporters Monday that Fenster would travel back to the United States “through Qatar, over the next day and a half,” CNN reported. Fenster’s brother Bryan celebrated the news in a tweet Monday morning. “We are overjoyed that Danny h...
(JTA) — Kanye West’s trips to Israel clearly left a mark on the rap superstar. In a wide ranging podcast interview released Friday, West — who recently changed his legal name to Ye — said he thinks Christians should form kibbutz communities, modeled off the Jewish versions, to help foster a sense of togetherness. “We need Christian kibbutz[im], we can have communities,” West said on the “Drink Champs” hip-hop podcast. He had to clarify the term to co-hosts N.O.R.E., a rapper, and DJ EFN, a record executive. “Jewish people have this type of circ...
(JTA) — A rally is set to take place at George Washington University Monday after a fraternity on campus said a small replica Torah used in its initiation process was damaged during a vandalism spree. The president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity on George Washington’s campus, said the vandalism took place early Sunday morning, according to a report in the university’s student newspaper. He said hot sauce was poured throughout the house and many objects were thrown around, the newspaper reported. The damage that most caught the public eye w...
(JTA) - An impression of Adolf Hitler at Cambridge University has touched off a fight over the limits of free speech and has drawn Monty Python comedian John Cleese into the fray. The impersonation was delivered at a debate last week on whether there's such a thing as "good taste." Andrew Graham-Dixon, an art historian, impersonated Hitler as an example of bad taste, in order to argue that good and bad taste do exist. At the time, Keir Bradwell, the president of the Cambridge Union, a debating...
