Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Have you ever wondered how Jewish texts from hundreds of years ago can inform some of the big ethical questions of the 21st century? In January, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando will offer Jewish Medical Ethics, one of the Florence Melton School of Adult Jewish Learning’s most popular courses. This 10-week Zoom course — which begins Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021 — will focus on such topics as cloning, prenatal interventions and termination of pregnancy, assisted suicide, and access to health care. While this course may be of special inter...
For many of the clients who come to Jewish Family Services, the holidays can often be a stressful and dark time. This year is especially difficult as so many in our Central Florida community have lost their jobs, are struggling to pay bills, or have even lost a loved one to the coronavirus. But amidst the darkness, here at JFS Orlando we've seen a bright light appear this holiday season. Some members in our community have decided, instead of spending money on gifts for their family and friends,...
(MEMRI via JNS) - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that by exiting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action in 2018, the United States gave up its rights but not its obligations. In an interview with Iranian journalist Mehdi Nasiri that was uploaded to the Arman Media YouTube channel on Dec. 9, Zarif said, "America is still obligated to lift its sanctions, and to refrain from creating obstacles because it has remained a member of the United Nations since leaving the...
NEW YORK CITY — As the number of Israeli families suffering from financial hardship and related challenges increases dramatically amid the coronavirus pandemic, UJA-Federation of New York announced nearly $3.5 million in new emergency Covid-19 relief grants in Israel. UJA will award grants to several organizations that support the most at-risk Israelis, including children, the newly poor, and struggling small businesses. In addition, the grants will help strengthen Israel’s ability to respond to Covid-related challenges with enhanced lea...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — With Israel poised to begin rolling out COVID-19 vaccinations, a new poll indicates that a little more than a third of Israelis say they won’t take the shots. According to an Israel Hayom poll, 37 percent of respondents said they will not take the vaccine, while 19 percent would neither confirm nor deny they planned to get vaccinated. Forty-four percent of respondents said they planned to get the vaccine. The older the respondent, the more likely they were to say they planned to be inoculated. Among respondents 65 and...
(JTA) — Thirty years after Roald Dahl’s death and months before the expected release of a new movie about his life, the family of the children’s author has apologized for his anti-Semitic comments. Dahl was openly anti-Semitic during his life, telling the New Statesman in 1983 about the Jews, “Even a stinker like Hitler didn’t just pick on them for no reason.” Those comments and others have colored Dahl’s legacy, even as children continue to enjoy the stories he wrote during his 50-year publishing career, including “Charlie and the Chocolate F...
Ten years ago, two Palestinian Arabs lay in prey on a pristine hiking trail on the slopes of the Judean mountains outside Jerusalem. Unlike terrorists who blow up buses, cafes, or attack civilians on the street, these men waited for their victims to come to them, knowing that on the beautiful sunny Shabbat day, people would flock to this well-known area. Two women, good friends, happened upon the terrorists in hiding, and became their victims. They were bound and gagged. The terrorists plotted...
(JTA) — Over 50,000 Israelis have visited the United Arab Emirates since the recent normalization pact between Israel and the UAE, according to a report this week in The Washington Post. That number is the result of only two weeks of open commercial flights between the countries, which agreed to open the diplomatic and tourism floodgates in a historic agreement signed in August. Tens of thousands more were expected to visit during the Hanukkah holiday, according to the Post. The report also said that the Jewish community center in Dubai, the UA...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a candle-holder from the Hasmonean period in the City of David in Jerusalem. The 2,000-year-old lantern, which has been preserved in its entirety, was discovered during excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, led by the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Ir David Foundation. Archaeologists were excavating the road that was used for pilgrimages in the days of the Second Temple about 2,000 years ago. The road is nearly 600 meters...
With restrictions for in-person visitations beginning to relax, the staff and volunteers at the Jewish Pavilion have been busy making arrangements to bring holiday cheer to the hundreds of seniors living in facilities around the greater Orlando area. Sharon Littman, a Jewish Pavilion volunteer, with the assistance of her daughter, Alyssa; sons, Jacob and Zachary; and husband, Adam, prepared over 300 Chanukah bags of goodies that were delivered to the residents during the week of Chanukah. While...
AMSTERDAM (JTA) - After Gal Graber and Tal Goldman had a disappointing experience with a store-bought jachnun, the two Israelis living in Amsterdam set out to make the slow-cooked Yemenite bread on their own. "As with many Israelis, jachnun is connected in our minds with Saturday mornings, with quality time," Graber told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "But the frozen ones for sale here are not great. So we decided to make our own." It turned out to be a prescient undertaking. Earlier this year,...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - The Dec. 10 announcement of the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel marked the fourth time in the past four months that a Muslim-majority nation officially "friended" Israel. But this was different from September's historic Abraham Accords, linking Israel with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and October's normalization agreement with Sudan. "Morocco and Israel have been on the same side geopolitically for decades,"...
(JNS) — Anti-Semitism watchdog groups called out “disingenuous efforts” to address hatred against Jews displayed this week by anti-Israel panelists on a webinar. A virtual event on Tuesday night, titled “Dismantling Anti-Semitism: Winning Justice” and hosted by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, featured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) of Michigan, Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill; journalist Peter Beinart; and writer, historian and activist Dr. Barbara Ransby. Nearly 1,000 viewers tuned in to watch the panelists discuss t...
Speaking at an event countering the “Dismantling Anti-Semitism: Winning Justice,” human rights icon Natan Sharansky said that too many so-called progressive voices regard Jews as ‘oppressors’ and are not protecting individual freedoms and human rights. Sharansky was joined by U.S. Assistant Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ellie Cohanim, and a range of high-level speakers and activists, amplifying the voices of actual Jewish leaders to provide an accurate account of anti-Semitism. The online event was organized by the Combat An...
(JNS) — Media representatives from 30 countries joined online last week to discuss the right of Jews throughout the world to intervene in what’s going on in Israel, as well as Israel’s new diplomatic ties and the influence of social networks on the hatred of Jews amid the coronavirus. The Government Press Office, in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, hosted the fourth International Jewish Media Summit on Dec. 7, held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevitch of the Blue and Whi...
Assault reported at Chabad of the Bluegrass menorah-lighting in Lexington, Kentucky By Philissa Cramer (JTA) — A Chabad center in Lexington, Kentucky, will see increased police presence for the rest of Chanukah after an assault during one of the community’s public menorah lightings. A driver directed anti-Semitic language at people lighting the menorah outside Chabad of the Bluegrass, police told the local TV station. When someone from the community tried to urge the driver away, the driver accelerated, dragging the community member and run...
(JNS) — In a ground-breaking move and in response to the lack of change in the Palestinian Authority school curriculum and the continued insertion of anti-Semitism, hate and incitement to violence and martyrdom in its textbooks, the Norwegian parliament endorsed a cut last week in aid to the P.A. In 2018, the United Kingdom commissioned a report on Palestinian textbooks from the Germany-based Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, which then published a report that was found to be riddled with mistakes. The European Union t...
(JNS) - Lisa McClain will join the record-number of Republican women elected this year to the U.S. House of Representatives following her landslide victory over Democrat Kimberly Bizon, 66.3 percent to 33.7 percent, respectively, in Michigan's 10th Congressional District to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Paul Mitchell. "I think America spoke," said McClain in an interview with JNS on Nov. 24, adding that the Republican women elected have "traditional American values." Before being elected to...
Former Orlando Jewish community resident and daughter of Arnold Stein, Lori Erlich, has sent Heritage an update about the progress of Kehilat Yonatan, the Reform/Progressive synagogue and cultural/education center in Hod Hasharon, Israel. Kehilat Yonatan was founded in 2001 and is named in the memory of Rabbi Michael Boyden's son, Israel Defense Forces paratrooper Yonatan Boyden, who was killed in action in Lebanon in 1993. In 2014, Erlich and her husband, Moshe, visited the Heritage office to...
After a comprehensive search, the Congregation Ohev Shalom Board selected Rachel Rosenberg O'Brien to be executive director of the synagogue. She will assume her duties on Jan. 4, 2021. Steve Brownstein has been the acting executive director since 2013. O'Brien, who has 20 years experience in management, comes to COS from Austin, Texas, where she is involved with Hadassah and her synagogue. "We were immediately impressed by her ability to run a business with multiple stakeholders, identify and...
(JTA) - As Israel received its first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Twitter that he aimed to be the first person in the country to receive the inoculation. "We brought the vaccines to Israel! I intend to be the first in Israel to get vaccinated, to set an example for all Israeli citizens," Netanyahu tweeted. Recent surveys of Israelis found that a majority are fearful of the vaccines and would not want to be included in the first set of...
(ISRAEL21c via JNS) - In preparation for the flu season and the arrival of COVID-19 vaccines needing special refrigeration, three mobile vaccination caravans were commissioned by Magen David Adom, Israel's national organization responsible for emergency pre-hospital medical care and blood services. Stationed at the National Operations Center in Kiryat Ono, near Tel Aviv, the six-meter (19.6-foot) caravans can offer flu vaccinations and coronavirus testing around the country until the COVID-19...
As part of their monthly guest speakers via zoom "Physically Apart - Emotionally Together," Chabads of North and Greater Orlando invite you to hear the fascinating story of Genie Milgrom on Wednesday, Dec. 23, at 7:30 p.m. Genie will share her journey back in time as she crossed the globe in search of her Crypto-Jewish ancestors. Genie Milgrom was born in Havana, Cuba, into a Roman Catholic Family of Spanish Ancestry. According to Jewish law, one's Jewishness is determined by their maternal...
Congregation Sinai helps our community celebrate all Jewish holidays with special events and virtual services. Congregation Sinai has been serving the Jewish Community of Central Florida for the past 17 years. Many services and annual holiday events are open and free to the entire community. For more information about their holiday services, new membership, educational programs, Friday night Shabbat services are held every Friday night starting at 7:30 p.m. Healing Services are held on the...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Knesset still has not dispersed, and a date for the next election has not been set. But the turmoil in the anti-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu camp continued unabated and even intensified over the weekend. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz is fighting Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid; Moshe Ya’alon is squabbling with both of them; and the names Gadi Eizenkot and Ron Huldai are being bandied about in an ultimate effort to replace Netanyahu as premier. The former political allies, Gantz and Lapid, visited the tel...
