SHABBAT IN THE SWAMP Jewish UNF students join others from all over the Sunshine state for spiritual weekend at UF Page 6 in Gainesville
ISRAELI ARTIST IN JAX PURIM PARTIES A PLENTY
Hanoch Piven comes to the JCA and helps kids and adults create Page 8
Covering the costumes, candy and celebrations throughout the community Pgs 11-12
A publication
April 2017
• Nissan/Iyar 5777 •
www.jewishjacksonville.org
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JaxJewish
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JaxJewishTV • Volume 29, Number 10 • 44 pages
An open letter to JFCS officially launches its year-long celebration of the community 100 years of hope about the future of the JCF By Jewish Family & Community Services
Sue Nussbaum
Sandy Zimmerman
BY SUE NUSSBAUM
Foundation Board President
& BY SANDY ZIMMERMAN Federation Board President
About 500 people gathered Apr. 1 to celebrate the century of hope that Jewish Family & Community Services has provided to hundreds of thousands of local individuals and families in need. The celebration at Everbank Field’s US Assure Club West also highlighted exciting things to come. “We offer such a wide variety of meaningful services to the community,” said Colleen Rodriguez, executive director of JFCS. “Yet everything we do is designed to provide hope to those struggling and to empower people to help themselves.” Rodriguez reflected on several ways
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JFCS has helped the community during the last 100 years. The hope and empowerment she spoke about was most evident when two former clients who are sisters, Faatimah and Danielle, took the stage. JFCS staff members managed their children’s foster care cases and worked diligently with the women who were willing to do whatever it took for reunification. After the sisters completed rehabilitation programs, the JFCS team
JFCS continued breaking new ground by expanding its services in the 1960s
helped them develop coping skills through the agency’s mental health counseling program and provided emergency financial assistance so they could firmly establish their households. Faatimah was recently successfully reunited with her daughter, and Danielle is also on course to be reunited with her son soon.
See JFCS 100 YEARS, p. 4
JCA to host the Jacksonville Jewish community’s official Yom Ha’Atzmaut celebration, April 30th
We are writing to the members of the community in our positions as presidents of the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville and the Jewish Community Foundation of Northeast Florida. Over the past few By Jewish Community Alliance months, a transition committee with representation from both of our boards have been exploring the most optimal path for the This year, for the first time in many future of the Foundation, as well as planned years, the Jacksonville community will giving in Jacksonville. come together to celebrate Israel’s IndepenThe Foundation board has decided to dence Day (referred to in Hebrew as Yom recommend to our Jewish Federation that Ha’Atzmaut). This community-wide celthe responsibility for the endowment and ebration, marking Israel’s 69th birthday will planned giving work for the Jewish combe taking place at the Jewish Community munity fall under Federation, and that the Alliance, Sunday, April 30, from 12–3 p.m. The event will focus on experiencing differFederation board has agreed to explore the ent aspects of Israeli culture while enjoying best practices to make this happen. different activities for all ages. See JCF FUTURE, p. 29 “Yom Ha’Atzmaut is a celebration of Israel and the reality in which we have a home for Jews after years of exile and wander, that’s why I am excited to see this important and festive day come to life in our community,” said Israeli Shlicha Dana Marmari. “It is amazing to see how many agencies in our community see the importance of celebrating this day and are willing to work hard to create this event.” The event is a joint effort of many community agencies, including Congregation
Jewish Federation of Jacksonville
JFCS began serving the community in 1917, its first location the Della Levy Bldg.
Ahavath Chesed (The Temple), Etz Chaim Synagogue, the Jacksonville Jewish Center, Jewish Community Alliance, Jewish Family & Community Services, the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville, River Garden Senior Services and other representatives from the Jewish community. “Celebrating Yom Ha’Atzmaut as a Jacksonville community is emblematic of the diversity that makes Israel (and our Jewish community) so special,” said committee member, Hazzan Jesse Holzer of the Jacksonville Jewish Center. “The celebration is going to be multi-sensory as you’ll have the
opportunity to sing, dance, read, write, and taste your way through Israeli culture.” Aside from working together and reaching out to many groups in the Jewish community, the agencies are focused on creating a joyous event for all age groups as throughout the event, participants will be able to enjoy fun activities that will include sports, music, dancing, arts and crafts, food and more. “We are so excited that our community will come together to celebrate Israel’s 69th birthday,” said Federation executive director Alan Margolies. “In addition to learning about many facets of life today in Israel and having a great time, we will have the opportunity to show how much we care about Israel, just by being present.” Those interested in volunteering before and during the event can contact community Shlicha, Dana Marmari via email at yomatzmaut@jewishjacksonville.org, as all helping hands are welcome. Join the Jacksonville Jewish community as we celebrate this unique and festive day in a new and improved way.
Jacksonville Jewish Center to host communitywide Yom Hashoah commemoration, Apr. 23rd at 4 p.m., at the Jacksonville Jewish Center (3662 Crown Point Rd.). This year’s Yom Hashoah program will also feature a dramatic reading of excerpts from Elie Wiesel’s ‘Night’, adapted for the stage by playwright Priscilla Kane Hellweg. This year’s service is dedicated to Elie Wiesel, of blessed memory, whose recent passing deprived the world of one of its most eloquent and powerful witnesses to the Holocaust, as well as a voice of conscience to millions around the globe.
BY RABBI JONATHAN LUBLINER Jacksonville Jewish Center
Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, was established in 1953, when the Knesset, Israel’s Parliament, established a law calling for an annual commemoration of the tragedy which befell the European Jewry during the Nazi era. The Knesset chose the 27th of Nissan on the Jewish calendar as the date for Yom Hashoah because of its proximity to the date of the Warsaw Ghetto’s uprising against its oppressors. When the 27th of Nissan is adjacent to the Jewish Sabbath, its observance is shifted by a day. This community-wide observance rotates annually from one local synagogue to
another. The Jacksonville Jewish Center will host this year’s Yom Hashoah commemoration. In addition to clergy and lay participation from area synagogues, survivors and their family members will be invited to kindle memorial candles during the service. The event will take place Sunday, Apr. 23,
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