CELEBRATING PURIM IN STYLE Jacksonville Jewish community dresses up for the occassion with much flair Pages 10 & 11
CAPS AND GOWNS
Numerous graduation ceremonies to be held around town Page 15
GOING TO D.C. FOR AIPAC
Jacksonville sends sizeable delegation to conference in our nation’s capital Page 18 A publication of
May 2016 • Nissan/Iyar 5776
•
www.jewishjacksonville.org
River Garden pays homage to agency’s 70 yrs. and Elinoff’s five as its president
•
JaxJewish
@jaxjewish
JaxJewishTV
•
Volume
28,
Number
11
•
36
pages
Federation’s support of UNF Interfaith Center paves way for special interfaith Passover Seder
BY SKIP WILLBACH
River Garden Hebrew Home Director of Communications and Marketing
River Garden’s 70th Anniversary Day celebration was full of plenty of food, fun and good memories as balloon artists, clowns, and face painters made an appearance at the event, held Sunday, March 13th. Pony rides, along with a bounce house and delicious barbecue were on hand for the kids and kids at heart to enjoy. The day commemorated the Hebrew Home’s 70 years as a strong community agency serving the greater Jacksonville area and beyond. The celebration also included the annual meeting of River Garden Senior Services. Outgoing River Garden president Ron Elinoff receives Dr. Ron Elia plaque from incoming noff has been president of the president Gloria Einstein Senior Services board for the past five years and under Ron’s leadership, the community agency has seen a great deal of change. River Garden successfully completed the largest capital campaign in its history, added 10,000 square feet of state-of-the-art space designated for outpatient programs and refurbished the entire skilled nursing facility. The Hebrew Home also refurbished all of its public spaces and most of its private apartments at The Coves at River Garden, the independent living garden apartment complex on its campus. River Garden is very grateful to Dr. Elinoff for his passion in helping shape the future of the agency, and to the Jacksonville Jewish
Rabbi Matt Cohen of Congregation Ahavath Rabbi Cohen enjoys the Seder with Interfaith More than 30 students from all faiths and Chesed plays some Passover inspired tunes Center members who are in the Passover spirit backgrounds attended the unique Seder
BY MATT FRANZBLAU
Federation Communications Director mattf@jewishjacksonville.org
On a warm week night in late March, more than 30 students from all different faiths and backgrounds came together at the University of North Florida’s student union to take part in a sacred Jewish tradition, the Passover Seder. The idea was born out of a hope by the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville and UNF’s Interfaith Center to spread awareness, understanding and acceptance of Judaism and Jewish students on the UNF campus. “Our mission is to advance pluralism and positive engagement between diverse populations, so we do a lot of programs centered around interfaith dialogue or
service,” said Center coordinator Rachael McNeal. UNF’s Interfaith Center has been around for nearly a decade and serves a wide variety of students of all different religious faiths and backgrounds, totaling a few thousand, only a handful of which are Jewish. One of those students is UNF senior Triana Arguedas, who aside from serving as the Jewish Student Union president, is the Jewish student liaison to UNF’s Interfaith Center. “I am very thankful that we have such a strong support system and the more established Jewish community here is really showing support by lending a hand to this student organization,” Arguedas said. “It also is very humbling to know that I am not alone and that the other Jewish students are
not alone.” This unique partnership was forged over the last year when Federation executive director Alan Margolies reached out to UNF’s Interfaith Center, seeing how it could help support the organization, in order to bring together the participation of more Jewish students to its numerous programs. “Tarah Trueblood, who is the director of the Center, along with Suzie Menaged in development, worked together with the Federation and sort of bridged that relationship,” McNeal explained. “The Jewish Student Union had been around for close to 20-years but recently participation dwindled, so the hope was that under the tutelage of the Interfaith Center, the Jewish Student Union could really thrive,” she
See INTERFAITH SEDER, p. 21
Trio from Jacksonville joins fellow JFNA members in New York to discuss world issues at the U.N. Photos by JFNA’s Jonathan Levine
8505 San Jose Blvd. Jacksonville, FL 32217
Jewish Federation of Jacksonville
POSTMASTER PLEASE DELIVER BY MAY 1ST
Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Jacksonville, FL Permit No. 146
See ANNIVERSARY DAY, p. 7
Jacksonville’s Steve Silverman and fellow members from the Jewish Federation of Jacksonville met with foreign dignitaries
BY MATT FRANZBLAU
Federation Communications Director mattf@jewishjacksonville.org
Federation executive director Alan Margolies, along with former Jewish Federations of North America Board of Trustees treasurer Stephen Silverman and his wife Judy, made a historic trip to Manhattan last month, along with leaders from other federations across the continent to discuss a variety of world issues affecting Israel, the Middle East and diaspora Jewry at United Nations headquarters. Members of this continental group of leaders discussed issues including the status of Israel in the United Nations, implementation of the Iran deal, the plight of displaced Ukrainians, in
Silverman and fellow members from the Jewish Federations of North America attend a formal information session outside the U.N.
addition to the Middle East refugee crisis and European anti-Semitism. Former JFNA treasurer Stephen Silverman, “I think it was a great opportunity to not Federation board member Judy Silverman only meet with representatives from JFNA and executive director Alan Margolies but to meet with delegates from the United Nations, to help build a positive relationficials including, Israel Ambassador Danny ship with the ambassadors so that they at Danon, Canadian Ambassador Michael least would support Israel when it comes up Grant, French Ambassador François Delatfor vote next year of becoming a member tre, and Ukrainian Deputy Chief of Mission of the security council,” Stephen Silverman said of his experience. “When you’re See JFNA UN VISIT, p. 19 meeting one-on-one or in a group it makes a significant difference because they said a lot of things that were surprisingly very open and honest in all of the sessions that we attended.” During their various sessions, the Silvermans, Margolies and their counterparts met with a number of high ranking of-
Scan QR code for paper online at .com