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VOICE Q: What Are Your Thoughts on the Current State of Anti-Semitism?
Celebrating Jewish Life in Sarasota and Manatee Counties, Israel and the World FEDERATION NEWS
Serving our community since 1971!
Published by The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee www.jfedsrq.org
May 2015 - Iyar/Sivan 5775 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: 7 13 21 26 27 28 31
Volume 45, Number 5
Milman-Kover 2015 Jewish Film Festival attracts record attendance
Community Focus Jewish Happenings Theo Bikel, Dani Menkin, and Russ & Daughters’ brunch thrill audiences at special events Jewish Interest Israel & the Jewish World By Roz Goldberg, Chair, Jewish Film Festival nthusiastic crowds filled the ballroom of the ish shtetl hero, more than 2,000 times on Broadway Commentary Hyatt Regency Sarasota, the Bea Friedman and elsewhere in Fiddler on the Roof” After the film, Theater on The Jewish Federation of Sarahe answered questions with a quick wit, and wowed Focus on Youth sota-Manatee Campus, Lakewood Ranch Cinemas, the more than 600 people present with renditions of The Devyn, Temple Sinai and Temple Beth Israel to Yiddish and Russian folk songs. The audience was Life Cycle
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3 Women’s Passover Celebration: A Taste of Baghdad and India
11 Eight Over 80 celebration
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“The Seventh Day: Revisiting Shabbat” exhibition
view the eight outstanding films that were premiered at these venues during the 2015 Milman-Kover Jewish Film Festival, which ran March 8 through March 16. The festival presented two documentaries, Theo Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem and The Sturgeon Queens, and six feature films, God’s Slave, Hunting Elephants, Kidon, Under the Same Sun, Operation Sunflower and Is That You? More than 6,000 individual tickets were sold, and all but one or two screenings were completely sold out. Opening night at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota featured legendary actor and singer Theo Bikel, who introduced the touching documentary, In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem, which traces the lives of two Jewish giants – Theo, himself, and the illustrious Yiddish writer, Sholom Aleichem – and how these two lives have been intertwined through music and literature. Theo noted that he has played Tevye the milkman, Aleichem’s quintessential Jew-
enraptured by both the film and its 90-year-old star, Theo Bikel. On March 15, the community was treated to a double-header: a film and brunch at noon and a premiere and dessert reception in the evening. At noon, The Devyn was filled to bursting with 500 audience members who came to see the documentary, The Sturgeon Queens, about the Russ family and its famous appetizing store on New York City’s Lower East Side, Russ & Daughters. After the delightful film, almost 400 sat down to a luscious brunch of nova, sable, whitefish salad and herring – plus rugelach and babka – direct from New York via Federal Express. “Awesome” and “incredible” were the words frequently expressed by lucky diners. That evening, on the Federation Campus, we were treated to the Florida premiere of Dani Menkin’s new feature film, Is That You?, a touching film
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Federation awards more than $56,000 the Family Jeweler 14276 for camp scholarships
Name: ________________________________________________ Invoice Ref #: ________________
By Andrea Eiffert
S proof
tudies conclude that adults are more likely to engage in Jewish life if they attended Jewish summer camp as children. Having Jewish friends, observing Shabbat, and feeling connected to Israel are just a few of the impactful outcomes resulting from these summer camp experiences. The good feelings This Proof must be signedthat and come returnedfrom beforebonding with peers, cultural Spring we can proceed enrichment, andThis learned with your order. is yourself-reliance further nurture Proof prior to this printing. Please examine all spell- camp and love of Judaism. association between Youth Group ing and informationThe carefully. RFJD will not be Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee, activities held responsible for any unnoticed errors. Any our Camp Grant Committee co-chaired by Amy errors found after printing will be customer’s sole at Temple Wenke and Shelley Simson, and our many generresponsibility. Beth Sholom ous donors believe opportunities for experiencing Approval Jewish camping should be possible for all children. ApprovedThis year is no exception. Federation is responsible
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Approved with Corrections New Proof Required A publication of The Jewish Federation of Sarasota-Manatee
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Klingenstein Jewish Center, 580 McIntosh Rd., Sarasota, FL 34232 U.S. POSTAGE Annual voluntary subscription: $25 Authorized Signature PAID
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MANASOTA FL PERMIT 167
for helping 77 campers from Sarasota and Manatee counties attend Jewish overnight camps this summer with grants totaling over $56,000. Twenty-nine of the grants went to first-time campers, many of whom would not be able to attend without our support. Please consider adding a little extra to your annual campaign donation this year! Our community’s children directly benefit from your generosity. One camp grant recipient, coping with the death of his father after a prolonged illness, was given the opportunity to select an engraved wood round from his social worker. His selection was the piece engraved “grow within.” His mother remarked that this camp experience offered the ultimate possibility for her son to “grow within.”
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