Omri Casspi had his appendix removed over the weekend. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ forward was in Orlando preparing for a game against the Magic when he was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. His appendix was removed in surgery by Dr. Michael Cheatham at the Orlando Regional Medical Center in Florida, where he remained overnight. Casspi has been having a weak season so far, with a lot of time on the bench, averaging 4 points and 2.2 rebounds per game. The Cavs went on to beat …More

Holocaust survivors for a third straight year protested outside a golf tournament in Florida sponsored by Allianz because of what they deem the insurance firm's restitution failures. The survivors gathered outside the Allianz Golf Championship in Boca Raton over the weekend demanding that Allianz pay some $2 billion that the survivors say is owed to Nazi victims in unpaid claims, the Sun Sentinel reported. "Not only haven't I seen any money, this is already 70 years," said David Schaecter, 83, a Holocaust …More

Florida prisoners will once again be offered a kosher food program, putting to rest five years of debate on the matter. The Florida Department of Corrections agreed to the move after a lawsuit with the Justice Department and advocacy efforts from local groups as well as the state’s governor, Rick Scott. “The Jewish community would like to thank Governor Rick Scott profusely for arranging that kosher food will be available to Jewish inmates in Florida," said Rabbi Menachem Katz, with the …More

The deaths of a Toronto Jewish couple found in their winter home in south Florida are being investigated as a double homicide. David Pichosky, 71, and Rochelle Wise, 66, who spent the winters in their Hallandale Beach townhouse, were found dead on the night of Jan. 10. Their deaths are not believed to be a murder-suicide. "We have few details on how they were killed, but this is definitely a double homicide," Capt. Sonia Quinones, a spokeswoman for the Hallandale Beach Police, told the Miami Herald. The two …More

Jewish life is blooming in Cologne. [Tablet] A German rapper wipes Israel off the map via Twitter. [WJC] Jewish inmates in Florida are set to receive kosher food. [Chabad] The youngest Jew saved by Oskar Schindler has passed away. [JC] Israel grants accreditation to its first liberal arts college. [Jewish Press] Arab growth is slowing, but it's still faster that the Jewish rate. [Arutz Sheva] Don't forget to pick up your Jason Schwartzman throw pillow before they are all sold out. [Jewcy] Colin Powell …More

The traditional Hanukkah party has come a long way from a few plastic dreidels and a latke or two. In fact all across the country young Jews gather to celebrate the holiday season in style at lavish events and fundraisers put together by almost every Jewish organization under the sun. Last night on the pool deck of the Eden Roc in Miami Beach Florida, about 800 Jewish professionals came out to help light over 100 menorahs and kick off South Florida’s biggest Jewish event of the year. Organized by the young …More

A Holocaust survivor from Florida fulfilled a lifelong dream of moving to Israel. Oscar Phillips, 87, made aliyah from Deerfield Beach, Fla., on Nov. 12. He arrived in Israel with the assistance of Nefesh B'Nefesh in cooperation with the Jewish Agency and Israel's Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. Phillips, who was 14 when the Germans invaded Poland, was sent to Auschwitz in 1944 and later marched to Flossenburg, where he was liberated by the Allied forces. In 1949 he immigrated to the United States, where he …More

The Nakba, then and now. [New York Times] Should elderly Jews still be moving to South Florida? [Forward] A Jewish man recalls how Roman nuns hid him during the Holocaust. [Catholic Culture] Jewish officials are calling for the firing of police involved in a Crown Heights beating. [New York Daily News] French Jews denounce anti-Semitic tweets on Twitter. [Bangkok Post] The Great Synagogue of Aleppo is in a state of limbo. [Times of Israel] The second presidential debate tonight is expected to include …More

Erica Morris is a Jspace staff writer who has written for Jewish publications in New York, South Florida and London. She can be reached at erica@jspacecorp.com. An AJC poll on the Jewish vote in Florida garnered applause last week—from both the Romney and Obama camps. In a perfect show of spin doctoring, the Republican and Democratic campaigns found similar pleasure in a report showing President Barack Obama with 69 percent of the Jewish vote in Florida, while GOP challenger Mitt Romney lags with 25 …More

A popular Argentine television show featured a Rosh Hashanah episode this week. [Times of Israel] Reports surface the Ehud Barack secretly met with Rahm Emanuel this week, to discuss US-Israel tensions. [Algemeiner] The Prime Minister's Office blasts a Palestinian Authority decision to request statehood from the UN. [Jerusalem Post] A Frenchman has been charged with making threats over an anti-Mulsim cartoon that included a drawing of an Orthodox Jew. [Forward] Israeli embassy staff criticized Berlin's …More

While other students were singing fights songs and attending frat parties, Brooke Weinbaum was using her college years to strengthen the Jewish community. A recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University, Weinbaum was awarded a grant by the Israel on Campus Coalition. That funding allowed her to fulfill a personal dream: creating a space to publicize local Israeli events. Yalla Israel Magazine launched in February of this year, making that dream a reality. “I wanted to have a guide to Israeli events in …More

A kosher restaurant in Hollywood, FL, was torched by two masked arsonists. The fire last Friday at the Achla Pita Grill took place at Emerald Center, the same strip mall where a Judaica store burned down last December. The arsonists are seen on surveillance footage entering the restaurant's kitchen and splashing flammable liquid all over the kitchen before setting it alight, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The men first had tried to break in to the Achla Bon Ami sushi restaurant located next door to the pita grill. …More