By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

When we set my dad’s memorial for Dec. 1, we dreaded the grey Alabama winter. Instead, we enjoyed an Indian summer that lasted during our stay. As my mom, my brother and I said our final farewell to Dad, a bright yellow butterfly descended upon the flowers next to the gravesite, a spring miracle that does not occur in winter. Since that moment, butterflies have caught my attention in so many ways.

Eben Alexander’s recent best-seller “Proof of Heaven: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Afterlife” features a butterfly on the book cover. This work of non-fiction places an importance upon butterflies in the afterlife.

Flight of the Butterflies is a documentary currently playing at the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Discovery IMAX Theater in 3-D. Under one hour long, this film presents two stories, one about biology, another about biography.

The biographical portion introduces Fred Urquhart, a scientist who devoted 40 years to the study of the Monarch Butterfly. With his future wife Norah as his assistant, Urquhart tracked the trails of butterflies. The two founded Monarch Watch, which recruited hundreds of “citizen scientists,” who tagged thousands of butterflies and reported their findings to Fred and Norah.

The biological section traces the lifespan and multigenerational migration of the Monarch Butterfly. While it takes three generations to migrate to Canada, it is the Super Generation of Monarch that flies from Canada to the mountains of the Mexican state of Michoacán.

While these creatures weigh less than a penny, on the 5-storey IMAX screen, one is treated to a well-produced Mothra movie from Godzilla productions. Scientific facts are of utmost importance, but Flight of the Butterflies is also an entertaining film and a beautiful piece of visual poetry that would inspire artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

In Tradewinds Park, 3600 W. Sample Rd., Coconut Creek, one can visit Butterfly World, a unique Botanical Garden that is now 25 years old. It would make for a wonderful Sunday afternoon visit, but it is closed this Easter Sunday. But Flight of the Butterflies will provide a great family experience as a substitute. Happy Easter!

On Easter, we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection, but what does this amazing life-yielding miracle have to do with a bunny and painted eggs?

The short answer is, “Maybe not so much!”

Every year, Christians revisit Jesus and his disciples entering Jerusalem to celebrate Passover, the Jewish holy season that commemorates the Hebrews’ release from slavery. And, every year, we study our Lord’s arrest, crucifixion, death and resurrection.

It’s no surprise people of Jewish origin were among the first to celebrate the resurrection, likely as a new facet of the Passover festival. In fact, the Easter celebration, Pascha, in Aramaic and Greek, is derived from the Hebrew Passover. An early sacred ritual of Easter was the lighting of the Pashcal candle. You can see where this candle derives its name. The Pashcal candle symbolizes light out of darkness similar to the Christ candle of Christmas.

Originally, Easter was celebrated two days after Passover but this meant Easter could fall on any day of the week. In 325 A.D., Roman Emperor Constantine and the Council of Nicea ruled Easter would always fall on Sunday, this being the day of the week Christ rose from the dead.

It was also the Council of Nicea that decided Easter would be celebrated the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox. Easter would then always fall on a Sunday between March 22 and April 25. As Christianity spread through Europe, pagan European customs began to emerge and spread. In fact, some argue that Easter may have received its modern -day name from Eostre, the goddess of spring and fertility, which brings us to the Easter bunny and Easter egg.

Easter bunnies and Easter eggs were a perfect match, although one probably not made in heaven. The fertile bunny, at least in connection with Easter, didn’t show up until about the 16th century, but had long been a symbol of new life. Eggs, on the other hand, have been a symbol of life and birth for thousands of years.

The advent of Easter bunnies and Easter eggs led to children being told, if they were well-behaved, the Easter bunny would visit and leave Easter eggs as presents. It seems we are always looking for incentives to make children behave; thus, chocolate eggs and other gifts enter the Easter equation too!

President Rutherford B. Hayes, who served in the White House from 1877 to 1881, once said, “To avoid even the appearance of evil, I think sometimes I have unnecessarily deprived myself and others of innocent enjoyment.”

President Hayes deprived no one of innocent enjoyment when he approved egg rolling and egg hunting for the first time on the White House lawn, a tradition that remains today, at least unless it is cancelled due to sequestration …

I encourage you not to deprive yourself this Sunday. Celebrate the miracle of the resurrection.

If you choose to do so at Steeple on the Beach, please know we will have an Easter bunny and an Easter egg hunt for the children at 9:45 a.m. between Easter Sunday worship services! Why? Because children and church are the perfect match made in heaven!

Join us Holy Saturday at 6 p.m.in historic Briggs Hall to watch Mel Gibson’s movie “Passion of the Christ.” There is no charge for admission and refreshments will be provided.

Join us for a spectacular Easter Sunday Celebration at 8:30 a.m. or 11 a.m. in our beautiful sanctuary. The message this weekend is “Conquering the Inevitable” based on the 15th chapter of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians.

Reverend Andrews is Minister at Community Presbyterian Church of Deerfield Beach (Steeple on the Beach) located five blocks south of Hillsboro on AIA. www.communitych.org or find us on Facebook.

By Gary Curreri

Deerfield Beach’s Jordon Murphy has enjoyed success in and out of the boxing ring. The 13-year-old Murphy recently took second place in the National Silver Gloves Championships in Independence, Missouri and was also presented a proclamation at the March 5 City Commission meeting.

“It is very humbling,” said Murphy, who has been boxing for the Deerfield Beach BSO-PAL for the past five years. The two-time national boxing champion has logged more than 500 community service volunteer hours. “I go around picking up trash and help with art festival and do other things around the community.”

It is a tall order for Murphy, who dropped a narrow decision to New Jersey’s Malik Nelson in the championship bout of the 75-pound division.

Murphy, who won the state and regional silver gloves titles to reach the national finals, is also an outstanding student in the classroom with a 3.4 GPA at Lyons Creek Middle School.

Murphy, a seventh-grader, runs track for Lyons Creek Middle School, wrestles for the Deerfield Beach BSOPAL and plays Little League baseball.

“I like (boxing) a lot,” said Murphy, who won national titles in 2010 and 2012. “It is the best sport I do. I like fighting and training to get ready for the big tournaments. I train Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for two hours a day. I want to be a professional.”

“I think the best part is training for a fight because it helps me get conditioned,” Murphy added. “It helps me in school, and if I am doing track, it helps me with my energy and stuff in other sports.”

Murphy said he wasn’t disappointed with his performance at this year’s national competition because he tried his best.

“It has been a pleasure to watch him grow as a person and as a boxer,” said Deerfield Beach BSO Deputy Butch Santy, who heads the PAL program. “The one constant about Jordon is his desire to win and his willingness to put in the hard work to be one of the best boxers, poundfor- pound, in the country.”

Murphy’s coach, Steve Collazo, said he’s proud of his boxer’s accomplishments.

“He’s been tremendous,” Collazo said. “Jordon is one of the hardest workers in the gym and then he gives back to the community. He’s at everything … the DJ Program, the tutoring program … He boxes, does wrestling and baseball. He’s always busy.”

The program is free and Collazo said there are 10 boxers in the competitive program and between 35-40 in the recreational program. Collazo also said there were about 10 who just train.

“We work hard to give these kids the opportunities,” Collazo said with a smile. “The price they pay is the community service to the people who help us keep this going. They pay with their sweat and effort, so it really isn’t free.”

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

New York Mayors are colorful characters; Jimmy Walker, Firorello La Guardia and Rudy Guiliani come to mind. Each individual represented a distinct era of their time. The documentary Koch is a slice of 1970s and 1980s Manhattan history.

Mayor Ed Koch’s threeterm reign is a lesson in political reality. Opening with great 1970s Studio 54 disco images and closing with images of electrified Manhattan, we see a principled individual who does not change, while the world around him changes.

Director Neil Barsky presents his lion in winter.

Although he has been out of office since 1989, Ed Koch has remained a political influence as a book writer, talk show commentator and fellow movie columnist. A lifelong Democrat, Koch earned Republican respect because the mayor referred to himself as “a liberal with sanity.”

During the AIDS hysteria of the mid 1980s, Mayor Koch was presented as just another uncaring politician. Although the Koch Administration took steps in AIDS prevention for the city, the residue anger zapped Koch’s political mobility. Aggressive AIDS advocates also publicly questioned Mayor Koch’s sexual orientation.

Given this invasion into his privacy, Ed Koch gives a public response that is R rated. However, Koch is a very approachable documentary. In his eighties, we see Koch as a political power broker who is very family-orientated. He shares a Yom Kippur meal with his family and attempts to see his niece when she is performing in a New York concert. We see a man who takes 10 pills a day and who visits Trinity cemetery, his future resting place. Despite his Jewish heritage, Koch takes pride in being interred in “a W.A.S.P.” graveyard.

His honor died right after when the documentary Koch made its New York premier. This film is a celebration of life and is an entertaining piece of history.

The world has a new Pope and I suspect that you were not expecting the Rabbi to be writing about the new Pontiff in this column, let alone be connecting him to the Festival of Pesach. But, as I am a Jewish Chaplain working with Broward County Catholic Health Services and Catholic Hospice and their L’Chaim Program for Jewish Patients, I couldn’t help but make a connection.

We are taught that the name we are given is of great import, as it may well prove to be a harbinger to the type of person we will grow up to be. The New Pontiff has chosen the name Franciso, or Francis. I, for one, think he chose his name well. The name Francis comes from Middle English and refers to a “Free man.” Being free is what the entire Festival of Passover is about. It is why we retell the story of our journey from slavery to freedom at each and every Seder Meal. And, if you look up the Hebrew name for Francis, you will find that one very real possibility (in fact, the one that I would give to him) is, none other than, Pesach …

Of course, even though I am a Rabbi, I am familiar with the most famous Francis … St. Francis of Assisi. At a very young age, he, too, knew the pain of being a slave as he was locked away in a jail for a full year. And yet, it was during his incarceration that he was able to begin his spiritual journey and turn his life around to become a champion of the poor and a striver for peace for one and all.

There is no question that we live in an age where there are still far too many poor… not just in economic terms, but in spiritual terms as well. And, surely all you have to do is look at any newspaper and you know that the world is in great need of peace.

The Pope has been called to lead our Catholic Brothers and Sisters just like Moses was called to lead us. As a Rabbi, it is no secret that I cannot help but see the world through Jewish eyes. It is, after all, who and what I am. And I know that many reading this column follow the same path and you might be wondering how will this Pope be in regard to the Jewish People?

Last November, he led a special memorial in remembrance of the victims of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, with Rabbi Avruj by his side and he held the memorial in the Buenos Aries Metropolitan Cathedral no less. He spoke out strongly against the bombings at the Jewish Center of Buenos Aires. He has close ties to the Latin American Jewish Congress and worked with them in their New Generations Program. He is no stranger to attending synagogue services as he has been to Shul on more than one occasion. And, if you look for a book written by Rabbi Sergio Bergman, be sure to look at the Forward because then Archbishop, now Pope, wrote the forward for Rabbi Bergman and called the Rabbi “one of my teachers.”

As we Jews begin to celebrate Pesach, our Festival of Freedom, let us extend a hearty Mazal Tov to Pope Francis and join him in helping to bring more love, peace and freedom to one and all.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

The disappointing box office of The Last Stand, Bullet to the Brain and A Good Day to Die Hard has been predicted as the death knell of action movies starring actors who are over 55 years old. If cinema history has taught us one thing, don’t count out Arnold Swarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis.

The 5th film of the series, A Good Day to Die Hard features John McClain (Willis) in Moscow, Russia. McClain is trying to see his son Jack (Jai Courtney), who is a political prisoner. Things explode, people betray one another and John McClain gets another boo boo on his forehead.

This is the weakest entry of the Die Hard series. While John McClain is still a great movie character, the overwhelming use of special effects stifles the human element. In fact, this does not seem like a Die Hard movie, but more like a weaker James Bond or Bourne Identity flick.

Lore opens this weekend at the Living Room Theater on the Florida Atlantic University Campus. This German movie with English subtitles has been winning awards on the film festival circuit.

Lore (Saskia Rosendahl) is a

14-year-old girl whose parents are Nazis. As the allies overtake Germany, Lore and her siblings become separated from their parents. To find a safe haven, she must escort her four brothers and sisters across the treacherous black forest in Germany. Along the way, she learns to trust a person she had been socialized to hate.

Lore is simple and gritty. After witnessing death, sex and brutality, this film concludes on a serious note. Lore and her siblings have witnessed things that will haunt the rest of their lives.

I recently had the privilege of going to Honduras for a mission trip. My sister is a missionary and works at a school as a fifth grade teacher. The school is Rancho Ebenezer and is run through World Gospel Outreach. It has always been a dream of hers to do missionary work and she was at a point in her life where her dream came true. I went there with her son (my nephew) and my 14-year-old son. I wanted my son to go and see how spoiled he really is. (Well, that was my dream).

I went thinking I was going to help them work on their facility and be a blessing to them. God has a funny way of always turning things around in my life. We did have a chance to help and do some repairs at their facility. We did some electrical work and replaced some old light fixtures with new ones in the houses where the staff and the children live. We also were able to do some plumbing repairs and replace old leaky faucets, fix toilets and repair leaking drains. We even had time to repair five or six bikes for the children who live on the ranch.

MATTHEW 28:19-20

19 “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

20 “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

NLT

When we got there, and began to walk around and meet everyone and see what they do there at their facility, I got thoroughly blessed by what I observed. I saw people who serve others selflessly because of the faith that they have in their God. When our faith is in God, and not in other people or in things we own, great things will happen in our lives. God will never let us down, even though other people will. I saw people working together because they believed in what they were doing and they also knew why they were doing it. I saw people working together to accomplish a mission with no personal agenda in mind. The school and the facility there in Honduras is run on donations, so they really need to trust God for all their needs.

I was encouraged by the faith I saw and it reminded me that we all can have great faith. I want to encourage you not to just have faith, but I want to encourage you to have faith in God. We need to trust God and know that the Bible is truth. Every promise we find in His Word is true and every promise is ours for the asking. We are so spoiled here in America. We need to stay strong and trust that God will do great things in our lives, but they will be on His terms, not ours.

Pastor Tony Guadagnino is a pastor at Christian Love Fellowship Church.

By Dave Montalbano

http://cinemadave.livejournal.com

Set in Post Apocalyptic Japan circa 1945, Emperor reviews General Douglas MacArthur’s relationship with Emperor Hirohito. It is a fascinating story and similar to General Patton’s relationship with former Nazis in Berlin when peace was declared. There is an old adage that says only warriors truly understand the true meaning of peace.

As played by Tommy Lee Jones, General MacArthur has all the bombast, arrogance and guile one has read about in history. MacArthur’s meeting with Hirohito is touching with humor.

But Emperor is really about MacArthur’s assistant, General Bonner Fellows (Matthew Fox)’s investigation about Hirohito’s war crimes regarding the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Told in flashbacks, we learn that General Fellows had unrequited romance with a Japanese native who was Ivy League educated.

This is a sincere movie, but it could have been better. Instead of flashbacks, if the film took the time to visualize the story in chronological order, Emperor ould have had more of an emotional impact.

With Passover just around the corner, Hava Nagila (The Movie) is released, a documentary that reviews the history and cultural impact of the traditional Jewish folk song.

Until “Hava Nagila,” the history of Jewish music was full of prayerful dirges. To combat repression in the Ukraine, the upbeat song “Hava Nagila” emerged and has continued to inspire the Jewish People. Narrated by Rusty Schwimmer, with Leonard Nimoy, Harry Belafonte, Glen Campbell and Connie Francis providing personal experiences, Hava Nagila (The Movie) is a lovely way to spend 75 minutes.

By Emily Rosen

ERosen424@aol.com

www.emilyrosen424.com

You may be one of them. Or if not, you surely KNOW one of them. They are truly all over the place — the mature male (50ish and older), recently widowed or divorced who finds himself suddenly solo.

Well, yes, there is the myth that single men “have it made,” and get sympathy.

That’s not always so. Many of these males had been married since just after puberty and they are now lost in a whole new world of dating and/or simply trying to figure out how to do the laundry and what to do with coupons, or actually picking up the phone in order to promote some kind of social life — some of the many things that “she” did for him.

Along comes Hal Spielman (of New York and South Florida), a successful marketing businessman whose

long-time loving wife has died. He in fact, is suddenly solo. After the first flourish of friends-in-sympathy, he is settling into a new life and all the unexpected baggage that comes with it.

Thus was born the website www.suddenlysolo.org and spawned from that, the just published book “Suddenly Solo: A Lifestlye Roadmap For The Mature, Widowed or Divorced Man,” co-written with his friend Marc Silbert (www.amazon.com).

“I undertook seven separate and distinct research studies that provide the foundation for information in this book,” said Spielman— whose life work has been in Market Research, “thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours having been spent on primary research.” But in the writing, the book is a “relaxed and conversational journey about living experiences.”

Former CEO of AARP Bill Novelli states in the book’s Afterword that this slim volume helps with the “What Next?” It offers a cornucopia of “what nexts” from which to choose, allowing that one size does not fit all. A quick surf through the table of contents hints at some really valuable “take home” information – light and full of good humor, the latter being reason enough to get hold of it.

Starting with Malnutrition Avoidance (the hobby chefs among you can skip that one) on through Loneliness, to the Aha Moment when you realize that dating rituals and standards have gone 180 degrees since last you were there, and then on to the Internet and some juicy sex specific “rules of the current game” to the final and funny “glossary” for the troglodytes among you – this turns out to be fun for all! Women love it too. And the progeny of those afflicted can’t wait to gift it to Papa.

Spielman, a sociologist by training, who retired in 2008 from the marketing and communications research firm he co-founded, enjoys his South Florida book tour stops where he is constantly encountering and interviewing more Suddenly Solos for his website.

Co-author Marc Silbert, a principle in the international organization Accountemps and Robert Half Personnel Service as president of its New York City operations, is happy when Hal is “working the rooms.” It’s a win-win all around.

For the couch potato or the bar fly, the introvert or the party guy, for the nerd or the “hottie,” there’s something for every Suddenly Solo guy in this book, with constant exhortation and guidelines on how to “Get out there and live!”

And, ladies, you’re next!

It is not always easy to find time for things, unless, of course, it is something that is really important to you. This Sunday, time will be on our minds as we will be moving our clocks forward one hour. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wonder if such a move doesn’t take an hour off my life.

I know that might sound rather depressing for those of you who read my column regularly, because, you know, I try to write about the positives and the blessings in our lives. But the thought of having one less hour can serve as a positive motivating force. Think about it, what are you able to accomplish in just one hour? What loving and holy acts can you perform in such a short span of time?

The great Sage Hillel reminded us of the importance of time by saying, “If not now, when?” And he was so right because if we don’t do what we are able to now, we might never get the chance again because we never really know how many days we have left on this earth.

I have seen people who were told that they only had days left to live. I have heard families told that, once their loved one’s ventilator is removed, they will only have minutes left. And many of those very same people are still with us. They have been allotted more time and they are taking that extra time they have been given as a blessing.

We are not G-d. We might be able to come up with a probable amount of time someone has left, but G-d may well have other plans. In fact, there is an old adage that says, “The greatest of doctors is time.”

The Chofetz Chaim taught, “People say ‘time is money’ but I say ‘money is time,’ for every luxury costs so many precious hours of your life.”

What have you done with your time lately? A woman walking down the street in a city in the midwest a few weeks back saw a beggar in the street. Looking at the poor homeless soul, she might have thought, “He doesn’t look like he has much time. Let me see if I can make his day.” So she put some money into his hat.

She headed down the street and, after she and her husband had gone a few blocks, they heard the beggar shouting at them to stop. How frightening it must have been to have a homeless man chasing them down.

But they stopped, and that poor soul with not even a watch to wear, caught up to her and told her that when she put money in his hat, her ring had slipped off her finger and fallen into the hat as well. That’s right, when called upon to do a holy deed, the beggar forgot about his own needs and took the time and energy to rush to make someone else’s day.

And talk about “Paying It Forward.” The woman and her husband gave the man whatever cash they had on them as a “thank you.” And, it didn’t end there. She put the story on the Internet and, in no time, a fund was set up to get this Holy Child of G-d, this homeless man, a place of his own.

So next time you get a chance to make a difference in someone’s life, take the time and that good deed might just keep growing and growing.

Shalom my friends,

Rabbi Craig H. Ezring

Rabbi Ezring is a member of the National Association of Jewish Chaplains and of the Association of Professional Chaplains, He works professionally in this capacity with a number of healthcare facilities in the area, and with hospice. He is the Spiritual Leader of Temple Beth Israel of Deerfield Beach.