Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles written by David Swindle


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  • Facing serious fiscal challenges, Brandeis to shed 60 staffers

    David Swindle|Jun 21, 2024

    (JNS) — Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., recently announced plans to eliminate 60 employees due to financial difficulties. “These decisions have not been made lightly,” the academic institution’s senior leaders wrote in an email to staff. “We have examined spending across the university to find savings. Unfortunately, it was not possible to identify sufficient savings without needing to reduce positions.” The cuts may hit non-tenured faculty the hardest. “The need for contract faculty will be reviewed as contracts come up for renewal,...

  • Second Title VI complaint filed against Maryland's largest school district

    David Swindle|May 3, 2024

    (JNS) — The Zionist Organization of America announced the filing on April 18 of a Title VI complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) against the Montgomery County Public Schools. In 28 pages, it detailed multiple incidents of ethnic slurs, swastika vandalism, pro-Hamas teachers and retaliation against educators, ringing the alarm bell about the threat to Jewish students. Noting a previous Title VI filing against the district, the complaint states that it “relied solely on an opinion piece written by a Jewis...

  • Tlaib, Cori Bush vote to allow Oct. 7 attackers into US

    David Swindle|Feb 9, 2024

    (JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 422-2 on Wednesday to deny entry into the United States to non-U.S. citizen members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) introduced H.R. 6679, the “No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act,” which drew dissenting votes from Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), two leftist members of the so-called “squad.” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) voted “present.” “Any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financ...

  • Rabbi David Wolpe: 'I am hopeful that Harvard is not a lost cause'

    David Swindle|Dec 29, 2023

    (JNS) - David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple, a conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, joined Harvard University's Antisemitism Advisory Group in the hopes that he could persuade the school to make some serious changes. "I wanted immediate, visible action," he told JNS. "In fact, what I saw was that the anti-Jewish agitation on campus was getting worse, not better." Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League's inaugural rabbinic fellow, named by Newsweek as the most influential rabbi...

  • In second Republican debate, candidates talk crime, education, immigration, drugs

    David Swindle|Oct 6, 2023

    (JNS) — In the first Republican candidate debate on Aug. 24, Israel became the center of a heated exchange between two of those vying for the presidency in 2024. The Jewish state did not come up at all during the two-hour second debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., a month later, on Sept. 27. Instead, the seven candidates focused largely on domestic issues, including urban crime, illegal drugs, immigration and the Southern border. Throughout the e...

  • Wide range of on-campus sentiments about Israel

    David Swindle|Sep 8, 2023

    (JNS) — One student has been told she doesn’t get to talk because she’s white and therefore couldn’t have been oppressed. Another found colleagues to go “ghost white,” fearing for safety on campus in the face of anti-Israel activism when he chose to move forward with hosting an event with a former Israel Defense Forces soldier.The stories that pro-Israel college students shared with JNS earlier this week at the Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit about their experiences on campus ranged from being threatened and silenced to...

  • Sentiments about Israel range from antisemitism to apathy

    David Swindle|Aug 25, 2023

    (JNS) — One student has been told she doesn’t get to talk because she’s white and therefore couldn’t have been oppressed. Another found colleagues to go “ghost white,” fearing for safety on campus in the face of anti-Israel activism when he chose to move forward with hosting an event with a former Israel Defense Forces soldier. The stories that pro-Israel college students shared with JNS earlier this week at the Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit about their experiences on campus ranged from being threatened and silenced to m...

  • Bella Abzug documentary aims to restore the Jewish congresswoman's trailblazing legacy

    David Swindle|Aug 25, 2023

    (JNS) - One student has been told she doesn't get to talk because she's white and therefore couldn't have been oppressed. Another found colleagues to go "ghost white," fearing for safety on campus in the face of anti-Israel activism when he chose to move forward with hosting an event with a former Israel Defense Forces soldier. The stories that pro-Israel college students shared with JNS earlier this week at the Israel on Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit about their experiences on...

  • Young adults 'empowered' at Israel on Campus Coalition summit in DC

    David Swindle|Aug 18, 2023

    (JNS) — Sarah Miller’s biggest takeaway from her first day at the Campus Coalition National Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C., was that there are stronger forces that unite rather than divide. “We have more in common than we have apart,” Miller, a junior studying web design, education and French at Butler University in Indianapolis, told JNS. She cited three speakers who shared “their belief in the power of building connections.” “They proved that not only on the international level but also on the personal level, the way to solve conflic...

  • White House consulting CAIR on antisemitism is like inviting 'butchers to National Vegetarian Day'

    David Swindle|Jun 23, 2023

    (JNS) — Soon after the White House unveiled its 60-page, national strategy to counter antisemitism on May 25, the Council on American-Islamic Relations welcomed “the Biden administration’s efforts to implement national strategies to confront various forms of bigotry, starting with the threat of antisemitism.” CAIR added that the strategy’s fact sheet noted “CAIR as one of the many contributing organizations.” “Some of CAIR’s current leadership had early connections with organizations that are or were affiliated with Hamas,” the Anti-Defamation...

  • Calgary multicultural council member resigns

    David Swindle|May 12, 2023

    (JNS) — In one image, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is shown, with a Star of David on his forehead, consuming children’s blood. “Can’t get enough,” a caption reads. Another post praised a convicted terrorist and a third included a video declaring the Holocaust a hoax. These were among the items that Canadian realtor Tariq Khan, a realtor in Canada, posted on social media. Khan, a failed 2021 city council candidate in Calgary—the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta—was also a member of Calgary’s multicultural cou...

  • New lawsuit challenges Biden administration to stop funding Palestinian terrorism

    David Swindle|Dec 30, 2022

    (JNS) — In 2018, the Trump administration signed into law the Taylor Force Act to prevent the U.S. government from sending funds to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues to fund terrorism. Now, a new lawsuit supported by victims of terror is seeking to compel the Biden administration to follow suit. Filed by America First Legal, a new firm founded and led by former Trump presidential senior advisor Stephen Miller, the lawsuit identifies the Biden administration funding the P.A. with more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars as a v...