Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — One of many United Nations bodies dedicated to the Palestinians announced last weekend an upcoming U.N. commemoration of “Nakba Day,” the supposed “catastrophe” that marked the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. Palestinian and their supporters mark this annually on May 15, one day after Israel announced its independence on May 14, 1948. The day purportedly memorializes the displacement of Palestinian Arabs. During the course of fighting beginning in November 1947, when U.N. member states voted to partition the land, and lasting u...
(JNS) — With the release of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 25th annual Digital Terrorism and Hate Report on Monday, a key Jewish New York City leader says that the hate filtering out onto the streets has its origins on social media. “What we know to exist—that hate is on the rise—and the high-profile cases on the news are often the endpoint of hate,” Eric Dinowitz, New York City Council member and chair of the council’s Jewish Caucus, told JNS. “We see the assaults in Hell’s Kitchen and Times Square. We see mass murders at synagogues and su...
(JNS) - In his first visit to the United Nations, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff called on U.N. leaders to globalize the fight against antisemitism. He told the body on Thursday that it cannot normalize spiking rates of Jew-hatred. Emhoff, the Jewish husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed ambassadors and members of civil society at a special, high-level side event. The U.N. missions of the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Canada, Morocco and the United Kingdom hosted the event. U.S....
(JNS) - A year after introducing a line of ovens that allowed for automated use during Shabbat, General Electrical Appliances is preparing to roll out refrigerators and freezers with the same built-in technology. The line of 45 top-freezer refrigerators is to include manually operated, built-in Enhanced Shabbos Mode. Products with the feature will include the Orthodox Union (OU) Kosher symbol on the product and will be certified by both the OU and the Central Rabbinical Congress...
(JNS) - Over the course of his illustrious career, Israel "Izzy" Tapoohi has helmed some of the most recognizable Israeli franchises, including Africa-Israel Investments, Bezeq, Israel Bonds and the Israel Electric Corporation. But, as he announces his retirement at year's end, Tapoohi, 76, says nothing has been more fulfilling than his role over the last six years as president and CEO of the Birthright Israel Foundation, the non-profit organization that raises funds in the United States to...
(JNS) — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case involving religious accommodations in the workplace. An appeal in the case of Groff v. Dejoy was filed by Gerald Groff, an Evangelical postal worker who refused to work on Sundays, his sabbath, going so far as to offer to work make-up shifts and to transfer branches in order to maintain his day of rest. The Pennsylvania man says he was forced from his job in 2019 after the burden was placed on him by the U.S. Postal Service to regularly find replacements following the service’s agr...
(JNS) - Sometimes going home is hard. Enter La'aretz, a new non-profit organization with the mission to help Israelis and Jews overcome bureaucratic and financial obstacles to immigrating, returning, visiting and traveling to Israel. "There are a good amount of people that just give up on the idea of moving or returning to Israel, just because they basically have no one to ask or be assisted by," said Shelly Harel, the organization's founder and CEO. Harel is a former employee at the Israeli con...
(JNS) — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations said he was “overjoyed” when he heard that the U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency meeting Thursday over the “quiet, orderly, uneventful” visit of an Israeli government minister to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. “I figured that if this important body is meeting to discuss such a trivial matter, then we clearly achieved world peace overnight,” Gilad Erdan said, mocking the council’s decision to submit to the Palestinians’ demand for a discussion on the matter. Unsurprisingly, much...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department’s point woman on Jew-hatred says there’s a key element to antisemitism differing it from other types of hate. It’s the conspiracy theory. “You can’t really grasp what antisemitism is, even if you care tremendously about it,” unless you understand the element that makes Jew-hatred unique, Deborah Lipstadt, the State Department special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, said in a pre-Shabbat briefing on Friday. “If it’s someone you loathe, you just want to keep them down and keep them out of your life...
(JNS) — From Tampa Bay to Edmonton, a campaign intends to Shine A Light on antisemitism this Hanukkah. “You can’t dispel darkness with darkness. You have to dispel darkness with light,” Adam Teitelbaum, executive director at the Israel Action Network and associate vice president for public affairs at Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS. “The ability to shine a light on the multiple ways in which antisemitism manifests in today’s society is an incredible opportunity for the coordination and collaboration of institutions across not...
(JNS) - Months after her nomination was held up due to prior antisemitic comments, the U.S. Senate confirmed Elizabeth Frawley Bagley to the post of ambassador to Brazil on Wednesday. The nomination has been blocked in June by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a tie, party-line vote. It came after comments by Bagley, a longtime diplomat and Democratic Party donor, were uncovered by The Washington Free Beacon. Bagley's nomination was suddenly discharged by the committee last week. Her...
(JNS) — With pomp and circumstance and some of his trademark disarming humor, former U.S. President Bill Clinton was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Haifa in New York City on Monday night. The degree was bestowed upon Clinton for his longtime commitment to the State of Israel, for promoting coexistence in the Middle East and for the Clinton Global Initiative’s involvement in social and economic sustainability. Clinton’s friend New York University President Emeritus John Sexton also received an honorary doctorate, with the e...
(JNS) — It has been proven that the Birthright program produces lifelong connections between young Jews and Israel. Studies also show that participants are more likely to build Jewish families. But could it produce the next Jewish comedy star? The new Birthright Israel Labs initiative is holding a competition to find Jewish comedy’s next breakout performer. The winner gets a coveted slot at the all-Jewish Chosen Comedy Festival in Miami on Dec. 14, joking it up alongside some of the business’ more well-known comedians and musicians. “I’ve...
(JNS) - Now that the shock has worn off, the question for Birthright is who will step up. Last week, Miriam Adelson, Birthright Israel's most generous donor, addressed a board meeting of the organization known for bringing tens of thousands of young Jews to Israel each year. She and her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, through the Adelson Family Foundation, have contributed nearly $500 million to Birthright over the past 15 years, but, after slashing the foundation's annual commitment nearly in...
(JNS) — A pro-Israel non-profit dedicated to combating antisemitism on U.S. college campuses released a study Wednesday showing not only the safety of Jewish students under threat but Jewish identity itself. The annual report from the AMCHA Initiative found a year-over-year doubling of threats related to Jewish identity at 60 percent of schools most popular with Jewish students. Those threats are defined as attempts to “dissociate Zionism from Judaism, pit Zionism against progressive values, accuse Zionist Jews of undue privilege, power and...
(JNS) - One could circle Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School for blocks on Tuesday. There were no political activists handing out campaign material. A truck with inaudible speakers passed the school's polling place once in a four-hour window. Neighborhood residents could be forgiven for not realizing an election was taking place. Outside of the "Vote Here" signs zip-tied to the fence by the entrance to the polls, there was only one glaring reminder for this Midwood community, which is...
(JNS) — At a moment of sharply rising antisemitism, a Jewish social media star known for her dance videos is getting deadly serious. Montana Tucker’s 10-part docu-series, “How to: Never Forget,” has drawn millions of views on TikTok since launching at the end of last month. The series, edited into digestible two-and-a-half minute segments, is the result of an intense trip by Montana and a film crew to Poland, where they capture the story of Tucker’s grandparents during the Holocaust. The produ...
(JNS) — Following an extended period of wrangling, the investment firm Morningstar reached an agreement on Monday with pro-Israel organizations to alter its methodology in rating the risk it assigns to companies doing business in and with Israel. Morningstar and its subsidiary Sustainalytics have been accused by critics of utilizing anti-Israel sources and weighing them disproportionately in assigning Environmental, Social and Governance risk ratings to companies as guidance for socially-minded investors. The ratings, which assigned a higher ri...
(JNS) - While members of the United Nations Security Council on Friday expressed alarm over the rising number of Palestinian casualties, Israel's ambassador urged them to take a look at the underlying reason: ongoing security operations meant to stop a brutal escalation in terrorism. "Israel is in the midst of a terror wave," Israeli envoy Gilad Erdan told the council during Friday's quarterly debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "Since the start of this year alone, there have been over...
(JNS) — It took “guts” for Israel to sign the American-brokered maritime border deal with Lebanon, U.S. President Joe Biden told Israeli President Isaac Herzog ahead of their Oval Office meeting on Wednesday. “I have just completed a very detailed, in-depth discussion with the president of the United States, Joe Biden, a true friend of Israel, as part of the unique relationship, the unbreakable bond, the historic relations between Israel and the United States. We had an open and frank discussion on many issues. I thanked the president for the...
(JNS) — While under investigation in 20 states for anti-Israel bias, Chicago-based investment firm Morningstar repeatedly pointed to an independent report purportedly absolving it of such behavior. But White & Case, the law firm that authored the report, was listed this week as a sponsor of a program at the University of Chicago’s Law School that featured a virulently anti-Israel activist and perpetuated the notion that Israel practices apartheid. A flyer for the program held on Oct. 12, titled “Apartheid: International Law in the Israe...
(JNS) — The heavily Jewish town of Surfside, Florida, passed a resolution last week establishing a twin city relationship with the Samaria Regional Council. Passed by a 5-0 margin, the partnership encompasses some three dozen Jewish communities and will honor Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan with a ceremonial key to the town. Surfside’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, Shlomo Danzinger, told JNS the move was motivated in part by a desire to thank Israel for its help in the search and rescue operation at the site of the collapse las...
(JNS) — The Israeli global crowd-funding venture firm OurCrowd announced this week its launch of a $200 million Global Health Equity Fund. News of the collaboration with the WHO (World Health Organization) Foundation was shared at this year’s Clinton Global Initiative in New York City on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. The fund will focus on healthcare solutions with a potentially global impact. “COVID-19 was a wake-up call for me as an investor,” said Jon Medved, founder and CEO of OurCrowd. “The pandemic opened my...
(JNS) — The City University of New York has reversed course after it assigned a former employee of a vehemently anti-Israel NGO to investigate allegations of anti-Zionist discrimination. The probe came at the request of Prof. Jeffrey Lax, chair of the business department at CUNY’s Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn. He alleged pervasive discrimination and harassment against Zionists and Jews on campus, as well as retaliation and a hostile work environment created by Kingsborough President Claudia Schrader. Lax’s complaint came as Kings...
(JNS) — After the Jewish investor network, JLens placed General Mills on its “Do Not Invest” list, it says the conglomerate is partially reversing its decision to remove its subsidiary Pillsbury brand entirely from Israel, months after selling its stake in a Jerusalem refrigerated-dough manufacturing plant. JLens CEO Julie Hammerman told JNS that her organization “spent the past couple of months engaging in dialogue with General Mills and also doing our own research.” Hammerman said that after sending people into grocery stores in Israel to...
