Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - The United States Postal Service has released a new series of Forever stamps honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Jewish Supreme Court justice and liberal icon who died in 2020. The stamp, which became available for purchase on Monday, shows Ginsburg wearing her black judge's robe and signature white collar. It was announced last year as part of the postal service's 2023 lineup of new stamps, reflecting a jump on the service's standard timeline for honoring deceased people. The...
(JTA) — Leaning into his latest controversies, Elon Musk is planning to join a bevy of Jewish men for a live chat. The conversation will focus on “X, anti-Semitism, and the future of free speech,” according to conservative pundit and social media personality Ben Shapiro, who announced Wednesday that Musk would join him on his “Daily Wire” podcast. Also participating in the conversation, Shapiro said, are Rabbi Ari Lamm, an Orthodox scholar and podcaster; former Israeli politician and Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; an unnamed represent...
(JTA) — Fat Choy was a critic’s pick for its flavorful, inventive vegan Chinese menu when it opened in Manhattan’s East Village in 2021. But pandemic and inflation pressures forced its closure the following year, and its chef, Justin Lee, considered exiting the kitchen to become a teacher. Now, Fat Choy has reopened in suburban New Jersey, with a Jewish partner and kosher certification. And this week, the restaurant landed on the New York Times’ 2023 Restaurant List — the 50 restaurants across the United States that the newspaper’s dining crit...
(JTA) — What appears to have been the first-ever passenger flight between Saudi Arabia and Israel has taken place — even though the two countries have not yet established diplomatic relations. An Air Seychelles flight to Tel Aviv made an emergency landing on Monday in the the port city of Jeddah, where passengers spent the night. On Tuesday, they flew from there to Ben Gurion International Airport. “I really appreciate the warm way in which the Saudi authorities treated the Israeli passengers,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in...
(JTA) — For its latest effort to combat antisemitism on college campuses, the Anti-Defamation League is turning to a particular brand of college student: frat boys. The Jewish civil rights group is partnering with Alpha Epsilon Pi, the historically Jewish fraternity, on an initiative to engage members of AEPi’s 150 local chapters starting this fall, the two groups announced Monday. They revealed the new initiative — which will include the creation of something called the Antisemitism Response Center — during AEPi’s international conventio...
(JTA) — A rally is set to take place at George Washington University Monday after a fraternity on campus said a small replica Torah used in its initiation process was damaged during a vandalism spree. The president of Tau Kappa Epsilon, a fraternity on George Washington’s campus, said the vandalism took place early Sunday morning, according to a report in the university’s student newspaper. He said hot sauce was poured throughout the house and many objects were thrown around, the newspaper reported. The damage that most caught the public eye w...
(JTA) — Three days after igniting a social media firestorm by removing an Israeli food truck from a festival, a Philadelphia group has apologized — and vowed to “make up for our mistakes with help from our community.” Eat Up The Borders, which showcases immigrant chefs and international cuisine, said it rejected the charges of antisemitism from around the globe after removing Moshava because of local criticism of the Israeli government. “We want to be very clear that we do not support antisemitism or allow antisemitism in our spaces,...
(JTA) - Astute viewers could find plenty of signs during the recent "Jeopardy!" Teachers Tournament that one leading contestant had some Jewish bona fides. There was the fact that Meggie Kwait teaches at Beit Rabban Day School, a Jewish school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. There was her covered hair, rare among game-show contestants but more common among observant Jewish women. And then there was her bet for the final question on a day when she was so far ahead she couldn't lose. "Yes, I...
By Philissa Cramer (JTA)—New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio drew fierce criticism late Tuesday after he singled out “the Jewish community” in a trio of tweets announcing that he had instructed his police department to fine or even arrest social distancing violators. De Blasio was responding to a funeral that had drawn hundreds of Orthodox Jews to the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, to mourn a rabbi who died of the coronavirus. Pictures of the funeral procession, first shared by Reuven Blau, a reporter for The CITY, showed streets dense... Full story
(JTA)—As the world shut down around it, the Brooklyn headquarters of the worldwide Chabad movement carried on as usual—until late Tuesday night, when its neighborhood’s rabbinic leadership ordered synagogues closed to combat the spread of the coronavirus. All week, men came and went from the massive building in the Crown Heights neighborhood, crowding in for prayer services and study sessions. After news broke that the headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway would close amid global efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, there was a final... Full story
(JTA)—Israel will require all travelers from abroad to complete a 14-day quarantine, according to the latest regulation aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus in the country. The decision, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Monday, capped days of open deliberations about how far Israel would to go to stop the disease’s spread. The country had taken aggressive early action against the disease and last week began requiring quarantines for travelers from more than a doz... Full story
(JTA)—Bernie Sanders has narrowly won the New Hampshire Democratic primary, racking up additional delegates in his quest to become the nation’s first Jewish president. Sanders, a Vermont senator, was declared the winner late Tuesday with 26% of the vote and more than 90% of precincts reporting. The victory, notched against a crowded field, was a far cry from the decisive win he delivered against Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire in 2016. The victory comes a week after a glitch-filled caucus in Iowa meant that Sanders missed out on becoming the f... Full story
(JTA)-The Trump administration put questions about the seriousness of its Israeli-Palestinian peace proposal to rest Tuesday by delivering a 181-page, detail-laden document that outlines a clear-if one-sided-vision for the future of the region. The document includes sections on history, security and economics, among others. We've got a roundup of the most important details here. But the quickest way to make sense of the plan might be to skip to pages 41 and 42. That's where you can find two "con... Full story