Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA)—Joe Biden made an appearance via video and Mike Bloomberg turned up in person. So did Mike Pence. Even the coronavirus got a shoutout. Despite threats of a boycott by Democrats and anxieties about communicable diseases, this year’s annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee was a busy, bustling and bipartisan affair. Still, the names that loomed largest were the ones that did not make an appearance: Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Sanders, the Vermont senator who is currently the front-runner for... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—A delegation of members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations visited Saudi Arabia last week, a first for the umbrella body for U.S. Jews, and a move believed to be the first official visit to the kingdom by an American Jewish organization since 1993. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned that the visit from Monday to Thursday included meetings with senior Saudi officials as well as with Mohammed al-Issa, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League who recently led a delegation to A... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Sen. Elizabeth Warren indicated she would skip the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC's conference next month and did not push back against questionable assertions about the lobby from a questioner at a campaign event in New Hampshire. In a sign of how the lobby has become a political lightning rod for Democrats, Warren answered "yeah" when asked if she was planning to skip the conference in Washington in March. "I'm an American Jew and I'm terrified by the unholy alliance that AIPAC is forming with Islamophobes and anti-Semites and white... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The three-week exhibition at the National Archives showcased documents, video and a marquee sponsor, announced in large font on the banner at the National Archives: "This exhibit is paid for in part by the National Archives Foundation through the general support of the Ford Motor Company Fund." What the small exhibit marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz lacked was any mention of Ford's role in building the Nazi machine. American Ford retained majority control of its German subsidiary until May of... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Democrats running for president have hewed to the party line in criticizing the Israeli-Palestinian peace plan rolled out by President Donald Trump: Unilateral annexation of settlements is the wrong way to go. The tone was first set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who each seized on the failure of the Trump administration to include the Palestinians in the peace process and the apparent green light that Israel gets in the plan to extend its law to West Bank settlements. “The pro... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Much of Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign narrative subtly casts her as the anti-Obama, the potential president who will not broker sweetheart deals for big business. That was the subtext—actually it was the overt text—of a buzzy Politico magazine article in September titled “‘Why Are You Pissing In Our Face?’: Inside Warren’s War With the Obama Team.” It chronicled tensions at the beginning of Barack Obama’s first term, when Warren, then a Harvard law professor, was the most prominent critic of the bailout championed... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—We ran a story last week on where the top seven Democrats running for president stood on Iran policy. Try as we could, we could not pin down a position for Mike Bloomberg, the former New York mayor who was not included in the last debate, where he might be forced to elaborate a position on one of the burning issues of the day. (He has high enough polling numbers to qualify for a debate, but has not crossed the outside contribution threshold set by the Democratic National Committee because he is bankrolling his own campaign.) T... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A decade ago, in a speech in Cairo addressing the Islamic world, President Barack Obama issued a call to understand Israel’s importance in the context of the Holocaust—and it started a political firestorm in the world of Jewish politics. Not so this week. A nonbinding resolution on Holocaust education introduced recently by three Republican lawmakers essentially echoes Obama’s call, but it has barely evinced a peep. Why the differing reactions? First, people tend to pay more attention to the leader of the free world making... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The post-debate analysis this week focused largely on the ongoing spat between Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. While we hope they can sort that out soon, the debate featured something else more relevant to JTA readers: Everyone on stage thought that President Donald Trump made a huge mistake in 2018 when he pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal and said outright or implied that as president, they would return to the deal. (To be more precise, Warren did not speak up on the topic, but she has expressed similar sentiments e... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-After a six-month search, the Jewish campus group Hillel International is sticking to the path hewn by its previous CEO in choosing a close associate as his successor. Hillel's board announced Tuesday that Adam Lehman, the group's former chief operating officer and interim CEO, will succeed Eric Fingerhut, who became head of the Jewish Federations of North America over the summer. In choosing Lehman, the board has issued a vote of confidence in how Fingerhut has shaped the organization, expanding its reach to Jewish students... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The Bernie Sanders campaign has named an insider in both the Jewish and Democratic establishments-entities that the presidential candidate has previously kept at a distance-as its liaison to the Jewish community. The appointment of Joel Rubin, 48, a former Obama administration official with longstanding ties to an array of Jewish groups, was announced Thursday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Rubin was a co-founder of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, and recently served on the board of the Jewish... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The black-Jewish coalition that has fought for civil rights since the 1960s has the city of Atlanta as its nexus. Folks there cite three reasons for this: a substantial African-American population, a relatively large Jewish community and John Lewis. Lewis, 79, the longtime Democratic congressman from Georgia who announced Sunday that he was suffering from stage 4 pancreatic cancer, has been close to Jewish groups for decades. And that longstanding relationship was on full display with the reactions from Jewish groups to the... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—If where you spend your money is the clearest sign of your priorities, Congress seems to be saying that it remains invested in Israeli-Palestinian peace and in robustly supporting Israel’s defense systems. The House of Representatives threw its support this week behind a spending package that restores support for what have long been considered key planks upholding an eventual two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Senate is expected to likewise approve the bills. The $1.3 trillion spending package inc... Full story
ATLANTA (JTA)-Voters in Georgia will face elections next year for each of the state's two U.S. Senate seats. Jewish Democrats are vying to be in the mix in both races. Incumbent David Perdue, a Republican, is up for re-election in 2020, while Johnny Isakson, also from the GOP, is retiring at the end of the year because of ill health. Georgia's Republican governor, Brian Kemp, almost certainly will name someone from his party to replace Isakson, but both slots will be on the ballot in November. Seven Democrats are contending for Perdue's spot... Full story
Here’s what you need to know about the movement (JTA)—Police have identified one of the dead suspects in a shootout at a kosher market in Jersey City as David Anderson, who reportedly was once a member of the Black Hebrew Israelites. Here are some things to know about the movement. Are they Jewish? Black Hebrew Israelites can refer broadly to people of African descent who claim to be descended from the biblical Israelites and practice certain Jewish rituals. The movement emerged from a stream of late 19th-century black nationalism that claimed... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Democrats in Congress passed a resolution on Friday saying that only a two-state outcome would bring peace to Israelis and Palestinians. The nonbinding resolution approved largely on party lines has been subject to considerable behind-the-scenes drama since its introduction in the spring by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Calif. The only Democrats who voted against were the Squad, the grouping of four freshman congresswomen who to varying degrees have been critical of Israeli government policies. Lowenthal cast the resolution as a m... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Allan Gerson, a lawyer who made it easier for the families of terror victims to sue foreign governments, has died. His daughter Daniela told family and friends that he passed away Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019, at his Washington, D.C., home. His wife, Joan Nathan, the cookbook author and authority on Jewish cuisine, told The Washington Post that Gerson, who was 74, died from complications from the degenerative brain disease Creutzfeldt-Jakob. In 1992, by his mid-40s, Gerson had already made a name for himself as a member of the U.S. Dep... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Last month, Bernie Sanders wrote about his support for Israel, calling the nation an “enormous achievement” and “a democratic homeland for the Jewish people.” A few weeks later Linda Sarsour, a prominent Arab-American activist and an official Sanders campaign surrogate, said that support for Israel as a state is unacceptable in the progressive movement. The contrast is sharp and, one would think, irreconcilable. Neither Sarsour nor the Sanders campaign has answered the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s request for comment. Le... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—It’s the perennial anomaly of Jewish voter surveys: Vast majorities feel an attachment to Israel, but relatively few are thinking about the Jewish state when they cast their vote. On the day of last year’s midterm congressional elections, J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, asked Jewish voters to name their two most important issues. Just 4 percent chose Israel. The same survey found that 65 percent said they were somewhat or very emotionally attached to Israel. The J Street survey is not an outlier. The A... Full story
ATLANTA (JTA)-For Jewish voters, Bernie Sanders mentioning the Palestinians seemingly out of nowhere during last week's presidential debate here was a striking moment. But for some Jews in this state, what resonated most was the applause from a majority black audience. The setting for the most recent Democratic debate was a gleaming symbol of African-American success: film mogul Tyler Perry's new studio complex in the southwest part of this city. Much of the crowd in the soundstage named for Oprah Winfrey was black, and they clapped when Sander... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Nita Lowey, who is retiring after 32 years in Congress, fields a question about her legacy as a Jewish lawmaker. No trouble there-she talks about Israel and her Jewish pride all the time. Then there's one about her legacy as one of the pioneering women in Congress. That one goes down easy, too: Her office is plastered with photos signifying how far women have come in American politics. But when a reporter asks a question combining the two-about her legacy as a female Jewish lawmaker-the New York Democrat has to ask an assistant... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, is making conditioning U.S. aid to Israel on halting settlement expansion a plank ahead of the 2020 presidential elections. “Our aid is not intended to be a blank check,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, the group’s president, said Sunday evening, at the group’s annual conference, ahead of the first appearance at the conference of a Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Ben-Ami called on candidates to reverse Trump administration policies that have favored I... Full story
Taking a turn on J Street J Street convened its eighth annual conference this week, its 11th year of existence. The gathering attracted 4,000 activists and marked a major turning point in how Democrats treat Israel: Withholding aid to pressure the Jewish state to comply with policy is now an idea that is very much on the table. More accurately, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group delivered its partial OK to action that’s already well underway because of pressure from groups sharply critical of Israel, including IfNotNow. Plenty of t... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—When it comes to pressuring Israel, Elizabeth Warren doesn’t have a specific plan. The senator from Massachusetts, who has caught up in polling with front-runners for the Democratic presidential nomination, now faces intensified scrutiny as a newly viable contender. And what has emerged is that Warren is vague about how she would pressure Israel if she perceives it to be acting contrary to U.S. interests. In a video submitted to this week’s annual conference of J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, Warren offer... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earned cheers at J Street’s annual conference when he said some of the money Israel receives from the United States for defense assistance should go to humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip. The liberal Jewish Middle East policy group as one of its conference themes this year wants to press the Democratic candidates on whether they would demand from Israel an end to settlement expansion as a condition of receiving U.S. aid. Among the five candidates to speak in person at the con... Full story
