Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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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
WASHINGTON (JTA)-More than eight in 10 American Jews say that anti-Semitism has spiked in recent years and even more believe it is a problem in the United States, according to an American Jewish Committee survey. Nearly three-quarters of respondents strongly disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling anti-Semitism and significantly more see the extreme political right as more of a serious threat to them than the extreme political left. The telephone survey of 1,283 Jewish adults conducted from Sept. 11 to Oct. 6 found that 88 percent... Full story
WESTERVILLE, Ohio (JTA)-The fourth Democratic presidential debate revealed fissures among the candidates on whether to keep U.S. troops in the Middle East. The 12 hopefuls on the stage Tuesday night at Otterbein University in this Columbus suburb were unanimous in describing President Donald Trump's pullout of American troops from Syria as catastrophic for the Kurds, U.S. allies in the war against the Islamic State who are now at the mercy of Turkish forces who invaded northern Syria following the American departure. But they differed over... Full story
(JTA)—At least two gunmen opened fire on a synagogue during Yom Kippur services and a kebab shop in Halle, a town in eastern Germany. The shooters reportedly were from the far right. The masked gunmen reportedly were repelled by the synagogue’s doors, secured shut during the services Wednesday on the most solemn day of the Jewish year. There were 70 to 80 people in the synagogue at the time of the attack. One of the gunmen shot a woman dead at a nearby Jewish cemetery and a gunman threw a grenade at the kebab shop, and then fired at it, kil... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Here's the sad paradox of the shooting nearly one year ago at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue: The killing of 11 worshippers, the worst attack on Jews in U.S. history, hit a community that was one of the best prepared to handle such an assault. In the year or so prior to the attack, Jewish community security officials had run dozens of training sessions that reached as many as 5,000 Pittsburgh Jewish residents. Many of the Tree of Life congregants knew not to stay in place during an attack, where to find the exits and to... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A week ago, impeachment was not the flavor of the season. The interest in Robert Mueller’s special counsel report into Russian election interference had waned, and the testimony by Mueller before Congress in July failed to advance the narrative much. President Donald Trump seemed to have come through the controversy politically unscathed. Then came reports over the past week about the president involving a phone call, an intelligence community whistleblower and an allegation that Trump extorted a U.S. ally for political gai... Full story
