Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles written by Shiryn Ghermezian


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  • Podcast series 'The Forgotten Exodus' tells overlooked stories of Jews from Arab lands

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Aug 5, 2022

    (JNS) — A new limited podcast series from the American Jewish Committee features interviews with Jews whose families left or were forced to flee from Arab lands and Iran in the mid-20th century. “The Forgotten Exodus,” premiering on Monday, consists of at least six episodes, each focusing on a different tale about a Jewish family from Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Iran. According to AJC, it’s the first narrative podcast series to exclusively focus on the stories of the 800,000 Jews who left or were driven out of their centuries-old com...

  • Summit for student leaders aims to promote more unity between Black, Jewish communities

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Oct 29, 2021

    (JNS) — The pro-Israel student group Maccabee Task Force organized its first three-day conference to help strengthen the relationship between Black and Jewish communities. Roughly 100 people from historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) attended the Black Student Leaders Summit, which was held from Oct. 1-3 in Atlanta, where many of the student leaders were based. The goal of the summit was to help re-establish an alliance that has increasingly split in the last decade as a result of politics and various social movements in the U...

  • Jewish advocates warn that pro-Israel college students to face aggression on campus

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Aug 20, 2021

    (JNS) - A number of Jewish groups have significant concerns about how Israel's conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip this spring will correlate into anti-Jewish sentiment on North American college campuses as the fall semester begins. Most colleges are resuming in-person and on-campus classes after nearly three semesters of virtual learning as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Even with the rapidly spreading Delta variant, universities are getting ready to start in full force, at...

  • When Israel and Arab nations unite, world should take note, says UN ambassador

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jan 8, 2021

    (JNS) — Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan reflected on 2020 and how “Israel’s future looks brighter than ever” in his address on Sunday night at the Zionist Organization of America’s Virtual Superstar Gala. Erdan, also Israel’s incoming ambassador to the United States, received the ZOA’s Woo Kai–Sheng Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Diplomacy. In his acceptance speech, he said that while this past year “supplied a fair amount of hate, it also delivered a fair amount of peace.” He noted that the signing of the Ab...

  • Anti-Semitic hackers infiltrate high school website

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jan 1, 2021

    (JNS) — An anti-Semitic cybersecurity attack that took place at a Jewish high school in Long Island, N.Y., on Monday has left students on edge and parents contemplating if they should keep their children at home for the rest of the school year. Anti-Semitic images, threats, slurs and songs were posted on the website of North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck. They were also included in emails sent to the school’s parents and students on Monday afternoon. Skyler Askari, 15, a 10th-grader at the private high school, told JNS tha...

  • Anti-Semitism webinar features pro-Palestinian activists railing against Jews and Israel

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Dec 25, 2020

    (JNS) — Anti-Semitism watchdog groups called out “disingenuous efforts” to address hatred against Jews displayed this week by anti-Israel panelists on a webinar. A virtual event on Tuesday night, titled “Dismantling Anti-Semitism: Winning Justice” and hosted by the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace, featured Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) of Michigan, Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill; journalist Peter Beinart; and writer, historian and activist Dr. Barbara Ransby. Nearly 1,000 viewers tuned in to watch the panelists discuss t...

  • Friedman on feat of Abraham Accords: 'Gulf interests largely in line with those of Israel'

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Dec 11, 2020

    (JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman detailed the negotiation process that led to the signing of the Abraham Accords, as well as talked about the future of other Arab countries expected to normalize relations with the Jewish state, in a virtual event on Tuesday. The agreements signed by Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain on Sept. 15, as well as the normalization agreement between Israel and Sudan signed on Oct. 23, are “all working beautifully,” the ambassador said during a Zoom event hosted by the Friends of the Israe...

  • Danon: Obama's decision to 'abandon' Israel was lowest moment of UN tenure

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jul 17, 2020

    (JNS) — Israel’s outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reflected on his last five years in office and plans for the future during his final press briefing on Tuesday. Danon’s first move upon returning to Israel will be to visit his mother, who he has not seen in almost a year, he said. Regarding the next step in his career, he shared advice that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave him, which is to take “time before making any commitments.” So, he said, “I’m going to go back to Israel and enjoy it. Rel...

  • Israel's ambassador to UK reflects on global issues, namely Iran, before leaving office

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jun 26, 2020

    (JNS) - Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom Mark Regev discussed Israel's relations with Britain and its neighbors during a webinar on Thursday, his last livestreamed event before ending his five-year term as ambassador. Regev, who has served in the Israeli foreign ministry for more than three decades, began the online discussion, hosted by the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, by voicing support for Israel's move to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. "All Israeli...

  • Pro-Israel students at conference gain knowledge, confidence in combating hate on campus

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jan 24, 2020

    (JNS)-Pro-Israel students from 30 university campuses across the United States and Canada gathered last week in New York City for a three-day conference to learn about defending Israel effectively, confidently and unapologetically at their schools. The conference was hosted by Student Supporting Israel, a nonpartisan, non-Jewish campus group, and took place at Columbia University, which has been called one of the most hostile colleges for pro-Israel students. "That was why it was important for...

  • Nikki Haley targets Venezuela, even Canada, while criticizing the UN for corruption, hypocrisy

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Dec 20, 2019

    (JNS)-In a scathing speech last week about corruption in the United Nations, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Canada of making a "deal with the devil" and called again for the removal of Venezuela from the United Nations Human Rights Council. "If we are serious about being advocates for human rights, Venezuela's membership on the Human Rights Council cannot stand," Haley said on Thursday night at the inaugural gala of the UN Watch NGO in New York City, where she...

  • Keep CAIR off college campuses

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Nov 8, 2019

    (JNS)—The watchdog group Stopantisemitism.org is calling on the U.S. Department of Education and Georgie State University to keep the “terror-affiliated” Council on American-Islamic Relations off U.S. college campuses. “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), an American front group for the terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Muslim Brotherhoods, is infiltrating the U.S. education system,” said the petition, which already has nearly 2,000 signatures. “Their anti-American agenda is infecting school curriculums, poisoning t...

  • Anti-Semitism at Columbia University

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Nov 8, 2019

    (JNS)—The American NGO Alums for Campus Fairness released a comprehensive report last week that documents what ACF describes as “systemic anti-Semitism and an ingrained delegitimization of Israel” at Columbia University and its sister school, Barnard College. The 33-page dossier documents more than 100 incidents that have made Columbia and Barnard “a hotbed for hate” since the 2016-17 academic year. The catalogue categorized each act into one of these categories: anti-Semitic expressio...

  • New 'Brave' approach to combating anti-Semitism on college campuses

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Jun 28, 2019

    (JNS)-A new project called "Brave" is bringing together veterans of the Israel Defense Forces and the U.S. military with Jewish students to share stories, learn about the Jewish state, stand up against hatred and combat anti-Semitism on campus. The initiative, organized by Hillel at Baruch College in New York City and launched this past semester, is also organizing trips for America vets to visit Israel, as well as Shabbatons for Jews and non-Jews to interact with one another-all with the goal...

  • Jewish 'Bubbies' do matchmaking, share their dating wisdom in new TV show

    Shiryn Ghermezian|Mar 15, 2019

    (JNS)-In each episode of "Bubbies Know Best," which premiered Feb. 11 on JLTV, S.J. Mendelson, Linda Rich, and Bunny Gibson interview three potential suitors before picking one to go on a date with their bachelor or bachelorette. The bubbies then watch them-with the help of a live camera-go on a date and afterwards give pointers on what the daters did right and wrong. The Los Angeles-based grandmothers set up singles of all ages, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and sexual preferences. One episode...

  • Torah on the moon project is a go

    Shiryn Ghermezian, Algemeiner|Jun 6, 2014

    An Israeli team hopes to send a Torah scroll to the moon’s surface in an effort to preserve a part of Jewish culture in case of an apocalypse, Britain’s Daily Mail reported on Friday. The scroll would travel outside Earth’s atmosphere with other Earth artifacts as part of the Google Lunar XPrize mission, a competition among private companies to send vehicles to the moon with the goal of maintaining Earth’s relics beyond a world-ending event, such as a nuclear war. The sacred text would be transported in a capsule enabling it to survive on the...

  • Miss Israel doesn't like hummus

    Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner|Mar 14, 2014

    While visiting New York last week, Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw, proved that not all Israelis love the country’s national chickpea spread, hummus. “In Israel, I don’t eat hummus,” she explained to a New York Daily News reporter during an interview at Hummus Place in the East Village, a popular stop for Israelis. “Now I come to New York and I’m supposed to eat hummus? It’s not tasty for me. I don’t like it.” During the discussion, Aynaw, 22, shared her dating preferences and admitted that she likes American men, as long as they don’t want to be...

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