Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry slammed the Israeli government over settlement building, warning that the two-state solution is "in jeopardy," in a lengthy speech Wednesday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly called "almost as unbalanced" as the United Nations Security Council's recent anti-settlement resolution. "If the choice is one state, Israel can either be Jewish or Democratic, it cannot be both, and it won't ever really be at peace," Kerry said in his speech, which...
By Jacob Kamaras JNS.org President Barack Obama sprang his much-anticipated "December surprise" on Israel at the United Nations, capping off 2016 with a bang as it relates to the Gregorian calendar year's major events surrounding the Jewish state. The following are 10 Israel news storylines that defined this past year: U.N. woes The Obama administration chose to abstain from a Dec. 23 vote on a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction beyond the 1967...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando is planning something beautiful. Choices, the Federation’s largest women’s philanthropy event of the year, will kick off at 5:45 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9, at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland. The theme for Choices 2017 is “Beautiful Inside and Out,” and JFGO has put together an evening to celebrate the qualities and virtues that make every woman uniquely beautiful. Online registration is now open at www.jfgo.org/choices. The co-chairs for Choices 2017 are Leigh Norber and Heidi Zissman, both of whom...
The Jewish Pavilion staff is involved in many networking and advocacy groups on behalf of seniors. The Community Education and Resource Affiliation (CERA) Healthcare Industry Networking Team offers health fairs and other community events, which generate funds for local nonprofits. Pictured is the Jewish Pavilion winning a $1000 grant at the CERA holiday party. Pictured left to right CERA President Chris Bouille, Jewish Pavilion Executive Director Nancy Ludin, Jewish Pavilion Program Director...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Emotions are running high following the Obama administration's decision to allow the U.N. Security Council to pass a resolution condemning Israeli settlements. Here are seven questions aimed at making sense of what went down and what it could mean moving forward. 1. Did Obama just double down on failed "settlements first" strategy? Listening to President Barack Obama's aides, the decision to allow Friday's U.N. Security Council resolution to pass was a last-gasp move borne out of...
(JTA)—Jewish organizations split along ideological lines in their reactions to Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech criticizing Israeli settlement growth and laying out principles to achieve a two-state solution. Centrist groups were measured in their reactions, criticizing the American decision to abstain last week on a U.N. vote rebuking the settlements while praising Kerry’s commitment to a two-state solution. American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris wrote in an open letter Wednesday that he watched the speech “as one who underst...
(JTA)-Vera Rubin, an astronomer whose research helped find evidence of the existence of dark matter, has died. Rubin died Sunday night in Princeton, New Jersey. She was 88. Though a perennial favorite for the Nobel Prize in physics, according to National Geographic magazine, Rubin never received the honor. But she did receive numerous other awards and honors, including a National Medal of Science presented by President Bill Clinton in 1993. National Geographic called her a "gifted scientist as...
(JTA)-Carrie Fisher, the actress best known for playing Princess Leia in the original "Star Wars" films, died Dec. 27 2016, four days after suffering a heart attack on an airplane. She was 60. Fisher's family spokesman Simon Halls confirmed to multiple publications that she passed away Tuesday morning. Fisher had been in intensive care at the UCLA Medical Center after having a heart attack on Friday during a flight from London to her home in Los Angeles. Fisher, a native of Beverly Hills,...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Shalom Families/PJ Library Orlando celebrated the Hebrew month of Kislev (Chanukah, Oranges and Dreams) on Sunday, Dec. 11, at White's Red Hill Groves Farm Store in Sanford. The nearly 70 moms, dads and children who attended were greeted with a citrus menorah, created by Shalom Families co-chair Fiona Anavi and her children. Ed White of Red Hill Groves conducted a tour of the farm store, which included a hands-on demonstration of the citrus washing...
At a time when there is a surge of anti-Semitism in the United States and around the globe, it is fortunate that Professor Ken Hanson is in central Florida to keep the community informed of the most recent events. "The New Anti-Semitism" is the topic that Dr. Ken Hanson will present to Central Florida on Tuesday Jan. 17, 2017 at 7 p.m., at the Eastmonte Civic Center, 830 Magnolia Drive, Altamonte Springs. Dr. Hanson is an associate professor at the University of Central Florida, where he is...
Our Jewish Orlando, the young adult division of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, hosted a conversation about interfaith relationships, "Celebrating Traditions," on Dec. 8 at Infusion Tea in College Park. The discussion was led by Rabbi Joshua Neely of Temple Israel in Winter Springs. With an increasing number of young adults in interfaith relationships, this program was specifically requested by members of OJO. The discussion was also multigenerational in scope, with parents and...
Congregation Beth Am (CBA) in Longwood will be holding a special Shabbat service and Oneg sponsored by the 2016 CBA Board of Directors on Friday, Jan. 27, 2017, at 7:30 p.m. In addition to installing the 2017 board of directors, CBA will also celebrate its first Volunteer Shabbat, recognizing those members who rallied behind the board in 2016. “What a way to honor those folks who stepped up to support the shul,” said 2016 President Mike Cohen. “We are nothing without the help of these invaluable volunteers. “It will also be nice to formall...
Wednesday morning, Jan. 4, the Jewish Academy of Orlando received a phone call stating that there was a bomb in the building. The specific message from a distorted voice said "There is a bomb in the Jewish Academy." This kind of threat is taken very seriously. The Maitland police were called and they acted quickly to contact the FBI and other local law agencies. According to the campus's emergency response procedures, the entire campus, including The Roth Family JCC and Holocaust Memorial...
As the sanctity of the Sabbath, the day of rest, set over Israel, two stabbings hit close to home and were jarring personally and nationally. The first took place in our neighborhood Friday evening. Despite the lack of use of electronics as is customary on Shabbat in traditional Judaism, word spread throughout town like a game of “telephone.” No one person got all the details correct, but the gist was clear: early Friday evening, a couple was out for a walk on the brisk clear night. Our 11-year-old sons are close friends. Out of the sha...
The United Nations resolution condemning Israeli settlements comes in the wake of two other U.N. resolutions, passed by the UNESCO cultural body in October, that denied the historic and biblical relationship between the Jews and the land of Israel. The U.N. can pass resolutions, but it can neither change history nor alter reality. America’s abstention and refusal to use its veto power on an anti-Israel measure at the U.N. was a betrayal of historic proportions. For the Jewish alt-left such as the New Israel Fund and J Street, which is supported...
In a recent article, Caroline Glick, a staff writer for the Jerusalem Post, takes aim at what she sees developing in the American Jewish community. Her targets include Jews supporting Obama, Clinton, and others of the Democratic Party establishment, their embarrassment at the election of Donald Trump, and their angst about Trump’s nomination of David Friedman as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Things have gone further, with an intemperate speech by John Kerry and a shrill response by Benyamin Netanyahu. If we’re cousins, we’re in the midst...
WASHINGTON, D.C.,—At year-end, efforts are being made to disrupt the transition process of President-elect Donald Trump by crowds of disgruntled protestors. In response, Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens published the following opinion article today: The political left suffers from ‘sore loser syndrome’ in the wake of the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States. It’s not uncommon for depression to set in when the candidate of your choice loses an election, but the pathetic parade...
In 1989, following her tenure as President Ronald Reagan’s ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick described how the Palestinians have used the UN to destroy Israel. Following outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama’s assault on Israel at the UN Security Council last Friday, longtime UN observer Claudia Rossett wrote an important article at PJMedia where she recalled Kirkpatrick’s words. In “How the PLO was legitimized,” published in Commentary, Kirkpatrick said that Yassir Arafat and the PLO worked “to come to power through international diplomac...
In July 2006, Israel fought a bitter defensive war against the Lebanese Islamist organization Hezbollah. The hostilities, which saw thousands of rockets fired at Israel by Hezbollah terrorists, as well as the displacement of nearly 500,000 Israelis from their homes, ended one month later with a United Nations-brokered cease-fire. Hezbollah had been temporarily chastened, but the disarmament demanded by the U.N. Security Council never happened, and the threat it poses has only grown during the intervening decade, most recently demonstrated by...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) Chabad of South Orlando—Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael—Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona—Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom—Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of Orlando—Monday—Friday, 7:45 a.m.—8:30 a.m. Temple I...
Using the term ‘occupied (territories)’ is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. Why? 1) There is no such thing as ‘occupied territories.’ That area of land was lost by Jordan when they attacked Israel. This term is purely anti-Israel. 2) Jews are not ‘occupiers.’ Using this term is anti-Semitic....
By Eli E. Hertz True peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs cannot be based on a lie. Putting Israel and its Arab neighbors on the same footing totally ignores the asymmetry of the history of the conflict and something as fundamental as cause and effect. The truth is that one side - the Arab side - has been the aggressor time-after-time. The Arabs have been the initiators of more than five major wars, political and economic boycotts and unbridled incitement. The Palestinian Arabs have launched wave-after-wave of terrorism against...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Ahead of the unknowns a Trump administration will bring to American Middle East policy, the Obama administration allowed a bracing reminder on Friday that the international community does not recognize the validity of Israel's presence in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank. The U.S. abstention on the U.N. Security Council vote last week was hardly unprecedented, but neither was it entirely consistent with recent U.S. policy. The Obama administration did not quite endorse...
(The Nosher via JTA)-I was the only person in Miss Duckler's kindergarten class without a sibling. I had wished so long for a sister. But I had also wished on a star for a Baby Alive doll, and that never came true. So when my Aunt Jeannie picked me up from school and shared the birth of my sister April, I couldn't really believe it. I started cheering and skipping in circles. "I have a sister, I have a sister!" As we drove off in her silver Cadillac Eldorado, I was dying with anticipation. I...
(JTA)-Josh Radnor is starring these days in Richard Greenberg's off-Broadway play "The Babylon Line." For the 42-year-old actor, it is the latest in a long and impressive list of credits. However, the odds are that no matter what else he accomplishes in life, for most people he will always be Ted Mosby, the man who spent nearly a decade telling his TV children-along with millions of viewers across the country-how he met their mother. The beloved sitcom "How I Met Your Mother" aired for nine seas...
