Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-This time six years ago, Israel completed its high-tech border fence with Egypt, marking the start of a transformation in the situation along this restive frontier. With its network radars and cameras, the obstacle-dubbed "Hourglass" by the Israeli Defense Ministry-issues alerts to Israel Defense Forces units regarding suspicious movements. The barrier has almost completely stopped the mass movement of illegal migration from Africa, Dr. Ofer Israeli, a geostrategist and international...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli politics looks like a big mess right now. In the past few weeks, three new parties have been launched and one party has kicked out a former partner. More changes are likely, too. It probably will get messier still if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is indicted before national elections are held on April 9. The latest polls show 12 to 14 parties entering the new Knesset, many with the bare minimum of four seats. (The Knesset has 120 seats.) That would be up from 10 in t...
Temple Israel recently signed a 9.5-year contract extension with Rabbi Joshua Neely. This is the synagogue's third contract with Rabbi Neely, who has been the spiritual leader of this progressive Conservative congregation since 2010. Temple Israel President Adrian Share explained "the length of the contract is the strongest testament to our commitment to each other and the long-term stability this provides to our congregation and prospective members." Congregants enjoy engaging with Rabbi Neely,...
The New York-based Touro College and University System is pleased to announce winter and spring lectures it is bringing to Orlando in partnership with The Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando. The Winter Lecture, "Our Precious Legacy: Have We Given It Over to Our Children As It Was Given To Us?" will be delivered by Rabbi Alan G. Ciner, vice president of Community Engagement at TCUS, on Wednesday, Jan. 24, at The Roth Family JCC of Greater Orlando, located at 851 N. Maitland Ave. in Maitland,...
This February, Chabad Centers throughout Orlando will offer “Crime and Consequence,” a new six-session course by the Rohr Jewish Learning Institute (JLI) exploring 3000 years of Jewish perspective on conviction, sentencing, and criminal rehabilitation. Beginning the first week of February, participants in the course will challenge their thinking, ponder the implications of ancient Talmudic wisdom for complex modern cases, and get to the heart of the most pressing injustices facing our cri...
Jewish Academy of Orlando will break ground for its new Kindness Garden on Monday Jan. 21, Martin Luther King Day. The garden will be a segment of the campus playground. The project is part of a grant to incorporate fine arts in to the school's Judaic Studies program. A segment of the grant requirement was to solve a problem in the school through the creative process. Led by the 5th grade class, the problem that students chose to solve was how to ensure all members of the JAO community act with...
Super Bowl Sunday is Feb. 3rd this year, just weeks away. That means the annual World Wide Wrap sponsored by the Men’s Club of Congregation Ohev Shalom is just around the corner. Each year, Men’s Clubs from Conservative and Masorti synagogues throughout the United States and beyond present this Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs program to encourage greater participation in the ancient and deeply meaningful ritual of wrapping t’filin. This year’s event is being sponsored in partnership with Women’s League for Conservative Judaism. Congregatio...
(JNS)-Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) called on the U.S. Department of Justice to end funding for the Nation of Islam. The Washington Examiner first reported this development and the funding of "at least $364,500 in contracts and awards" from the DOJ and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons between fiscal 2008 and fiscal 2019. "The fact that hard-earned American tax dollars are being funded to this extremist group is not only unacceptable, it's downright immoral," the congressman wrote in a letter on Monday...
(JNS)—Senate Democrats are reportedly seeking to block pro-Israel legislation introduced last week that Republican leadership is scheduled for Tuesday. Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) each tweeted opposition to a vote advancing the legislation, citing the partial government shutdown over the past few weeks due to U.S. President Donald Trump not getting funding for a wall along the border with Mexico. The proposed measure rolls four bills that were introduced in the previous Congress, but were not e...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Tom Cotton of Arkansas again called on the United States to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Israel is stepping up its campaign for international recognition of its claim to the strategic plateau. A joint statement by the two Republican senators came on the same day that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, to recognize Israel’s claim to the Golan. Israel captured the heights from Syria in the 1967 Six-Day War and a...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Moshe Arens, a veteran Israeli politician and defense minister under three prime ministers, has died. Arens, who first hired Benjamin Netanyahu and is credited with helping him get his start in politics, died Monday in his sleep at his home near Tel Aviv. He was 93. Arens was a member of the Knesset for the Likud party from 1973 to 1992 and again from 1999 to 2003. As ambassador to the United States beginning in 1982, Arens brought on Netanyahu as part of the diplomatic corps...
By Kenneth Hanson Not long ago I was privileged to take part in a panel discussion on the history of anti-Semitism. The shared comments of the panelists, I felt, yielded a considerable wealth of insight, until the notion was advanced that anti-Semitism is at its core a product of the political right. To this assertion I felt compelled to take exception. I had just been reading an article regarding various fallacies connected with anti-Semitism, one fallacy in particular being that it derives exclusively from the political right wing. I instantl...
(JNS)—Ever since President Donald Trump astounded the world by announcing the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, commentators have been trying to work out the significance of this decision. Among those conservatives who believe America should make alliances against the enemies of the West and then stand by those allies, there has been shock and consternation. A number of Israeli analysts have expressed similar dismay. The cause of the concern is obvious. By withdrawing the 2,000 or so U.S. troops stationed in the border area between Iraq, Sy...
(Research Institute for European and American Studies via JNS)—In the course of almost 40 years, Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and has a long and bloody history of terror attacks. Since 2017 the Iranian regime’s terrorist activities appear to be on the rise on European soil. Thanks to good intelligence the Iranian latest terrorist plots has not resulted in heavy casualties, but these plots are just the tip of the iceberg. The latest Iranian terror plots in Europe are a warning and a wake-up call to governments in Europ...
(JTA)—A great American Jewish jurist once argued against the idea of a “hyphenated American.” He said there was no place in America for immigrants and their children to hold on to differences based on “race or creed.” “[T]o keep alive difference of origin or to classify men according to their religious beliefs are inconsistent with American ideas of brotherhood, and are disloyal,” he argued. A few years later, a great American Zionist leader argued that there is nothing more American or patriotic than holding “multiple loyalties”—to G...
(JNS)—The Australian government has decided that Israel’s capital should be torn in half, resuming the apartheid-like status that prevailed the last time the Arabs occupied part of Jerusalem. Would the Temple Mount be in Israel’s part of Jerusalem? Nope. Judaism’s holiest site is “Palestinian,” according to the Australians. What about the Western Wall? Not that, either. It’s “occupied territory.” How about the Old City’s Jewish Quarter, where Jews have lived since time immemorial? Off-limits to Jews. The Mount of Olives, the world’s oldest...
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. Tem...
(JNS)-A medical resident fired from the Cleveland Clinic last year posted on Twitter that supporters of Israel should have their immune cells killed. "Studying for my med micro final, came across this. Clearly, I pay attention in class and write very useful notes," tweeted Lara Kollab in 2013. The Twitter post included a handwritten note: "People who support Israel should have their immune cells killed so they can see how it feels to not be able to defend yourself from foreign invaders." Kollab...
Now in its third exciting year, the Meitin Alliance for Growth And Learning was created by Temple Shir Shalom (Reform) and Temple Israel (Conservative) to bring together Jewish students from a broad spectrum of backgrounds in order to have their diversity enrich their learning. Both congregations have always been committed to a robust and solid curriculum of Jewish knowledge, but working together brings the benefit of greater diversity of ideas. MAGAL, which means circle in Hebrew, believes...
By Lisa Levine If you are an American Jew, chances are good that you have encountered many non-Jews who know little or have misconceptions about Jewish religion or culture. So if you or a loved one were moving into a senior care facility, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to find that it did not occur to the non-Jewish caregiving staff to wish you a happy new year on Rosh Hashanah or offer you matzoh instead of a dinner roll on Passover. But in greater Orlando, most of the facilities have s...
Students from a World ORT Kadima Mada Youth Village in Israel scored a historic "first" after their peace-making efforts were acknowledged at a major international forum. A short film, "Peace for Israel," made by teenagers from the Kfar Silver Youth Village, was screened at a UNESCO conference in Paris last month. The 90-second video on the use of drones and robots for peace, which was created by the students at the height of the conflict on the Gaza border in 2018, was selected as one of 10...
What a loss... The World Jewish Congress and its affiliated community in Lithuania recently marked the 75th anniversary of the liquidation of the Vilnius Ghetto, alongside Pope Francis and other notable personalities. "Seventy-five years ago, the Germans and local Lithuanian accessories nearly obliterated one of the most vibrant Jewish communities in Europe, a hub of cultural and intellectual Jewish life for thousands of years," WJC President Ambassador RONALD S. LAUDER said. "But they did not...
(JTA)—Jewish federal employees who are struggling with expenses due to the government shutdown can now find some relief. The Hebrew Free Loan Association of Greater Washington approved an emergency program last week to provide loans of up to $2,000 per household to affected Jews living in the Washington, D.C., area. Several people have applied and two have been approved, the organization’s president, David Farber, told JTA on Wednesday. The association has allocated some $30,000 to the program, and it’s reaching out to local synagogues and J...
(JNS)-Reactions and memories from the Jewish and pro-Israel community have filled news pages and social media following the death of Moshe Arens, former Israeli Defense Minister and mentor of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Monday at the age of 93. "The Conference of Presidents mourns the loss of a great leader of Israel and dear friend of the Presidents Conference, Minister Moshe Arens. Minister Arens served Israel in many capacities, including as a very impactful and successful...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Sen. Bernie Sanders said it was "absurd" for Republicans to introduce as the Senate's first bill of this Congress a measure that would protect states that penalize Israel boycotters. "It's absurd that the first bill during the shutdown is legislation which punishes Americans who exercise their constitutional right to engage in political activity," Sanders, I-Vt., said Sunday on Twitter, linking to an article in The Intercept about the legislation. President Donald Trump says he...
