Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Monday at his office in Jerusalem with the head of the research project at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital), where an anti-coronavirus drug is being developed and has shown promising results. "If this succeeds, it will be huge, simply huge," Netanyahu said to professor Nadir Arber about the new drug, called EXO-CD24, according to the Prime Minister's Office. "This is of global significance. This is amazing. I wish...
One death from substance abuse is one too many. The Central Florida Jewish community has had to bear many heartbreaking losses because of this devastating disease. Nationally, suspected overdose submissions to the Overdose Mapping Application Program in 2020 showed increases of 11.4 percent for fatal overdoses and 18.6 percent for nonfatal overdoses during 2020. Regardless of how a substance abuse disorder is initiated, help is desperately needed for those affected, as well as their families....
Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, announces that Chief Executive Officer/Executive Director Janice Weinman will step down after nine years as the organization's leader, effective July 1. During her tenure at Hadassah, Weinman worked in partnership with the National Board of Hadassah to help the organization realize its mission to support Israel; facilitate the work of the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO), the organization's two hospitals in Jerusalem; fight...
(JTA) - Director Steven Spielberg has won the 2021 Genesis Prize, the award nicknamed the "Jewish Nobel." The award, which "honors extraordinary individuals for their outstanding professional achievement, contribution to humanity, and commitment to Jewish values," was announced Wednesday. "Key Jewish themes are often woven into his narratives: importance of identity and belonging, maintaining humanity in a ruthless world, caring for the other, and honoring the moral obligation to do the right...
United States — Today, the Jewish Future Pledge and The Jewish Federations of North America announced their first cohort of local Jewish Federations for a two-year pilot program to proliferate a culture of legacy giving in communities across North America. The partners originally planned to onboard 10 Federations in the first cohort, but after receiving overwhelming interest in participation, expanded the program to accommodate 11 cities. Cohort Federation communities include Portland, Tidewater (VA), Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Greater M...
The IAC360 platform was designed as part of the Israeli-American Council vision to build an engaged and resilient coast-to-coast community with Israel at its heart and “Israeliness” in its spirit. IAC invites the community to be part of its growing community and explore its high-quality activities, programs, courses, and events that are tailored especially Israeli and Jewish American families. The IAC360 vision is to give every Israeli and Jewish American the opportunity to continuously be connected to Israel in every stage of life. IAC360 bri...
Once again, Laurence Morrell, aka "Last of the Jewish Red Necks," came through. He gladly assisted both the Temple Israel educational school, MAGAL, to have both a fundraiser and a way to celebrate Tu B' Shvat in January. He did the same with the Jewish Academy of Orlando. Both were very successful events. Morrell, who knows where to find plants, located a source of pomegranate trees from the nursery Green Sea Farms, located outside of the very small South Central community of Zolfo Springs....
(JTA) - George Shultz, the Reagan administration secretary of state who made it his mission to bring about freedom for Soviet Jewry, has died at 100. The Hoover Institution at Stanford University, where Shultz has been a distinguished fellow for decades, announced his passing on Saturday. It did not give a cause. Shultz was a moderate Republican who in a number of economic Cabinet positions during the Nixon presidency advanced affirmative action as redress for discrimination. He was the rare...
(JNS) — The student senate at Florida State University rejected a series of resolutions that supported the anti-Israel BDS movement and rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition on anti-Semitism. The resolutions were authored by former Student Senate President Ahmad Daraldik, who repeatedly used his position to promote antisemitism in 2020. After being removed and later reinstated as a senator, he introduced three resolutions that were harmful to the Jewish community. Two of them attacked the IHRA Def...
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pleaded not guilty in his ongoing trial for corruption charges, then left the courtroom while the hearing was still underway. Later on Monday he dismissed the charges, as he has in the past, as “fabricated.” Netanyahu is on trial for fraud, bribery and breach of trust — the first time a sitting prime minister has stood trial in Israeli history. The investigations of allegedly illicit payments and favors stretch back years. Netanyahu was officially indicted about a year ago, and his trial b...
(JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected an appeal by Holocaust survivors and their heirs who wanted to pursue restitution claims in the United States after failing in the countries where the art was stolen. The opinion published Wednesday, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, agreed with the defense and with the U.S. government, which joined the defense, that allowing the lawsuits to go ahead would contradict international agreements. “As a Nation, we would be surprised — and might even initiate reciprocal action — if a court...
(JNS) — Reading a biography about a friend is a mixed experience. On the one hand, the protagonist is familiar. On the other, he’s a complete stranger, whose story unfolds like that of a fictional character being introduced in a novel. This is the sense of duality that I had while curled up with “Lone Voice: The Wars of Isi Leibler,” a tome by renowned Australian-Jewish historian Suzanne D. Rutland. Before meeting Leibler in person 20 years ago, I knew about the human-rights activist from Australia and his long-standing fight on behalf of Sovi...
(JNS) — If any one thing has united Jews throughout the ages, it is anti-Semitism. Yet in this era of increased polarization and division, it seems that we cannot even agree anymore on what that constitutes. The 500-word International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition agreed upon by the State Department has been adopted by dozens of nations, organizations and universities. Despite the obvious need for such a document as a useful tool and its widespread acceptance, a number of Jewish groups recently came out with a statement opposing i...
Jewish tradition is to read the Torah, the first Five Books of the Bible, in an annual cycle so that every year we read and study it in its entirety. The weekly Torah portions, parsha, are divided into segments from Genesis through Deuteronomy, each with a different name according to a theme, action, or person that is prominent at the beginning of the parsha. Each year, I find a new insight reading the same text, not necessarily because I am smarter or wiser, but because I am in a different place in my life, and look at the Word through a diffe...
(JNS) — President Joe Biden’s foreign policy and national security team reflects a resurgence of the U.S. State Department’s worldview. To avoid past mistakes, an examination of this worldview and its track record is thus in order. In 1948, the State Department-led Washington’s opposition to the recognition of the newly established Jewish state, contending that Israel would be helpless against the expected Arab military assault, would be pro-Soviet, would undermine U.S.-Arab relations, destabilize the Middle East, threaten the U.S. oil supply...
(JTA) — Many industries were harmed in 2020, perhaps none as deeply as the hospitality sector. Nearly one in six U.S. restaurants had closed as of December, according to data from the National Restaurant Association. Kosher establishments were not immune to the economic consequences of the pandemic: We saw iconic kosher restaurants permanently close this year, including Abigael’s in Manhattan, Casablanca in New Orleans, Wolf & Lamb in Brooklyn, Mama’s Vegetarian in Philadelphia and Bamboo Garden in Seattle, plus a few dozen more in the Unite...
(BESA Center via JNS) — The decision of the International Criminal Court in The Hague last week that it has jurisdiction to investigate alleged war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza, the West Bank, and eastern Jerusalem is baseless but still dangerous, and must be thwarted. It is baseless because only sovereign states can file complaints to the court, and Palestine is not a sovereign state. Moreover, the ICC can investigate only countries that have signed the Rome Statute, which established the court. Israel, along with the United States a...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando is holding in-person minyans. 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.,...
Thanks to the astute eye of Burt Chasnov for bringing to Heritage's attention that the photo of the U.S. Embassy in Israel in last week's issue was the embassy in Tel Aviv, not the one in Jerusalem, which is shown here....
(ISRAEL21c) - Even with Israel's world-leading rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations, drugs to treat Covid patients are in desperate need across the world. Two such drugs developed in Israel show great promise in clinical trials: EXO-CD24 and Allocetra. EXO-CD24 EXO-CD24, an experimental inhaled medication developed at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, cured all 30 moderate-to-severe cases in a Phase I clinical trial. Developed over the past six months at the hospital, EXOCD24 stops the "cytokine...
(JNS) - The Psagot Winery sits on the peaks of the Binyamin region mountains in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem and just east of Ramallah. Though Psagot and many Israeli-owned businesses operating over the 1967 armistice lines have historically experienced boycotts in Europe and throughout the Arab world, many say that in the context of the Abraham Accords, this may be changing. When Yaakov Berg and his wife, Naama, established the Psagot Winery in 2002, they made fewer than 3,000...
(JTA) - What Donald Trump's lawyer likely wanted: for America to spend this evening talking about how the former president was not responsible for the deadly Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol. What he got instead: a firestorm of speculation about why he held his hand over his head every time he took a sip of water. David Schoen, one of Trump's impeachment lawyers, already asked (and then withdrew his request) for Trump's trial to pause for the Jewish day of rest. Was the fact that he covered his...
Eight schools from five countries will unite in song in the upcoming Boys Town Jerusalem International Virtual Choral Festival on Sunday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m. EST. For the past 13 years, the annual Boys Town Jerusalem Choral Festival, in support of the Israeli school’s underprivileged students, has been held in London. This year, the pandemic has compelled the creation of a “virtual” festival, which now opens the event to participation by choirs from Jewish Day Schools across the world. The following schools will be participating in this landm...
Staying away from politics ... But, I can't help telling my readers that we should be proud about the Jewish Space Lazers! Brilliant! Simply brilliant! Anti-Semitic conspiracy myths ... (Sounds like it belongs with the first story ... but no.) I read this in the World Jewish Congress and pass it along: "Two new reports released by the WJC have found that harmful conspiracy myths targeting Jews have become increasingly widespread online, and that the once United States-centric QAnon movement has...
(JNS) - A rare coin bearing the head of the Roman Emperor Antonius Pius and dating from 158–159 C.E. was found during a training exercise by an Israel Defense Forces soldier on the southern end of Mount Carmel, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported on Tuesday. The well-preserved coin, found by Ido Gardi, is one of very few such objects that have been discovered in Israel, according to the IAA. "This coin joins only 11 such coins from known locations in the National Treasures Department...
