Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles from the April 26, 2019 edition


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  • Netanyahu's promise to annex West Bank settlements, explained

    Ben Sales|Apr 26, 2019

    (JTA)—Just days before Israel was to hold national elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to annex parts of the West Bank as Israeli territory. “I’m going to extend sovereignty,” he said in an interview with Israeli Channel 12 on Saturday night, adding that “I don’t differentiate between the settlement blocs and isolated settlements.” The campaign promise is a last-minute bid to draw right-wing votes in a tight election race. But what does annexing West Bank settlements mean? How would it affect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks,...

  • Orthodox communities at the center of a measles outbreak

    Ben Sales|Apr 26, 2019

    (JTA)—Rabbi Mordechai Shain isn’t sure about vaccines. Nearly all of the 400 kids in the school he runs, from 3 months old to eighth-grade teens, are vaccinated. About eight or 10 are not. But he’s skeptical that immunization works at all. “My doctor in shul says everyone should take a flu shot, so a lot of people went,” said Shain, the head of school at the Tenafly Chabad Academy in Northern New Jersey, about 13 miles from Manhattan. “Ninety percent that took a flu shot got flus and the 10 percent didn’t get the flu. … I speak to so many docto...

  • Unusual gap year-program is grooming new kind of European Jewish leader

    Larry Luxner|Apr 26, 2019

    BERLIN—Vanessa Roth planned to go straight to law school after graduating high school in Trier, Germany. But when she saw a flier at her local synagogue advertising a Jewish gap-year program offering professional training within a Jewish milieu, her interest immediately was piqued. Trier has a tiny Jewish community, and Roth was eager both to meet other young Jews and advance her professional ambitions. So Roth put off her law school plans. Now in the final weeks of the JAcademy gap-year program, Roth, 19, has spent the last year living and l...

  • Weekly roundup of world briefs

    Apr 26, 2019

    Official US maps now show Golan Heights as part of Israel By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA)—Official U.S. maps now include the Golan Heights as part of Israel. Jason Greenblatt, the top White House Middle East peace negotiator, posted a map Tuesday on his Twitter feed. “Welcome to the newest addition of our international maps system after @POTUS issued a proclamation recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights,” Greenblatt said. President Donald Trump in March recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the strategic plateau. Israel capture...

  • 9 takeaways from Israel's historic election

    Marcy Oster|Apr 26, 2019

    JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s election on Tuesday was contentious, historic, crazy—and somewhat predictable. Benjamin Netanyahu seems poised to become the longest-serving prime minister in Israel’s history, with the help of his strengthened right-wing parliamentary bloc. But that didn’t mean the results didn’t bring some surprises. Here are the big takeaways. 1. Two winners? No Israeli party had ever garnered more than a million votes in an election, but two did on Tuesday: Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and former Israeli military chief of staff Benny G...

  • Was a UNC-Duke conference on Gaza anti-Semitic?

    Ben Sales|Apr 26, 2019

    (JTA)-"This is my anti-Semitic song," Tamer Nafar, a Palestinian-Israeli rapper, said at the opening of a conference on Gaza last month at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "I know it might sound [like] R&B stuff, but don't think of Rihanna when you sing it, don't think of Beyonce," he continued. "Think of Mel Gibson. Go that anti-Semitic. Let's try it together because I need your help. I cannot be anti-Semitic alone." Nafar then launched into "Mama, I fell in love with a Jew," a...