Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Israeli government reopened the Temple Mount complex to Muslims and members of other faiths Sunday with strict new security measures, in the wake of last Friday's attack near the flashpoint holy site, in which Arab terrorists killed two Israeli Druze police officers. Israeli defense experts who specialize in understanding radical Islamic culture stress that such attacks are likely to occur again. "For many years, there has been the motivation to create an apocalypse between Islam and...
There is a broad consensus among American Jewish leaders in support of Israel's use of metal detectors to intercept terrorists on Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations "supports taking the necessary and appropriate steps to assure security for all and to protect the sanctity of these holy sites," the umbrella group's executive vice chairman and CEO, Malcolm Hoenlein, told JNS.org. Herbert Block, executive director of the American Zionist Movement, said, "If the authorities responsible for...
A Palestinian terrorist fatally stabbed an Israeli father and two of his adult children last Friday night in the Samaria community of Halamish, amid escalating tension over Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The terror attack in Halamish came on the heels of a Palestinian-incited "day of rage," in which riots erupted after Friday prayers in response to the installation of metal detectors at the entrance gates to the Temple Mount. Israel bolstered security following the July 14 Arab terror attack that...
(JNS.org) Anti-Israel demonstrations were held across the Muslim world Thursday and Friday to protest Israel's decision to implement metal detectors at the Temple Mount, following the July 14 terror attack that killed two Israeli police officers near the holy site. In Jordan's capital of Amman Friday, thousands of protesters organized by Islamist groups took to the streets to decry the security measures. "With our soul, with our blood, we will sacrifice ourselves for you, Al-Aqsa," they...
Some 7,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries prepared to head back to their home countries this week following the 20th Maccabiah Games, a two-week event that is being praised for helping create "positive connections" to Israel. The Jewish athletes from overseas had arrived in Israel in early July, joining 2,500 Israeli contestants in the world's third-largest sporting event, which convenes every four years and is often dubbed the "Jewish Olympics." This year's games, hosted in Jerusalem, had...
Assistant Director of Hillel Sam Friedman, Danielle McKinstry and Andrew Max took to the sea and took this banner for Hillel with them, displaying it on the bottom of the ocean. Hillel CEO Aaron Weil commented, "We love Hillel at UCF from the bottoms of our hearts and now apparently... the ocean floor!"...
Rachel Serena Levine of Orlando graduated at the top of a class of more than 5,000 bachelor's degree candidates during the 134th Commencement at the University of Southern California held in May. A member of Temple Shir Shalom, Oviedo, and a graduate of the Center for International Studies at Dr. Phillips High School in Orlando, Levine, and 16 other straight-A students, was honored on May 11, 2017, as part of a Wall of Scholars recognition ceremony held in the Leavey Library on the Los Angeles,...
Temple Israel will be temporarily transformed into a comedy club on Saturday, Aug. 12, as Orlando's famous SAK Comedy Lab entertains the crowd with a personalized, one-hour show sure to make you laugh. Start the night off with dessert, coffee, and schmoozing in the social hall at 8 p.m., followed by a brief but beautiful Havdallah service led by Rabbi Neely in the sanctuary. Stay in the sanctuary after the service, and grab a seat for the comedy show from 9 to 10 p.m., complete with an MC and...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Barack Obama is gone and the relief among the Christian Zionists and their Jewish friends who peopled certain corners of Washington, D.C., this week was palpable. Gary Bauer, the veteran evangelical activist, laid it out at the opening session of Christians United for Israel's annual conference on Monday. A year ago, "from one end of Pennsylvania Avenue to the next, we had people who were not blessing Israel, they were cursing Israel," said Bauer, who was recently named...
Is a "mobilized faction" in the American Jewish community attempting to "censor" dovish views? The president of The Forward newspaper thinks so, but other editors and leaders of some left-of-center Jewish organizations see things differently. The dispute arises from the July 12 episode of the Jewish Broadcasting Service (JBS) television series "L'Chayim," which featured a panel discussion on freedom of speech in the Jewish community. At the center of the discussion was The Forward's decision to...
(JNS.org)-Vice President Mike Pence said Monday that relocating the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem is only a matter of time. "I promise you that the day will come when President Donald Trump moves the American embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is not a question of if, it is only when," Pence told the 12th annual Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, D.C. Pence said he and Trump "stand without apology for Israel today," and touted the president's trip to Israel in May....
To an objective observer, the crisis that erupted in the aftermath of a bloody terror attack near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount makes no sense. Three Arab terrorists used guns they had smuggled up to the compound July 14 to kill two Israeli policemen, both of whom happened to be Druze rather than Jewish. In response, Israeli authorities set up metal detectors to prevent a recurrence of the crime. The response to this from Palestinians was general outrage, violence and a promise of mass riots if the offending machines were not immediately removed. U...
There is an interesting documentary on YouTube about a recent archeological expedition in Iraq and Iran—what was ancient Persia and before that Babylonia. In ancient texts and evidence in excavations there are stories about Sodom, Gomorrah and the big flood. That area of Persia/Iran was and is susceptible to flooding. They use round bottom boats of the type described in Torah in the story of Noah. But, there is no history of a great flood—plenty of floods, but not one big enough to bring penguins from Antarctica and giraffes from Africa. A lot...
It was best not to write about this right away. Need to see how it would percolate. It could have been massive or a momentary blip testing the level of accommodation between Israel, the Palestinians, and other Muslims. Truth is, that it is still tense, with Friday prayers posing a challenge to all sides. The initial story made the international news, and monopolized what Israelis were hearing for a day. Three Israeli Arabs, from the Galilee city of Um al Fahm, exited the Old City from the area of the Temple Mount and shot three policemen. They...
Journalists and pro-Israel activists often share a tendency to see current events as the beginning of history. I’ve been reminded of this lately by apocalyptic stories regarding anti-Semitism in the United States, the situation on college campuses and American public opinion. I’ve been perusing my archives of articles that I and others have written in the past and thought I’d share some historical observations in the next few columns to put present concerns in context. I hear people claiming the situation on campus today is worse than ever, but...
(JNS.org, and Aish Hatorah Resources)—President Macron equated anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism and said Jew-hatred wasn’t born with the Vichy regime, nor did it die after the liberation of France. French President Emmanuel Macron is not the first French president to give a speech at the annual memorial ceremony commemorating the Vel’ d’Hiv Roundup in July 1942, when some 13,000 Parisian Jews—a third of them children—were rounded up and taken to a local stadium and subsequently expelled to Nazi concentration and death camps. This operation w...
(JTA)—Dear Jewish community, So you wanna understand Israel-Palestine debates on campus? The first thing you have to do is stop talking about BDS. Shocking, right? We try. But really, the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment campaign against Israel isn’t what Israel conversations on campus are all about these days. Campaigns to pass BDS measures on major campuses are actually in decline, yet somehow they still make up the bulk of Jewish news about students. The truth is, divestment proposals happen perennially, people freak out for two to thr...
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...
(JTA)-Renting a house in the Italian countryside and eating loads of pasta is about as blissful a vacation as they come. For the three Anati brothers, however, such a trip is a reminder of the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet the brothers-Bubi, 77; Andrea, 85; and Emmanuel, 88-did just that in 2013, precisely with the aim of reconnecting with their past. The Anatis were raised in an upper-class family in Florence. In 1942, just before the deportations of Florentine Jews to Auschwitz began, the fami...
MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. (JTA)-When Michael Steinhardt strolls around his 55-acre backyard for 90 minutes every morning, one of his favorite animals to see is the scimitar-horned oryx, whose antlers sweep back from its head like the swords for which they are named. But Steinhardt didn't much like finding out that a (literally) horny oryx had stabbed a zebra to death during a testosterone-fueled mating season three years ago. The zebra incident is, thankfully, an outlier on his sprawling estate about...
The surge... I recently heard from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about the surge in anti-Semitism. The subject was addressed in an article written by DANIEL ELBAUM and MARC D. STERN. I pass it along (in part) to you: "Almost daily accounts of vandalized cemeteries, spray-painted swastikas and bomb threats to JCCs and other Jewish agencies have naturally evoked considerable alarm. Clearly, we must never reconcile ourselves to an America where this is considered normal. Yet we must not succumb to...
(The Nosher via JTA)-Avocado toast has been "trendy" for several years throughout the U.S. In fact, avocados have been so trendy, an entire avocado restaurant opened earlier this year in Brooklyn. And people are putting avocados in everything lately: brownies, salad dressing, even ice cream. After all, avocados are healthy, full of good fat, delicious and satisfying. I also love avocados, but I am a purist about eating them-sliced or smashed simply with just a few seasonings with some chips, or...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The arrival of U.S. fighter jets in Israel, part of a month-long arms drop, was critical to turning the tide of the Yom Kippur War in favor of the Jewish state. But for the American pilots who volunteered to deliver the aircraft, it was just another mission. Alan Chesterman, part of a U.S. Navy squadron that flew a handful of the jets, said he had little knowledge of Israel or its security situation when he landed here in October 1973. "We knew we were flying into a combat zone,...
The Jewish Pavilion volunteers and staff enjoyed many Kabbalat Shabbat programs and holiday celebrations throughout this past year with Bert. Bert Udovin quickly became embedded in the community at Oakmont Village- Cordova and was proud of his involvement with Jewish Pavilion. He befriended new residents and encouraged them to join him on Friday afternoons. When Susan Bernstein began leading Shabbat twice each month they became fast friends. Susan shared memories and anectodes of the times they...
