Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2076 - 2100 of 10707
(JTA) — When Benjamin Netanyahu put his controversial calls for judicial reform on pause three weeks ago, many thought the protesters in Israel and abroad might declare victory and take a break. And yet a week ago Saturday some 200,000 people demonstrated in Tel Aviv, and pro-democracy protests continued among Diaspora Jews and Israeli expats, including those who gather each Sunday in New York’s Washington Square Park. On its face, the weeks of protest have been about proposed legislation that critics said would sap power from the Israeli Sup...
Omar no longer a speaker at US Commission on Religious Freedom event (JNS) — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who has compared boycotts of Israel and of Nazi Germany, was slated to deliver opening remarks at a U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom event on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Terror Victims, according to a listing shared on Twitter. But the event is now slated for May 1, without the congresswoman on the docket. Rabbi David Saperstein, director emeritus of the Religious Action Center of Reform Jud...
(JNS) — Antisemitism is on the rise throughout the Western world, particularly targeting haredi Jews and particularly in certain Diaspora urban centers, according to The Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. The finding is detailed in the center’s 22nd annual Antisemitism Worldwide Report, which was published in collaboration with the American Defamation League. This writer has strong personal recollections of walking to the synagogue in Brooklyn, New York, long before antisemitic incidents were rep...
(JNS) - This year's March of the Living, the annual tribute to the 6 million held at the site of the former German death camp Auschwitz in Poland, was conducted under the theme of "Honoring Jewish heroism in the Holocaust." The event took place April 19, on Israel's Holocaust Remembrance Day. It was the first time since the global pandemic that the March was held in its full format, with delegations from well over 25 countries and 10,000 participating. It falls one day before the historical...
RAISE Inclusion Director Rachel Slavkin and RAISE Strategy and Development Director Loren London met with Rosen Hotels & Resorts Human Resources department to share their mission of offering a work and social skills training program for neurodiverse adults along with guidance for transition to community employment. This partnership will provide RAISE participants with an opportunity to train and work in Rosen Hotels & Resorts. Rosen Hotels & Resorts is now the 14th training site that has...
Did you know that three out of four adults have HPV by the age of 30, and 62 percent of freshman in college? HPV-related tonsil cancer has become an epidemic among men between the ages of 40 – 60. April is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month. To celebrate survivors and give hope to patients and caregivers, as well as honor those who died, Jason Mendelsohn is making a difference by raising funds and awareness with a Whiskey and Wine Fundraiser and Awareness Event at Mercedes-Benz of Orlando on S...
This Pesach started out like so many others ... beautiful sunny weather, lots of tourists, families gearing up for Seder and Chol haMoed vacations together in all the fun places in Israel with water. Life events in Israel are strong and fast. Weddings are tremendous events, with hundreds of guests. When I attended my first wedding in Israel I was astonished at the number of guests ... something like 600 ... ("who is paying for this?" I thought to myself) also the attire, so many in jeans and...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2023 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando this summer. “For more than 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award,” said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Edward Zissman. Former recip...
(JNS) — Victims and relatives have yet to claim millions of belongings that Nazi authorities stole from Jews and others during the Holocaust, a British official said on March 28 during an international conference of Holocaust representatives in London. Eric Pickles, the United Kingdom government’s special envoy for post-Holocaust issues, complained that international auctioneers are profiting from stolen artwork and other valuable artifacts as survivors who can identify their previous possessions dwindle. “We need to get a grip on this in the n...
(JTA) — When Israel and Poland agreed to resume Israeli youth trips to Polish Holocaust sites last month, their agreement stipulated that new sites be added to the students’ itineraries, including some that document Nazi crimes against non-Jewish Poles. Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust memorial and history authority, is now calling those additions “inappropriate” and “problematic.” In statements to Haaretz published on Monday, leading historians condemned the development, arguing that the new trip rules advance what they call Poland’s trac...
(JTA) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu withdrew his firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, citing a sharp rise in violence in recent days, and suggested that proposed changes to the country’s judicial system that have sparked widespread protest were no longer imminent. In another concession to the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have flooded the streets to protest the planned changes, Netanyahu added on Monday that a yet-to-be established national guard corps would not answer directly to his far-right national security minister, Itam...
(JTA) — Berlin police are investigating a pro-Palestinian rally where demonstrators allegedly chanted “Death to the Jews” and “Death to Israel,” phrases that if verified could be criminal offenses under Germany’s strict post-World War II hate speech laws. Hundreds of people showed up in the Kreuzberg and Neukölln neighborhoods on Saturday at a rally organized in response to the police clashes with Muslim worshipers at the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem last week. In video captured by a watchdog called Democ, many were also sh...
Palestinian terror cell arrested in Jenin (JNS) — Israeli forces on Tuesday arrested a terrorist cell in Jenin, in northern Samaria, that intended to carry out an attack “in an immediate time frame.” Five terrorists were detained during the operation carried out by the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Border Police, according to a statement from the IDF. The IDF’s Duvdevan undercover counterterror unit, a paratrooper patrol and a Shin Bet-directed military unit conducted the morning arrests, seizing ammunit...
(JNS) — Nearly half a century ago, the U.S. Congress proclaimed 1978 as a year of education, and over the next four and half decades the president has annually proclaimed Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson’s Hebrew birthday, the 11th of Nissan, as education day in his honor. Now, following the bipartisan tradition, U.S. President Joe Biden has announced that day, which this year fell on April 2, as a national “Day of Education and Sharing” to commemorate the life of the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe. “On Education and Sharing Day, we honor the memor...
The Roth Family JCC’s Seniors on the Go (formerly the 39ers) recently had a visit from a therapy dog named Honey. Meeting Honey was not only therapeutic but fun for the seniors. Seniors on the Go is open to all seniors in the area 65+ who are members of the Roth JCC. People who have Medicaid can obtain a free membership here under the “Silver Sneakers” program. The next event will be on Monday, April 17. The group is having a lunch-out day at Antonios in Maitland. Anyone who has questions or wo...
Spring is always a busy time of year. It can be easy to forget to take time for yourself. But Saturday Night Out at the Rosen JCC is the perfect solution. Parents get a chance to plan a night for them. They can get together with friends or go to dinner, a show, shopping or just quiet time. Kids go to the Rosen JCC for a night packed with activities. There are games and art projects. They can use the playground. Finally, there is a movie and pizza to wind down the night. Space is limited and it does sell out so don’t miss your chance. This w...
Heritage Florida Jewish News is accepting nominations for the 2023 Heritage Human Service Award, which will be presented at the annual meeting of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando this summer. “For more than 30 years, individuals who have made major, voluntary contributions of their talent, time, energy and effort to the Central Florida community have been honored with the selection and presentation of this award,” said Jeff Gaeser, editor and publisher of the Heritage. Last year’s recipient was Dr. Edward Zissman. Former recip...
(JTA) — Nikki Fried, who chairs Florida’s Democratic Party, was arrested at a protest for abortion rights in the state capital, along with 10 other demonstrators. The protest on April 3, which took place outside Tallahassee City Hall, was in opposition to a proposed six-week abortion ban in Florida that the state senate passed Monday evening. The bill must pass the state House of Representatives before heading to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Fried, who is Jewish, previously served as Florida’s commissioner of agriculture, a rare De...
(JNS) — The Anti-Defamation League announced plans to open a satellite office in Brooklyn, N.Y., which its CEO and national director Jonathan Greenblatt calls one of the “epicenters for antisemitism in this country.” Of more than 395 antisemitic incidents that the ADL documented in New York City last year, 147 occurred in Brooklyn, home to a number of large Orthodox Jewish communities easily identifiable by their dress. Neighborhoods include Crown Heights, Williamsburg, Flatbush and Borough Park. “The Brooklyn community has been burdened with a...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog resumed talks on Monday with Knesset factions aimed at hammering out a compromise on judicial reform. The president again hosted working teams representing the ruling coalition and the leading opposition parties Yesh Atid and National Unity, respectively the second- and third-largest parties in Israel’s parliament after Likud. Talks are being held at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem. Herzog convened the first meeting on March 28, shortly after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of a fre...
(JNS) The family of Or Eshkar, 32, who died on March 20 of a bullet wound sustained during a terror attack in Tel Aviv on March 9, donated his organs to five people. Eshkar’s heart was transplanted into a 65-year-old man. A 75-year-old man received his liver. A 52-year-old and a 59-year-old each received a kidney. And a liver lobe was transplanted into a one-year-old. The heart transplant, which went to Yedidya Sulimani, a father of four and grandfather of 11, was “complex” because the patient had an artificial heart implanted previ...
(JNS) - In a video message, Rabbi Leo Dee - whose wife, Lucy, 48, and daughters, Maia, 20, and Rina, 15, were murdered in a terrorist attack - called for the observance of April 10 as "Dees Day." "Today, we differentiate between good and evil, right and wrong," he said. Dee described being unable to reach his wife and daughters, who were traveling in a different car, after hearing that there had been a terrorist attack. Then he saw a missed call from one of his daughters. "The feeling that she...
(JNS) - A coordinated cyberattack took down the websites of major Israeli universities on Tuesday. A hacker group calling itself "Anonymous Sudan" claimed responsibility for the attack on its Telegram account, stating that the "Israel education sector has been dropped because of what they did in Palestine." Institutions impacted by the attack include Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, the Open University of Israel and Reichman Un...
Over the last few weeks, while Israel has been roiled by demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands, and President Isaac Herzog has warned about the possibility of civil war, American Jews have been watching with grave concern. Even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a delay in the government plan to overhaul the judiciary that sparked the mass protests, tensions in Israel remained high. It was precisely at this fraught moment that UJA-Federation of New York decided to bring a group of rabbis from the New York area...
