Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2855 - 2879 of 10919
The annual meetings for The Roth Family JCC and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando will take place on Sunday, Aug. 21. Doors open at 9 a.m. for a light breakfast of bagels an coffee. The JCC Annual Meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m., with the Federation Annual Meeting following at 10:30 a.m. There will be a Zoom option for those who are unable to attend in person. The main item on each agenda will be the vote on merging to create Shalom Orlando, Federation’s meeting will also include approving the new Shalom Orlando bylaws, which will be m...
(JTA) — The Democratic primary next week in Michigan’s 11th District could end a four-decade Jewish political dynasty — and spending by the country’s biggest pro-Israel lobby is playing a significant role. Because of redistricting, the race pits two incumbent Democrats against each other: Rep. Andy Levin, a Jewish Democrat who favors conditioning aid to Israel and counts some of Congress’s most outspoken Israel critics as his friends, and Rep. Haley Stevens, a non-Jewish centrist whose Israel commitments lie mainly in assuring its military...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has instructed the country’s Foreign Ministry to prepare a series of political measures against Russia to be implemented in the event it closes the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit organization that promotes immigration to Israel. Although Moscow gave no reason for shuttering the agency’s offices, officials have said it is possibly due to Israel’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lawmakers met on Sunday to discuss the matter, during which some even...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has implemented measures that could turn the P.A. into a dictatorship, according to a new report, published just two weeks before the 29th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. The report was authored by Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, which has followed developments in the P.A. virtually since its inception in 1994. Over the past four years, the report states, “Abbas has made decisions and implemented fundamental changes to the Palestinian political system, the...
(JNS) — Antisemitic fliers claiming that Jews control the media were found outside homes in Minnesota, Georgia, New York and Florida in recent days, and are being attributed to the same group that marched with swastika flags in Tampa, Fla., on July 23. “Six Jewish media corporations own 96 percent of the media,” read the fliers, which were contained in plastic bags weighed down with corn kernels and included photos of several Jewish media insiders with a Magen David, or Star of David, on their forehead. It included the web address for the a...
(JTA) – Israel’s top immigration official says the country will not award citizenship to Baruch Lanner, a rabbi and convicted sex offender from the United States. Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked’s announcement, made Tuesday to the Jerusalem Post, came a day after nearly 200 American rabbis and Jewish scholars sent a letter to Israel’s prime minister, Yair Lapid, urging him to reject Lanner’s citizenship application. Lanner, an American rabbi and former official of the Orthodox Union’s NCSY youth group, served a three-year prison sentence fo...
(JTA) - The Auburn University men's basketball team will travel to Israel this weekend for a 10-day Birthright-style trip, likely the first of its kind for a full Division I college or professional team. Coined "Birthright for College Basketball," the trip will feature some of Israel's most famous historical and tourist sites - from the Western Wall and the Dead Sea to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum - plus three exhibition games against teams of players from the top echelon of Israeli...
(JTA) - When Steve Dettelbach was confirmed last week as the director of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, he became the beleaguered bureau's first head to pass a Senate confirmation in eight years. For some, the confirmation offered hope of a changing tide in America's sea of mass shootings. But a county Republican group in Kentucky saw a different story: that Dettelbach is part of a "Jewish junta" that "is getting stronger and more aggressive." The Bracken...
(Israel21c via JNS) — In the year 326, the Roman Emperor Constantine began construction of a church in Jerusalem on top of the remains of his predecessor Hadrian’s temple dedicated to the pagan god Jupiter. Constantine’s project became the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, traditionally identified as the place where Jesus was crucified and entombed. During repairs and restorations at the church, archeologists from the University of Rome La Sapienza discovered rock layers of the stone quarry used for its original construction. These layers, accor...
(JTA) - So many campers were sick with COVID-19 last week at Ramah New England that its director, Rabbi Ed Gelb, put out a call to families: Would any nurses be willing to come to camp for a few days to help? "We have a large and capable nursing staff, but more help would be great," he wrote. Gelb's request came in an extended email about the state of the pandemic at the Palmer, Massachusetts, Jewish camp, in which he said some buildings had been transformed temporarily into infirmaries. But...
(JTA) - The director of a major international art exhibition has resigned after a work that included caricatures of Jews and Israelis ignited a reckoning over antisemitism. The scandal leaves Documenta - a sweeping, decentralized exhibition staged every five years in Kassel, Germany - on uncertain territory for the future. Documenta announced that the Anne Frank Education Center in Frankfurt, would review all of the work in the exhibition, but the center's director said announced on Friday that...
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The California State University Board of Trustees voted Wednesday to remove the name of an unrepentant antisemite and Nazi sympathizer from the main library on its Fresno campus, putting an end to the legacy of longtime former librarian Henry Miller Madden at Fresno State after an internal investigation. The building will be referred to as the Fresno State Library until a replacement name is chosen. In a press release sent to the campus community, Fresno State University President Saúl Jimén...
(JNS) — Bringing more than 10,000 Jewish athletes from 80 countries to compete in 42 sporting events all around Israel for the Maccabiah games is an impressive feat. Returning these athletes to their home countries as ambassadors and spokespeople for the State of Israel is a process that takes planning, coordination and a person like Hillel Akotonas. The 21st Maccabiah — the biggest sporting event in Israel and reportedly the second-largest in the world (“The Jewish Olympics”) — opened on July 12 and will conclude on July 26. When the athle...
(JNS) — On Sunday afternoon, Ben Shapiro, the editor emeritus of The Daily Wire, ascended to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem to pray with his parents and a group of followers. Shapiro’s first visit to the Temple Mount was during the holiday of Sukkot back in October 2019. That visit was cut short after someone in his group was found to be carrying a willow branch in his pocket as a mitzvah for the last day of Sukkot, leading to the group’s removal from the holy site. While waiting for security to clear the group to enter the complex this time...
Gantz says Israel could ‘seriously harm and delay’ Iran’s nuclear program (JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Tuesday that Israel has the capability to cause major damage to Iran’s nuclear program. He also said that plans to revive the 2015 nuclear deal would only delay Iran’s program. “Iran is a global problem,” he said during a Channel 13 conference in Jerusalem. “It is not just Israel’s private problem.” “We are able to seriously harm and delay the nuclear [program],” he added. “We are very unsatisfied with the agreem...
Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the month of Av (which month coincides with July and/or August), is the major day of communal mourning in the Jewish calendar. Although a large number of disasters are said to have befallen the Jews on this day, the major commemoration is of the destruction of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. and 70 C.E., respectively. Central to the observance of this day is fasting. Tisha B’Av Ideas & Beliefs Although the exact date of the destruction of each of the Temples — the ancient centers of Jewis...
(JTA) — Eric Reyzelman is in a New York state of mind. The New York Yankees selected the Jewish Louisiana State University pitcher 160th overall in the fifth round of the Major League Baseball draft on Monday. Reyzelman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency he plans to sign with the team and begin his career in professional baseball instead of returning for final year at LSU. He does not yet know what his first stop will be in the Yankees organization. “Unbelievable, unbelievable moment for me and...
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to attend the Maccabiah Games on Thursday. The audience at the opening ceremony of the 21st Maccabiah games showered Biden with affection as thousands cheered "Joe" repeatedly and shouted things like "we love you Mr. President" at Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem. Biden, flanked by Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Israeli President Isaac Herzog, waved a baseball cap emblazoned with the letters USA for several minutes as the crowd...
JERUSALEM (JTA) - After releasing a joint statement that demonstrates unity on the need to counter the Iranian nuclear threat, U.S. president Joe Biden and Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid gave statements that demonstrate radical differences in their approach to doing so. The document released on Thursday, the second day of Biden's visit to Israel, is a 1,500-word statement titled "The Jerusalem Declaration on the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership." It states that the United States is...
(JNS) - Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday evening welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden at the President's Residence in Jerusalem. Referring to Herzog by his nickname, Biden wrote in the President's Residence guestbook, "Bougie, my friend, thank you for all you and your family have done to deepen the ironclad bond between our two great countries." "From our shared Irish roots to our shared love of Israel, we are united in heart and spirit. May our friendship endure and continue to grow!...
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Joe Biden dispensed with both social distancing and the chair arranged for him Wednesday as he embraced two Holocaust survivors, then knelt to speak with them during his first trip to Israel as U.S. president. "I'm very excited about the meeting and also a little scared of it," Rene Quint, 86, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency ahead of the scheduled encounter - a brief conversation that she and another survivor, Giselle Cycowicz, 95, were scheduled to have with Biden at Yad...
Dr. Gunther Jikeli, director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University will address the question of “Anti-Antisemitism: Online, Offline and What To Do About It” in the Virginia Room on the second floor of the Ringhaver Student Center at Flagler College, 50 Sevilla Street, St. Augustine, Florida 32084 at 4 pm. Thursday, Aug. 25. This event, sponsored by Flagler College and Dr. Larry Kanter, is open to the public. All are welcome. No prior arrangements are necessary. There is no charge for this event. For...
(JNS) - A large cargo of medical and humanitarian aid was recently collected and delivered to Ukraine by the Israeli international humanitarian aid organization IsraAID and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Israel-Ukraine. A total of 31 pallets weighing 9 tons (19,841 pounds) were delivered to the city of Kharkiv on July 6, the Ukrainian embassy in Israel announced on its Facebook page. The cargo contained tourniquets, bandages, occlusive dressings, chest seals, surgical packs, hygiene kits...
TEL AVIV (JTA) — Joe Biden kicked off his 10th trip to Israel — and first as U.S. president — on Wednesday by declaring that the relationship between the two countries is “bone-deep.” Biden told Israeli President Isaac Herzog “I am home,” according to Herzog’s office, and he attempted to prove it right away. Speaking at Ben Gurion Airport, Biden recounted his extensive personal history with Israel, including a 1973 meeting with then-prime minister Golda Meir that is a favorite — if sometimes embroidered — anecdote. “Now as president, I’m pro...
(JNS) — In a news release on Monday, the U.S. State Department slammed the Russian government for continuing to compare Ukrainian leaders to Nazis and evoking the Holocaust in its war against Ukraine. The release cited numerous examples of the Russian government and propaganda apparatus justifying its aggression towards Ukraine by invoking World War II imagery. Russia has long claimed that one of its goals in Ukraine was “de-Nazification” with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling the Ukrainian leaders a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Naz...
