Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett won’t run in his country’s upcoming elections this fall, his office announced Wednesday, after he served as head of a fragile, now collapsing Knesset coalition for a little over a year. The announcement caught many in Israel by surprise given that Bennett had led the country for just a year and, as the leader of the right-wing Yamina party might well have won a role in any future government coalition. He indicated in his final speech to the Knesset that he would continue to support Yair Lapid...
(JTA) — Ahead of his first presidential visit to Israel, Joe Biden congratulated Yair Lapid on becoming prime minister on Thursday, following the resignation of his predecessor Naftali Bennett. “Congratulations to @YairLapid, Israel’s new Prime Minister, and thank you to Alternate Prime Minister @NaftaliBennett for your friendship over the past year. I look forward to seeing you both in July to celebrate the unbreakable U.S.-Israel partnership,” Biden wrote on Twitter shortly after Lapid assumed the premiership. Biden is scheduled to visit I...
(JNS) — An anti-Israel activist who shared a number of social media posts with anti-Semitic content has campaigned with multiple Democrats over the past year. Mahel Abdel Qader has come under fire for repeatedly promoting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In 2017, he shared a graphic that included the names of dozens of Jewish members of Congress, implying that they have a dual loyalty to Israel and the United States. The Daily Caller reported that, in 2018, Qader shared an anti-Semitic video that claimed Jews are “satanic” and control the m...
(JTA) - Vladimir Zelenko, the doctor from an Orthodox enclave near New York City who rose to fame early in the COVID-19 pandemic for promoting a drug cocktail, has died of cancer at 48. The foundation that Zelenko launched to advance his theories after he left his family medical practice amid controversy in May 2020 announced his death on Thursday, saying that it would accept donations to continue his work, which included opposition to COVID-19 vaccines. Zelenko, who went by Zev, was born in...
BUDAPEST (JTA) — For the last few months, a lakeside palace linked to a major political scandal in Hungary has been home to Jewish refugees from Ukraine. Just before Passover, six weeks after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Hungarian government signed off on an effort to makes the palace in Balatonőszöd, a resort town on the the lakes of Lake Balaton some 80 miles away from Budapest, kosher for the holiday. Now, the palace will be renovated to accommodate at least 664 people with a kosher kitchen able to feed hundreds more daily, according to a s...
(JNS) — More than 80 scholars of Jewish and Israel studies have joined together to form an initiative to combat on-campus anti-Zionism: The Jewish Studies Zionist Network. The organization is the brainchild of Jarrod Tanny, an associate professor of Jewish history at the University of North Carolina-Wilmington. The scholars who signed up for the initiative include Israeli political philosopher and author of The Virtue of Nationalism Yoram Hazony of the Herzl Institute, the University of Florida Holocaust historian Norman J.W. Goda and G...
(JTA) — The head of the Jewish Community of Porto, Portugal said that a criminal investigation stemming from the organization’s role in vetting Jews with Sephardic ancestry for Portuguese citizenship amounts to antisemitic persecution by officials. In an unusually harsh letter to lawmakers last week, Gabriel Senderowicz said the probe was perpetrating a “Holocaust against families.” And in a sign of splits among the country’s Jews, a former leader of the Jewish community of Lisbon dismissed Senderowicz’s allegations as baseless and “absurd.” S...
(Aish Hatorah Resources) — The traditional Jewish view does not fit conveniently into the major “camps” in the current debate. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (Orthodox Union) recently issued the following statement regarding the US Supreme Court’s potential overturning of Roe v Wade: The Orthodox Union is unable to either mourn or celebrate the news reports of the U.S. Supreme Court’s likely overturning of Roe v Wade. We cannot support absolute bans on abortion at any time point in a pregnancy that would not allow acc...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Seattle-area football coach who lost his job after leading prayers on the field following his team’s victories, in a decision that could have ramifications for Jews in public schools and the military. A number of Jewish groups say the 6-3 ruling in Kennedy v. Bremerton, issued Monday, could roll back church-state separations that have protected schoolchildren from religious coercion for decades. “This is a significant change in how we approach prayer in public schools, and one that will h...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Pam Scheininger and J. David Bleich have this much in common: They are Orthodox Jews who are preoccupied with Jewish ethics and teach at New York City law schools. But when Scheininger looks at an American map, she sees 16 states where Orthodox Jewish women would not be able to have an abortion otherwise sanctioned by Jewish law. Bleich sees a different number — zero. Disagreements among Jews over where Jewish and state laws intersect on abortion, once theoretical, have taken on urgency in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Cou...
(JTA) — Israelis seeking to end pregnancies will no longer be required to appear before an approval committee, go to a hospital for medication or be asked invasive questions about why they want an abortion. A Knesset committee approved the new regulations on Monday, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 50-year-old Roe v. Wade precedent guaranteeing Americans the right to abortion. The regulations fall short of the full abolition of the hospital-based approval committees that Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz had said h...
Kosher certification agency sues JetBlue, saying they lied about a kosher snack By Jackie Hajdenberg (JTA) — One of the United States’ largest kosher certifying agencies alleges that JetBlue airlines sold a snack it falsely claimed was certified as kosher. In a lawsuit filed last Thursday, Kof-K said JetBlue put the agency’s hechsher, or rabbinical approval symbol, on an artichoke snack that the agency never certified as kosher. The company that makes the artichoke snack, Elma Farms, was not named in the lawsuit. A JetBlue spokesperson told Reu...
(JTA) — In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist leader and influential figure among the rightmost flank of the Republican Party, told his followers that “Jews stood in the way” of Catholic Supreme Court Justices who “were put on the court to overturn” the 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion in the United States. Fuentes, who founded the America First Political Action Committee and the”groyper army,” a radical fringe group, made the comments on his website’s lives...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The director of UN Watch has criticized the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East for its failure to dismiss six educators the Geneva-based NGO claims have engaged in anti-Semitic incitement. A recent review by UN Watch of UNRWA operations in Palestinian schools found that the teachers had repeatedly and publicly called for the murder of Jews. Following the publication of the UN Watch report, the NGO demanded the six educators be fired. Instead, they were placed on a...
(JTA) - Ian Kinsler is trading in his bat for a lineup card. The former All-Star second baseman will manage Team Israel in the upcoming 2023 World Baseball Classic. He currently has no plans to play for the team as well. The Jewish 14-year MLB veteran played for Team Israel in the 2020 Olympics that were held last year, telling the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the time that his goal was to raise the sport's profile in Israel. "Medaling for Team Israel would create that buzz," he said, and "obvio...
(JNS) - Israel appears set to head back to the polls after a "change coalition" has failed to hold its razor-thin majority, barely a year after its formation. Elections are likely to be held on Oct. 25, just after the conclusion of the Jewish High Holidays. The elections would be the fifth in just three-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, according to the coalition's complicated rotation agreement, Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid will tentatively become a caretaker "transitional" prime minister wit...
(JTA) - The Jewish Agency's nominating committee recommended Doron Almog, a storied retired general and a longtime advocate for people with disabilities, to lead the body that bridges Israel and the Jewish Diaspora. The nomination Thursday of Almog, 71, now goes to the Jewish Agency's Board of Governors, where it is all but assured of approval. The nomination follows an extended period of consideration since May 2021, when the last chairman of the agency, Isaac Herzog, announced his successful...
For 50 years, Roe v. Wade has been the “settled law” of the United States. Today, in its decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Center, the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, revoking the Constitutional right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy and sending the authority to regulate reproductive rights back to the states. Judaism cherishes human life, requiring Jews to set aside all ritual and religious obligations to preserve it. At the same time, Judaism recognizes that a fetus is not an independent individual, and the life and welfa...
Get ‘em while they’re in season! From apricots and peaches, to blueberries and strawberries, and even to cantaloupe and watermelon, the summer means plenty of delicious fresh fruits to enjoy. Did you know that these tasty healthy options can actually help your mental health? Fruits are nutrient-packed, containing important vitamins and minerals that help reduce the causes of stress, anxiety, and depression. Added bonus? They’re sweet, so it doesn’t feel like you are depriving yourself of an e...
The Jewish Pavilion hosted Shabbat services at Oakmonte Village Siena. They were led by Randi Cunningham, a long-time volunteer, and consisted of singing, prayers, and challah. Cunningham started by passing out Shabbat pamphlets containing prayers and led the six residents sitting around the table in prayer to light the candles. The residents joined as Cunningham led them in singing prayers such as the Aleynu and Shema, even harmonizing during parts of the prayers. After prayers were sung the...
(JNS) — Two Biden administration nominees for top posts related to the Middle East came under fire for alleged anti-Israel bias by Senate Republicans in their confirmation hearing on Thursday. The hearing, held in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, comes at a critical time as U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Israel and Saudi Arabia next month while the United States is struggling to repair its frayed relationship with the Arab kingdom amid skyrocketing gas prices. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) took issue with Tamara Cofman W...
(JNS) — With the dramatic announcement on June 20 by coalition leaders Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid of their intention to dissolve Israel’s government, the nation began bracing itself for its fifth round of elections in three years. A proposed date of Oct. 25 has already been set. However, elections could still be avoided if opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in forming a government before the Knesset is dissolved. Can he do it? Netanyahu currently controls 55 Knesset seats. He needs 61, a bare minimum majority in Israel’s 120-s...
(JTA) — The global Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel has disavowed a controversial website mapping Boston-area Jewish groups a day after lawmakers urged a federal investigation of the project’s potential to be used by extremist groups. The announcement by the BDS movement on Wednesday aimed to distance the group from the Mapping Project, an anonymous collective of Boston-area pro-Palestinian activists. The project lists the names and addresses of Massachusetts Jewish groups, including schools, community funds and syn...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Maine parents seeking funding to send their children to religious schools, a development that a dissenting Jewish justice, Stephen Breyer, suggested could open the door to broad public funding of parochial schools. Ruling Tuesday in Carson v. Makin, the 6-3 majority favored parents in Maine who objected to a state policy that funded private school education for students who lived in districts without public schools, but explicitly excluded religious schools on church-state grounds. T...
(JTA) — In a live streamed address to students, faculty and staff at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged Israel to join the network of countries around the world that have placed sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. “We are grateful to your great nation. But we would like to also get support from your government,” Zelensky said. “Tell me, how can you not help the victim of such aggression?” In his address, Zelensky recognized the connected histories of Ukraine and Israel, noting the Ukrai...
