Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3301 - 3325 of 11373
PONTIAC, Michigan (JTA) — A Jewish political dynasty’s four-decade run in Congress has come to an end after Rep. Andy Levin conceded to Rep. Haley Stevens in Michigan’s 11th congressional district Tuesday. Stevens’ decisive win concluded a bank-busting primary that attracted more than $4 million in pro-Israel outside spending to a face-off between two incumbents in the Detroit suburbs. “She ran a strong campaign,” Levin told his supporters. “My hat’s off to her.” He pledged to support Stevens in the general election. In his concession speech...
On Aug. 3 Jewish Funeral Group launched OrlandoJewishFunerals.com in partnership with Allen J. Harden Funeral Home, a StoneMor, Inc. property. The interactive resource provides comprehensive support, education, and information for those planning or searching for funeral services to understand and choose traditions and rituals appropriate for them. With a Jewish population of more than 50,000 in the Greater Orlando area, OrlandoJewishFunerals.com is the go-to resource for families in need of funeral and burial planning services and information....
(JNS) — The White House’s liaison to the Jewish community Chanan Weissman announced on Wednesday that he was stepping down from the role. In a news release from the White House, Weissman wrote that he was transitioning to a new role in the U.S. State Department and said farewell as point person for the last year. “I am honored beyond words to have served in this capacity on behalf of an administration I so deeply admire and as a link to a community with whom I so deeply identify,” he wrote. “As I wrap up my time, I’m excited to hand over the ba...
(JTA) — When Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s prime minister, failed to meet his own deadline to announce a plan to annex portions of the West Bank during the summer of 2020, it wasn’t just his usual critics and advocates for the prompt creation of a Palestinian state who breathed a sigh of relief. The missed deadline was also a relief to insiders at the Trump White House, who knew that annexation would derail their ambitious effort to make peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the very afternoon of the annexation deadlin...
Trial over ‘dissolution’ of Jewish Agency activities in Russia set for Aug. 19 (JNS) — A Moscow court on Thursday set an Aug. 19 trial date that could result in the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency’s activities in Russia, even as an Israeli delegation was in the Russian capital in a bid to resolve an issue that has created a major diplomatic spat between the two countries. The Russian Justice Ministry earlier this month sent a letter to the Jewish Agency outlining a list of demands that created the legal basis for Thursday’s initial heari...
(JNS) - The Jewish Agency, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel, stands on shaky ground in Russia, as a Moscow court is set to hold a trial on its dissolution August 19. Even though it's operating under a cloud of uncertainty, and immigration to Israel has skyrocketed, the Agency continues to operate business as usual, JNS has learned from a government source familiar with the matter. Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine in February, 19,100 Russians have immigrated to Israel, a leap from...
(JNS) - "If you could change anything in this world, what would it be?" asked NBA star Enes Kanter Freedom, while seated among 30 Jewish, Christian and Muslim, children during a break in the action at a youth basketball camp he was helping to run this week at the YMCA in Jerusalem. To Freedom's delight, the most popular answer given by the children was: "We would want peace!" The 11-year NBA veteran, who currently is a free agent and a well-known human rights activist, was in Israel to lead...
(JNS) — The Jewish Federations of North America has announced the launch of a Ukrainian Resettlement Grant Initiative to support refugees seeking safety in the United States. The new funding is in addition to the more than $70 million that JFNA has already pledged to help resettle refugees from Ukraine abroad. “The Jewish people have been refugees in so many countries, yet we have been blessed with freedom and protection in the United States,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of JFNA. “Supporting refugees and vulnerable populat...
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...
