Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Are you from Central Florida and want to know more about your Jewish roots? Are you trying to understand how Judaism can fit into your own life and provide meaning everyday? Are you interested in being a part of a Jewish family that is having fun and spiritually growing together? JOIN Orlando is an Orlando Jewish Organization that was started over eight years ago and has developed a full and robust calendar of programs, classes, guest speakers, holiday get-togethers, and trips. Its outstanding staff focuses on youth, teens, families, men, and...
On Sunday, March 13, the Men's Club of Congregation Ohev Shalom will host Dr. Steve Selznick who will discuss "Preventative Health Care from sunrise to sunset of your life." Dr. Selznick is a graduate of Des Moines College of Osteopathic Medicine & Surgery. He served his residency at Pensacola Education Program and is board certified and a fellow in Family Medicine and certified medical director and arbitrator by Florida Supreme Court, and a national expert witness for medico-legal cases....
(JTA) — A Jewish woman in Chattanooga, Tennessee, says her child was taught “how to torture a Jew” in a public school Bible class. The woman, Juniper Russo, wrote about the incident in a Facebook post that is no longer public. In it, she alleged that the teacher engaged in “blatant Christian proselytizing” in a Bible history class that was meant to be “non-sectarian.” Hamilton County Schools, the Chattanooga public school district, is investigating the incident. Michael Dzik, president of the Jewish Federation of Chattanooga, told the Jewi...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — New York City saw nearly three times as many antisemitic hate crimes in January 2022 compared to the same period a year ago, prompting concern from local lawmakers. City Council member Julie Menin, who represents the Upper East Side, hosted a virtual “Antisemitism Town Hall” Wednesday night that featured remarks by Sen. Charles Schumer and fellow Council member Eric Dinowitz. The event, co-hosted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, drew some 200 attendees and brought together politicians and representatives from...
(JNS) — The blowback over a biased report by Amnesty International on Israel continues nearly a week after its release as 469 organizations and more than 4,000 individuals signed a strongly-worded letter on Monday urging U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to make sure the report is not used to attack Israel within the United Nations. Besides the 4,000 individual signees, the letter was signed by 172 Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils. “The Amnesty report traffics in false claims against the sole Jewish state, dist...
U.S. Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) paid $170,000 to a political consultant who has repeatedly called Israel an apartheid state, Fox News reported on Tuesday. According to Fox, since March 2020, Tlaib’s re-election campaign has paid $147,000 to Unbought Power LLC, a political and advocacy consulting firm based in Orlando, Fla. and headed by Rasha Mubarak. Mubarak’s website describes her as a “Palestinian Muslim American community activist.” A separate $23,000 was paid to Unbought Power by Tlaib’s PAC, Rooted in Community Leadershi...
(JNS) - In its annual strategic survey released in recent days, the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies pointed to a central understanding that has rippled through the region. The United States is focusing its attention and resources on dealing with China (and, more recently, Russia), and is unwilling to be significantly involved in further conflicts in the Middle East. Washington's enthusiasm for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is one such signal of this intention...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Five Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers have joined a suit challenging the city’s vaccine requirements for indoor spaces. Two of the plaintiffs are rabbis at yeshivas. The suit, filed Feb. 7 in New York, challenges the “Key to NYC” program and a recent Covid vaccination mandate for religious and private school employees. The mandate was opposed by many haredi Orthodox yeshivas and groups representing them, including Agudath Israel of America. Three of the Jewish plaintiffs are parents suing on behalf of a total o...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have ordered the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria's supreme planning council to halt discussions on the authorization of construction to connect Ma'ale Adumim to Jerusalem in the E-1 corridor. Construction had been planned for some 3,000 acres of largely government-owned land and was to include some 3,500 housing units. The committee began to discuss the plan, which had been frozen for...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum sent a request on Jan. 16 under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, asking for information and details on his agreement to transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to the Palestinian Authority. The problem, according to Kohelet, is that such a move violates Israeli law, which directly prohibits money transfers to the P.A. as a consequence of its pay-for-slay policy that awards Palestinian terrorists with money if they kill Israelis. In his meeting las...
Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume. The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including: • Zachar, male. • Nekevah, female. • Androgynos, having both male and female characteristics. • Tumtum, lacking sexual characteristics. • Aylonit hamah, identified female at birth but later naturally developing male characteristics. • Aylonit adam, identified...
(JTA) — Hummus is the glue that holds society together in “Breaking Bread,” a new documentary about Israeli and Arab chefs that strives to be as delicious as its dishes. Unfortunately, the film is missing a few key ingredients. The film’s main protagonist is Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a microbiologist-turned-chef who organizes a food festival in Haifa, which she sees as a poignant symbol of Arab-Jewish coexistence. There is a special section of both the film and festival devoted to “The Hummus Project,” in which different chefs make different v...
Washington Commanders defensive tackle wishes he could dine with Hitler By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — A defensive tackle for the NFL’s Washington team said that if he had his druthers he’d break bread with Adolf Hitler. Jonathan Allen removed his offending tweet on Wednesday after Twitter blew up with outrage. Allen, who was drafted by the newly renamed Washington Commanders in 2017, opened up in an “ask me anything” tweet, and a fan asked him who were the three people, dead or alive, he wanted to dine with. He listed his grandfath...
(JNS) - Amnesty International's latest controversial report released on Feb. 1 during a press conference in Jerusalem, this time accusing Israel of apartheid, has come under fierce condemnation from the Israeli government and Jewish groups around the world as being "anti-Semitic." The Biden administration rejected it as "absurd." Some U.S. lawmakers denounced it as "rooted in historic prejudices and false narratives." But Amnesty has doubled down on its accusation, claiming any argument to the...
The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando stands with its parent organization, the Jewish Federations of North America, as well as the ADL, and the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, along with many others in strongly condemning the factually inaccurate report issued by Amnesty UK. We stand in support of the democratic State of Israel. Jewish Federations of North America President and CEO Eric Fingerhut released the following statement regarding Amnesty International UK’s report on Israel: Jewish Federations strongly condemn Amnesty I...
(JNS) — Jewish groups and some politicians are decrying neo-Nazi activity that took place in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend, even as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis alleges his political enemies are trying to use the incident to “smear” him. On Saturday, some two dozen neo-Nazis from two hate groups, Goyim Defense League and National Socialist Movement, rallied in Orlando, calling Jews “the devil” and saying, “Jews rape children and drink their blood,” according to the watchdog group StopAntisemitism.com. They also hung flags with swastikas and bann...
At an in-person briefing, State Senator Randolph Bracy announced that the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando will receive $150,000 in state funds to secure a new security system for the campus. The in-person meeting came a week after two groups of neo-Nazis rallied in Orlando. One of the groups, the Goyim Defense League, protested outside the JCC campus about a year ago. This time the group was near the UCF campus and stood on a bridge on I-4. "Those kinds of demonstrations are despicable and...
Each month PJ Library sends high-quality, age-appropriate Jewish-themed books to families raising Jewish children. For more than 10 years, families in greater Orlando have been receiving these books on a monthly basis through The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation. In addition to the books, PJ Library of Greater Orlando connects families to other families who are making Jewish choices and offers meaningful connections to the Jewish community. For one in three families, PJ Library is one of the first Jewish...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — A federal investigation has been launched into complaints by Jewish students at Brooklyn College that they have been subjected to “severe and persistent harassment” in the Mental Health Counseling master’s program. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights last week informed the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which prepared the complaint, that it had opened the probe. The complaint alleges that Jewish students in the MHC program have been “bullied and harassed in class discu...
(JTA) — Some members of Congress are openly hostile to Israel. But it was Rep. Andy Levin, a Detroit-area Michigan Democrat and a scion of a storied Jewish political family, whom a former AIPAC president identified in an email earlier this month as “arguably the most corrosive member of Congress to the U.S.-Israel relationship.” David Victor, a former president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, made the comment in an email Jan. 19 to pro-Israel donors in the Detroit area, where he is from. Victor, who led AIPAC in the late 2000s...
(JTA) — ABC has suspended Whoopi Goldberg from her role as a co-host of a morning TV talk show for two weeks amid criticism of Goldberg’s characterization of the Holocaust. Goldberg will take two weeks off from the show, ABC News President Kim Godwin announced in a statement Tuesday evening, hours after a leading Jewish organization that had been among Goldberg’s critics said it had welcomed her apology for saying the Holocaust “isn’t about race.” “Effective immediately, I am suspending Whoopi Goldberg for two weeks for her wrong and hurtful c...
Even though we are in the midst of a pandemic and visitation rights have been decreased at most of the senior living facilities in the area, The Jewish Pavilion has been committed to finding ways to connect with its Jewish residents. Jewish Pavilion program directors have been able to present in-person programs at a variety of sites - not letting even the most minor celebration go unnoticed. Susan Bernstein visited with residents at Village On The Green and presented a Tu B'shvat Seder, which included an explanation of the origins of the...
(JTA) - Activists on the Jewish left celebrated over the weekend as Emma Saltzberg, a Jewish activist who helped co-found the Jewish anti-occupation group IfNotNow, extended a "Jeopardy!" winning streak that has some comparing her to the game show's most successful contestants. Saltzberg took the lead for three episodes in a row and earned a total of $54,199 in prize money. Saltzberg, a consultant who lives in Brooklyn, is a senior fellow at Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, according...
BERLIN (JTA) - On a recent Friday afternoon, with the Beijing Olympic Games only three weeks away, Mischa Ushakov and Padma Wangyal chained themselves to the entrance of the Allianz insurance giant's headquarters in Germany's capital. They had two demands: that Allianz "drop their sponsorship of the games in China and comment on the human rights abuses of the Chinese government," Ushakov said. "We gave them a one week deadline," he added. Ushakov, 23, is a cofounder with Bini Guttmann of Never...
(JTA) — The first thing to know about the Yeshiva Har Torah Twitter account is that, contrary to the account’s bio, the head of school does know about the account. And he has given it his blessing. “I don’t think the school is attracting kids because of its Twitter account,” said Rabbi Gary Menchel, head of the Modern Orthodox day school in eastern Queens, New York. “But I think, ultimately, anything we can do to broaden that experience, and engage people in the yeshiva experience is a positive thing.” And engage people have. While the sch...
