Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi called for victims of sexual abuse to bring complaints to the “relevant authorities,” saying “there is an obligation to complain to the authorities in charge of these issues, and not hide it,” according to the site Israel National News. The comments from Rabbi David Lau Wednesday came after Lau was criticized for visiting the family of Chaim Walder, the Israeli haredi Orthodox author of children’s books who was recently accused by dozens of young women of sexual abuse, as they sat shiva for Walder follow...
(JTA) - Chaim Walder, an Israeli haredi Orthodox children's book author who was accused last month of sexual abuse by several teenage girls, was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide. His body was found in a cemetery in Petah Tikva, in central Israel, after a passerby heard a gunshot and called police, according to Israeli news reports. Walder's death came a day after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a rabbinical court in Safed had heard testimony from 22 young women about alleged...
NEW YORK — Anuradha Mittal, the head of Ben & Jerry’s Board of Directors and vice president of Ben & Jerry’s Foundation Inc. has been crowned 2021 Antisemite of the Year by watchdog group StopAntisemitism. After several weeks of voting, thousands selected Mittal for the distinct dishonor, beating the other two finalists Dua Lipa and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Earlier this year, Mittal spearheaded the effort by Ben & Jerry’s to stop the sale of its ice cream to 800,000 Jews living throughout various parts of Israel. This decision was clearly...
(JNS) — As tributes from across the globe poured in earlier this week following the passing of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, many Israel supporters note the paradox of a man they say fought a heroic battle against apartheid in South Africa, then invented it in Israel. Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, passed away at the age of 90 on Sunday. “I think it would be a mistake to lionize him. On the one hand, he fought apartheid in South Africa, and on the other hand, he fought the right of Jewish people to national self-...
(JNS) — In the estimation of U.S. Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, the future of the Iran nuclear deal “is going to be resolved by Israel” rather than by the world powers who are actually negotiating with Tehran. “The Israelis have sat across the table from me for years, looked me in the eye, and said, ‘Iran will never have a nuclear weapon.’ And I believe them,” he says. In the following interview with JNS, the former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and currently its ranking member also shares his candid views on Israel’s righ...
Amar’e Stoudemire says he’s ready for a ‘shidduch’ and to remarry By Shira Hanau (JTA) — Amar’e Stoudemire told his Instagram followers recently that he’s looking for a new partner, saying he’s ready for a “shidduch.” “Shidduch” dating, or dates set up by a matchmaker, is a common way for Orthodox Jews to meet their future spouses. Stoudemire, who has played for the New York Knicks and Phoenix Suns, converted to Judaism while living in Israel in August 2020. From 2016 to 2019, he played for the Israeli team Hapoel Jerusalem and later for...
(JNS) — As U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel on Tuesday to discuss Iran and other strategic issues, and as nuclear talks continue in Vienna, the Israeli leadership increasingly believes that applying heavy pressure on Tehran is the only way to stop the Iranian advance toward nuclear weapons. But where exactly do the U.S. and Israel go from here on the Iranian threat? Sima Shine — head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank as well as former head of the research and eva...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday the approval of a 1 billion shekel ($317.3 million) program to develop and settle the Golan Heights. Addressing the weekly Cabinet session, held in Kibbutz Mevo Hama in the southern Golan, Bennett said that the government’s goal was to double the Golan’s population, according to an official statement. The current population is approximately 50,000. To achieve this goal, the government plans to build two new neighborhoods in Katzrin, the unofficial capital of the Golan, and a...
(JNS) — Winning the lottery usually conjures images of elated people feeling set for life after receiving a check for hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet for five North Shore Hebrew Academy students in the Long Island region of New York, winning the lottery meant being selected to represent their day school on an eye-opening, life-changing relief mission to tornado-devastated Kentucky. On Dec. 10, a tornado with winds of over 166 miles per hour decimated the Kentucky of towns Cayce, Mayfield, Benton, Princeton, Dawson Springs and Bremen, k...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - A synagogue dating back some 2,000 years has been excavated at Migdal in northern Israel, a modern town and the site of a significant Jewish community in the Second Temple era. This is the second synagogue excavated in Migdal and the first time archeologists have found evidence of two synagogues coexisting in a Jewish community at a time when the Second Temple was still in use. Like many archeological discoveries in Israel, the second synagogue at Migdal resurfaced due...
The Kinneret Council on Aging, a nonprofit agency that provides ongoing programs and services to residents of Kinneret Apartments, has announced the honorees for their 2022, "8 Over 80" Honorary Gala to be held on Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022. "This is our community's premiere event honoring older adults and we are truly inspired by the number of outstanding individuals, who continue to contribute to our community and promote the Jewish tradition of Tikkun Olam," said Ali Polejes KCOA Board president....
(JNS) - Ukrainian, Israeli, American and European leaders joined together online on Dec. 15-16 for the third-annual Kyiv Jewish Forum to discuss the historic relations between the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples, the rise of global antisemitism and the looming threats to both nations. "We know what it's like not to have our own state," said Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, referring to both Ukrainians and Jews. "We know what it means to defend one's own state and land with weapons in hand...
The Jewish Pavilion has added a new marketing director, office manager and receptionist to its organization. The new marketing director at the Jewish Pavilion, Alicia Lovejoy, participated in the year-long Momentum journey to Israel in November 2021. Momentum transformed her life and inspired her to bring Jewish values and practices home to her family. Alicia wanted to continue her spiritual and cultural journey in Central Florida upon returning. The Momentum community trip leaders from the...
Networking is a great way to expand your business and meet new friends. To this end, the Jewish Chamber was formulated to connect like-minded individuals for business and social purposed. Over 20 people — mostly young adults — gathered to enjoy a post Chanukah breakfast at Toojays Deli on Colonial on Dec. 16. In addition to enjoying a great breakfast, participants had the opportunity to speak about their businesses and forge new contacts. To learn more about the Jewish Chamber, visit htt...
JFS Orlando’s Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry is proud to announce its partnership with the newest Sprouts Farmers Market location at Colonial Plaza, and since the beginning of December 2021, JFS is picking up food donations from this Sprouts location twice a week. Currently, the Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry is stocked through a combination of food purchases from Second Harvest Food Bank, and food donations from the community, including other grocery partners like Fresh Market and Publix. Now, by adding donations from Sprouts at Colonial P...
(JTA) — Shimon Peres will soon receive a major honor for a non-New Yorker: the late Israeli prime minister will have a New York City street corner named in his honor. The intersection of West 95th Street and Riverside Drive will be renamed “Shimon Peres Place” after the New York City Council approved nearly 200 new street names last week to honor various people. The news was reported by Patch. Peres, who died in 2016, served three times as Israel’s prime minister in addition to serving as president of the country from 2007 to 2014. In 1949, h...
(JTA) — A Muslim civil rights leader who stirred outrage when she said “polite Zionists” like Jewish federations “are not your friends” continued her critique of “Zionists” as she announced that she is going on a sabbatical. “I am still in the middle of a prolonged Zionist onslaught,” wrote Zahra Billoo, director of the San Francisco office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, in a Facebook post on Sunday. She added that she believes there is an “Islamophobic, pro-Israel campaign” to “place moles in our organization and others...
(JTA) — Students at a Washington, D.C., elementary school were instructed by a staff member to reenact scenes from the Holocaust Friday, according to The Washington Post. When the third-grade students asked why the Germans killed Jews, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.” The student at Watkins Elementary School were supposed to be working on projects in the library Friday when the staff member told the students to reenact scenes from the Holocaust. The woman reportedly told one student, who is Jewish, to play...
ST. PETERSBURG, FL — A recent story involving a third-grade teacher who made their students simulate episodes of the Holocaust has rightfully sparked comment from around the nation. The incident, which involved a staff member having their students mimic digging mass graves and shooting their peers, highlights the need for proper educational materials surrounding the Holocaust. Students, especially those at a young age, need to understand the atrocities of the Holocaust in a responsible way that teaches them how to recognize and understand t...
(JTA) — The U.S. State Department has included extensive reporting on West Bank settler attacks on Palestinians in its annual terrorism report, a sign of how seriously the Biden administration is treating the phenomenon. The 2020 report on terrorist violence, released Thursday, includes three paragraphs reporting settler violence, the most it has included in years. The attacks have become a point of contention between the Biden administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, disrupting efforts by both sides to k...
DUBAI — As dozens of Jewish organizations plan delegations to the United Arab Emirates following the signing of the Abraham Accords, Visions of Abraham, a nonprofit working to create and promote educational initiatives relating to interfaith programming between Muslims and Jews, has launched. The group aims to provide an in-depth look at the impact of the Abraham Accords. The organization specializes in creating bespoke and immersive tours of the UAE and its Jewish community. UJA-Federation of New York and the Joint Distribution Committee r...
BERLIN (JTA) - A German Protestant minister has handed over segments of a long lost Torah scroll to the city of Görlitz in southeast Germany, 83 years after his father, a town policeman, came into possession of them. While it is not unheard of for German non-Jews to turn over religious objects that have been lost or hidden since the Nazi period, the Torah scroll fragments took an unusually circuitous journey before coming to light last week. The Torah had not been seen since Kristallnacht, the...
( JTA ) - Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old left-wing lawmaker who has been sharply critical of Israel and Chilean Jews who support it, was elected president of Chile in a landslide victory this weekend. Boric, who came to fame as a student leader, won with 56 percent of the vote, 12 points over his conservative rival, José Antonio Kast, a right-wing pro-Israel politician. The election left many Chilean Jews feeling uneasy because they had to choose between Boric, who has encouraged Chilean Jews to l...
(JNS) — Leaders of the Zionist Organization of America warned supporters to be vigilant against what they believe to be increasing anti-Israel positions from leaders, and the trend of encroaching tolerance for anti-Semitic rhetoric masked as anti-Zionism, during the organization’s annual gala on Sunday. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the gala was held as a webcast, highlighted by video addresses from leaders and activists in the ZOA, as well as politicians such as former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Naf...
Israel’s controversial Oscar submission gets snubbed on the 2022 Academy shortlist By Tom Tugend LOS ANGELES (JTA) — There was no holiday cheer for Israel’s filmmakers in the shortlists for the 2022 Academy Awards. The country’s official submission for this year’s Best International Feature Oscar, “Let It Be Morning,” was not among the 15 entries that made the cut in the category, despite being helmed by a pedigreed director (Eran Kolirin, of “The Band’s Visit” fame) and attracting global attention for its all-Palestinian cast. The movie, wh...
