Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — The Jewish Federations of North America has canceled the in-person portion of its signature annual event, the General Assembly, citing the coronavirus. The umbrella group for local federations had planned to combine online and in-person events, but told participants this week that it was canceling the latter for the expected 500 participants. Events last year were held online only, but Jewish Federations until the recent spike in coronavirus cases had hoped to reemerge into in-person events. Instead, the events Oct. 4-5 will take p...
(TCJewfolk via JTA) — A Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin sent its campers and staff home three days early following a COVID outbreak affecting nine cabins. Herzl Camp in Webster primarily serves Jews from the Twin Cities area and, as of 2019, had about 500 campers ranging from third to 11th grade. Its summer began in mid-June and was due to end on Aug. 4, but camp administrators made the decision to close early on Saturday night. “Out of an abundance of caution and with the health of your children our number one priority, our Medical Com...
(ORLANDO, FL) — Investing two years of research and commitment, Laurie Cardoza-Moore, founder and president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations is grateful as both Civics and Holocaust Standards submitted by PJTN were approved late last week for adoption and use in Florida classrooms. She noted on the vote, “Our work in preserving America’s Judeo-Christian heritage and values in our children’s Civics education amid the national push towards Critical Race Theory will benefit the more than 1.8 million students in Florida classrooms — as will th...
(JNS) — The state of Florida notified Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, on Tuesday that it has 90 days to cease its “boycott of Israel” or face a ban on contracts and investments with the Sunshine State. The move is in response to the July 19 announcement that the ice-cream maker will stop selling its product in areas it calls “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” which includes the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem. It comes after Florida state officials held talks with Unilever’s investor-relations department on July 28 an...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett blamed Iran on Sunday, Aug. 1, for the attack that left two dead on the oil tanker in the Arabian Sea on Thursday night. Speaking during the weekly Security Cabinet meeting, Bennett was quoted by Maariv as saying that while Iran is denying responsibility for the incident, “I state here absolutely: Iran is the one that carried out the attack on the ship.” “The intelligence evidence for this is there and we expect the international system to make it clear to the Iranian regime that they have made a...
(JNS) - A group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill on Thursday that would prevent the Biden administration's State Department or U.S. Customs and Border Protection from rescinding late 2020 federal guidelines that allow goods produced in Judea and Samaria to be labeled "Made in Israel." If passed, the bill titled the Anti-BDS Labeling Act, would require that current laws regarding the marking of products with "Made in Israel" codified by executive order on...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - President Joe Biden is set to nominate Deborah Lipstadt, the Emory University Holocaust historian, to be the State Department's antisemitism envoy. The White House alerted top Biden supporters of the pick, which has been expected for weeks, on Thursday night, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. Lipstadt is perhaps best known for defeating Holocaust denier David Irving after he sued her in a British court for defamation for calling him a Holocaust denier. Her 2005 book,...
(JTA) — Over the last year, Jewish college students took it upon themselves to combat antisemitism at their schools. Now, two major Jewish organizations are working together to play a stronger role in fighting antisemitism on campus. Some of the student activists documented incidences of antisemitism at colleges nationwide, often submitted anonymously, while others have taken a confrontational tone on social media. With some portraying themselves as the ideological successors to early Zionist activists, the students often argue that a...
Cecily Routman, president of the Jewish Pro-life Foundation, stated today: in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case. The Jewish Pro-Life Foundation has filed an Amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health case. This is a Mississippi case banning abortions after 15 weeks gestation, except when there are risks to the life or physical health of the mother, or fatal fetal anomalies. Studies demonstrate that an unborn baby feels pain as early as 12 weeks gestation, if not earlier. “As Jews, we ap...
(JNS) — Lebanese media outlets as well as Saudi Arabia’s London-based Asharq Al-Awsat have reported that Israel’s freedom of action against Iran in Syria is dwindling as Russia makes changes to its policy vis-à-vis its relationship with Israel. But this so-called reversal of policy by Russia may be manufactured news and does not necessarily reflect reality. Micky Aharonson, former head of the foreign-relations directorate of the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office and an expert on Russia at the Jerusalem Institute for Strat...
Israeli Cabinet approves first state budget in three years (JNS) — The Israeli Cabinet on Monday unanimously approved the state budget for 2022-2021, after marathon negotiations that began on Sunday morning and ran throughout the night. “Israel has a budget, a budget of a government that cares. After three years of stalemate, Israel is returning to work,” said Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in a statement, noting it had been three years since a state budget had been passed due to political gridlock which saw the country hold four elect...
(JNS) — The Republican Jewish Coalition publicly stated on Monday that it will not comply with a threat from the Jewish Democratic Council of America of legal action if a tweet it posted last month criticizing the JDCA is not deleted. The tweet questioned the Jewish Democrat group and its executive director, Halie Soifer, on their silence following the latest round of anti-Semitic rhetoric by Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), who following the 11-day May conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, compared the United States and Israel to t...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Ecuador’s largest supermarket chain, owned by El Rosado Group, has announced that it will no longer sell ice-cream manufactured by Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s. The company has more than 180 stores across Ecuador and is joining other supermarket stores worldwide that are protesting the decision by Ben & Jerry’s not to sell ice-cream beyond Israel’s pre-1967 Green Line. “For us, [the] decision is worrying and scandalous,” El Rosado Group CEO Johnny Czarninski wrote in a letter to Unilever. He also contacted Isr...
(BURLINGTON, VT) - The Israeli-American Council flew a banner over Ben & Jerry's factory and global headquarters in South Burlington, VT, reading "Serve Ice Cream, Not Hate," the social media hashtag #BDSisHATE, and the American and Israeli flags as part of a campaign the IAC launched today demanding Ben & Jerry's stop their boycott of part of the Israeli population The flyover this past Friday kicked off a global advocacy effort that also features a social media campaign urging people to call...
(JNS) - It was billed as the first Iranian delegation to Israel since the fall of the Shah 42 years earlier. Six Iranian Muslim dissidents, forced to leave their homeland decades ago and who made their way to the United States, came on a three-day solidarity mission last week to show support for the Jewish state following the May clash between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip - namely, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - that have long been backed by Iran. Accompanying th...
On the first Shabbat of August, Friday the 6th and Saturday the 7th, Congregation Ohev Shalom welcomes a new rabbi on its Bima. Rabbi Murray Ezring will serve as spiritual leader of COS, guiding the congregation and serving its needs as it continues its search for a long-term rabbi. "I am very excited to work with Rabbi Ezring!" said COS Board of Trustees president Rachel Gebaide. "I look forward to learning from him and hearing his perspectives. It will be a pleasure to welcome Rabbi Ezring...
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, the American Jewish businessmen who founded Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings in 1978, said in a New York Times guest essay on Wednesday that they "unequivocally support" the company's decision last week to no longer sell its ice cream in Judea and Samaria. "We unequivocally support the decision of the company to end business in the 'occupied territories,' which a majority of the international community, including the United Nations, has deemed an illegal occupation...
(JNS) - Dozens of college students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and elsewhere gathered online for the annual CAMERA on Campus conference aimed at empowering young adults to be advocates for Israel in an increasingly hostile environment. As speaker, professor and author Gil Troy told the students, "When you stand up on campus and increasingly in the public square these days, and when you stand up with CAMERA, it takes a huge amount of courage ... All of you have tremendous...
Eve has always been determined and motivated to find a better situation for herself and her two sons. "You just can't give up," she said. She has always believed that good things are supposed to happen to her and that is why she believes it was not by chance that she found JFS Orlando. Although she was looking for rental assistance when she called JFS Orlando, Eve truly wanted to move her family out of their cramped living situation and into the comfortable home they deserved. "I reached out to...
During a special breakfast meeting, Rabbi David Kay of Congregation Ohev Shalom was surprised when he was told that the City of Maitland was honoring him with Rabbi David Kay Day, which was Saturday, July 31, 2021. Mayor John Lowndes read the proclamation that recognized his 17 years of service to COS and the greater community....
(JNS) — A recent mass arrest of Hamas members in the West Bank offers a glimpse into the deceptive nature of the ongoing quiet in the area and how hard the terror organization based in the Gaza Strip is working to puncture the relative calm. At any given time, Hamas is trying to set up terror cells, and only the determined efforts by the Israeli defense establishment prevents these efforts from maturing into waves of shootings and bombings against Israelis. Earlier this month, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet intelligence agency a...
(JTA) — The Jewish highlights of the Tokyo Olympics kicked off with Jewish basketball superstar Sue Bird serving as one of Team USA’s two flag bearers at the opening ceremony, a huge honor. The lasting accolades, though, are the medals that winning athletes take home. Dozens of Jewish athletes are competing in the Games this year, but the fierce competition means that only some will enter the record books as gold, silver or bronze medalists. Here are the Jewish athletes who have clinched a medal, in chronological order. We’ll continue to updat...
(JNS) — A substantial number of professors from the City University of New York have resigned from their faculty union after it passed an anti-Israel resolution and said it would consider supporting the BDS movement. The Professional Staff Congress, the union that approved the resolution, told the New York Post that at least 50 educators have resigned or sent notice that they intend to do so. “With the PSC-CUNY resolution, you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (‘From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the Sta...
The Shmitah (Sabbatical) year is a little over a month away. Coincidentally, the Israeli Finance in coordination with the Agricultural Ministry, has introduced reforms that would enable more European produce to be imported into Israel creating unwanted competition for Israeli farmers. In response, Farmers across Israel have blocked roads by dumping massive amounts of unsold crops in major highway intersections on Thursday putting traffic throughout the Jewish state at a standstill for an hour-and-a-half. Thousands of farmers and agricultural...
Leah and Yehuda Smolarcik are moving to Israel from Chicago with their four children this summer. The challenges over the past year and a half of COVID convinced them not to put off reaching for their dream any longer. "My husband and I met in Israel while living there temporarily after college, and we always hoped to return as immigrants," Leah said. "The pandemic made us realize that there is no sure or stable thing anywhere, so we felt now was the time to make the move." The Smolarciks are...
