Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — The Orthodox Union is setting up meetings between members of Congress and Orthodox Jewish constituents who are alarmed by antisemitic incidents since last month’s Israel-Gaza conflict, and by what they see as Congress’ failure to have Israel’s back. “Many in Congress failed to stand up for Israel’s right as a sovereign nation to act in self-defense,” says a page on the umbrella group’s website that facilitates meetings between constituents and their lawmakers. “Further, while the battle between Israel and Hamas raged, we witnessed a sh...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza issued a joint statement on Tuesday calling on Egyptian and international mediators to pressure Israel to "lift the blockade on Gaza, finalize the rehabilitation matter, and stop the provocations in Jerusalem, Sheikh Jarrah and Silwan." The terrorist groups also called on Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and within the Green Line to "prepare for a security escalation." "The resistance won't stand idly by in the...
(JTA) - Standing poolside in Barcelona, Eden Blecher and Shelly Bobritsky beamed with pride and satisfaction as they struggled to catch their breath. The two athletes from Israel on Sunday had just clinched the fourth slot in the Women Duet category of the Artistic Swimming Qualification Tournament in that city in Spain, assuring their participation in the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. But the commentator who narrated the tournament for TV3, the state broadcaster of Catalonia, the separatist Spanish...
(JTA) — After being blasted by critics for staying in the Israeli prime minister’s residence well over a week past his ousting from the role, Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to leave — in another three weeks. He and his successor, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, released a joint statement Saturday that says Netanyahu will depart by July 10 and until then, no official state meetings will be held there. Netanyahu had stayed in power through a series of close elections over two years and multiple corruption cases that made him the first prime minis...
After discovering a suspicious lump in her breast one day while in the shower, Abby Match was diagnosed in August with an aggressive form of breast cancer. She subsequently underwent a bilateral mastectomy, a hysterectomy, chemotherapy and radiation. It was only after she discovered she was sick that Match, 35, learned she was a carrier of a mutation in her BRCA1 gene - associated with a significantly elevated risk for developing breast cancer at a young age, and also for ovarian and other...
(JNS) — Over the past few decades, evangelical Christians have emerged as one of Israel’s core bases of support both in the United States and many other countries as well. However, growing trends of secularization and liberal ideology, as well as the erosion of a pro-Israel theology, are threatening to undermine this support, particularly among young evangelicals. A recent poll, commissioned by University of North Carolina at Pembroke Professors Mordechai Inbari and Kirill Bumin, shows a sharp drop in support for Israel among the younger set ha...
German publishing boss tells workers to find new jobs if they oppose Israeli flag By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — Here’s the advice from a top publishing executive in Germany to employees who complained about his decision to fly the Israeli flag on the business’ headquarters: Find another place to work. “I think, and I’m being very frank with you, a person who has an issue with an Israeli flag being raised for one week here, after antisemitic demonstrations, should look for a new job,” Mathias Doepfner, the chairman of Axel Springer, said in a c...
(JTA) - Among Rabbi Mayer Berger's first thoughts on seeing the 12 stories of the Champlain Tower South pancaked upon themselves: This is like Sept. 11. Then as now, destruction of unimaginable proportions claimed many lives without warning in a manner that rendered traditional practices for burying the Jewish dead impossible to perform. Those practices call for bodies to be buried as soon as possible following death after undergoing a purification ritual called tahara. But with both Jewish and...
(ISRAEL21c) - Danielle Wolfson's oxygen tank was almost empty as she neared the peak of Mount Everest on May 23. At such a high altitude and low temperature, she knew she could just sit down and await a quick death. She'd stepped over bodies of previous climbers who'd done exactly that. Two things saved this 43-year-old Israeli attorney: Covid and chutzpah. "We Israelis are a little aggressive and very creative," Wolfson told ISRAEL21c after becoming the first female Israeli to reach the top of...
(JNS) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited a synagogue in South Florida on Monday to sign legislation that had the support of many in the Jewish community there. At the Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside, Fla., a Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue north of Miami, DeSantis ensured that faith-based, volunteer first-responder services, like the Orthodox-run Hatzalah ambulance corp., can operate more fully, including using lights and sirens in an emergency if they meet specific criteria and have been operating...
On June 14, at 7 p.m., an in-person and zoom meeting was hosted by Keith Dvorchik, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Orlando, and Aaron Weill, CEO of Central Florida Hillel, for a community discussion on "Israel and Antisemitism." In front of a live audience of 10 people and over the Internet, via Zoom and a Facebook link, with 84 viewers, they held a discussion driven by the concern in the tremendous growth of antisemitism over the past two years. "Anti-Semitism world-wide has been increasing...
Congregation Beth Am has engaged Rabbi David Barnett to be their interim rabbi. He started on June 15, 2021. The Rabbinic Search Committee chaired by Steven Gordon, after having interviewed many qualified candidates, recommended Rabbi Barnett to the congregation. Rabbi Barnett will serve for one year. A primary focus of an interim rabbi is to work with the congregation's leadership and membership to establish a strategic plan for the congregation's future and to use his experience and expertise...
(JNS) - Israel's Foreign Ministry is investigating a report that an Israeli woman had her birthplace changed from "Jerusalem" to "Occupied Palestinian Territories" upon renewing her U.K. passport. Ayelet Balaban, a dual Israeli-British citizen who has held a U.K. passport all her life, said she was shocked upon receiving the new document, according to Israel's Kan. According to Balaban, she sent her old passport to England about two weeks ago and received the new one on Monday. Upon discovering...
(JNS) - Groups of Jews and other community members in Arizona and Ohio gathered on Sunday to express their concern over the recent rise in anti-Semitism across the country and around the world. In Cincinnati, hundreds attended the "Under the Tent, Standing Against Antisemitism" event to stand in solidarity against Jew-hatred in Ohio and elsewhere. "We join together as Jews and allies to send a strong message that we will not tolerate hate and anti-Semitism in any form," said Gary Greenberg,...
The following virtual programs will be hosted by the Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center. The first on Sunday, June 27 at 3 p.m. is with Holocaust survivor Claire Soria. Hear Soria's story as she remembers vividly, the tanks going down her street as the Nazis invaded Brussels. She recalls the armed soldiers marching into every government building to take down their precious Belgian flags and replacing them with flags with the swastika. Soon after, Jewish children of every age were...
(JNS) - The Jewish United Fund is taking the fight over antisemitism to residents of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs with a major media blitz that included TV ads, billboards, social-media posts and more. The "Stop Antisemitism" media campaign, which launched in late May, is being undertaken because of the rise of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions across the country and in Western Europe. During Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza in mid-May, anti-Semitic attacks soared worldwide and...
Federation CEO and Executive Director Keith Dvorchik reached out to the Heritage about the Trader Joe’s incident saying that “a lot more happened that wasn’t included [in the article Heritage ran].” After learning of the anti-Israel discourtesy paid the shopper, Dvorchik reached out to Trader Joe’s CEO Dan Bane. Bane assigned the grievance to the regional manager, who failed to address the problem properly. It was then reassigned to their in-house council, who is the head of all Trader Joe’s legal issues and a top executive. Dvorchik contacted...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Some 5,000 new immigrants from the United States and Canada are scheduled to immigrate to Israel by the end of 2021, according to new data published by the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization in conjunction with Israel's Aliyah and Integration Ministry, the Jewish Agency for Israel and Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund USA. Nefesh B'Nefesh has reported a spike in the number of immigration requests and files opened during the COVID pandemic. In 2020, the o...
(Israel21c via JNS) — For the first time in 12 years, Israel’s Likud Party and its head, Benjamin Netanyahu, have moved from the prime minister’s seat to the opposition in the Knesset. The new government, sworn in Sunday night, brings into power a broad coalition of eight political parties, spanning the country’s political spectrum. Heading Israel’s 36th government is Yamina Party leader Naftali Bennett, the 13th Israeli prime minister. Bennett was sworn in along with Yesh Atid Party leader Yair Lapid, who will serve as alternate prime min...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday officially announced the nomination of Thomas Nides to serve as U.S. Ambassador to Israel. Nides, 60, has held prominent roles in the private and public sectors. From 2010-2013, he served as the State Department’s Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources. As part of the Obama administration, Nides played a key role in the administration’s approval of an extension on loan guarantees worth billions of dollars for Israel. He also led the push against Congress’s efforts to defund the U.N...
(JTA) — Parents in Brazil are protesting a school’s teaching of Anne Frank’s famous Holocaust diary, citing what they say is sexual content inappropriate for seventh graders. In a letter sent to the management of the Sao Paulo branch of Escola Mobile, a network of private schools, more than 90 parents complained about Frank’s descriptions of female genitalia and her attraction to women, according to Revista Oeste magazine. The parents were complaining about passages in the latest edition of the official diary of Anne Frank. Her father, who was...
JTA - Israel's new prime minister is probably the first one who has stuck a wad of chewing gum to his head right before a public event. Naftali Bennett, who took office last week, is the first prime minister in the country's history to regularly wear a kippah, the Jewish ritual head covering (sometimes called a yarmulke or skullcap). Unlike his secular predecessors, he identifies as a religious Zionist and practices Modern Orthodox Judaism, which requires men to cover their heads. He's also...
(JNS) - "Israel, you are not alone. ... We represent 10 million-plus people in America and these people say to you Israel, we have your back." That was the message of Pastor John Hagee, chairman and founder of Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States. Hagee was in Israel on a June 13-14 solidarity mission that included former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Haley, who served in that role from January 2017 to December 2018, stood...
(JTA) – Pro-Palestinian activists were swarming the social media comments sections of Ben & Jerry's to demand the company boycott Israel. In response, Ben & Jerry's appears to have indeed entered a boycott - of social media itself. The international ice cream brand with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales typically posts to its Twitter, Instagram or Facebook pages daily, including about the many progressive social causes that the company supports. But Ben & Jerry's fell silent on May...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A key Supreme Court decision on religious freedoms earned praise from Orthodox Jewish groups, and has more liberal groups breathing a sigh of relief that its scope was narrow. On Thursday, the court issued a unanimous decision overturning Philadelphia’s policy of refusing to work with a Catholic agency that will not place foster children with same-sex parents. Jewish groups had filed friend-of-the-court briefs on both sides of the case, known as Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. Orthodox groups, driven by concerns about religio...
