Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is responding to the Aug. 14 earthquake that struck southwestern Haiti by providing critically needed medical supplies - surgical instruments, fluids, IV starters, sutures, gloves, masks, face shields and clean linens - to local hospitals treating the wounded. The 7.2-magnitude event and its aftershocks flattened thousands of homes, businesses and other buildings as the resulting death toll reached an estimated 1,300 as of Sunday night....
(JTA) - Amid the Taliban's total takeover of Afghanistan this week, some had specific concerns about one person: that country's last remaining Jew, 62-year-old Zebulon Simantov. Simantov, who has in recent years lived in Kabul's only synagogue, said earlier this year that he would leave before the Taliban arrived, possibly for Israel. He has also said that the Taliban jailed him during the fundamentalist Muslim group's last hold on power in Afghanistan, and that they tried to convert him and reg...
(JNS) — Iran’s efforts to produce enriched uranium metal have progressed, according to an International Atomic Energy Agency report released on Monday. According to the report, which was issued to member states, Iran has produced 200g of uranium metal-enriched up to 20 percent, Reuters reported. In response, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price called on Tehran to “cease its nuclear escalations and return to negotiations.” “Iran has no credible need to produce uranium metal, which has direct relevance to nuclear weapons development,” sa...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — While most of the foreign policy world is focused on President Joe Biden’s moves in Afghanistan in the wake of the stunning turn of events there, the first anniversary of another important Middle East development quietly took place last week. The first part of the Abraham Accords, the historic cooperation agreements between Israel and several of its Arab neighbors, brokered in large part by the United States, turned one year old on Friday. The United Arab Emirates signed a treaty to normalize its relations with Israel for...
(JTA) — For the second year, COVID-19 has made it so Jews who want to attend High Holidays services must undergo a complicated risk calculation. Is it safe to go to synagogue for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur? Should I bring my children? Is the shofar — the horn whose blasts punctuate the holy days — a potential vector of disease? Last year, five months into the global pandemic that has killed more than 4.5 million people globally, the answers were fairly straightforward, if dispiriting: Stay home, or at least stay masked and very far apart...
(JNS) - A number of Jewish groups have significant concerns about how Israel's conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip this spring will correlate into anti-Jewish sentiment on North American college campuses as the fall semester begins. Most colleges are resuming in-person and on-campus classes after nearly three semesters of virtual learning as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic. Even with the rapidly spreading Delta variant, universities are getting ready to start in full force, at...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — Several U.S. Ben & Jerry’s franchisees have sent a letter to the company calling on them to rescind their July 19 decision to stop doing business in the “Occupied Palestinian Territory.” The letter was signed by franchisees in Seattle, Boston, San Francisco and St. Louis, among other major cities, that operate 30 stores and generate $23.3 million in combined revenue. “There is a danger that the pursuit of social justice will descend into political correctness or result in the adoption of overly simplistic solutions...
(JNS) — Ongoing Arab protests in recent weeks in the West Bank against the Palestinian Authority over the killing of opposition activist Nizar Banat by security forces have led to heavy criticism of the P.A. for suppression. According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute published on Tuesday, the protests have expressed deep dissatisfaction over ongoing corruption and the absence of democracy. The unrest followed the decision this spring by P.A. head Mahmoud Abbas to postpone elections out of a fear of losing to other f...
(JNS) - Three Israeli documentary filmmakers arrived home safely from Nigeria at the end of last week, after what they described as 20 "hellish days" detained under inhumane conditions by the government's Department of State Services security agency. Rudy Rochman, David Benaym and Noam Leibman had set off for the African country as part of their "We Were Never Lost" documentary project aimed at telling the stories of disconnected and lesser-known Jewish communities around the world. However,...
(JNS) — Representatives from the U.S. and Israeli Air Forces met last month to discuss a remarkable development: what the Israel Defense Forces described as “updated orders for the cooperation between the two nations’ air-defense systems during emergency situations.” The Israeli delegation was led by Brig. Gen. Gilad Biran, commander of the IAF’s Air Defense System, and the American delegation was led by Brig. Gen. Greg Brady, commander of the 10th Army Air and Missile Defense Command, which is based in Germany. “The purpose of the meeting was...
(JNS) - Many in the Jewish world are sharing in Israel's record-setting four medal wins at the just-concluded 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Leading the pack were rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram and men's gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, both of whom captured gold medals during the two weeks of competition. Additionally, Israeli Avishag Semberg took home a bronze for taekwondo, while the Jewish state's mixed judo team also celebrated with a bronze-medal win. Team Israel Olympic baseball members had hoped...
By David Isaac (JNS) — A new report by pro-Israel NGO Im Tirtzu reveals that over the last five years, U.N. agencies have funneled at least $40 million to radical anti-Israel groups, some with terror ties. It also offers a prescription: a Taylor Force Act applied to the United Nations. Passed by Congress in 2018, the Taylor Force Act, named after a U.S. war veteran and graduate student killed by a terrorist while visiting Israel, conditions U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority on its halting payments to terrorists. The P.A. puts such a high p...
(JTA) - For Chabad-Lubavitch, major events aren't over until they take a group photograph. The tradition, covering the international Hasidic movement, creates much more than a souvenir. It has also generated a visual record of Chabad's growth from a small group in the 18th century in what was then the Russian empire to a global movement with branches today in dozens of countries. Last month in Kazakhstan, the photo opportunity yielded something else: a fine for violating rules against large...
Biden names Marc Stanley, prominent Texas Jewish Democrat, as envoy to Argentina By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — President Joe Biden has nominated Marc Stanley, a longtime leader among Jewish Democrats who is active in both Texas politics and Israel lobbying, to be the ambassador to Argentina. In the role, he will play a role as the U.S. government, along with American Jewish groups, continue to press Argentine authorities to pursue accountability for the attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and i...
(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...
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...
(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...
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) — 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) - If day one of the Christians United for Israel 2021 summit was about honoring Israel, the next day's focus at the organization's annual conference held this year in Dallas was a call to action. The more than 700 invited CUFI leaders and donors at the two-day conference on July 18-19 arrived early in the morning for the start of the marathon conference day that covered every topic from Iran, BDS and antisemitism among others. Rather than the pep rally for Israel last Sunday, Monday...
(JTA) - It has been a question insiders have posed all week: Could Ben & Jerry's decision to stop selling its ice cream in the West Bank trigger many or all of the laws that U.S. states have passed in recent years to hurt the Israel boycott movement? Well, five states are already looking into it. Officials in Florida, Texas, New York, New Jersey and Illinois are reviewing whether the move will require divestment from Ben & Jerry's parent company Unilever under their various state laws. There...
Algerian judoka quits Olympics to avoid Israeli opponent By Gabe Friedman (JTA) — An Algerian judoka reportedly pulled out of the Olympics on Thursday after seeing his tournament draw, which would have pitted him against an Israeli opponent in the second round. “We were not lucky with the draw. We got an Israeli opponent and that’s why we had to retire. We made the right decision,” Fethi Nourine’s coach told Algerian media. Nourine would have had to face Tohar Butbul in the under 73 kg division. He similarly pulled out of the 2019 World Champio...
(JNS) - It's been three years since Hanna and Shamshy Schlager traded their home in New York for a new one in Modi'in, Israel. It's been a good three years, they'll tell you, a time of growth, not the least of which was adding a third child to their family. But that first year was not without its challenges, including arranging for bank accounts and credit cards, insurance policies - not to mention the paperwork around setting up his private psychology practice. "All of a sudden, you need to...
