Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — PBS has decided to postpone airing the documentary “Til Kingdom Come,” which examines the close relationship between American evangelicals and Israel, in the light of accusations that the film misleadingly spliced together two separate parts of a speech by former President Donald Trump. The film, which was directed by the Russian-Israeli documentary filmmaker Maya Zinshtein, was released as a rental for in-home viewing in late February ahead of a planned broadcast premiere on March 29 as part of the “Independent Lens” series on PBS. I...
(JTA) — Political activists, including Rep. Madison Cawthorn and the ambassador to Germany under Donald Trump, are comparing the idea of “vaccine passports” to Nazi Germany, with many invoking the yellow Stars of David that Nazis forced Jews to wear during the Holocaust. Other opponents of public health restrictions have suggested or implied that the idea of opening recreational spaces only to those who aren’t at risk of COVID is similar to the Nazis’ persecution of Europe’s Jews, which culminated in genocide. The trend is the latest inst...
(JTA) — Steven Spielberg is donating his Genesis Prize earnings to Jewish and non-Jewish groups working to promote racial and economic justice. The prize’s foundation on Thursday announced that the film director would double the $1 million prize with his own money and split it among 10 organizations, including Black Voters Matter and the Jews of Color Initiative. “Judaism and Jewish history begin with two narratives: Genesis and Exodus, stories about creation and liberation from oppression, about the discovery of the moral voice and of human...
Israeli cargo ship hit by missile near Yemen in suspected Iranian attack By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — An Israeli-owned cargo ship was struck by a missile in the Arabian Sea in a suspected Iranian attack, an Israeli security official said. The ship was sailing from Tanzania to India and continued its voyage after the attack Thursday, the official told Reuters. He was not named. The vessel, which is owned by the XT Management firm from Haifa, was flying a Liberian flag and did not sustain major damage, the report said. Since 2019, Israel has been a...
(JNS) — Argentinian Jewish tennis player Diego Schwartzman won the Argentina Open on Sunday and claimed his first ATP Tour title in his home country. The 28-year-old from Buenos Aire beat fellow countryman Francisco Cerundolo with a 6-1, 6-2 victory in one hour and 21 minutes. The win is the fourth ATP Tour title for Schwartzman, who did not lose a single set last week in his four matches. Schwartzman is the first Argentine champion of the Argentina Open since 2008, when David Nalbandian won in another all-Argentine final against José Acasuso....
(JNS) - The World Council of Churches has gone full theological incitement against the State of Israel. In a recent Zoom webinar with more than 300 Christian activists to promote a film about the former Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem and pro-Palestinian activism of Michel Sabbah, Rev. Frank Chikane, the moderator of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs, went much further than the usual falsehoods about Israel's "brutality" toward the Palestinians. "We need to begin to say...
(JNS) - As the World Council of Churches goes full throttle against Israel, Christians United for Israel, one of the most powerful voices for Israel in the United States, marked its 15th anniversary. "We could never have imagined CUFI would achieve so much, so quickly. But God has blessed us because we are fulfilling our biblical mandate to stand with Israel and His Chosen people," Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of CUFI, told JNS. "This said, I noted when we launched CUFI that there...
(JNS) — Often synonymous with Jewish life on campus, Hillel has been a gathering point for Jewish students across hundreds of campuses in the United States for decades. While being a “big tent” organization that seeks to accommodate a wide range of Jewish religious beliefs and political affiliations has long posed certain challenges, the coronavirus pandemic over the past year has likely been Hillel’s biggest test in recent memory. JNS had the opportunity to speak with both the new CEO of Hillel International—Adam Lehman, who took on his role...
International March of the Living will hold a Virtual March on Holocaust Remembrance Day led by Israel's President Reuven Rivlin, Holocaust survivors, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, Jewish Agency Chair Isaac Herzog, KKL Chair Avraham Duvdevani and Rabbi Israel Meir Lau. Among the Holocaust survivors participating are those who survived due to the selfless acts of medical professionals. Participants in the Virtual March from across the globe were filmed using innovative 3D technology so they appear...
On Feb. 23, the Zionist Organization of America sent a letter to Penguin Random House to complain about the anti-Israel bias in former President Barack Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land.” The organization has yet to hear back, says ZOA National President Morton Klein. “Having received complaints from our supporters and conducting our own review, we are deeply concerned about the factual inaccuracies, material omissions and outright falsehoods” contained in Obama’s book, the letter states, which was co-signed by Klein, ZOA Chairman Mark S. Lev...
Michigan imam calls to ‘join hands’ with Jews that wish Jerusalem to be retaken (MEMRI via JNS) — A Michigan imam said in a sermon earlier this month that Muslims should not be afraid to join hands with those who share the cause of recapturing Jerusalem, even if those individuals are Jews. Imam Mustapha Elturk, Ameer of the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA) Elturk, said that while most Jews are disobedient to Allah, some Jews and Christians were, in fact, “doing the work for us.” He made the remarks during a Friday sermon at the IO...
A new study by the Jerusalem-based watchdog group IMPACT-se shows that school textbooks in Turkey are becoming more Islamicized and now refer to Jews and Christians as “infidels,” JTA reported Thursday. Researchers at the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found a change in Turkish school textbooks that previously referred to Jews and Christians as “People of the Book.” New textbooks, however, such as “Fundamental Religious Knowledge,” a publication released after 2017 that is part of the mand...
Biden civil rights nominee, under fire from the right, gets some Jewish backing By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vanita Gupta, President Joe Biden’s nominee for a top civil rights enforcement job, has been targeted in recent weeks as an extremist by a number of conservative groups and the conservative media. A couple of Jewish groups, the Anti-Defamation League and the National Council of Jewish Women, are expressing their support. Gupta, who was tapped for the post of associate attorney general, the No. 3 job at the Justice Department, fac...
(JTA) — About 200 academics from the United Kingdom and the United States have signed a petition defending a British university lecturer who had called Jewish students on his campus “pawns” of Israel, “a violent, racist, foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.” Jewish groups and organizations have protested the remarks by David Miller, a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol, made during an online videoconference Feb. 13. Some have called for his ouster. The signatories of the letter published Friday supporting Mille...
Rep. Lee Zeldin considering run for New York governor By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — Rep. Lee Zeldin, one of two Jewish Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, is considering a run for New York governor in light of scandals engulfing incumbent Andrew Cuomo. “After a lot of people reached out to me in recent days and weeks, and after discussing it at length with my wife and daughters, I am now actively exploring a run for governor of New York against Andrew Cuomo in 2022,” Zeldin told Newsday on Tuesday. The newspaper quoted a number of Repub...
(JTA) — To many in the Jewish world, the Ruderman Family Foundation is synonymous with efforts to increase inclusion for Jews with disabilities. Based in Boston, but active across the United States and in Israel, the foundation has doled out some $75 million over the past 18 years to support inclusion. Just this month — Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month — the foundation is credited with sponsoring a virtual reading of a children’s book with Chabad and collaborating with Boston’s Jewish federation to make synagogues mor...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nancy Pelosi, the U.S. House of Representatives speaker, spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s COVID-19 response at a time that Israel is under pressure to extend its vaccination program to Palestinians in the West Bank. “Today, I spoke with [the Israeli prime minister] to reaffirm the unbreakable bond between our nations and Congress’s unwavering support for a safe and secure Israel,” Pelosi said Wednesday on Twitter. “We discussed COVID response and our shared hope for regional peace, incl...
(JTA) - The heartwarming story has been hard to miss: A law professor is shopping at his local grocery store when he sees an elderly woman struggling to get her favorite jam from a high shelf. Why is it her favorite? "I am a Holocaust survivor," she says. "During the war, the family that owns the company hid my family in Paris." Tens of thousands of people - at least - have shared the story since it began circulating on social media this weekend. It has prompted countless people to vow to buy...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four weeks into his presidency, Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the “scandal” over the new U.S. leader’s failure to pick up the phone came to a quick and cheerful close. The end of the “will he call?” controversy on Wednesday was evident in Netanyahu’s grin in the photo his office sent to the media to announce the phone call, which lasted an hour. But the scrutiny of the Biden-Israel relationship is just beginning. How the two sides summarized the call was evidence of where they stand on...
(JNS) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Tuesday as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The final vote was 78-20. The 35-year veteran diplomat and Louisiana native will arrive in the backdrop of U.S. President Joe Biden's stated pledge to re-engage with the world body amid the coronavirus pandemic and its global economic fallout. She will be sworn in on Wednesday by Vice President Kamala Harris and present her credentials to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres on...
Suspected oil spill may be worst in Israel’s history By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — Israel closed its Mediterranean beaches to deal with what its officials say may be the worst oil spill in the country’s history. The Israel Nature and Parks Authority on Sunday called the suspected spill one of the “greatest ecological disasters to afflict Israel since the founding of the state.” It said that 170 out of 190 kilometers of coastline, or 105 out of 118 miles, have been affected by the spill. The consequences will be felt for years, its statement said. Thou...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nearly a month into his first term — a time frame that drew criticism from Republicans for its length. Biden appeared to make up for lost time, at least according to Netanyahu’s account on Twitter, and the two spoke for an hour. The conversation was “friendly and warm” Netanyahu said in Hebrew, addressing an Israeli electorate that places a high value on healthy relations with the United States. His tweet, accompanied by a photo of a grinning Netanyahu...
(JNS) - According to Gabi Harow, a resident of the Israeli settlement of Nokdim in Gush Etzion, there have been massive changes in the landscape since he moved to the community with his family in 2012. "The amount of illegal Arab building and the takeover of the land have grown tremendously," he told JNS. "You see structures going up all the time in our area and in the nature reserves between our community and the Judean Desert." Harow said that Nokdim has been "slowly, slowly" losing its 150...
Flagship New Jersey yeshiva cancels Purim celebrations By Andrew Silow-Carroll (JTA) — Haredi Orthodox Jews in Lakewood, New Jersey, are curtailing Purim festivities because of COVID-19. For the first time in 80 years, Beth Medrash Govoha, the yeshiva at the center of the township’s 70,000-strong Orthodox community, won’t host festivities surrounding the holiday, the Asbury Park Press reports. The community saw a surge in COVID-19 cases after last year’s celebrations, which came in the early days of the pandemic, before widespread school...
(JTA) - Authorities in Poland, Russia, Hungary and some lawmakers in Britain's Labour Party used anti-Semitism for political means, according to the Anti-Defamation League's anti-Semitism report on Europe published Thursday. In Poland, presidential candidate Rafal Trzaskowski was the target of "antisemitic rhetoric" this summer during an election in which he lost to the incumbent Andrzej Duda of the right-wing Law and Justice party, ADL wrote in the report titled "Choosing Antisemitism:...
