Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Israeli army opens two coronavirus wards for civilians in Rambam Hospital in Haifa By Marcy Oster (JTA) — The Israel Defense Forces opened two civilian coronavirus wards in an underground parking complex designed to be used for medical purposes during wartime. The opening of the wards at Rambam Hospital in Haifa mark the first time the military has opened medical wards for civilians. The wards, which opened to patients last month, are in a facility constructed after the hospital came under fire during the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The w...
(JNS) - A Greek court has deemed the neo-Nazi party Golden Dawn as a criminal organization disguised as a political party - a ruling applauded by Jewish groups. The five-and-a-half-year trial resulted in the convictions on Wednesday of 68 people, including 18 former lawmakers. The case, overseen by a three-judge panel, was sparked by the 2013 murder of 34-year-old anti-fascist rapper Pavlos Fyssas, who was chased down and stabbed to death by a Golden Dawn member. The killer, former truck driver...
(JTA) — Louise Glück, the American granddaughter of Hungarian Jews, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday. Glück, 77, was awarded “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal,” the Nobel committee wrote in its announcement. Her collections of poetry — which explore broad and painful topics, such as family life, trauma and aging — include the books “The Wild Iris,” “Meadowlands,” “The Triumph of Achilles” and “Ararat.” For “The Wild Iris” she was awarded the 1993 Pulitzer Prize...
Top Hamas official enters quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 By Neta Bar (Israel Hayom via JNS) — Deputy Hamas leader Saleh al-Arouri has contracted COVID-19, the terrorist group confirmed on Thursday. Arouri had entered quarantine and was “doing well,” Hamas said in an official statement. Arouri is believed to have contracted the disease while meeting with Fatah officials in Turkey two weeks ago to discuss ending longtime strife between the rival Palestinian factions, which have recently announced they would join forces. He also...
Congress members join global task force to combat online anti-Semitism By Marcy Oster (JTA) — Several U.S. Congress members are part of a new task force of international lawmakers trying to combat online anti-Semitism. Members of the national legislatures of Australia, Canada, Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States are part of the panel, according to an announcement from Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., a members of the Inter-Parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Anti-Semitism. The lawmakers decided to ban together since “social med...
(MEMRI via JNS) - The BDS movement is monitoring the activity of Arab companies regarding Israel in the wake of the peace deals signed last month between the Jewish state, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, according to BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti. In a video uploaded to the YouTube channel of the Bahraini Society Against Normalization on Sept. 17, Barghouti singled out First Abu Dhabi Bank, which he said has been in dialogue with Israeli banks Leumi and Hapoalim. "With the help of our...
NEW YORK (JTA) — After an initial first wave that devastated New York City’s Orthodox Jewish communities, the coronavirus is on the rise again. Meanwhile, Israelis are back under lockdown after new infections there reached crisis levels. As we did this spring, we’re tracking the news flowing in from across Jewish communities here. And as always, we want to hear from you. Have questions, tips or insights about how your community is responding to the pandemic more than six months in? Get in touch. Tuesday, Sept. 29 10:34 a.m. Israel’s per cap...
(JNS) — The United States has reimposed United Nations sanctions on Iran, in addition to imposing “new sanctions and export control measures on 27 entities and individuals connected to Iran’s proliferation networks,” according to a statement released by the White House on Monday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called the reimposition a step towards “international peace and security.” The United States activated the mechanism last month to enact U.N. snapback sanctions on the regime under U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which endor...
(Israel21C via JNS) - Mazal tov to Hannah and Methuselah on their 111 miracle babies! The proud parents are date palms grown from ancient seeds uncovered in archeological excavations in Israel. These dates, recently picked at the Arava Institute at Kibbutz Ketura in southern Israel, are a type that hasn't been tasted since the times of Jesus and the Maccabees. "Dr. Elaine Solowey, our director of the Center for Sustainable Agriculture, grew our first ancient date tree, Methuselah, in 2005," expl...
Film agencies in Israel and UAE reach cooperation deal (JNS) — The Abu Dhabi Film Commission of the United Arab Emirates and the Israeli Film Fund announced a cooperation agreement on Monday. A government agency, the Abu Dhabi Film Commission said the agreement would lead to training programs for film and TV co-production, in addition to joint film festivals, reported the AP. Under the agreement, Emirati students will study in Jerusalem at the Sam Spiegel Film and Television School. It is the latest news of warming ties since the UAE and B...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Benjamin Netanyahu has complained for years about Arab leaders telling their people one thing in Arabic and diplomats saying another to Western audiences in English. Not on Tuesday. Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the foreign minister of the United Arab Emirates, was on the White House lawn speaking - in Arabic - about the "innate principle" of peace and thanking the Israeli prime minister for helping to bring it about. If the agreements signed Tuesday by leaders of t...
(JNS) - The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, better known as HIAS, was for the better part of a century responsible for helping settle generations of Jewish refugees in their new homes in the United States. From 1881 through the release of Jews from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, the organization worked not only to resettle the new arrivals, but was involved in assisting them legally as well. Yet in a way, HIAS was a product of its own success and the success of the American Jewish...
(JTA) — The main foreign policy umbrella for the U.S. Jewish community came to a decision to not come to a decision on whether its members inappropriately disparage one another. Earlier this year, HIAS, the Jewish community’s lead immigration advocacy group, accused the Zionist Organization of America, its fellow member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, of disparagement. Klein had among other things said HIAS was not a Jewish organization. HIAS sought redress under the Conference’s rules, which could result...
(JTA) - For Flori Dedoni, a member of the tiny Jewish community of Kosovo, the news that his country is establishing formal diplomatic ties with Israel is cause for celebration. Until last week, Israel was among the dozens of countries that had not recognized the Muslim-majority territory sandwiched between Albania and Serbia. "When someone learns I'm Jewish, they usually ask sometime during the conversation why Israel doesn't recognize us," Dedoni said. "Now, finally it's happening and the...
(JTA) - On the border of Belarus and Ukraine, Avremi Vitman tried to shake off the morning chill as he prayed earlier this week. Vitman was hungry and uncomfortable after yet another night sleeping in his coat, two weeks after arriving in Belarus en route, he hoped, to Uman, the Ukrainian city that is the site of an annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage for followers of Rabbi Nachman, founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. "Nights are cold here, we sleep in our coats," Vitman told the Jewish...
Polish auction house selling possessions of Holocaust survivor behind ‘The Pianist’ story By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — A Polish auction house has announced the sale of 51 objects that belonged to the Holocaust survivor whose life story served as the basis for the 2002 film “The Pianist.” Desa Unicum will start selling Władysław Szpilman’s objects, including bowties, an antique metronome and a death mask of the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin, on Sept. 22, the Warsaw-based firm said on its website. Szpilman was one of Poland’s foremost compos...
(JTA) - Ebrahim Dahood Nonoo, the leader of Bahrain's tiny Jewish community, was among the Gulf country's approximately 50 Jews who thought peace with Israel would never arrive "in our lifetimes." "It just didn't seem possible," Nonoo told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency from Manama, the capital city where he lives with his wife. Tuesday's signing of the agreements called the Abraham Accords is expected to open up routes for collaboration, trade and travel between Bahrain and Israel, which had...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has been nominated for the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, in part for helping to broker the treaty between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, dubbed the “Abraham Accord.” He was nominated by Norwegian Parliament member Christian Tybring-Gjedde, who wrote in his letter to the Nobel committee: “As it is expected other Middle Eastern countries will follow in the footsteps of the UAE, this agreement could be a game-changer that will turn the Middle East into a region of cooperation and prosperity.” In an exclusive...
In the midst of a 12-city, 4-country, 64-show international virtual tour during a global pandemic, award-winning performance artist Brian Feldman brings the online version of one of his signature projects to the 2020 Philadelphia Fringe Festival, as one of 120 shows available to audiences virtually and IRL as part of this year's festival. "#txtshow" (on the internet) is a completely immersive multi-screen performance featuring a mysterious character named txt (pronounced "text") who recites a...
Danish parliament to debate bill that would ban non-medical circumcision By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — The Danish parliament is scheduled to consider a bill proposing a ban on non-medical circumcisions. Henri Goldstein, the president of the Jewish Community in Denmark, says the measure represents “the worst threat since World War II” to the country’s Jews, who traditionally circumcise baby boys on their eighth day of life, a ritual known as brit milah. The Danish parliament is set to vote sometime during its next session on the bill filed last mo...
(JTA) - As night falls on the second night of Rosh Hashanah this year, Rabbi Adam Zagoria-Moffet and two shofar blowers will ascend the 144-foot tower of St. Albans Cathedral, the 11th-century church that dominates the skyline of this city of the same name 20 miles northwest of London. As members of Zagoria-Moffet's 200-family synagogue assemble - at a safe distance - in the large grassy area below, the blowers will sound the ram's horn meant to rouse people to repentance at the Jewish New...
(JNS) — Each year, tens of thousands of Jews from across the world make a pilgrimage to Uman, Ukraine, to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, at the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov. The leader of the Breslov Chassidic dynasty, Rabbi Nachman passed away in 1810 though urged his followers to spend the holiday with him, and it’s a tradition that continues. However, with the coronavirus pandemic raging worldwide, there have been calls from officials to avoid visiting the holy site. In a joint statement last week, the Ukrainian and Isr...
BERLIN (JTA) - The previous director of the Jewish Museum Berlin left in the wake of a tweet. In May, after the German parliament declared the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel anti-Semitic, the museum tweeted a critique of the decision, arguing that it was undemocratic, and shared an article featuring several Jewish scholars who agreed. Public pressure mounted against the director, Peter Schafer, and a debate about the role of Jewish museums and the legality of the BDS...
Biden campaign appears to walk back apology over condemning Linda Sarsour By Jackson Richman (JNS) — The Biden campaign has been sending conflicting messages over whether or not it regrets comments directed at Linda Sarsour, a prominent pro-BDS activist. On a private call on Sunday with dozens of prominent Arab and Muslim activists, the Biden campaign expressed regret over how it construed a statement condemning former Women’s March leader and Bernie Sanders surrogate Linda Sarsour. Sarsour was featured last week at the Democratic National Con...
(JTA) - If you're looking for a good investment, you should put your money on Ukraine – especially if you're Jewish. That's the message from the office of the country's Jewish president, Vlodymyr Zelensky, about a new campaign that aims to attract new investments to help grow Ukraine's stunted economy. The first video of the campaign, featuring Zelensky speaking in English with a heavy Ukrainian accent, does not mentions Jews. The one-minute film focuses on Ukraine's touristic potential and 5 p...
