Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 702 - 726 of 1371
(JTA) - The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic is just days away, as players and fans across the globe prepare for two weeks of competition beginning on Wednesday. Jewish fans may remember that Israel took the WBC by storm in 2017, winning four straight games as an underdog and advancing to the second round before being eliminated by Japan. Team Israel is back for the 2023 WBC, with more current MLB talent on its roster than ever. It will also face its toughest competition yet. First...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately on Tuesday with U.S. Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), stressing to them the importance of the bilateral relationship and that America is the Jewish state’s “greatest friend.” Netanyahu told the lawmakers that despite any disagreements between Jerusalem and Washington, such meetings were an expression of the strength of ongoing bipartisan ties with Israel. Among the topics discussed were the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords and their possible expa...
(JTA) — Judging from the photos and the tweets, it looked like a set of normal Congressional delegations to Israel: Senators posing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. ambassador declaring that “Bipartisanship is alive and well in Israel!!” Pledges of mutual support amid external threats. Sen. Chuck Schumer standing arm-in-arm with Netanyahu, grinning. But these are not normal times in Israel, where the Netanyahu government is advancing legislation to sap the power of the judiciary, drawing hundreds of thousands of peopl...
(JTA) — Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who is a leading proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well known antisemites.” Waters had been scheduled to perform May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews to their deaths just after Kristallnacht. The city of Frankfurt noted the historical significance of the concert hall, which it partly owns, in announcing that it was canceling...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Biden administration officials will not meet with Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister who called for a Palestinian village to be “wiped out” then backtracked, and who is visiting the United States next week to meet with leaders of Israel Bonds, a U.S. organization. At least five liberal Jewish groups want the U.S. government to consider barring Smotrich from coming here. Ned Price, the State Department’s spokesman, said at Thursday’s daily briefing that questions on Israeli ministers’ travel should be referred to...
Israeli-American terror victim laid to rest (JNS) — Elan Ganeles’s funeral was held in Ra’anana on Wednesday afternoon, two days after terrorists shot him near the Beit Ha’arava Junction close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley. “He was the biggest gift in our lives. He wanted so much to see the world and all its aspects,” said Elan’s mother, Carolyn, at the funeral. “Our loss is a loss for the world—of such a bright, brilliant, emerging star,” she continued. “He was so loved, he will be missed so much. We feel like a part of our being has been...
(JTA) — Most of the passengers on the flight from Chisinua, Moldova, to Tel Aviv earlier this month were subdued. Some had just witnessed scene after scene of hardship on a tour of war-torn Ukraine organized by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews. Others, about 90 in all, were Ukrainians in the process of moving permanently to Israel, talking in hushed tones about being on a plane for the first time, their uncertain future and the loved ones they left behind. Alexei Shkurat was not subdued. Bespectacled and bearded, he was s...
(JNS) - On Jan. 26, the historic five-day joint Israeli-American military exercise called "Juniper Oak" came to an end. The exercise saw unprecedented levels of cooperation between the U.S. military's Central Command, which is responsible for the Middle East, and the Israel Defense Forces. "Juniper Oak" tested Israeli-American readiness and boosted the operational connection between the two militaries to enable them to deal with "regional threats," according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit, but...
Catholic school soccer team that brawled with Miami Jewish school forfeits state semifinal By Andrew Lapin (JTA) – A Catholic high school in Miami forfeited its semifinal game in a state soccer tournament over the weekend, days after players fought in an on-field brawl with a Jewish school’s team. The Catholic school, however, did not offer additional comment on eyewitness accounts claiming that the fight was fueled by antisemitism. Archbishop Coleman Carroll High School was set to play in the semifinals on Saturday after beating Scheck Hil...
(JTA) - In the months after Russian tanks rolled into her country last February, the music largely stopped for Elizaveta Sherstuk. The founder of a Jewish choral ensemble called Aviv in her hometown of Sumy, in the northeastern flank of Ukraine, Sherstuk had to put singing aside in favor of her day job and personal mission: delivering aid to Jews in Sumy. "There was no time to sleep," Sherstuk recalled to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently. "All my team members worked the same, 24/7." A...
(JTA) — A recent study of the Dutch population conducted by the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany showed an alarming lack of education around the Holocaust in the Netherlands. For one, a majority of Dutch respondents, across all age groups, did not cite their own country as a place where the Holocaust took place, despite the fact that the Netherlands was the setting of the world’s most widely-read Holocaust memoir — Anne Frank’s “The Diary of a Young Girl,” which has been translated into over 70 languages. About 75 percent...
Australians make ‘YEmulkes’ of unwanted Kanye West merch (JNS) — The Talmud recommends taking the evil inclination into the Jewish study hall. Two Australians have found a different way to sanctify the destructive. Antoinette Barbouttis, of Sydney, wanted nothing more to do with her collection of clothing featuring one of the most prominent antisemites, Kanye West. So, she and her friend John Safran, a Jewish-Australian filmmaker and writer, brainstormed how to make kosher lemonade out of hateful lemons. Safran’s unique idea? Turn the several...
(JTA) — In a speech to the European Union parliament tied to commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said that criticism of his country, which has drawn renewed international scrutiny over its new right-wing government, is legitimate. Questioning Israel’s right to exist, he added, is “antisemitism in the full sense of the word.” “It is, of course, OK to criticize the state that I head. It is OK to criticize us, and it is OK to disagree with us, just as it is OK to criticize you and your states,...
(JNS) — Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli described on Sunday the Palestinian Authority as a “neo-Nazi entity” and an enemy of the Jewish state. “I see the Palestinian Authority as a neo-Nazi entity in its essence and outlook,” Chikli told Ynet. “We still do not have any peace agreement with it. It is an enemy that is antisemitic to its core, and we need to examine alternatives.” The Palestinian leadership said on Saturday that it holds the “Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the dangerous escalation,” fo...
(JNS) - In his first visit to the United Nations, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff called on U.N. leaders to globalize the fight against antisemitism. He told the body on Thursday that it cannot normalize spiking rates of Jew-hatred. Emhoff, the Jewish husband of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, addressed ambassadors and members of civil society at a special, high-level side event. The U.N. missions of the U.S., Israel, Argentina, Canada, Morocco and the United Kingdom hosted the event. U.S....
BERLIN (JTA) - A federal German cultural organization has returned a 16th-century sculpture to the heirs of its pre-war Jewish owner who faced Nazi persecution. The Berlin-based Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, or SPK (for Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz), announced today that the "Maria Lactans" statuette depicting Mary nursing an infant Jesus would be given back to the family of German Jewish banker and entrepreneur Jakob Goldschmidt, who fled Nazi Germany soon after Hitler came to...
(JNS) — The Palestinian Authority, PLO and Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) last week called “on the peoples of the world and their democratic and progressive forces” to actively participate in the BDS Movement against Israel and to “dismantle Israel’s system of settler colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation.” The joint P.A.-PLO-BDS statement demands “the dismantling of Israel’s regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid.” Their communique refers to Zionism as a “racist, genocidal ideology that encourages terrorism and fasci...
Brazilian teenager dies after soccer accident at Hebraica Jewish sports club By Marcus M. Gilban SAO PAULO, Brazil (JTA) — A 14-year-old Brazilian boy died on Friday after a soccer goal post fell on him at Sao Paulo’s Hebraica club, the main meeting place for the local 60,000-strong Jewish community. Alexandre Andrei Mirocznik was playing with four friends at one of the several courts and fields at the Hebraica, a sports facility that combines the functions of a Jewish community center and a country club. As he hung from a goal post and swung b...
(JNS) — A massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake centered in southern Turkey killed more than 2,300 people combined in that country and Syria early on Monday, toppling buildings and causing shockwaves felt across the region, including Cyprus, Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Israel. Emergency medical services in Turkey and Syria said that the death toll was expected to rise in both countries as hundreds of people potentially remained trapped under collapsed structures. The quake struck just after 4 a...
ISTANBUL (JTA) — Israel is sending aid to Turkey and Syria in the wake of a 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has left over 2,000 dead as of Monday evening here. Israel will send medication, tents and other supplies to Syria, its neighbor that it considers a hostile state, according to Hebrew language media. The Israeli military will also send rescue teams to both countries, the Israeli embassy in the Turkish capital Ankara told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. That embassy was only recently formally re-established after years of diplomatic t...
(JNS) - Over the course of his illustrious career, Israel "Izzy" Tapoohi has helmed some of the most recognizable Israeli franchises, including Africa-Israel Investments, Bezeq, Israel Bonds and the Israel Electric Corporation. But, as he announces his retirement at year's end, Tapoohi, 76, says nothing has been more fulfilling than his role over the last six years as president and CEO of the Birthright Israel Foundation, the non-profit organization that raises funds in the United States to...
(JNS) — The Jewish Federations of North America and American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee have launched fundraising campaigns to provide humanitarian aid to people in Turkey after the devastating earthquakes today. Thousands have been killed in what officials are calling the worst quake to hit the region in decades. The initial one registered at a magnitude of 7.8 on the Richter scale, causing massive damage to buildings, homes and medical facilities in Turkey and Syria. An aftershock, which registered more than 7.5, exacerbated the d...
This winter, the city of Odessa, Ukraine, feels like the heart of darkness. The city is constant bombardment by the Russian military, freezing nighttime temperatures commonly fall below zero, and electricity is only available for six hours per day: three in the morning and three at night. Amid these desperate circumstances, Avraham Wolff, the chief rabbi of Odessa and southern Ukraine, is trying to bring some light - and heat. He's doing so with jerry-rigged car batteries to provide warmth and...
Israel passes important hurdle to enter US visa waiver program (JNS) — Fiscal year 2022 saw a significant drop in the number of Israelis refused visas to enter the United States, for the first time falling under the 3 percent threshold to qualify for the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, the U.S. Embassy in Israel said in a statement. “Israel has made one huge step toward the visa waiver program,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides tweeted on Monday. However, he continued, much work remains to be done. The U.S. Visa Waiver Program allows citizens o...
(JNS) - As of the new year, a total of 1,116 global entities have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's Working Definition of Antisemitism. According to the Combat Antisemitism Movement, this includes 18 U.S. states that adopted the IHRA definition via legislative or executive actions in the course of 2022, bringing the total number to 30. American cities such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., El Paso and Wichita have all adopted the definition, as have seven out of the 10...
