Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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When the Yiddish New York Festival kicks off on the first night of Chanukah, the coincidence of the weeklong celebration of Yiddish culture, food, music and dance with the Festival of Lights will be unmissable. Aside from the traditional Chanukah staples of latkes and jelly doughnuts that will be on hand, one highlight of the festival at the 14th Street Y in Manhattan will be the remarkable photography display called "Chanukah in Mea Shearim (Jerusalem)." The photos in the exhibit offer a...
Sweden pleads for the life of Iranian-Swedish physician set to be executed in Iran for spying for Israel By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — The Swedish foreign minister pleaded with Iran to spare the life of a Swedish-Iranian physician who was convicted on charges that he was spying for Israel, saying they were trumped up. “Sweden condemns the death penalty and is working to ensure that the verdict against Ahmadreza Djalali is not enforced,” Ann Linde said Tuesday on Twitter, adding that she had spoken to her Iranian counterpart, Javad Zarif. Djala...
VANCOUVER, Canada (JTA) - On a January afternoon, snow blanketed the streets of this western Canada city of famously weather-fickle residents. But it didn't keep 30 Jews from packing into the living room of Noam and Val Dolgin to talk about Jewish cohousing. The group ran the gamut in age, from young adults to families with kids to retirees. Some were secular in search of cultural fellowship, while others were more religiously observant and cared about living in a space conducive to observing...
Repair the World and Hillel International are collaborating to mobilize thousands of college students in meaningful volunteer service and learning through the national Serve the Moment initiative. About 100 Hillel "Campus Corps Members" will serve on campuses throughout the world and recruit peers to engage in ongoing service work with local nonprofits to address urgent needs in their communities. "Jewish college students witness inequity and racial injustice in their neighborhoods and across th...
(JTA) - National Independence Day in Poland has served in recent years as a backdrop for anti-Semitic, xenophobic and violent incidents at nationalist rallies. Last week, thousands in Warsaw flouted the coronavirus ban on public gatherings and clashed with police who tried to disperse them. The illegal procession on Independence Day, Nov. 11, included a banner that read "no to Jewish demands" - a reference to the efforts pushing Poland to pass legislation offering restitution for property that o...
Study: Israel second least affordable country (JNS) — Israeli housing is the second most expensive in the world, a new study finds. According to the study, conducted by Australia’s price-comparison website CompareTheMarket, the average Israeli household spends the equivalent of 26.6 percent of its annual disposable income on each square meter (10.8 square feet) of housing space. The only country with less affordable housing is South Korea, the study notes, with each square meter (10.8 square feet) of housing space costing the equivalent of 39....
(JTA) — At the end of the annual conference of Chabad emissaries from around the world, they typically take a giant group photograph in front of the movement’s headquarters in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. But this year, no camera at the Kinus Hashluchim could capture the nearly 6,000 participants at once: They were on Zoom from their separate computers and time zones. The video version was a concession to the coronavirus pandemic that has disrupted the globe for nearly a year. What’s more, the conference didn’t really end. Without planes to catch...
(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to be the first in his role to both visit the Golan Heights, as well as Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, reported Axios on Thursday. It will be part of a 10-day trip to Europe and the Middle East starting on Friday, starting with France, Turkey, Georgia and Israel. He will then travel to the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Visiting the Golan and an Israel settlement would reflect the Trump administration’s policy surrounding these areas. The United States forma...
(JTA) — Five years ago, a plea to rescue a centuries-old synagogue in Ostroh, Ukraine, struck a chord with Hryhoriy Arshynov, a lifelong Jewish resident of the city four hours west of Kyiv. Damaged during the Holocaust, the magnificent 17th-century Maharsha synagogue was used as a warehouse under Soviet rule and endured decades of neglect. With its collapsed roof, it was on the verge of ruin. After reading an article about the synagogue, Arshynov, a civil engineer, stepped up to restore it. Arshynov had devoted years of his life to p...
(JTA) — The debate on abortion access, which for years has polarized the predominantly Catholic nation of Poland, is now dividing the country’s Jews as well. A high court ruling last month severely restricting access to abortions in what was already among Europe’s least pro-choice countries has prompted a major protest movement in Poland. The backlash has taken aim squarely at the right-wing Law and Justice party, which critics say has eroded the independence of the judiciary in the pursuit of conservative policies. All but one of the 15 justi...
By Marcus M. Gilban RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A Brazilian Jewish businessman accused of bilking investors out of tens of millions of dollars, earning comparisons to Bernie Madoff, was arrested in Rio de Janeiro after more than a year in hiding. Jonas Jaimovick, who turned himself in to Rio Police on Monday, had made headlines for disappearing with an estimated $32 million in what is being called the South American country’s largest-ever pyramid scheme. Jaimovick, 39, who owns the investment firm JJ Invest, had launched the alleged illegal ent...
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo reduces restrictions on Brooklyn Jewish neighborhoods as COVID rates drop By Shira Hanau (JTA) — Parts of Brooklyn that had high COVID test positivity rates in early October, including some with large Orthodox Jewish communities, will face fewer restrictions after seeing the rates fall. The neighborhoods labeled “red zones” last month have been reduced to “orange,” the middle level for restrictions. One of the neighborhoods is Midwood, which has a sizable Orthodox population. “Brooklyn has made great progress and we reduced...
(JNS) - Anyone who still believes that ignorance is bliss hasn't seen how easily it can be turned into hate. Nov. 9 marked 82 years since Kristallnacht, "the Night of Broken Glass." A night when authorities looked away or even aided the anti-Semitic mobs fanning out across Germany and Austria. Twenty-four hours later, hundreds of Jews were dead, thousands more had been beaten and tens of thousands arrested. And thousands of Jewish schools, hospitals and businesses had been destroyed and 267...
(JTA) - Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom whose extensive writings and frequent media appearances commanded a global following among Jews and non-Jews alike, has died. Sacks died Saturday morning at age 72, his Twitter account announced. He was in the midst of a third bout of cancer, which he had announced in October. Sacks was among the world's leading exponents of Orthodox Judaism for a global audience. In his 22 years as chief rabbi, he emerged as the most...
(JNS) - An astonishing level of criticism from Arab commentators, intellectuals and journalists has been leveled at the Palestinian leadership in recent weeks in response to its condemnations against countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan, which have just signed normalization agreements with Israel. Five years ago, it seemed that the Palestinians could never fall out of grace with Americans, the Arab world or even the Europeans. These days, all this seems to have changed....
(JNS) — Cyber attackers around the world—ranging from criminals to state actors—are taking advantage of the massive global shift to working from home in the age of the coronavirus pandemic and escalating cyber attacks, senior former American and Israeli defense officials have warned. The comments were made the online Cyber Tech USA conference, held on Oct. 27. Nadav Zafrir, former commander of the Israel Defense Forces 8200 signals intelligence unit and managing partner of the Team8 company, which builds and invests in companies, spoke with...
(JNS) - Israelis are, of course, just getting used to the idea of having friendly relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain after signing normalization deals with each country in recent days. Even more intriguing to many Israelis is the fact that these Gulf states have expressed their dissatisfaction with the Palestinians' behavior in vetoing every peace overture in the last 20 years. The Kohelet Policy Forum, Shiloh Forum and the Israel Hayom Israeli daily newspaper teamed up to host...
(JTA) - As the French government rolls out a controversial plan that amounts to its most robust crackdown on religious activity in decades, it is enjoying broad support from at least one of the country's faith communities: French Jews. Jewish community leaders have applauded President Emmanuel Macron's effort to counter what he calls "Islamist separatism" with a plan that would require children to attend state-recognized schools from the age of three, effectively barring the practice of Muslim...
(JTA) — Following a suspected terrorist attack that left four dead in Vienna by a shooter who reportedly shouted “Allah,” European rabbis made an unusual appeal for more “control and transparency” over what goes on at mosques across the continent. “It is important to know what is being preached in mosques and other places of worship over here, by whom they are financed, what foreign influences are promoting such terrible deeds and how social media serve as a vehicle for this,” Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of...
Book calling Holocausts a hoax to hit book stores in Iceland in time for Christmas By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — An Icelandic company has plunged the country’s publishing industry into a debate about censorship with its plan to publish a 1976 book that argues the Holocaust is a hoax. The book, an Icelandic-language translation of “The Hoax of the Twentieth Century: The Case Against the Presumed Extermination of European Jewry” by Arthur Butz, is being advertised online ahead of its launch in the coming weeks, in time for the Christmas shoppin...
Unlike most teenagers, Olivia Seltzer doesn’t like to sleep in. She wakes up most days at 5 a.m. to scan the internet and write The Cramm, a newsletter with the latest national and international news that reaches middle school, high school and university student readers in over 100 countries. With some 2.5 million monthly pageviews, Seltzer calls it “the cheat sheet to the world.” Written in a fun and relatable style and transmitted via email and text, The Cramm includes the day’s major politic...
(JNS) — U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem will be allowed to list Israel as their place of birth on their U.S. passport, alluded the Trump administration on Wednesday. Politico first reported the development, citing a U.S. official, adding that the announcement could be made as soon as Thursday. Despite the United States recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017 and relocating its embassy to there from Tel Aviv months later, Americans born in Jerusalem have still been unable to list Israel as their place of birth on their U.S...
(JTA) — Islamists have declared war on France, a senior leader of French Jews said following multiple assaults, including the murder of three people at a church in Nice. Gil Taieb, the vice president of the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities, made the comments Thursday in reference to the beheading of one woman and the fatal stabbing of two others outside the Notre Dame church of the Mediterranean coastal city. The perpetrator was shouting “Allah hu akbar” — Arabic for Allah is the greatest — before he was shot and rushed to...
(JNS) -President Donald Trump completed its reversal of a legacy U.S. policy prejudiced against Israeli settlements. The United States and Israel signed new bilateral agreements on Oct. 28 that further enhance the cooperation between the close allies in the areas of science, industrial research and agricultural. Yet perhaps more noteworthy is that legacy "geographic restrictions" have now been removed from existing agreements. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman noted at the ceremony that t...
(JTA) - Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Europe's most prominent nationalist and anti-immigrant leaders, has often faced accusations that he is too soft on far-right anti-Semitism. But now, in an unusual reversal, Orban is trying to level that same accusation at the country's largest Jewish group, Mazsihisz. Orban recently criticized Mazsihisz, a nonpartisan federation of Jewish communities and groups, for not speaking out loudly enough against the candidacy of Laszlo Biro, a...
