Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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BERLIN (JTA)-This month marks 50 years since Israel and West Germany established diplomatic ties. It has been an understandably complex relationship, launched two decades after the Holocaust ended and 14 years after West Germany committed to reparations "both moral and material" for the genocide committed by the Nazis. (The decision to accept German money and goods was contentious among Israelis, some of whom referred to the payouts as "blood money.") Normalized relations between Israel and...
(JTA)-Ayelet Shaked (pronounced ShahKED), Israel's newly appointed justice minister and a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, has quickly risen to prominence having served just two years in the Knesset. Here's what you need to know about the 39-year-old political celebrity. She's seen as a poster child for Jewish Home's efforts to reach beyond its Orthodox base. A secular Jew from north Tel Aviv, Shaked is often described as a symbol of the Jewish Home and larger settler movement's...
(JNS.org) The White House issued a congratulatory statement on Thursday in response to the last-minute agreement in Israel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the Jewish Home party, which will join Kulanu, Shas, and United Torah Judaism in a new governing coalition. "President [Barack] Obama congratulates the Israeli people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the new governing coalition on the formation of Israel's new government," White House Press Secretary Josh...
(JNS.org) A search team discovered the body of 22-year-old Israeli trekker Or Asraf, who was the last Israeli citizen unaccounted for in Nepal following the devastating earthquake there. The IsraeLife Joint Disaster Response Team-compromised of volunteers from United Hatzalah, Zaka, and F.I.R.S.T-found and identified Asraf. "We are very sad that our mission has ended in this way," said Eli Beer, president of United Hatzalah. "Throughout all the days of the search, we remained hopeful that we...
By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA)-On April 19, Keren Zachmi's daughter returned from her kindergarten near Tel Aviv wearing a yellow patch emblazoned with the word "Jude." A teacher had put the yellow star on 17 kindergarteners so they would feel like Holocaust victims during Yom Hashoah, Israel's national Holocaust commemoration day. Appalled, Zachmi took a picture of her 3-year-old with the patch and posted it to her municipality's Facebook page with a complaint. "I am utterly shocked and worried about...
Anti-Semitic, right-wing attacks rise in Germany BERLIN (JTA)—A major increase in anti-Semitic and right-wing violent attacks in Germany is “extremely worrying,” according to the country’s interior minister. The number of right-wing extremist violent crimes in 2014 was 22.9 percent higher than in 2013, according to the annual report of the Ministry of the Interior released this month. Anti-Semitic crimes rose 25.2 percent to 1,596 in 2014 after declining in 2013. In releasing the statistics, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere describ...
LOHHEIDE, Germany-In a keynote address at the 70th anniversary ceremony for the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder condemned world silence during the Holocaust and warned that history appears to be repeating itself. "Seventy years ago, the world was silent and now we are standing on one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world," said Lauder. "We appear to be descending into the same hell today. Anti-Semitism is rising in Europe, neo-Nazi...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-When the ground began to shake, Inbar Irron was among a dozen Israelis in Nepal who ran outside the building where they had been sitting-and straight into a cloud of dust. When their vision cleared, they saw a devastating scene: Much of the village of Manegau, where they had come to volunteer for four months, had crumbled to the ground. Miraculously, none of the villagers was hurt. But many of their homes had been reduced to rubble. Irron's group-sent by the Israeli NGO Tevel...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-While Israel mobilizes to aid victims of Nepal's earthquake and locate missing citizens, the Jewish state is paying special attention to the safety of 26 Israeli babies born of surrogate mothers in Nepal. Hundreds of Israeli couples choose surrogate pregnancy-where a couple's embryo is implanted in another woman, who carries the pregnancy to term. Here's why Israelis opt for surrogate pregnancies, and why so many choose surrogate mothers in places like Nepal. Why do Israelis choos...
Former FEGS chief suing bankrupt agency for $1.2 million NEW YORK (JTA)—The former chief executive of FEGS is suing the bankrupt Jewish social service agency for $1.2 million in deferred compensation. Gail Magaliff retired in late 2014, shortly before FEGS Health and Human Services—one of the largest social service providers in the United States—discovered a $19.4 million shortfall. Soon after, in late January, the 81-year-old agency, which served a majority non-Jewish clientele, announced it would close. In March FEGS filed for bankr...
(JTA)—After Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2014, Israel resisted pressure to join the United States and its European allies in condemning the move—citing in particular its concern not to antagonize Russia for fear it could provide Syria with a powerful anti-aircraft missile called the S-300. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman was eager to mollify the Obama administration’s anger over Israel’s refusal to endorse sanctions on Russia or support a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, according to an Op-Ed pub...
The 35th IAJGS International Conference is just around the corner. For a significant discount (and a chance to win great prizes in the drawing), register now. “Early Bird Special” ends on May 6. Visit www.iajgs2015.org to register. There will be a pre-Conference Shabbaton on the Friday-Saturday, July 3-4 weekend preceding the conference. Enjoy an adventure in exploring the sights and sounds of Jerusalem via three tour opportunities. “Exploration Sunday” on July 5 offers the options of either visiting extraordinary research archives or taking...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Now that the outline for an Iran nuclear agreement has been released—or, more precisely, two outlines, one by Iran, the other by the Obama administration—major gaps have emerged that will need to be resolved ahead of a June 30 deadline for a final deal, including when sanctions on Iran are lifted. President Barack Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, issued conflicting statements in the past week on the sanctions issue, with Obama suggesting sanctions would be relaxed only once Iran begins to implement its obligations...
Kitchen employee stabbed by former co-worker at Philly-area day school (JTA)—A former employee at the Barrack Hebrew Academy stabbed a worker and threw bleach in his face at the suburban Philadelphia day school. The incident in the kitchen at the nondenominational Jewish high school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, occurred Monday just before 10 a.m., Philly.com reported, citing the Radnor Township Police. The victim, who was stabbed in the head and neck, is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and identified the alleged assailant, a 3...
By Sean Savage JNS.org After a devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit the impoverished mountainous country of Nepal over the weekend, killing more than 4,000 people, Israeli and Jewish humanitarian and governmental organizations have assumed their traditional role on the frontline of relief efforts for a natural disaster. The 260-member Israeli government mission to Nepal includes an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) field hospital, a trained rescue team, and a security team, with the objectives of assisting the Nepalese...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—In the wake of the drowning death of hundreds of migrants from Libya trying to reach Italy, an Israeli government minister justified his country’s building of a fence to keep out migrants. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in a post Monday on his Facebook page, called the deaths a “tragedy that shocks all humanity,” then added, “Look how right was the government’s policy to build a fence on the border with Gaza that blocks the way of migrant workers from Africa from entering Israel.” Israel in 2012 built a fence on its...
Witnesses attacked as neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party trial opens (JTA)—Witnesses in the trial of Golden Dawn party leaders reportedly were attacked outside the courthouse by supporters of the Greek neo-Nazi party. The trial convened Monday in the high-security Korydallos prison outside Athens, where the party leaders are being held, but was adjourned until May 7 amid reports of the attacks, the Kathimerini newspaper reported. Sixty-nine leaders and activists, including Golden Dawn head Nikolaos Michaloliakos and several lawmakers, are charged with...
By (JTA)-Israel and the Obama administration have stepped up their war of words over the framework agreement that aims to limit Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for a gradual rollback of sanctions. President Barack Obama made his most detailed effort yet to persuade skeptics of the accord reached last week in Switzerland in a weekend interview with The New York Times, asserting that the deal is the "best bet" to prevent Iran's acquisition of a nuclear weapon and promising to "stand by"...
JNS.org—Criticism by US lawmakers of the Iran nuclear framework deal announced on Thursday is mounting as President Barack Obama faces a possible showdown with Congress over its role reviewing the agreement when it returns from recess on April 14. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) ripped apart the nuclear deal with Iran, arguing that President Obama’s negotiation team was worse than Great Britain’s pre-war Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s attempts to appease Nazi Germany in 1938. “Neville Chamberlain got a lot of more out of Hitler than Wendy She...
White House steps up Iran pitch to Jewish leaders, donors WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Barack Obama will attend two meetings with Jewish leaders in his bid to persuade the Jewish community to back the Iran nuclear deal. Obama and Susan Rice, his national security adviser, will meet Monday with top officials of Jewish organizations, including civil defense groups like the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League, umbrella groups like the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations and the Jewish Federations o...
(JNS.org)-Iran and the P5+1 (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany) world powers have announced that a framework deal on Iran's nuclear program has been reached after marathon talks in Switzerland that blew past the March 31 deadline, setting the stage for a final comprehensive agreement to be reached by June 30. On Twitter, Secretary of State John Kerry described the conclusion of the recent round of talks as a "big day", saying that the European Union, P5+1 and Iran "now have...
By Christine DeSouza "My people perish for lack of knowledge," said Laurie Cardoza-Moore quoting Hosea 4:6 at the beginning of an ACT! For America meeting on March 26. Cardoza-Moore, founder of the nonprofit organization Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, travels the world educating Christians about their biblical responsibility to stand with and for the people of Israel. With a background in broadcasting and film, Cardoza-Moore believes Christians cannot be silent in the face of terrorism, as...
(JTA)—For President Obama, the framework agreement reached last Thursday with Iran is a “historic understanding” that does more to roll back Tehran’s nuclear program than any possible alternative and avoids the risk of a destructive war in the Middle East. But to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, it’s the complete opposite: a pact that “threatens the survival of Israel” and would “increase the risks of nuclear proliferation in the region and the risks of a horrific war.” With many of the deal’s details yet to be worked out before t...
In the latest move to press their case using the international community, the “state of Palestine” was officially accepted into the International Criminal Court (ICC) paving the way for the court to bring Israel up on war crimes charges. “Today is a historic day in the struggle for justice, freedom, and peace for our people and all those seeking justice worldwide,” Palestinian official Saeb Erekat said in a statement. We call upon the international community to support the inalienable rights of our people, including our right to self-determinat...
(JTA) —Diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, have come to an agreement on a framework accord on Iran’s nuclear program. But even with this agreement, it’s merely a way station toward a comprehensive deal that is due by June 30. The six world powers—the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany—negotiating with Iran managed to reach a final deal, however, Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei still must grant his approval and President Obama will have to overcome opposition in Congress. The deal need not be subject to a congression...
