Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1841 - 1865 of 2213
While visiting New York last week, Miss Israel, Yityish Aynaw, proved that not all Israelis love the country’s national chickpea spread, hummus. “In Israel, I don’t eat hummus,” she explained to a New York Daily News reporter during an interview at Hummus Place in the East Village, a popular stop for Israelis. “Now I come to New York and I’m supposed to eat hummus? It’s not tasty for me. I don’t like it.” During the discussion, Aynaw, 22, shared her dating preferences and admitted that she likes American men, as long as they don’t want to be... Full story
(JNS.org) Following comments by President Barack Obama that challenged him to “articulate an alternative approach” to a peace deal with the Palestinians if he does not believe a deal “is the right thing to do for Israel,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s “vital interests” must be upheld in such an agreement. “The tango in the Middle East needs at least three,” Netanyahu said March 3 upon landing in the U.S. for a six-day visit. “For years there have been two—Israel and the U.S. Now it needs to be seen if the Palestinians are also... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Two years ago, Israeli supermarket mogul Rami Levy invited Palestinian gas and oil magnate Munib al-Masri to one of his grocery stores. A working-class boy who had become the West Bank’s wealthiest man, al-Masri already had turned his attention to a new challenge: encouraging a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the partnership was not to be. Levy, the owner of the supermarket chain Rami Levy Hashikma Marketing, has three stores in Israeli West Bank settlements, and al-Masri decided he could not work wit... Full story
While Pink Floyd's Roger Waters has in recent years acted as a de facto frontman for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, urging fellow artists against performing in Israel, Shuki Weiss Promotion and Production Ltd. for nearly 35 years has brought the biggest names in entertainment to the Jewish state for historic live shows. Musical guests attracted to Israel by the company have included Metallica, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Radiohead, Madonna, David Bowie, and Eric Clapton. Th... Full story
Ex-security guard gets federal sentence for defacing Torah scroll (JTA)—A former hotel security guard was sentenced to one year in prison for civil rights violations for defacing a Memphis Jewish school’s Torah scroll and prayer books. Last Friday’s sentence of Justin Baker, 25, of Jackson, Tenn., comes on top of a four-year term in state prison levied in December. He will serve his two sentences concurrently. U.S. District Judge J. Daniel Breen also ordered Baker to pay $9,999.99 in restitution to the school. Baker had pleaded guilty to the f... Full story
(JTA)-Shortly after Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean city of Sevastopol last week, Leah Cyrlikova took her two children out for an afternoon stroll in a city park. When they passed a group of soldiers, they stopped to have a friendly chat and pose with them for photos. While many Ukrainian Jews have strongly condemned the Russian military incursion into Crimea, others see the intervention as restoring order in the wake of a violent revolution that overthrew the pro-Russian government of Pre... Full story
(JTA)-The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe's largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installed an interim leader to take the still-contested reins of power. Like their compatriots, Ukraine's Jews are waiting to see what the future holds for their country, but with the added fear that they could become targets amid the chaos. There... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Just how open should Jewish institutions be when it comes to talking about Israel? That's the question at the center of a flurry of controversies over the last few days involving Jewish museums, an Orthodox high school and Hillel chapters on college campuses. For years, Jewish institutions have been grappling with where to draw red lines when it comes to criticism of Israel. Should they open their doors to groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, which is allied with the BDS movement... Full story
(JNS.org) Jewish organizations have set up emergency assistance for Ukraine’s roughly 200,000-member Jewish community amid ongoing political unrest there. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said that it is providing immediate assistance in areas of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, to ensure that elderly Jews and people with disabilities receive essential supplies at home. JDC staff and volunteers have been providing food packages and medical supplies to these homebound individuals. “Even as we mourn the loss of life in Ukrai... Full story
(JNS.org) Hundreds of people demonstrated on Feb. 23 outside the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, calling on the U.S. to release imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. The demonstrators held signs reading "Free Pollard" and "29 years, that's enough." A number of Knesset members took part in the demonstration, including Moshe Feiglin and Tzachi Hanegbi (both Likud), Shuli Mualem-Rafaeli (Habayit Hayehudi), and Nachman Shai (Labor). "We are appealing to the Americans and telling them, 'Enough,'" Shai... Full story
Jam session. Flash poll. A tapping into our collective mind. Almost three weeks ago, from Feb. 16-19, 2,135 people-61 percent between the ages of 18 and 34-participated with world Jewish leaders in an online "jam session" organized through a joint initiative between the government of Israel and an entity being termed world Jewry. The initiative, said Minister of Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett, was about "hearing new ideas and empowering Jews from around the world to take part in... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- A billboard in central Tel Aviv features a black-and-white photo of a distressed woman above a caption in bold red letters that reads, “The pain and remorse from my abortion accompany me every day.” The billboard is an advertisement for Efrat, an anti-abortion outfit that dubs itself “The Committee to Rescue Israel’s Babies” and offers financial support to pregnant women in an effort to persuade them not to terminate their pregnancies. Efrat has never protested outside a gynecological clinic, nor has it sought to restrict... Full story
Ukraine’s religious communities ask Russia to pull out troops (JTA)—Religious communities in Ukraine, including the Jewish community, called on Russia to “stop its aggression against Ukraine” and pull out its troops. The religious communities also appealed to the international community, including the United States, Great Britain, the European Union, the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, to “stop foreign invasion into Ukraine and brutal interference into our internal affairs.” Rabbi Jacob Dov Bleich,... Full story
(Algemeiner )-One of Ukraine's chief rabbis, Moshe Reuven Asman, urged Jews to leave the capital city Kiev following a reported anti-Semitic attack on two Chabad yeshiva students in the city last month, Israeli daily Ma'ariv reported. "I told my community to get out of the city and if possible out of the state... there are many warnings about planned attacks against Jewish institutions," Asman said, adding, "We have been told by the Israeli Embassy to not go outside." Many members of Kiev's... Full story
Alice Herz-Sommer, oldest Holocaust survivor and subject of celebrated documentary, dies at 110 (JTA)—Alice Herz-Sommer, the 110-year-old Holocaust survivor and concert pianist whose life was the subject of an Oscar-nominated documentary, has died. Herz-Sommer, who was believed to be the oldest Holocaust survivor and was still playing the piano, died Sunday morning in London. “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” the 38-minute film about her life, is up for best short documentary at the Academy Awards to be handed out next month. The f... Full story
NEW YORK—In the wake of Hadassah Medical Organization’s announcement that it must restructure, the national board of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America (HWZOA) resolves to help the hospitals emerge from their financial crisis and assures supporters that all contributions to the Hadassah Medical Organization (HMO) will be used solely for intended purposes. HWZOA sent a message to HMO and those it serves expressing solidarity during HMO’s restructuring process. HMO’s board announced on Feb. 7 that it would apply to the court fo... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)-In her 110 years, Alice Herz-Sommer has been an accomplished concert pianist and teacher, a wife and mother-and a prisoner in Theresienstadt. Now she is the star of an Oscar-nominated documentary showing her indomitable optimism, cheerfulness and vitality despite all the upheavals and horrors she faced in the 20th century. "The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life," a 38-minute film up for best short documentary at the Academy Awards to be handed out next month, begins in her... Full story
(JNS.org)—Three days into the 2014 Sochi Olympic games, Jewish-American figure skater Jason Brown won a bronze medal at the team figure skating competitions Feb. 9. In addition to his skating, Brown has grabbed international attention due to his hairstyle. Brown’s flowing ponytail seemed to move with the skater symmetrically as he danced. The ponytail even got its own Twitter account, @2014PonyPower, with many followers. “I am still the same person before I left for [U.S.] Nationals,” he said. “I’m that crazy guy with long hair who loves to sk... Full story
NEW YORK and JERUSALEM—CathMaps+, the world’s first HIPAA-compliant mobile application for cardiac patients and people living with elevated risk of a cardiac incident, that integrates their cardiac history with an interactive map of Cath Labs throughout most of the world, was launched for the U.S. market. CathMaps+ mission is simple: to use mobile technology to provide peace of mind and emergency assistance to hundreds of thousands of Americans in their most urgent time of need. The app was created by Danny Oberman, an Israeli who made ali... Full story
Interactive map charts Holocaust deportations of French children (JTA)—A French historian has created an interactive map that charts the location of children deported from France during the Holocaust. On Monday, the online map by Jean-Luc Pinol was so overloaded with connections that it could not be accessed. Based on data collected by Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld, the map is part of an exhibit on display outside the National Conservatory of Arts and Crafts in Paris. Some 11,400 children were among the 76,000 Jews deported from France and s... Full story
With the Winter Olympics underway in Sochi, Russia, the Jewish debate on the games mirrors the discourse taking place in the broader international and athletic communities. While some Jews say they view the games purely as sport-with social or political issues not factoring into their evaluation-not all can ignore Russia's controversial "gay propaganda" legislation, political detentions, allegations of Olympic corruption, and the recent terrorist threats against the games. "I personally don't... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Of the 200,000 wine bottles Yakov Burg produced last year, 16,000 went to Europe. The possibility of a boycott and repeated rumblings that Europe is planning to label goods produced in the settlements could decrease that number, but Burg isn't worried. The CEO of Psagot Winery, which is located in a settlement of the same name in the hills of the central West Bank, Burg prides himself on running a Jewish-owned business in the West Bank, even welcoming groups of Christian Zionists... Full story
(Algemeiner)—In a sharp about turn, AIPAC, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, has now backed the White House in its call to delay a Senate vote on new sanctions against Iran while the U.S. and world powers negotiate with the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. In a statement released on the heels of an extensive speech by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), calling on both sides of the Iran sanctions debate to soften their positions, AIPAC said, “We agree with the Chairman that stopping the Ira... Full story
AGAHOZO-SHALOM YOUTH VILLAGE, Rwanda (JTA)-Anne Heyman's death during a horse-riding competition in Palm Beach, Fla., on Jan. 31 shocked and devastated many in the Jewish world. But it was Heyman's work in Rwanda that so many of her admirers will remember most. A former assistant district attorney in Manhattan who made a career shift to philanthropy around the time she began having children, Heyman learned during a visit to the Tufts University Hillel in 2005 about children who were left... Full story
Virginia Beach students to make up school on Saturdays (JTA)-Virginia Beach City public schools will have classes on three Saturdays to make up for days lost from a major snowstorm last month. "We hope our community could be reassured that our religious needs can be met," Rabbi Israel Zoberman of Beth Chaverim, a Reform congregation in Virginia Beach, told the local media. "We don't want anyone to pay a price for the snow that came upon us." Zoberman told WAVY-TV, "I would like to believe that someone overlooked the fact that on Saturday Jews... Full story
