Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Following the U.S. Capitol riot, there has been a renewed emphasis on the threat from white-supremacist hate groups from the Biden administration, much of the media as well as the organized Jewish community. The anti-Semitic imagery seen at the rally organized by former President Donald Trump as well as in the mob storming Congress was frightening. No one should discount the fact that although their numbers are few, such violent right-wing extremists are dangerous. If there was any complacency about such threats, the deadly attacks on s...
(JTA) — On Jan. 27, 1969, nine Jews were hanged in Tahrir Square in the center of Baghdad as half a million people looked on. It was the climax of a campaign of persecution that followed the establishment of Israel, which in turn hastened an exodus of what had been a strong and flourishing community. Of the 160,000 Jews who had lived in what is today Iraq since the destruction of the First Temple, only a handful of Jews remain. When the Jews fled, they were not allowed to take anything more than three sets of clothing and 50 dinars — a pit...
Research about the causes and reasons for the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust, based on documentation has gone on for dozens of years, and has ascertained a variety of long-range processes that coalesced in certain historical circumstances. Yet Dr. Hanan Shai, in the article that was published this week under the auspices of the BESA center (Jan. 15, “A serious moral failure at Yad Vashem”) instructs us, without a flutter of an eyelid, that there were “two central reasons.” The first reason: “that in contrast to the scientific revolutio...
(JNS) — Now is the time to unpack the arsenal of arguments that were not so necessary during the era of former U.S. President Donald Trump, and refresh the discourse about Israeli rights to Jerusalem and to Judea and Samaria, that latter home to half a million Jews. Doing so has become urgent in the wake of the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, a sworn opponent of Israeli settlements, and his appointment of figures like former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power. Israel is already in low-level contact with the new admin...
(JNS) — In an open letter posted last week to his website, young-adult novelist Barry Lyga called for like-minded colleagues in the industry to join him in blocking the publication of bodies of work written by anyone associated with the outgoing administration in Washington. Titled “No Book Deal for Traitors,” the letter begins, “We all love book publishing, but we have to be honest—our country is where it is in part because publishing has chased the money and notoriety of some pretty sketchy people, and has granted those same people both the...
In 1968 Rachel and I made our very first trip to Israel. I have told the story of that trip and what it meant to us. On the flight back to the United States, we confirmed the promise we had made to Adi Ben Orr, our guide in Israel: That we would send our children (toddlers at the time) to meet their Israeli cousins. And so, it came to pass. As each Shipley kid graduated from high school they spent at least the first six weeks of that summer vacation in Israel. And remember — this is a generation before the Gap Year concept was invented. The eff...
(JNS) — Last week, I woke up one morning in my Nazareth home and was astonished to discover I was living under a racist, apartheid regime whose only purpose is “the promotion and perpetuation of the superiority of one group of people — the Jews.” I rubbed my eyes, read the story in greater depth, and calmed down as soon as I realized the reports were based on yet another report by the left-wing NGO B’Tselem. The problem is that this report has spread like wildfire around the world, and the propaganda is working. B’Tselem, which presents itself...
(JNS) — Ahlam Tamimi’s name will not appear among the list of those whom President Donald Trump pardons during his final hours in office. But the Palestinian arch-terrorist might as well be—because successive U.S. administrations have treated her as if she is immune from prosecution. Tamimi played a major role in the August 2001 bombing of a Sbarro pizzeria in Jerusalem. Fifteen people were killed, including American citizens Malki Roth and Shoshana Greenbaum, and four Americans were among the 122 people who were injured. Tamimi was captured by...
(JNS) — Gratitude is literally written into our Jewish identity. In the book of Genesis, when our foremother Leah gives birth to her last son, she says: “ ‘This time I will give thanks to the Lord’; therefore she called his name, Yehuda.” It is because of Yehuda that we Jews are named yehudim in Hebrew. And it is in the spirit of Yehuda that we give thanks for kinship, for friendship, for courage, for the triumph of truth. U.S. President Donald Trump represents all of these things. And today, as he departs the White House, he deserves...
Dear Editor: In Roz Fuchs’s, “Holocaust Center is continuing the work Tess Wise started” opinion piece (Jan. 15, 2021), I feel compelled to respond. The problem so many people from around the country are having with the “Uprooting Prejudice” exhibit at the HMREC is it’s glorifying a riot instigated by the BLM Movement, which is anti-Semitic. The HMREC’s mission is Holocaust education and to fight the evils of anti-Semitism, not promote anti-Semitic groups inside their hallowed halls. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs wrote in a talking poi...
Dear Editor: Holocaust museums must stop worrying about “genocides” around the world and start emphasizing the Nazi Holocaust and its connection to today’s anti-Semitism. The same is true for Holocaust Commissions. Please continue protesting. I am seriously concerned that our educational systems and many of our teachers and professors are poorly prepared and they are teaching by emotion, not by accurate information. They are rewriting history with lies. I am extremely disappointed in the Jewish community that takes its struggle to ident...
(JNS) — With the U.S. House of Representatives poised to pass new articles of impeachment against former President Donald Trump, the debate about the proper response to his role in last week’s disgraceful and bloody Capitol riot has now moved to the next stage. Some supporters of the president are sticking with him, despite his egging on protesters to march on the Capitol to pressure Congress to prevent the certification of the votes of the Electoral College, where they stormed into the shrine of democracy, and his failure to unequivocally con...
Although never a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition, I have endorsed their efforts over the years in being at the Republican Party table and promoting Republican candidates who support a strong American/Israel relationship. Their work has been and continues to be particularly important in the face of a Democratic Party, moving more leftist and more antagonistic to Zionism and a strong and secure Israel and still retaining the support and loyalty of a substantial majority of American Jewish voters. The RJC has also been a bulwark within...
(JNS) — More than 100 years ago, George Santayana famously intoned that “those who cannot remember the past are doomed to repeat it.” The Spanish philosopher’s warning has often been repeated. Regrettably, it is often ignored, including by many historians. Avi Shlaim provides the latest example. In a Dec. 22 op-ed in Foreign Policy magazine titled, “If Biden Wants Israeli-Palestinian Peace, He Must Break with the Past,” Shlaim seeks to provide the incoming U.S. administration with advice on how to “achieve in the Middle East.” The Oxford Univ...
Over the past few years I have worried about the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando’s occasional but damaging engagement in partisan activities (I use “partisan” loosely and not to suggest that the Federation is in danger of losing its tax exempt status). This political action has increased divisions in our community and undermined the effectiveness of the Federation. Since this problematic work has been carried out by the Federation’s public affairs arm, the Jewish Community Relations Council, or JCRC —and years ago I was a member of the JC...
(JNS) — Mainstream media and pundits from across the political spectrum have been quick to assert that the violent riot on the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6 has permanently tarnished the Trump presidency. It remains to be seen what Trump’s historical legacy will actually be as a turbulent 2020 seems to be carrying over into a turbulent 2021, in which the stability of America’s democratic foundations will be put to the test. Yet for all the global and domestic chaos last year, one major geopolitical accomplishment stands out above all other...
(JNS) — In early 1979, I was sent to Iran to report on the rebellion then underway. I was woefully ignorant of Iranian history, politics and theology. But older, more experienced colleagues in the journalistic, diplomatic and intelligence communities also misunderstood what would become known as the Islamic Revolution. So, it was with both curiosity and pleasure that I’ve been reading “The Last Shah: America, Iran and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty,” an enlightening new history by Ray Takeyh, the Hasib J. Sabbagh Senior Fellow for Middle East...
(BESA Center via JNS) — The Holocaust became possible for two basic reasons. The first is that in contrast to the scientific revolution, whose founders replaced the narratives and delusions of the Middle Ages with logically and empirically proven truth and strove ceaselessly to disseminate that truth, the liberal revolution denied and continues to deny the existence of any one truth. The second is embodied in Nietzsche’s proclamation that “God is dead,” which expresses the idea of the death of biblical morality. The Hebrew Bible, which Christi...
(JNS) — The traditional New Year’s Eve party at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, took place without U.S. President Donald Trump. Faithful to his typical D’Artagnan style, Trump abandoned his friends and returned to Washington, D.C. a day earlier than expected. No one knows why, but rumors have been spreading about grandiose moves and controversial gestures he intends to make before Biden takes the reigns. The chatter among members of the international village centers on a possible war with Iran. Today, Jan. 3, is the one-year anniv...
With a lot of urging, I write to shed some light on the focus of the recent deluge of articles, letters, social media posts and phone calls regarding the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida. I’ve received enough calls and emails asking me to address the issues at the heart of the deluge that here I am diving into turbulent waters. Why? I am a longtime volunteer, board member and immediate past president of our Holocaust Center. I am also the daughter of the Center’s founder, Tess Wise. These two roles enable me to com...
There are a couple articles in this week’s issue that use “antisemitism” rather than anti-Semitism. In fact, one writer insisted that Heritage use the spelling lowercased with no hyphen. This led to the question “why?” and an interesting dig into the history of the words anti-Semitism and Semitism. First, Heritage sought the answer by asking Marcia Jo Zerevitz, who used “antisemitism” in the article “January is Florida Jewish History Month.” She gladly supplied her answer: “This is currently the appropriate scholarly way to spell the word, whi...
Dear Editor: After reading articles in the recent edition of Heritage and past issues, as well as national press coverage of the Uprooting Prejudice exhibit at HMREC, I couldn’t help but realize that many of the people commenting and criticizing HMREC for hosting the exhibit, were not aware that from the very beginning of its existence, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center supported programming on two tracks in order to fulfill its mission. On one track, they successfully brought Holocaust education to the local schools, trained...
Dear Editor: After a bitterly contested fight the election for U.S. Senators is over in GA. Who won? You can say that the Socialists won. You can say that the Communists won. You can say that American Jews are among the biggest losers of this election. Why? Rev. Warnock is a bigoted anti-Jew, anti-Israel, friend of the notorious Louis Farrakan, head of the Nation of Islam anti-Jew and also friend of another anti-Jew and anti-Israel Jeremiah Wright. Former U.S. President Obama was a member of Wright’s church is Chicago for 20 years and his r...
(JNS) — Just how far are Jewish institutions willing to go to accommodate the principles of critical race theory and its “cancel culture” view of American and Jewish history? In the case of Brandeis University Press, even that respected liberal institution realizes that identifying American Jewish life as part of the fabric of institutional racism should not go unquestioned. A controversy over the editors of that publishing house’s refusal to include an essay glorifying the Black Lives Matter movement by a historian who claims that Jews ar...
(JNS) — Of all the efforts that U.S. President Donald Trump made on behalf of the Jewish people, the most meaningful and lasting may be the orchestration of peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The benefits of those accords for security and business are hugely significant. Perhaps even more meaningful and lasting are the personal connections and cultural implications, as Israelis shift to closer relations with their Abrahamic cousins. These peace deals, then, will not be so much government-to-government agreements as they a...
