Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Almost all the polls say that President Donald Trump is heading toward defeat at the hands of his Democrat challenger, former vice president Joe Biden, next month. But Robert Cahaly who heads the Trafalgar Group polling firm disagrees. Cahaly was the only major pollster that accurately called the 2016 presidential race. In an interview with “The Political Trade” podcast last week, Cahaly said his data show Trump headed for another upset victory Nov. 3. Cahaly said that today, as in 2016, the disparity between his numbers and the marquis polling...
Serious discussion of which candidate most deserves the support of Jewish voters should, I think, begin with the values of our tradition and what those values require of us. Judaism obliges us, as part of our covenant with God, to help repair an imperfect world. At its core, that covenant, that obligation, means respecting and displaying love and ki ndness for other human beings, recognizing the central teaching of Judaism that all human beings have intrinsic dignity and are in the image of God. For that reason, one simply cannot be a serious J...
(JNS) — Every year, Shi’ite Muslims in Flushing, Queens, conduct the Arba’een, a procession in honor of Mohammed’s grandson whose death at the hands of a Sunni caliph marked the pivotal break between Shi’ites and Sunnis, slapping their faces and chests for their beheaded Imam Hussein. Queens, once the borough that gave birth to President Trump and David Horowitz, now has a large Muslim population, and the fall processions of wailing crowds are a regular event. The coronavirus didn’t change that. On Oct. 4, a huge knot of Muslim men packed close...
(JNS) — The British essayist, novelist and critic Eric Arthur Blair, best known to the world as George Orwell, died in 1950. A year before his death from tuberculosis, he used his unique insight to write his classic dystopian novel “1984.” That book, published in 1949, eerily predicted the totalitarian threats that the United States is facing today. It dealt with the consequences of a totalitarian government, mass surveillance, unending propaganda to distort the truth, and the suppression of freedom, including even the freedom of thoug...
(JNS) — The question I receive more than any other from non-Jews is: Why are so many Jews on the left? Before addressing it, I should note that the same question could be asked of Christians and other non-Jews. Why have so many mainstream Protestants and Catholics (up to and including the pope) embraced the left? Why have nearly all Blacks, the majority of Hispanics and Asian Americans, the most successful ethnic group in America, embraced the left? And, outside of the United States, why have most Germans, French, Canadians, Australians and oth...
(JNS) — A lighthearted conversation between two Jewish comedians, Seth Rogen and Marc Maron, aimed to promote a new film, “An American Pickle,” recently landed actor Seth Rogen in a pickle with the Jewish community. Rogen stated, “You don’t keep something you’re trying to preserve all in one place.” Rogen dismissed rather perfunctorily one of the most compelling arguments for modern-day Zionism, which Golda Meir summarized best: “Israel itself is the strongest guarantee against another Holocaust.” Unfortunately, Rogen’s ambivalent position...
(JNS) — The most scathing book review I have read in a very long time appears in the Sept.18 edition of the London-based journal, the Times Literary Supplement. You might want to read it, too, if only for an illustration of what a comprehensive demolition looks like. The book under discussion is titled “An Army Like No Other,” a lengthy history of the Israeli Defense Forces authored by an Israeli anti-Zionist long resident in London, Haim Bresheeth-Zabner, and published by the left-wing imprint Verso. The TLS reviewer, the grand strat...
(JNS) — The Internet is alight with the accusation made by reporter Greg Miller in The Washington Post that U.S. President Donald Trump declared that Jews “stick together” and are “only in it for themselves.” Indeed, such statements represent a classically antisemitic ideology, so if I thought the president actually said them (at least about Jews, rather than a group of political opponents), I would be seriously troubled. The problem with this claim, along with the larger narrative accusing Trump of racism and antisemitism, is that it is con...
Dear Editor: In her letter advising us that “Trump is bad for the Jews,” (“Another four years of Trump is bad for the Jews,” Oct. 9 issue), Roz Fuchs expressed her concern with the president’s loss of trust from our allies and his alleged failure to condemn the Neo-Nazis. The facts are that Obama’s treaty purchased from Iran with a fly-by-night cash payment, gave the Ayatollah everything he wanted. I have found no evidence in Mr. Biden’s long history of government service to show his “distinguished record of standing with Israel,” except...
(JNS) — The apoplexy on the part of Democrats in general and Jewish liberals in particular to the appointment of Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court was to be expected. Anything that President Donald Trump does drives them crazy. But the fact that he decided to fill the seat vacated by the Sept. 18 death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the fast-approaching election has been more than they can tolerate. How dare the president exercise his right to do so, they have been moaning, when his days in office are numbered? Or so they h...
(JNS) — Pundits will tell you that the most dangerous enemies of the Palestinian Arab cause are the Gulf kingdoms that have decided to recognize Israel, or the European countries that are moving their embassies to Jerusalem, or the American politicians who refuse to keep underwriting the Palestinian Authority’s debts. I disagree. I say that the Palestinians’ most formidable foe is archaeology. A 2,000-years-old mikvah (ritual bath) was recently uncovered in the Lower Galilee. Most people probably would never have heard about the disco...
(JNS) — In this time of social distancing and sheltering in place, people all over the world are spending more time on streaming sites than ever before. However, as users go digging for content to fill their time, they are also coming across an increasing amount of anti-Semitic content. Unfortunately, streaming services such as TikTok, Facebook, Spotify and YouTube are struggling to implement and adequately enforce their own incitement policies on hate speech and violence. In response to this, Creative Community for Peace has created a new d...
“The Jews have endured terrible persecution, and you know that we’ve all read it. We’ve studied it. They’ve gone through a lot and those seeking their destruction … we will seek their destruction.” President Trump said this after the horrific synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway. No American president ever aligned himself so fully with the Jewish people or committed himself so clearly to their protection and survival. He has lived this commitment in many ways, before and after those tragic events. President Trump’s relationship...
(JTA) — This morning I am sitting at work in numb silence. What is happening in my Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park is painful, unacceptable and 100 percent preventable. As a healthcare professional who understands the dangers of this virus, I’ve been urging my community to take this pandemic seriously for months. And I’m so disappointed in what our most visible response has become. This week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he will reimpose restrictions that will temporarily close non-essential businesses and will limit the size of gathe...
Dear Editor: I read Donna Nevel’s recent “Guest Columnist” article in the Orlando Sentinel (“DeSantis’ support for Jewish people is reactionary”) with quite some interest and curiosity. A few of her comments I totally have to agree with such as NOT having a “Florida Stands with Israel.” As a native born U.S. citizen-born in Orlando, Florida, almost 80 years ago, if I want a “Florida Stands with Israel” license plate or bumper sticker I can purchase one on my own. The State has no business in selling such license tags supporting foreign...
Dear Editor: Abe Foxman, a Holocaust survivor, couldn’t have been the worst director of the ADL if a white supremacist had chosen him. For years Foxman earned a $300,000 annual salary and had bodyguards and absolutely failed the American Jewish community. How did he react to anti-Jewish acts? Well, he offered those Jew haters seminars. That’s right. No one ever accepted, but that was his solution to Jewish problems. He would show the same Jews haters who would go on to kill Jews in their synagogues of Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, Pa., or Pow...
Dear Editor: I am appalled at the American Jews who compare President Donald J. Trump to the Nazis in Germany in the 1930s. If only there had been man like President Trump in Germany; then over 6 million Jews — including my aunts, uncles, other relatives and family friends and their off spring — would be alive today. I was lucky to escape; they were not so fortunate. Those who compare Pres. Trump to Nazis desecrate their memory. President Trump is the president who has done more for the Jewish people than any other president. He is the best fri...
(JNS) — He did it again. When presented at the first presidential debate of 2020 with another opportunity to make a straightforward condemnation of white supremacists, he refused. Or at least that’s what many headlines screamed the next morning after the train wreck of a debate that was held in Cleveland. The responses from liberal Jewish groups and most of the chattering classes were angry. According to them, Trump had dog-whistled to extremists and made it clear that he was on the side of the neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boy...
In just a few days time the Senate Judiciary Committee and then the Senate will convene to begin its constitutional mandate to debate and vote on the confirmation of President Trump’s nominee, Judge Amy Coney Barrett, for the Supreme Court seat vacated by the death of Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. This will be the third nominee to come before the Senate during the Trump Administration. Two previous confirmation hearings have been held by the Senate Judiciary Committee, respectively for Associate Justices Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. K...
The Zionist Organization of America, the country’s oldest pro-Israel organization, has demanded that the Anti-Defamation League speak out against Joe Biden for comparing President Donald Trump to a Nazi leader. Biden compared Trump to Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels on Saturday during an interview on MSNBC. It was the second time he has done so. (Biden also used antisemitic language in 2014, referring to predatory lenders as “Shylocks”) The Republican Jewish Coalition demanded that Biden apologize, as did retired Democrat state legis...
In the Sept. 18, 2020, edition of the Heritage Florida Jewish News, there was a viewpoint article by Rabbi Sanford Olshansky title “President Trump: Pandemic Warrior.” While I understand that Rabbi Olshansky as a member of the National Leadership Circle of the Republican Jewish Coalition feels that he needs to defend the president’s actions, I respectfully disagree with most of the statements in his article. In this short letter I will only focus on his comments with respect to COVID-19, and in the interest of brevity on only a few. His argum...
(JNS) — There is clearly no limit to the depths of moral perversity that the enemies of President Donald Trump are prepared to plumb, not least within America’s Jewish community. The Jewish Democratic Council of America has released a new campaign ad aimed at Jewish voters in swing states that compares Trump’s presidency to the rise of fascism in Germany. The ad features parallel images of anti-Semitism and nationalism in Nazi Germany and today’s America. There are images of anti-Semitic graffiti from 1930s Germany, along with similar attacks...
Dear Editor: While President Trump has done some good things for Israel, on the whole he has actually made the region more dangerous. A recent example is that two days after the White House signing of the diplomatic accord between Israel and the UAE, the UN Security Council voted against the motion to extend the 13-year-old embargo on arms trade with Iran. This embargo had been very important for Israel’s security as well as that of U.S. Arab allies. This issue, once supported by most democratic countries was defeated. Only the Dominican R...
Dear Editor: After reading the article by Sandi Solomon, I am amazed about how much tripe was written by her about our current President. (Heritage Florida Jewish News, Sept. 25, 2020). I find President Trump to be vile, vicious, dishonest, degrading, corrupt, and despicable and should not be allowed four more years in the White House. Mr. Trump degrades women as proven prior to his election four years ago by evidence of a lewd video conversation in 2005. He has had to defend himself on numerous occasions from several women over alleged sexual...
(JNS) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, at the age of 87 was a symbol of female empowerment, as well as a renowned scholar and jurist. Though not religious, she was a proud Jew, and her achievements as an attorney in an era where women were not fully accepted in the legal profession and then as a principled judge justify the many laudatory eulogies about her. But Ginsburg’s status as a pop-culture icon and idol of liberals, feminists and others, who nicknamed her the “Notorious RBG...
