Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1401 - 1425 of 3636
Dear Editor: The June 3, 2020, statement from the Jewish Federation and Jewish Community Relations Council regarding the murder of George Floyd, does not speak for me. There is no question George Floyd was the victim of gross police brutality by four Minneapolis police officers. The murder of Mr. Floyd was a travesty, and justice was served on the four police officers, according to the Rule of Law. All four officers were immediately taken off the street while an internal investigation commenced. Less than 72 hours later, the investigation deter...
DENVER (JTA) — In the summer of 1999, we slept head to head in top bunks at Camp Ramah in Canada. We also shared a viral upper respiratory illness that kept us from participating in the much-anticipated yom bli shemesh (a day without sun) while the rest of our cabin got to experience a day of camp in the middle of the night. We had to stay in bed for a few days, but soon recovered and enjoyed another invaluable summer. Jewish summer camp made us into the adults we are today. Now we work side by side in the Emergency Department of a major childr...
(JNS) — A recent JNS article needs to more clearly expose the true identity of the signers and originators of a falsehood-filled letter to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations . The letter maligned me and the Zionist Organization of America for appropriately opposing the election of HIAS chair Dianne Lob to become chair of the Conference of Presidents, and for explaining how HIAS’s activities conflict with the Conference’s missions of helping Jews and Israel. The letter misleadingly identified its signers as carin...
JNS) — The most pressing issue facing Israel and American Jews is whether the newly-formed Netanyahu-Gantz unity government will extend Israeli sovereignty over portions of the West Bank as it has pledged to do. It is widely anticipated that such a move will be announced by July 1. The proposed action has generated considerable controversy among those who enthusiastically favor such a plan and those who vehemently oppose the idea. It is not surprising that, among American Jewish groups, the usual suspects have come out to denounce the p...
(JNS) — Former Vice President Joe Biden apologizes. President Donald Trump doesn’t ever apologize. While both said things that can easily be construed as offensive, the thinking behind their talk about being entitled to votes from particular groups was based in something we shouldn’t condemn. As Biden learned, talking down to voters is bad, but appealing to them to support their community’s interests is kosher. Or at least it is, unless you’re talking about something that most Jews consider important, like the security of the State of Israel. B...
Dear Editor: I just read Marcus M. Gilban’s article about Israeli folk dancing (“COVID-19 hasn’t stopped one of Israel’s national passions: folk dance,” May 22). Mr. Gilban wrote, “Jews and dancing go way back — when Moses opened the Red Sea waters.” Perhaps he was misled by one of his journalistic sources, but Jewish tradition teaches that G-d, not Moses, performed that miracle. I think a correction is in order. (At the risk of sounding pedantic, it was the Sea of Reeds, not the Red Sea. But that’s just semantics, and I’m anti-Semantic.) Tha...
Dear Editor: In reply to Gary Schiff’s piece of May 15, 2020, “An open letter to our Jewish family and friends in America,” I can’t explain why 71percent of U.S. Jews hate Donald Trump, but I can share with you why one Jew detests him, and from that you may draw your own conclusions. First and foremost, Americans elect a president to represent all our diverse interests and to lead our country and the world toward a better future; you on the other hand assume the role of the U.S. president is strictly to help Israeli Jews. Failing to underst...
Dear Editor: I read the Solomon letter a few times (Letter to the editor by Sandi Solomon “No. 1 issue when voting is to make sure Jews are not in danger,” May 22 issue), I thought it was a put-on: “I realized there were anti-Semites in the Democratic party.” Surprise, there are anti-Semites in the Democratic and Republican parties, organizations, and just everyday people. Trump likes Israel because of the Jewish vote, not because he likes Jews. Look inside his mind during the torches march at the University of Virginia. “Jews will not repla...
(JNS) — Should Jewish communal organizations aim to achieve consensus above all or bear witness to the truth? Both in the Diaspora and in Israel, Jews are divided over politics, religion and worldview. These arguments, moreover, generally carry an emotionally fraught sub-text; that the opposing side threatens to undermine Jewish security and the existence of the Jewish people. This makes it even more difficult for Jewish organizations whose aim is to protect and defend the Jewish people from ever saying anything about contentious issues of t...
Coronavirus has shaken up the world to an extent not experienced since World War II. In an era when the word unprecedented is used constantly, we are living through a time that is truly unprecedented. For this reason, it is astounding that in a country where the majority of citizens believe in God, we barely hear the possibility that this pandemic brings with it a Divine message. No one can know with certainty what the message is. Yet each of us as individuals can and should ask ourselves: what is it that I can do better? Is there something...
(JNS) — A young Israeli soldier, Amit Ben-Yigal, was stoned to death last week by Palestinian Arab terrorists. The response of the American Jewish left was appalling. However, the response of the rest of the Jewish community wasn’t much better. Every Arab terrorist murder of a Jew is an outrage. But a death by stoning has unique implications that should merit additional comment and introspection by Jews around the world. Most Jews who are murdered by Arab terrorists are killed by gunshots or — as in the case of my daughter, Alisa — by bombs....
JNS) — If you think you’ve seen this movie before, you’re right. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has declared that he is abrogating all agreements with Israel so many times it’s a wonder that he could do so again with a straight face. Indeed, he started making these threats as soon as he succeeded PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and has never really stopped during the course of the 15 years of his four-year term as leader of the P.A. The latest occasion for his usual theatrics is the possibility that Israel might extend sovereignty into p...
(JNS) — On July 1, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce plans to extend Israeli sovereignty over portions of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) containing the vast majority of Israeli settlements. This territory comprises 30 percent of the West Bank. The remaining land, where most Palestinians reside, will be reserved for an independent Palestinian state under the Trump peace plan should the Palestinian people and its leadership choose to live in peace side-by-side next to the Jewish state. Although Israeli’s ant...
(JNS) — Cyber warfare is usually waged in secret. In a world where borders and geography are of no importance, the main challenge is to take action and cause damage without leaving tracks and risking reprisal. That is how all the players operate. The professionals are more successful, the amateurs, less so. According to a report released in the United States on May 21, however, Israel, a super-professional, changed the rules. Not only did it attack, but it also made sure that everyone knew it had done so. Not by mistake, or through o...
(JNS)—Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks he’s found a way to avoid further skewering at the hands of those looking for a whipping boy for the failings of the Internet. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen scorched him last fall for running what he called “the greatest propaganda machine in history” because of the site’s willingness to take both ads that some deem either hateful or false. Cohen said the social-media entrepreneur’s refusal to adequately police Facebook was the equivalent of giving Nazis free reign to act as they liked. Nor...
By Mel Pearlman In the May 11, 2020, edition of Time Magazine, a mother eloquently writes in an essay titled, “The pandemic has put our dreams of another baby on hold,” about her fears and concerns of conceiving g another child during this era of the coronavirus pandemic. She and her husband, already the parents of a 2-year-old, the essayist continues, “Remembering how special it had been for both of us to grow up with a sibling close in age and wanting the same kind of companionship for our son, we had planned to try for another child this...
(JNS)—“Annexation Would Hurt Israel” declared the headline of a May 8 op-ed in The New York Times by Mideast scholar Daniel Pipes. According to Pipes, the incorporation of any part of the Judea-Samaria territories into the State of Israel is a bad idea because it will anger a lot of people. But the historical record shows that such fears are not well founded. U.S. President Donald Trump will “erupt in fury,” writes Pipes. Democrats will be “alienated” from Israel. “Major European states” will be outraged. The hope for improving relatio...
By Daniel Pipes (JNS)—As Aristotle long ago recognized, virtue is the midpoint between extremes. And I found myself smack at that midpoint in recent days. I published a modest article suggesting six reasons why the Jewish state should not extend its sovereignty to a Palestinian-majority territory. (Confusingly, The New York Times titled the May 7 online version “Annexing the West Bank Would Hurt Israel” and the slightly different May 8 print version as “Annexation Would Hurt Israel.”) I hardly expected the article to arouse high emotions....
By Matthew Mainen (JNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is arriving in Israel on Wednesday to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. His visit presents a perfect opportunity, at a perfect time—with most of the globe preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic—for the two to announce that Israel will begin to implement U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan and annex parts of the Jewish-inhabited portions of the West Bank. Though tempers around the world likely will flare, no sane government will shift its focus from...
Dear Editor: I always read Mel Pearlman’s articles in the Heritage. His article of May 8, 2020 was excellent. I was a Democrat. I registered as a Republican about 15 years ago when I realized there were anti-Semites in the Democratic Party and no one was calling them out. Also, the Democratic Party was no longer supporting the Jewish people or Israel. There are many important issues to consider when you vote, but making sure Jews are not in danger is number one for me. Some people tell me they don’t like President Trump. I tell them, “Do...
(JNS)—In today’s hyperpartisan world, nobody escapes the watchful eye of the thought police. Not even a pop superstar like Taylor Swift. The 30-year-old singer has sold tens of millions of recordings in her career that span the genres of country and pop music. That’s made her one of the highest-paid female musicians in the world with legions of fans who admire her for her talents and philanthropic endeavors while also buying the various products she endorses—from Diet Coke to Elizabeth Arden perfumes. But that hasn’t exempted her from bein...
(JNS)—They almost had me believing. The Saudis, that is. Last week, they almost had me believing that they are truly becoming moderate and really do accept Israel’s existence. Then the mask came off, and my hopes all came crashing down. What got my hopes up, all too briefly, was the controversy over a new series on Saudi television concerning relations between Jews and Arabs in the Persian Gulf in 1948. Since Saudi Arabian society is completely controlled by its authoritarian government, it was big news that some Arabs were denouncing the TV...
By Bethany Mandel WASHINGTON (JTA)—Back in Normal Times, when I would tell other parents in Jewish settings that we homeschool, I would be met with exhortations of “I could never do that!” Things have certainly changed in the past two months because now everyone does. I’ve found myself suddenly running a lending library out of my house and a homeschool help hotline for friends on my WhatsApp. When I used to explain homeschooling to those unfamiliar with it, it was hard to describe what life was like home with your kids all day, every day. Fo...
(JNS)—While countries around the world struggle to get on top of the COVID-19 crisis, Israel’s achievement so far has been remarkable. Its mortality rate from the virus has been vastly smaller, in proportion to its population, than the rate in countries such as Britain, Sweden or the United States. That’s largely because it tackled the virus with the kind of bold, strategic approach with which it defends itself against its physical foes. This week, with new cases reduced to a few dozen, it started to lift a wide range of restrictions on publi...
(JNS) We know you have many challenges as Jews in America. We here in Israel just have one question: Can you please explain to us your extreme hatred for the president? In Israel, we so appreciate what he has done for Israel and the Jewish people, yet in America, most of you despise him. Even many connected, Conservative and Reform, AIPAC-supporting, “Federation” Jews despise him. We Jews in Israel truly don’t get it. Fifty percent of our Jewish brothers and sisters have returned and now live here in Israel. It seems to us that U.S. President D...
