Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Having made it through the stress of our border crossing into Jordan (described in my previous column of Feb. 28, 2020), my son and I now found ourselves standing in the Jordanian night with our Jordanian greeter no where in sight. We watched as the Jordanian workers, numbering in the hundreds, were returning to Jordan after their workday in Eilat; and were being picked up to return to their homes in Aqaba. Finally, a sketchy looking fellow drove up in an unmarked van and approached us inquiring whether we were the Pearlmans. We hesitantly... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—Over the course of our millennial history, Jews have had many encounters with contagious diseases. Often we’re blamed for them. Maybe I’m paranoid, but I can’t help feel uneasy with the amount of attention the New York Jewish community is receiving because of the first confirmed cases of the coronavirus. (We are hardly first: Asians around the globe already faced prejudice because of the epidemic’s origins in Wuhan, China.) The ominous flow charts demonstrating the spread of the contagion, featuring silhouettes of unnamed i... Full story
By Ann Lapin NEW YORK (JTA)—“Really, Mother?! A BELL?!” Dinner was ready at around 7 p.m., so I walked down the hall to my children’s wing and dropped off their plates—with a bell, so they could ring for me and get my attention when I didn’t have my phone with me. Because as of 4:34 that afternoon, my high school-aged children had been asked to self-quarantine. My three children attend the SAR schools, Modern Orthodox schools in the Riverdale neighborhood of the Bronx. Unfortunately, my daughter’s 14-year-old classmate and her immediate fam... Full story
Dear Editor: The unsigned Viewpoint of the “Jewish Community Relations Council” of Feb. 21, 2020, expresses the general condemnation of the publication of “xenophobic” material. Admittedly, “words that reflect bigotry or hatred, whether of Jews or anyone else” may indeed be contrary to Jewish principles. However, whether or not articles are worthy of “being called out” requires careful subjective judgment. An example is the publication of the picture showing the “IfNotNow #Jewish Resistance” rally in New York City. The alliance of this or... Full story
BERKELEY, Calif. (JTA)—For the casual observer, Sen. Bernie Sanders’ recent pronouncement that he is skipping the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee out of a “concern[] about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights” might seem like a political earthquake. Prominent Democrats—first Sen. Elizabeth Warren, then Sanders—have now declared they will skip the annual AIPAC conference. Is this a harbinger of a sea change in American views about Israel? Not... Full story
Be careful who you are exposed to. Public health officials around the world are desperately trying to cope with the spread of the coronavirus. There is growing fear that a global pandemic may be impossible to stop. So far, this respiratory illness has infected more than 80,000 people and killed at least 2,800 to the best of our knowledge. Cruise ships, unwitting tourists, travelers and others are slowly transmitting this angel of death to destinations far from its Chinese source. Modern medicine, with all of its miracles, is stymied. There is... Full story
(JNS) Two months after its shellacking in the United Kingdom’s general elections, the Labour Party continues to remind British voters of why they chose the “anyone-but-Jeremy-Corbyn” option. Last week, it was the turn of John McDonnell—Corbyn’s main lieutenant and a stalwart of the party’s far-left—to plumb the depths of illogical, offensive and plain ignorant political rhetoric. Speaking immediately after a visit to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in the grim surroundings of south London’s Belmarsh prison, McDonnell produced an unfor... Full story
(JNS)—After each anti-Semitic attack, Jews seem to get weaker and more vulnerable. One reason is that instead of taking real action, we prefer to complain and release cliché-ridden statements expressing our “outrage.” If you have a political agenda, such loud condemnations can be useful. If a white supremacist attacks Jews, Trump-hating Democrats will be all over it. If the attacker is Islamic or from the left, Republicans will feast. Remember when anti-Semitism used to bring Jews together by uniting us against a common enemy? What happen... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—The guest expert’s talk at the local JCC/synagogue/federation is wrapping up. Speaker: ...and in conclusion, if we don’t remember this history, we are doomed to repeat it. As Hillel said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” And finally, as Rabbi Tarfon put it so eloquently, “It is not our duty to finish the work, but neither are we free to neglect it.” Thank you. Moderator: Let’s thank our speaker for what we all can agree was a beautiful and powerful presentation. At this point we can take a few questions, but please,... Full story
The controversial Amazon series means well but misses the mark. Should killing Nazis be entertaining? Should we watch a shoot ‘em up comic book stylized TV series about Holocaust survivors who try to hunt down and murder Nazis in 1970s America while they are trying to reconstitute a Fourth Reich? If your answer is no, then don’t watch Hunters. Hunters is a new Amazon Prime video series created by David Weil and executive produced by Jordan Peele. It follows Peter Parker-esque Jonah Heidelbaum whose Holocaust survivor grandmother is murdered. Wh... Full story
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to the JCRC attack editorial against the Heritage published Feb. 21, 2020. The JCRC makes a point of saying that the Heritage “is not supported by or affiliated with any Jewish institution or agency” as if this is something bad. Personally, I think newspapers should be independent. The JCRC makes a point of saying that the Heritage “does not speak for the Central Florida Jewish community.” Well, of course not. Does the Orlando Sentinel speak for the Orlando or the central Florida community? The JCRC th... Full story
YARDLEY, Pa. (JTA)—Like every American Zionist, I want my vote for president to ensure Israel’s safety and ideals. Deciding how to vote isn’t always easy. Many, including Yossi Klein Halevi, dread the day when American Zionists must choose between Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. For plenty of American Jews, Sanders represents “a self-hating Jew,” an anti-Zionist, or at best a liberal Zionist who, despite his kibbutz days, never deemed it important to deliver unconditional support for the Israeli government. On the other hand, American Jews ackn... Full story
(JNS)—There’s a new anti-Semitic student group at Harvard, ironically named the Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace. Their inaugural event last week, titled “The Jewish case for BDS,” taught undergraduate students how to single out and punish Israelis on and off-campus. The group was formed following debates over “humans rights” during Israeli Apartheid Week, an effort to push anti-Semitism on students organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee. According to a statement posted on the group’s Facebook page, it believes “combating an... Full story
The next morning, having arrived in Israel the evening before, my son and I began our trip to Jordan. Our route to Aqaba would take us south through downtown Tel Aviv on freeways that made me feel we were in Los Angeles during morning rush hour traffic. We then continued south to pick up Highway 40 that would take us into Beer Sheva where we stopped for lunch. From Beer Sheva we headed east on Highway 25, past Dimona, the site of Israel’s nuclear facility. At the Arava Crossing we turned south onto Highway 90 to Eilat. Highway 90 runs along t... Full story
(JNS)—For three years, the Middle East Forum has been engaged in a campaign to wean Americans and Israelis off the deceptive charms of the “peace process” which has, in fact, produced overwhelmingly malign results. Instead, we argue for an Israeli victory and a commensurate Palestinian defeat. We constantly seek out new ways to bring this argument to the public’s notice, especially in Israel. Although the topic is deadly serious, we’ve had some fun in the process. Israel Victory Project attention-getting tactics have included posters of Hamas... Full story
By Hannah Lebovits CLEVELAND (JTA)—In a recent article, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s Ben Sales and Laura E. Adkins expertly synthesize a number of viewpoints on why Orthodox Jews have increasingly found their political home in the Republican Party. Two themes are evident immediately—many Jews believe the party to be more firmly supportive of Israel and to align with their social and religious values. The same day, Adkins and Sales published another piece explaining a recent polling effort to understand the political opinions of Orthodox Jews... Full story
By Pinhas Inbari (JNS)—The Palestinian Authority’s loud and vigorous opposition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century” puts the Palestinians in conflict not only with Israel and the United States, but also with the axis of moderate Sunni Arab states, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. The P.A.’s goal is to foil Trump with a coalition consisting of European allies, the United Nations and countries such as Venezuela, a stronghold for Palestinian policies in South America. The P.A. is pursuing a containment policy, in t... Full story
Dear Editor: I just read the JCRC’s op-ed (Viewpoint, “Concerns raised about Heritage content,” Feb. 21, 2020 issue) and would be interested to learn what the JCRC considers ‘inaccurate, biased, or bigoted language, presented as factual journalism’, and ‘xenophobic material’ carried by the Heritage. Paul Jeser Los Angeles, Calif.... Full story
(JNS)—Leave aside, for the moment, the deepening rows about U.S. President Donald Trump’s “vision” for ending the Middle East conflict. Leave aside the question whether the plan’s lead author, Jared Kushner, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, backtracked on an “immediate” Israeli declaration of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the “Triangle” of disputed territory (they didn’t; the need to first map out and agree on the details was stated from the start). Leave aside the uproar among Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria,... Full story
(JNS)—Even before the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan was revealed earlier this month, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was planning his trip to New York City, where he plans to address the United Nations and protest the plan’s outline, which the P.A. has rejected outright. That has been the Palestinian leader’s modus operandi for the past 17 years, and it has kept him on the wrong path of sparing no effort to fight Israel in the international arena, which at times seems to be his primary goal—something far more importan... Full story
In Donna Nevel’s Feb. 7 op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel (“Bloomberg’s ‘kibbutz’ comment brings to mind Zionist history”), the self-styled “social justice activist” author capitalizes on an opportunity to convert a simple sentence on socialism into a wildly distorted and historically inaccurate diatribe against Israel and reality. In her highly romanticized rendition of history, the author portrays the creation of Israel as a catastrophe for the Palestinians. She offers the Palestinian narrative of the “Naqba,” or “Catastrophe,” whic... Full story
Since 1976, the Heritage has been the only regularly published Jewish newspaper in our community. It was “founded with the purpose of helping to unify a scattered community by focusing on Jewish issues. It is published independently of any outside agency and depends solely on subscribers and advertisers for support.” The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has been alerted to material in the Heritage that community members have found contrary to Jewish principles and values, as well as inc... Full story
By Morton A. Klein and Chairman Mark S. Levenson, Esq. In our view, AIPAC made a serious mistake when it retracted and apologized for its recent ads expressing the accurate concern that radical, Jew-hating Israelophobes in the Democratic Party are infecting and influencing an alarming number of other Democratic Party members to become more hostile to Israel and even Jews. AIPAC should rescind its retraction, and resume its discontinued ad campaign to urge Democratic representatives to support Israel. Pro-Israel organizations must do everything... Full story
(JNS)—In the halls of the United Nations, they’re calling it a “database,” but it’s more commonly and accurately known as a “blacklist.” It’s a list of more than 100 companies conducting business activities with Jewish communities and Israeli enterprises in the West Bank that was published, a good four years after it was first mooted, by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Wednesday. Given the litter of authoritarian states and theocracies that compose the UNHRC, as well as its notorious “Item 7”—an annual fixed agenda item that focuses the... Full story
By Sarah N. Stern (JNS)—Sitting in the East Room of the White House last week, I experienced an emotion as close to euphoria as I have ever experienced perhaps in my lifetime. I was finally beginning to witness that moment in history when some rather fatal delusions that the international community has held dear for decades were finally beginning to erode, at least within certain quarters of the United States. I have been more than a passive player in the history of trying to expose the truth about the real intentions of the Palestinian A... Full story
