Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1576 - 1600 of 3636
(JTA)—She was 16 years old and alone in a refugee camp in a foreign country when we met her. Sobbing, she told us how she hoped that her brother might be somewhere in this camp, “camp number 18.” She had heard that he might be alive—if so, he would be her only surviving family member. Or maybe he was in another of the many camps that have been established in Bangladesh for the Rohingya, a Burmese Muslim minority who fled genocide in Burma. We saw displacement on an unimaginable scale. An estimated 800,000 Rohingya have endured harrowi... Full story
Everything was going well until I checked my phone. I had just finished teaching Sunday school at a synagogue in Evanston, Illinois, and was on the bus that would take me back to my apartment on the far north side of Chicago. It was a beautiful day. Sukkot would start in the evening. And then I opened Facebook and found a succession of horrifying posts. Temple Emanuel, the synagogue I used to teach at in my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan, had been vandalized some time late Saturday night or Sunday morning. The posts from former co-workers... Full story
Dear Editor: Yesterday, the FBI released their 2018 statistics on hate crimes. For the Jewish-American community, the results were nothing short of appalling. The statistics reveal that 2018 set an all-time record for violent anti-Semitic hate crimes—105 in total, versus 73 in 2017—and was the worst year ever for homicides in the Jewish community. In total, there were 920 anti-Semitic hate crimes, which amounts to 57 percent of all religiously-motivated hate crimes. No longer can we as a nation pretend that anti-Semitism hatred isn’t a major... Full story
(JNS)—According to the Forward, the rationale for the New Israel Fund’s push to create an alternative philanthropic system can be explained by what a Philadelphia psychologist named Roy Idelson considered to be a reasonable request. He wanted his local umbrella Jewish philanthropy—the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia—to allow him to use its foundation to donate money to an entity of his choice, IfNotNow. A number of federations and many others operate foundations that allow their supporters to create so-called “donor-... Full story
(JNS)—Roman landmark Caffè Greco, which opened on the Via dei Condotti in 1760, is in crisis. It has to be sold, and there is talk of Jewish buyers. To readers not living in or familiar with Rome this may not seem like a particularly interesting story—but then came a Facebook post expressing concern that the cafe would end up in the hands of “Zionists.” Responding to the post, the Italian branch of the BDS movement promised that if Zionists bought the cafe, they would lead a boycott campaign against it. At which the cafe’s current owners chi... Full story
(JNS)—When it was founded some 10 years ago, J Street claimed to be a “pro-Israel and pro-peace” organization. That was taken to mean partnering with the mainstream Israeli political left to build support in Washington for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians. Since then, J Street has morphed into an anti-Israel organization. J Street spends its time and money besmirching Israel, smearing AIPAC and other leading American Jewish organizations, boosting former President Barack Obama’s dangerous deal with Iran (and now trying... Full story
(JNS)—One year after the Tree of Life synagogue shooting shook world Jewry to its core, we are continuously flooded with disturbing reminders that, unbelievably, anti-Semitism is back on the agenda and threatens our way of life more seriously than we could have ever imagined in the modern era. The latest wake-up call occurred when a neo-Nazi gunman came to kill Jews at a synagogue in Germany on Yom Kippur. By now, the attack in Halle is all too familiar. Violent anti-Semitic incidents rose 13 percent worldwide last year, according to Tel A... Full story
(JNS)—It is a story that strikes a chord with anyone familiar with the struggle for civil rights in the American South. Jwnaid Murad, a businessman in Iraqi Kurdistan, has decided that he will no longer sell Turkish products in his supermarket in the town of New Erbil in response to growing calls among Iraqi Kurds for a boycott of Turkey because of Ankara’s onslaught against fellow Kurds in Syria. Even though goods from Turkey make up 60 percent of the inventory in his supermarket, Murad gathered his employees to pack up the remaining Tur... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—There is something curious about the media attention given to the recent leak of Richard Spencer’s post-Charlottesville rant, in which he decried “little f—ing kikes” and “little f—ing octoroons,” an anachronistic slur for someone who is one-eighth black, and added that he rules “the f—ing world.” While it is actually impressive how Spencer manages to be so racist, anti-Semitic and egomaniacal in so few words, the public reaction to it is a reflection of the American view of white supremacists and neo-Nazis. Spencer’s... Full story
(JNS)—The still-crowded 2020 Democratic presidential field proved to be a godsend for the left-wing J Street lobby. It gained attention for its annual conference this week due to the presence of five presidential candidates. But the dynamic of the event didn’t give a boost to its supposed “pro-Israel, pro-peace” agenda. To the contrary, the tenor of the coverage of the event showed that the group had achieved a very different goal. That was to be a magnet for opponents of the Jewish state, as it became clear that the main objective of the vot... Full story
When America entered the Great World War in 1917, it commissioned an artist by the name of James Montgomery Flagg to create a recruitment poster to encourage Americans to enlist in the Army. The poster Mr. Flagg designed pictured a stern Uncle Sam making direct eye contact with and pointing a parental finger at the viewer. The combined image was a very personalized message as to whom it was intended. To remove any ambiguity the caption under the image was, “I Want You for the US Army.” That iconic poster has endured and was used as a recruitmen... Full story
(JNS)—A few years ago, I was paying for some items at a large department store in the Netherlands when I was startled by the sight of a doll behind the cashier’s desk that appeared, at first glance, to be a grotesque racial caricature of a small black child wearing an elfin costume. I peered again, and with my first impression confirmed, gingerly asked the cashier what it was, exactly, that I was staring at. She turned around, looked at the doll and then looked back at me. Zwarte Piet, she said nonchalantly. Zwarte Piet (“Black Pete”), I subse... Full story
(JNS)—Following the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by U.S. forces, Wikistrat, a crowd sourced geopolitical consultancy, released a multi-perspective analysis on the significance of his death, as well as the future of the Islamic State and the region, by four experts. This special report presents their insights. Adam Hoffman, Head of Middle East Desk, Wikistrat: 1. Al-Baghdadi’s death is a critical symbolic blow against ISIS, but it is unlikely to spell the demise of the group. ISIS has been in the process of transition since mid-2017 aft... Full story
(JNS)—At its three-day board of governors meeting in Jerusalem this week, the Jewish Agency for Israel, which recently turned 90, revealed a new plan of action. Addressing the Jewish leaders who convened in the Israeli capital on Sunday, Jewish Agency chairman Isaac Herzog announced that the organization, which “founded the State of Israel and brought 3 million Jews on aliyah,” is now “refining our strategic mission for the coming decade, based on the challenges Jews are facing today.” Herzog, who kicked off the event with a ceremony to honor... Full story
(JNS)—At the moment of his demise, what passes through the mind of a terrorist who literally views himself as king of the world? “He died like a dog,” said U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday, referring to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northern Syria at the hands of U.S. forces. His statement was tough and simple, and drew a clear line between human beings and terrorist murderers. In his announcement of al-Baghdadi’s death, Trump described the ISIS mastermind as neither a leader nor a man, but as a thug and a c... Full story
(JNS)—“...a military defeat of Israel would mean the physical extinction of a large part of its population and the political elimination of the Jewish state. To lose a single war is to lose everything.”—Yigal Allon, commander of the Palmach and deputy Prime Minister (Labor), 1976 “One does not have to be a military expert to easily identify the critical defects of the armistice lines that existed until June 4, 1967.” — Yigal Allon Since the early 1990s, and certainly since the Oslo process (1993), the “land for peace” principle has bee... Full story
(JNS)—The decision by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to serve as one of the featured speakers at the upcoming J Street conference should trouble every supporter of Israel. It’s both a boost for the Jewish critics of Israel and a disturbing sign of trends within the Democratic Party. It was 10 years ago this week, in October 2009, that the New York senator announced that he would not be speaking at that year’s J Street conference in Washington, D.C., following reports that he had initially accepted its invitation to speak. J Str... Full story
(JNS)—Israelis are still trying to sort out the fallout from their second unsuccessful attempt to elect a government this year with little sign of a break in the impasse between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz. But no matter who emerges from the latest maneuvering—or from a third election that might be held early next year—Israel’s next leader needs to be concerned about the way a Democratic president might transform relations between the United States and Israel. Much of the rhetoric about the shift w... Full story
(JNS)—To speak about Kurds has suddenly become a cry in favor of human rights and self-determination by the Western press, and rightly so: The assault they are suffering is lethal and may become genocidal. More frightening is that it is being perpetrated by the Turks, who are already stained by the Armenian genocide and are led by a leader who considers himself an almighty sultan. And it’s really odd that Europe is only now discovering who he really is. How can this be? Didn’t Europe know that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during these... Full story
Dear Editor: I am writing in response to Bari Weiss’s article “How to Fight Anti-Semitism” (New York Times, Sunday Review, Sept. 8) and Phoebe Maltz Bovy’s critique of that article published in your Oct. 18th edition. Weiss’s article challenged me to re-examine traditional stories that defined my Jewish heritage. In Bovy’s lengthy op-ed there was no mention of two statements that stunned me. Every Passover holiday, we reread the story of the Israelites’ courageous exodus from Egypt. Without citing any source, Weiss stated that “a majority o... Full story
The near consensus view of President Donald Trump’s decision to remove U.S. special forces from the Syrian border with Turkey is that Trump is enabling a Turkish invasion and double crossing the Syrian Kurds who have fought with the Americans for five years against ISIS. Trump’s move, the thinking goes, harms U.S. credibility and undermines U.S. power in the region and throughout the world. There are several problems with this narrative. The first is that it assumes that until this week, the US had power and influence in Syria when in fac... Full story
(JNS)—Kumble Subbaswamy, the chancellor of UMass Amherst, made $579,000 last year, and his boss, Marty Meehan, president of the UMass system, made more than $659,000. Between the two of them, they made more than $1.2 million in 2018. And still, neither one of them will do their jobs when it comes to ensuring that professors don’t use college classrooms to coerce students into affirming their personal political agendas. For his part, Subbaswamy will tell you all about the policies that are in place at UMass Amherst to prevent indoctrination in... Full story
As a native born American of the Jewish faith I have been doubly blessed by being born into two great peoples. I am a proud and patriotic citizen of my native America and a proud supporter of Israel and the Jewish people worldwide. I am not however, a citizen or resident of Israel and have no vote in Israeli elections or how Israelis go about choosing their leaders. I do have a right and an obligation along with my fellow Jewish Americans, to express my opinion about everything that goes on in the State of Israel and work for American policies... Full story
(JNS)—After spending six months in jail on the outskirts of Moscow, a young Israeli woman named Naama Issachar was sentenced on Oct. 11 to seven-and-a-half years of imprisonment in Russia. Both the extreme sentence and trumped-up charges of drug-smuggling not only have traumatized the 26-year-old from Rehovot—and inflicted great anguish on her family and friends—but also has spurred the entire Israeli legal and political system into action. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, pleading with him to p... Full story
COLOGNE, Germany (JTA)—When the breaking news from Halle started to pour in Wednesday afternoon, the Jewish community around the world was still in the midst of commemorating the holiest day of the year in Judaism, Yom Kippur. Equipped with a rifle, ammunition and other military gear, the 27-year-old gunman tried to break into a synagogue in the eastern German city and shoot as many Jews as he could during prayers. The shooter, a far-rightist, had every intention to commit a memorable massacre with a “worldwide effect,” according to Germa... Full story
