Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1601 - 1625 of 3636
TORONTO (JTA)—There’s a reason our moment demands a book called “How To Fight Anti-Semitism,” and it’s not just anti-Semitism’s violent global resurgence. American Jews—at least the liberal, pro-Israel majority—are at risk of becoming, as New York Times columnist Bari Weiss puts it, “politically homeless.” Right-wing anti-Semitism is, Weiss grants, the more in-your-face threat to American Jews. The left poses a danger less due to overt anti-Semitism than from its refusal to take anti-Semitism seriously on account of Jews’ (presumed) privilege,... Full story
(JNS)—What would a Jewish holiday be, without an op-ed in The New York Times demanding that Israel make more concessions to the Palestinian Arabs? On Rosh Hashanah, the Times published “Shrinking the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” by the Israeli journalist Micah Goodman. In it, he called for five new concessions by Israel: “paving a network of roads connecting all the Palestinian autonomous areas”; turning over control of the roads to the Palestinian Authority; “eliminating Israeli checkpoints”; giving the P.A. “more land for development”; a... Full story
(JNS)—As visitors to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem wind their way through the main exhibition, they are confronted by a series of unsettling photographs from the first decade of Nazi power: Jews forced onto their hands and knees to clean the sidewalks; a young Jewish woman fleeing from a crowd in a blind panic, her dress ripped open; Jewish schoolchildren compelled to wear a yellow Star of David as a badge of shame. What these images convey is a powerful sense of how anti-Semitism can progress from being a mere ideology to e... Full story
(JNS)—As Israeli frustration mounts about violence coming out of Gaza, the idea of a ground invasion, and once and for all to finish with Hamas aggression, becomes more appealing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has endorsed this approach, saying, “There probably won’t be a choice but to topple the Hamas regime.” While sympathetic to this impulse, I worry that too much attention is paid to tactics and not enough to goals. The result could be harmful to Israel. Attitudes toward Gaza are in flux. Efraim Inbar, the strategist who hea... Full story
(JNS)—This July, Aaron Boone, the manager of Major League Baseball’s New York Yankees, created an Internet meme when he launched into an epic and profane rant in taking issue with a call that went against his team. His abuse of an inexperienced umpire was recorded on a field microphone and then spread across the Internet to the amusement of players and fans, but to the consternation of the sport’s overlords. His repeated description of his players as “f****** savages” being mistreated by incompetent officials led to a one-game suspensio... Full story
On Sept. 29, President Donald Trump set out his nationalist political philosophy in his address before the UN General Assembly. Arguing that the nation-state is the best guarantor of human freedom and liberty, Trump set up a contrast between “patriots” and “globalists.” “The future does not belong to globalists,” he said. “The future belongs to patriots. The future belongs to sovereign and independent nations who protect their citizens, respect their neighbors, and honor the differences that make each country special and unique.” Jewi... Full story
An anti-Hamas bill has been severely watered down by Congressman Eliot Engel. It’s a turn of events that should trouble every supporter of Israel. The New York Post claimed this week that Engel (D-NY), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, agreed to change the bill after heavy pressure from Qatar and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The Post quoted “a personal acquaintance of Engel’s” as saying, “Eliot told me directly that he was getting a lot of pressure from the Qataris” about the bill At the same time, Engel or his represe... Full story
As I get deeper into my senior years, I find myself spending more time reflecting on my life, and trying to find meaning in what brought me to this moment of my existence. One of those reflections was remembering my first real connection with Israel. I was only 4 years old in 1948 when the modern state of Israel was established. Although raised in a traditional Jewish home, my earliest Jewish memories consisted of Chanukah gelt, Purim costumes, Shabbat candles and the delicious smells of my Mom’s cooking throughout the year, but especially a... Full story
(JNS)—As the year 5780 begins, political division is the predominant theme in both Israel and the United States. In Israel, two attempts to elect a Knesset in one year may not have been enough. The stalemate that has prevented the formation of a new government is not so much about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies as it is about him. That has been complicated by the re-emergence of the ongoing conflict between secular and religious Jews. But that may not be as bad as what’s happening in the United States. Americans seem divid... Full story
Dear Editor: Kudos to Alan Kornman on his letter to the editor, “1929 Hebron massacre—the rest of the story,” Sept. 27. Haj Mohammad Amin al-Husseini is a name most Jews don’t recognize. He was a person, one of the early supporters of The Muslim Brotherhood, who was appointed as The Grand Mufti or mayor of Jerusalem by the British government. I am currently reading the book, “Philistine to Palestine—exposing the world’s biggest deception, a 4,000-year journey based on the historical, biblical, and political archives by Joseph D. Shellim. I ha... Full story
(JNS)—When Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted his supporters at Likud Party campaign headquarters on Tuesday evening, his demeanor as much as his words made the outcome of the vote clear to everyone. While he neither claimed victory nor conceded defeat, his body language screamed that he knew that he had not won. His talk of working for the creation of a “Zionist” government rather than the “right-wing” coalition that he pledged to build in April when he thought he had triumphed was telling. There will be no Likud-led coalition... Full story
(Jewish Journal via JNS)—In the midst of all the promises of “coalitions” after the razor-close Israeli elections, who’s doing the actual math? On one side, you have a right-wing bloc that maxes out at 56 seats, and on the other, a center-left bloc that maxes out at 53 seats, both of them agonizingly short of the magic number of 61. Forget all the fancy analyses—right now, all that matters are those numbers. A desperate Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must surely be losing sleep over his missing five seats, which would allow him to stay on t... Full story
The days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are devoted not only to examining our relationship with God, but also to self-reflection and our relationship with others. Our tradition, developed over more than three thousand years, has created a rich narrative of prayers and readings which, selectively are an integral part of synagogue services for all denominations. Included in the High Holiday liturgy is the retelling of our rich history from the rituals and pageantry of the High Priest in the Holy Temple to our religious experiences throughout the... Full story
PENN YAN, N.Y. (JTA)—With refineries ablaze in Saudi Arabia, you might be forgiven if you forget that in the Amazon and Indonesia, forests are ablaze as well. Yet these two conflagrations are not unconnected. As ever, ecological crises and geopolitical crises are deeply intertwined—and the universal interest of the global community is threatened by the narrow interests of particular individuals, groups and nations. The central debate that has raged among free-marketeers, scientists and policymakers since the Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969 is w... Full story
MONTREAL (JTA)—Picking through gefilte fish in the kosher department, searching for the freshest packages, I think of my Grandma Fanny. She made her gefilte fish from scratch, lovingly combining the cod, whitefish, pike and whatever other secret ingredients she threw in that made it so good. “This is delicious,” my brother’s roommate remarked one year. “I’ve never even heard of a gefilte fish before.” When my grandmother hosted Rosh Hashanah, it was an affair. There could be upward of 25 people around the table, which would be set with the... Full story
By Sasha Chernyak (JNS)—How does one distinguish anti-Semitism from legitimate criticism of Israel? The answer is rather simple: One can criticize Israel and its government just as one would any other nation and its government. Far too often, however, Israel is relentlessly demonized on college campuses, which frequently devolves into harassment of Jewish and pro-Israel students. Anti-Israel advocates decry the putative evils of Israel and endlessly pontificate, as if Israel were the source of the entire world’s evil. Unsurprisingly, this set... Full story
Dear Editor: Thank you for publishing the story by Josh Hasten, “In remembering 1929 Hebron Massacre, top Israeli leaders visit...and make history” (Sept. 13, 2019 issue). The article explains how in August 1929, “67 Jews were murdered by an Arab lynch mob over the course of three days while their homes and synagogues were destroyed.” Understanding the 1929 Hebron Massacre will bring the rise in anti-Semitism today into a more precise focus. The “Arab Lynch Mob,” defined as the culprits of the massacre, was an Arab Muslim mob manufacture... Full story
(JNS)—On the 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, government officials and institutions throughout America commemorated the horror of that day. But after all these years, there is a sense that—other than for those who lost family members or close friends—the ceremonies are increasingly becoming more a matter of going through the motions than of national grief. Much like the way the memory of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941—a comparable tragedy that altered the life of the nation—became routine and then ultimatel... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—With the new election in Israel, it is worth reflecting on the last Likud leader, Ariel Sharon, and the decisions he made on the Palestinian issue. Sharon, the 11th prime minister of Israel, was a large man who did not think small. As Nir Hefez and Gadi Bloom noted in “Ariel Sharon: A Life,” Sharon in the early 1950s commanded Israel Defense Forces Unit 101, which sought to deter terror in Israel by carrying out controversial attacks into Arab states. Shimon Kananer, who served in the 101, said, “When I first came to the uni... Full story
A few months ago, there was a slew of hopeful chatter in Israel that Eli Cohen would finally be coming home. This followed the return of remains of an Israeli soldier killed in battle in Lebanon in 1982 with help from Russia. The country couldn’t restrain its excitement at the repatriation of Zachary Baumol’s remains. Prayers were that Eli Cohen would be next. For as long as I can remember, Eli Cohen was a larger than life hero. Had his story ended differently we might never have known how much Israel is indebted to him. As one of Israel’s most... Full story
Dear Editor: 1. A Jewish Democrat—you are Jewish and vote Democrat regardless of the democratic party’s discriminations against you. 2. A democratic Jew—you are a dedicated Democrat. Being a Jew doesn’t matter. By these two definitions, being a Jew doesn’t matter. You are adding fuel to wiping out the remaining Jews that were not wiped out during the last century. Sounds harsh, doesn’t it? But is being a Democrat more important than being a part of 5780 years of being Jewish? Jewish Democrat or democratic Jew means leaving the words Jewis... Full story
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—For the overwhelming majority of Americans, Labor Day weekend is the unofficial end of summer. But like other federal holidays, such as Memorial Day, which were once rooted in specific historical experiences such as the carnage of the Civil War, the first Monday of September is no longer tied specifically to a celebration of the labor movement. Labor unions are still with us, but in an economy that is no longer dominated by manufacturing industries they are but a shadow of their former selves both in terms of their n... Full story
Congressional Representatives Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and Ilhan Omar (D-MN) along with two other freshman democratic congresswomen, have now been collectively tagged with the moniker, “The Squad.” The descriptive name for the four was quickly and enthusiastically adopted by the media when the hashtag was jokingly suggested by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, one of the four members of “The Squad,” at a press conference after a contentious meeting with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The Speaker had criticized the four freshman congresswomen for challen... Full story
(JNS)—In an interview with my colleague Benjamin Kerstein last week, Rabbi Eli Cohen, the executive director of the Crown Heights Jewish Community Council in Brooklyn, N.Y., said something about the state of anti-Semitism in America today that’s worth revisiting. Commenting on the continuing spate of brutal attacks against visibly Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn, perpetrated mainly by African-American males, Rabbi Cohen remarked, “You know, white supremacists out somewhere in the United States, I don’t see any common denominator between that and som... Full story
Netflix’s “The Spy” is a six-episode series about real-life Israeli Mossad hero Eli Cohen. “The Spy” stars Sacha Baron Cohen, most famous for his 2006 adult-oriented comedy movie “Borat,” as the legendary Mossad agent. “The Spy” debuted on Sept. 6. When Eli Cohen was publicly executed by the government of Syria on May 18, 1965, it was clear to Israelis and Syrians that he had succeeded in becoming a friend of the president of Syria, and had penetrated the innermost Syrian government circles. What was not yet known, however, was that he had g... Full story
