Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1651 - 1675 of 3636
(Jewish Journal via JNS)—At a time of rampant assimilation and declining synagogue attendance, how do you get more Jews to connect to their tradition? In recent years, the non-Orthodox streams of Judaism have tackled this challenge with renewed vigor. Much of the innovation has centered on making Judaism more relevant and meaningful. This can take many forms, from a focus on social justice and repairing the world, to musical and uplifting prayer services, to connecting with nature, to online education and entertainment, to radical inclusion a... Full story
BALTIMORE (JTA)—As Americans of conscience, many of us are deeply troubled by the hyperpartisan tone that seems to color almost every news story and cycle. The sensationalism that is so often present within our nation’s discourse undermines our collective ability to assimilate information and reach well-reasoned conclusions. At times, the only voices that we hear are the loudest and most outrageous. If this were not challenging enough, we also live in times in which mass shootings are becoming more common, race relations are growing more fra... Full story
(JTA)—Earlier this month—or 16 years ago in Trump years—the White House disinvited a cartoonist named Ben Garrison to a meeting of right-wing media influencers. It had been pointed out that Garrison had once drawn a cartoon that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic. The cartoon depicts two administration officials being manipulated by a puppeteer labeled “George Soros,” who is in turn having his strings pulled by a puppeteer labeled “Rothschild.” Soros, the Jewish financier, often figures in far-right anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. But he als... Full story
From the title of this column you might presume that I oppose a two-state solution where majority Arabs and majority Jews live peacefully in separate independent democratic states, with guaranteed equality, and with civil and human rights protection for Arab and Jewish minorities in each state. Since 1967, when Israel was forced to fight a war for survival against an onslaught of regular Arab armies from neighboring states, Israel has found itself in control of the lands west of the Jordan river comprising Judea and Samaria, parts of biblical... Full story
(Israel Hayom via JNS)—At the State Department, human rights have generally been a not-so-high priority. The big kahunas tend to focus on war and peace, allies and adversaries, national security and global economics. So it came as something of a surprise when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week launched a bipartisan Commission on Unalienable Rights. Its task, Pompeo wrote in The Wall Street Journal, “isn’t to discover new principles but to ground our discussion of human rights in America’s founding principles.” Commission members ... Full story
(BESA Center via JNS)—For some time now, Russia has been striving to establish itself as the Middle East’s preeminent great power. Through its military involvement in the Syrian conflict and deep partnership with Iran against the United States, its relations with neighboring countries have gathered new momentum. In 2019, the Taliban and Russia gathered together and called for the withdrawal of U.S. coalition forces from Afghanistan. Meetings were held in Moscow after the failure of direct negotiations between the United States and the Tal... Full story
(JNS)—Britain now has its first celebrity prime minister. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Tory Party following Theresa May’s resignation over her failure to deliver Brexit. On Wednesday, Johnson “kissed hands” with the Queen and thus succeeded Mrs. May as Britain’s PM. As with all social or political developments of note, the Jewish world is predictably asking about this one: “Will it be good for the Jews?” Johnson has entertained and scandalized Britain for years through his many scrapes, his jokes, his politically i... Full story
(Jewish Journal via JNS)—It’s almost a boring thought these days to observe that we are bitterly divided by our political tribes. Democrats hate Republicans, Republicans hate Democrats. Need we say more? We no longer want to win arguments; we want to crush our political opponents. It’s not enough to disagree with you; I must reject you, as well. Jews have gotten sucked into this tribal warfare, where loyalty to our political tribes has replaced loyalty to our Jewish tribe. For too many of us, “What’s good for my party?” has replaced “W... Full story
I almost walked out of my first college Shabbat. Not only did I miss the close Jewish community from high school, but I also remained convinced that my new peers would view me as a “fake” Jew. Why? Because my mother isn’t Jewish. Only my father is. I feared saying that openly would evoke chuckles from my peers as well as staff and automatically place me into a category of “second-class Jew,” something I’d encountered in the past. So I avoided the topic of my parents altogether. It’s because of my non-Jewish matriarch that I realized how... Full story
(JNS/Israel Hayom)—The turmoil gripping Israel’s political system ahead of the repeat election in September has not skipped over the Arab parties, among which a war is now raging that makes the struggles among the Zionist parties on both the right and the left pale in comparison. The conduct of the Arab parties and those at their heads could shake things up on the Arab Israeli street to such an extent that the Arab Israeli public, along with the relations between the State of Israel and its Arab citizens, could be put on a new path. The rif... Full story
(JNS)—If further proof were needed to illustrate the futility of diplomatic overtures to the Palestinian Authority, Monday’s attack on a pro-Israel Saudi in Jerusalem is a good example. As part of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s regional strategy to forge ties with formerly hostile Muslim-Arab states, the Israeli Foreign Ministry invited a delegation of six media personalities from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt to see the Jewish state for themselves. Up close and personal. As a precautionary measure... Full story
On July 23, the House passed H. Res. 246-a bill that condemns the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel specifically. The vote was 398-17. This is such good news, and a slight reprieve from all the craziness going on in the world. Critics of the bill said that the resolution labels BDS supporters (against Israel) as anti-Semites. If the shoe fits... Anti-Israel BDS is anti-Semitic economic warfare to destroy the Jewish state and people-and is exactly what Nazi Germany did to the Jews... Full story
MITZPEH YERICHO, West Bank (JTA)—On July 8 in Psagot, I addressed the first group of participants on J Street U’s “Let My People Know” Israel trip, their new alternative to Birthright aimed to give American Jewish college students meaningful engagement with key questions related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was there ostensibly to share my perspective as one of three “settlers,” but also, it seemed, to give the participants a chance to vent at us for perceived injustices we were perpetrating. We explained to the group that Judea... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—A recently released Pew Research Center report about global restrictions on religion focuses mostly on discrimination against, and the persecution of, various religious groups in different countries. Jews are prominent targets as always, “harassed in 87 countries... the third-highest figure for any religion.” But the report also turns a spotlight on Israel, yielding headlines like the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s “Israel has almost as many religious restrictions as Iran.” The headline and the report beneath it were picked up b... Full story
(JNS)—The exposé on anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party, broadcast in the United Kingdom last week by the BBC’s flagship Panorama program, gave viewers an opportunity to see the extraordinary confrontation in April 2016 between John Mann, a Labour parliamentarian and leading fighter against anti-Jewish bigotry, and Ken Livingstone, the former Labour Mayor of London and leading promoter of conspiracy theories about Zionist “collaboration” with Nazi Germany. Livingstone had given a radio interview in which he repeated the slander he’d utt... Full story
The 50th anniversary of the first successful Apollo-Saturn Moon Mission was met last week with great fanfare and enthusiasm by the national and international media, the American people and the entire global community. There were inspiring speeches, recognition of our brave astronauts, celebration of a great national achievement and a remembrance, if not a renewal of the spirit of unity that at the time prevailed among the American people. While NASA, the astronauts and the leaders of the project were acclaimed as national heroes, less attention... Full story
(JNS)—Early last week Tehran announced its intention to enrich uranium above the level permitted by the nuclear deal to which it is a signatory. Over the weekend, soldiers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attempted to seize a British oil tanker in the Persian Gulf. The attack was retaliation for British forces seizing an Iranian tanker delivering oil to Syria in violation of E.U. sanctions on Damascus, but the wider context is Tehran’s threats to shut down oil exports from Persian Gulf states if American sanctions are not lifted. Sur... Full story
(JNS)—The radical anti-Zionist IfNotNow group hit the jackpot last week with its initial investment in efforts to impact the 2020 presidential election. IfNotNow’s attempts to infiltrate Jewish summer camps and alter the way they teach about Israel, as well as its campaign to disrupt Birthright Israel trips, haven’t had much success in terms of changing curriculums or deterring young Jews from visiting the Jewish state. But they have served to move the discussion about its anti-Zionist agenda from the margins of Jewish life to the mains... Full story
How could the world forget the Beatles? “Yesterday”—first the song, now the movie. For fans of the Beatles, “Yesterday,” the song Paul McCartney says came to him note by note in a dream, has a well-deserved claim on the best popular song ever written. Released as a single on Sept. 13, 1965, “Yesterday” went to the top of the charts globally and was broadcast on American radio more than seven million times in its first 30 years. According to the “Guinness Book Of Records” it is the most covered pop song of all time. Now it is back in the news... Full story
Todd Cohn Just recently, the South Florida Jewish community collectively took a very deep breath when Spanish River High School’s Principal William Latson weighed in on the school’s approach to State-mandated Holocaust education. I was in complete and total shock when I learned of what had transpired just a few miles from our NCSY office. Principal Latson said he had to remain “politically neutral” when choosing how to educate our children about the Holocaust. He also stated in the email, ““Not everyone believes the Holocaust happened an... Full story
(JNS)—The critics are right about U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman’s presence at the ceremonial opening of Jerusalem’s “Pilgrimage Road” being unprecedented. None of his predecessors would have been caught dead at a Jewish site on the wrong side of the “Green Line.” Up until last year, the United States had stubbornly refused to recognize that any part of the ancient capital of the Jews belonged to the Jewish state. But even if we concede that the participation of Friedman and U.S. Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt was a departure fro... Full story
In January 1966, I found myself living and working in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I had been recruited by RCA Missile Test Project, the scientific and engineering manager of the Air Force’s Eastern Test Range for rockets and missiles being test fired from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Prior to arriving in Cocoa Beach, I had been doing research in radiation physics at the Radiological Research Laboratory at Columbia-Presbytarian Medical Center in New York City, under contract with the Atomic Energy Commission, the predecessor to the Nuclear Regula... Full story
(JNS)—“The two-state solution,” as America and Israel define it, calls for “two states for two peoples”— for Israel and a new Palestinian-Arab state, sharing the area between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. The Palestinian Authority has expressly rejected “two states” in this sense, demanding a “right of return” to Israel for millions of descendants of Arabs who left Israel in 1948. Reservations to this idea also exist on the Jewish side. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again recently stated that Israel will not cede secur... Full story
(JNS)—Three seemingly unrelated incidents occurred last week, yet all share a common denominator: They exemplify the way anti-Israel politics has corrupted the concept of human rights. Let’s start with best-selling British novelist Richard Zimler’s report that two British cultural organizations recently refused to host him for lectures about his new book, though he has lectured many times on previous books. “They asked me if you were Jewish, and the moment I said you were, they lost all interest,” he quoted his publicist as saying. It’s not tha... Full story
(JNS)—For years, the pundits have been telling us that Israeli democracy is in danger because of the Arab birthrate, or because of the Jewish nation-state law, or because of the debates over the powers of Israel’s High Court. I wonder if they will recognize the danger posed by the 10 left-wing American Jewish organizations that have formed a new umbrella organization, the essential purpose of which is to undermine Israeli democracy. Last week, J Street and nine other Jewish left-wing groups declared themselves part of the new “Pr... Full story
