Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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By Jonathan Feldstein While an array of recent controversies have developed from members of Congress around the U.S.’ support of Israel, the fact is America is and was always pro-Israel. This is built on the foundation of early American leaders who understood the significance of Israel, based on common Judeo-Christian values and solid biblical imperative. Of course, when the American founding fathers supported Israel, it was not based on the existence of a modern state. They understood that Israel (i.e., Jewish people) and the Land of Israel we... Full story
(JNS)—He has engaged in “crude anti-Semitism,” according to the Anti-Defamation League. He has “consistently impugned the loyalty of American Jews,” said the American Jewish Congress. And he has compared Israel to the Nazis, which according to the U.S. State Department, is anti-Semitic. Yet, irony of ironies, longtime Democratic Party official James Zogby has emerged as one of the most prominent voices in the party defending Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and denying that her remarks about Jews being disloyal were anti-Semitic. Zogby is a longtime... Full story
(JTA)—Every year at Passover, many Jews enjoy inviting non-Jewish guests to the seder, the big family meal during which they recount the tale of the Exodus. Such invitations are extended in a tradition of interfaith cooperation and the conviction that at least one person at the table should actually enjoy himself. For non-Jews who might be intimidated by attending their first seder, we offer the following tips on seder customs and ways to avoid what Yiddish-speakers call a “tsimmes.” Tip #1: Avoid the tsimmes. The word is Yiddish slang for a... Full story
(JNS)—The virulently anti-Israel movement known as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is roiling through college campuses, overflowing into city councils, encroaching into corporate boardrooms and now chomping at the essence of Israel’s special niche in the world: its travel and tourism industry. Everywhere, the boycotters have been asking to isolate Israel. BDS even convinced Airbnb to stop listing Jewish locations in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank (a term invented after Jordan invaded in 1948, when the Uni... Full story
(JNS)—Discussions about intersectional theory used to be confined to the fever swamps of the far left. But this idea—the idea that seeks to link the struggle for civil rights in the United States with the Palestinian war on Israel’s existence and every other cause that can be falsely portrayed as one of the underprivileged against the privileged—has now gone mainstream. The latest evidence of the success of this attempt to dress up anti-Semitism in the clothing of human-rights advocacy arrives with the new edition of The New York Times Sunday... Full story
(Rabbis Without Borders via JTA)—There are two funny images I like to circulate this time every year as we approach the Passover holiday. The first is a cartoon of a truck with large text on the side reading Morty’s Passover Cleaning. On the driver’s side door is the word “chametz” inside a circle with line struck through it. Underneath the large Morty’s Passover Cleaning text on the side of the truck it reads: Orthodox $89.95, Conservative $49.95; Reform $19.95. The second image is of a person’s office cubicle completely covered in aluminum f... Full story
(JNS)—It was a day for Israelis to cheer the unprecedented degree of closeness between their nation and its sole superpower ally. Using his favorite form of communication, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted a clear intention to discard yet another longstanding U.S. policy in the Middle East. Trump’s declaration that he was going recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights is correctly interpreted as a blatant interference in the upcoming Israeli elections on behalf of his friend and ally Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the sam... Full story
As reported in this newspaper several weeks ago, a number of prominent local Jewish philanthropists have pledged millions of dollars to relocate the Holocaust Memorial, Resource and Education Center from the Jewish campus in Maitland, Florida, to an expanded site in Orlando. Along with the relocation, the Holocaust Board has decided to change the name of the new facility to “The Holocaust Museum of Hope and Humanity.” The decision to relocate and to change the name were apparently made without broad discussion and input from the general Jew... Full story
Let’s leave the Israeli election to continue brewing. The voting is next week. Nastiness rampant. Currently in the air are comments about U.S. Jews. Where are they? What’s their interest in Israel? That we’ve developed into two separate communities should not be a surprise. It’s been more than two generations since the Holocaust and the establishment of the Israeli state. Israel is no longer in danger of collapse. It has developed good relations with a number of former enemies, and gets along with most Israeli Arabs and Palestinians. Holocau... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—I am a rabbi and progressive faith leader in this city who has fought for racial and economic equality for almost two decades. I am also an unapologetic Zionist and a proud supporter of AIPAC. The public perception of AIPAC among my fellow progressives is that it is a white, Trump-supporting, right-wing organization for millionaire donors. In this progressive imagination, AIPAC is a place where evangelical Christians join with their Jewish ideological counterparts to leverage undue influence over American politics. Nothing c... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—AIPAC has long promoted bipartisanship as the key to maintaining broad support for the U.S.-Israel relationship. Members of Congress from both parties regularly attend its annual policy conference, which concluded Tuesday, and the organization’s biggest legislative priority, securing foreign aid for Israel, is overwhelmingly supported in both chambers of Congress. In AIPAC’s worldview, every legislator is a friend or a potential friend. This approach works—until it doesn’t. In 2016, AIPAC’s then-president Lillian Pinkus cont... Full story
(JNS)—This year, AIPAC awarded an official on-stage presence to a recognized representative of the almost half a million Jews currently residing in the areas of the heartland of the Jewish national homeland, Judea and Samaria. Not that in previous years have persons living in those “beyond-the-Green-Line” territories addressed the annual conference, but they haven’t been openly identified as such. Oded Revivi, Yesha Council Foreign Envoy, spoke on Monday, although some were not happy. This was in addition to the off-site reception, the fourth... Full story
Dear Editor: This morning, the AIPAC Policy Conference 2019 came to a close after a highly productive weekend. We have seen our politics becoming more divided, including on the subject of Israel. This is exemplified by Rep. Ilhan Omar who, after embroiling herself in controversy by continuously and deliberately making anti-Semitic remarks, today lashed out in a gratuitous attack against AIPAC and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. Nevertheless, as we saw during this year’s conference, AIPAC’s annual event remains a strong bipartisan space tha... Full story
(JNS)—By the time America woke up on Friday, Mar. 15, Google’s search engine was jammed with news of a mass shooting at another place of worship in the world. Counts of 49 dead and dozens wounded were being reported at the Al Noor Mosque in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand. Doubtless, many people were looking for the manifesto penned in advance of this atrocity, titled “The Great Replacement,” which the gunman had apparently issued. The text was easy to find and nauseating to read. To summarize its ideas and arguments at any length... Full story
Since the first large wave of Jews arrived in the U.S., we have fought for human rights. It is in our own self-interest to do so. We believe in taking care of our fellow man, in equal rights, equal opportunity, etc. You know, the stuff that allowed us when we came to America to take advantage of the system. And, based on our heritage and our history, we have endeavored to pass it on to succeeding generations. This has resulted in Jews having the reputation of being “Liberals”; “Left Wing”, etc. All this because we tend to take up the cause o... Full story
The election may not decide anything. The clusters of parties seem nearly tied in recent polls, with neither right nor center-left clearly able to amass the seats need to form a government. What comes next will be long and messy, and ultimately create a government. Or another election. At the present, Bibi seems to be in charge of the right. But loosely. It shouldn’t take much to dislodge him, send him to a retirement, which itself will be a messy process that seems likely to end up behind bars. Currently we’re hearing more support for Lik... Full story
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—The announcement from the J Street lobby that it plans to sponsor a free trip this summer for college-age students to compete with the popular Birthright Israel program provoked predictable outrage. Many in the pro-Israel community already despise J Street as a Trojan horse organization that seeks to undermine support for the Jewish state. The idea of it shepherding Jewish kids around the West Bank to meet with Arabs who will trash Israel infuriates and deepens the resolve of some to exclude the left-wing lobby f... Full story
(JNS)—Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has a lot of “firsts” to her credit. She is the first Palestinian Arab elected to the U.S. Congress. She is one of the first two Muslim women to be elected to Congress. And now she is the first member of Congress to make a fraudulent claim about her own grandmother in order to score points against Israel. Appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union with Jake Tapper” on March 17, Tlaib was asked about her claims that “racism” and “Islamophobia” were the real motives behind the widespread criticism of the recent anti-Sem... Full story
Zionist Organization of America and its National President Morton A. Klein and Chairman Mark Levenson, Esq. condemn with all our hearts the horrific massacres in Nigeria of over 120 (which has now risen to over 280) innocent Christians since February, carried out by radical Muslim Fulani herdsman-terrorists. Militant Islamist Fulani herdsmen reportedly killed thousands of Christians last year, and more than 60,000 people since 2001. Radical Muslim Fulani militants have slaughtered Christians during church services, at and after funerals, and... Full story
(JNS)—On paper, the United Church of Christ should be well-equipped to promote peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The UCC, a liberal Protestant denomination with 800,000 members and a little less than 5,000 churches in the United States, has said all the right things about the Jewish people, anti-Semitism and the type of things that need to happen in warring countries for peace to take place. In 1987, the denomination’s General Synod passed a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. And two years before that, the same body passed a res... Full story
This past week we celebrated the holiday of Purim. It is a festive holiday because it commemorates the victory of the Jewish citizens of Persia over their fellow citizens who were given license by the king’s decree to destroy the Jews in their midst. How did it come about that the people of the Persian Empire, who peacefully lived side-by-side with their Jewish neighbors for many generations, suddenly were manipulated to follow the king’s decree to vanquish their fellow citizens of the Jewish faith? And a more poignant question is what led the... Full story
There are polls every day or two. You can see the latest at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_2019_Israeli_legislative_election They pretty much are showing a tie, or close to it between the center-left and the right. Bibi is a sharp campaigner, managing to label his opponents the leftists, with the help of media and the Arabs. According to him, they are manufacturing stories that would incriminate him. There’s nothing wrong about accepting a few cigars or bottles of champagne from close friends. He’s more art... Full story
(JNS)—He’s done it again. After being called out for allegedly employing racist incitement against Israeli Arabs during election campaigns, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is being attacked again for saying things that hurt the feelings of Israel’s non-Jewish citizens and offend the sensibilities of some Jews. This has led to renewed charges that he is guilty of denigrating Arabs and trashing the democratic nature of the state. But as with past claims, there’s less to this allegation than the anguished criticism directed at Netanya... Full story
(JNS)—A critical function of the Israel Defense Forces is to secure borders and sensitive locations, in addition to the transition points in and through such areas. Guard duty is deceptively routine and simple. Like other military functions, most of the time there is a familiar routine that can seem mind-numbing to the casual observer. However, the trained soldier knows all too well that the seemingly mundane and insignificant can be a ruse—a cover for something intended to be deadly. Therefore, vigilance and skepticism are part of a che... Full story
George Elliott is credited with saying, “History repeats itself.” Mark Twain sharply improved on it with his observation that “history doesn’t repeat itself—but it does rhyme.” No matter how much things may change, one constant always remains: the Hamans of the world, the Jew haters who seek “to destroy, to murder and to bring to an end all Jews, from young to old,” are somehow forever with us. It was foretold in the Torah. In the first battle against Amalek, prototype of the anti-Semite throughout the ages, we are informed that although t... Full story
