Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Palestinian terrorist attacks that result in only a few casualties vanish quickly from the headlines. The victims are hospitalized, the politicians issue condemnations, the Palestinian Authority praises the attacker, and then the episode is quickly forgotten. It’s rare that anybody is still paying attention weeks later, when the attacker appears in court. That’s a shame, because sometimes what comes out during the legal process can be very revealing. Consider the attack on May 2, when a Palestinian terrorist named Muhannad Muhtaseb stabbed an... Full story
The U.S. State Department’s admission that it altered an embarrassing video exchange about its nuclear negotiations with Iran is disturbing—but it’s not the first time that the Obama administration, or some of its predecessors, have tampered with words that it deemed politically inconvenient. State Department spokesman John Kirby confessed this week that part of a 2013 video recording in its archive had been deliberately removed. In that portion of the video, then-State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki confirmed to a reporter that the depar... Full story
OMER, Israel (JTA)—As Jews, we tend to pride ourselves on our tradition’s values and how we pass them on to future generations; values such as education, tzedakah, loving the stranger, pursuing justice and tikkun olam, “repair of the world.” But if you were to start a conversation today with a teenager, would you be ready to articulate Jewish values related to dating and sexuality? Several such values can be gleaned straight from the Book of Ruth customarily read during the holiday of Shavuot, which begins this year on the evening of June 11... Full story
Dear Editor: This may come as a shock to many, but I have to agree with letter writer, Lexi Goldstein. The Muslim Student Association at UCF does deserve both acceptance and respect as an organization and as individuals. However, in order to earn acceptance, they have to be accepting. In order to be respected, they have to respect others. In order to listen to the truth, they must first speak the truth. To the best of my knowledge, the MSA (Muslim Student Association) on many college campuses does none of the above prerequisites. I have no... Full story
What a thrill it was to be in Cleveland, Ohio! You may not hear that sentence too often, but it was truly thrilling for me, your JCRC staff director, to attend the Jewish Council on Public Affairs (JCPA) annual conference there in mid-May. For three days, Jewish public affairs and community relations professionals learned, debated, and schmoozed together in one of the strongest, best-supported, and most well-organized Jewish communities in the United States. With a generous full scholarship from JCPA in hand, I was able to be among them. With... Full story
Bibi (Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu) is a caricature of Israel, both as viewed from within and without. He is loved and hated, admired and loathed, perhaps in about the same proportions among Israelis and those who watch Israel. Being the archetype of Israel helps to explain his longevity at the top, currently without an obvious candidate likely to replace him in the near future. He is a walking and talking manifestation of what makes people admire Jews or become anti-Semites. His power of articulation, in both Hebrew and English, is part... Full story
There is a worldwide Syrian refugee crisis. The numbers are staggering. Homeland Security chairman, Rep. Michael McCaul, confirmed that ISIS is targeting the U.S. Refugee program to attack America from within. Peter King, chairman of the sub-committee on counterterrorism and intelligence, warned that President Obama’s decision to admit more Syrian migrants “will put more American lives at risk.” Contrary to the White House, FBI Director Comey and Department of Homeland Security, and Secretary Johnson have stated our present vetting syste... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Yes, there’s the Avigdor Liberman who wants to behead bad guys, mandate loyalty oaths and pay Arabs to leave the country—the one who makes fun of the disabled and who dodged a fraud charge. But Israel’s onetime foreign minister and maybe-next defense minister is not quite the cartoon he’s made out to be—OK, the cartoon he at times seems determined to make himself out to be. As defense minister, Liberman would double to two the Cabinet ministers who have seriously considered a two-state outcome: himself and Prime Minister Be... Full story
HOBOKEN, N.J. (JTA)—Kosovo is a “newborn” country, a majority Muslim state that fought for its independence from Serbia only eight years ago. Yet it has erected a Holocaust memorial outside its parliament, elected a female president, held pride parades in support of LGBTQ rights and supported the building of a major Catholic cathedral in its capital city to honor Mother Teresa. As a Jew and a rabbi, I have walked the streets of its capital and several countryside locales with a yarmulke and felt safe and even extensively welcomed when ident... Full story
Dear Editor: In response to the May 20, 2016, Lexi Goldstein letter to the editor, ‘Registered student organizations have a right to exist on campus,’ is really about shutting down free speech. Ms. Goldstein makes the argument that the UCF Muslim Student Association (MSA) couldn’t possibly have any real troubling terrorist connections because ‘Rez’ told her so. Rez, a follower of Islam, holds a dual membership in the UCF MSA and UCF Knights For Israel. Rez describes himself as simultaneously pro-Israel and pro-Palestine which is a very diff... Full story
Despite leaving the world an unsafer place than when he found it, President Barack Obama isn’t shying away from busting those foreign policy taboos. The president who brought us a nuclear deal with the Iranian mullahs, and who gave Cuba’s fossilized communist regime a new lease on life, is about to fly to Japan. Once there, he will highlight the grave dangers of nuclear war in the city that has become a synonym for Armageddon: Hiroshima. Today, May 27, Obama will become the first president to visit Hiroshima since the U.S. dropped an ato... Full story
There is a war going on in the United States. It is being fought on college campuses across the nation. This battle is not about Affirmative Action or the ridiculous costs of a college education. Not even about Bernie and Hillary—that’s a different one with its own dynamics. No, this is about a well-funded, well-organized movement to discredit the State of Israel and by proxy every Jew in the world. Of all the injustices piled upon the peoples of the world, why should so much attention be paid to tiny Israel? Why not Russia with its aby... Full story
‘Sometimes there’s a stink you just can’t wash off, kinda like a venereal disease... That’s the problem Trump’s got.” It can’t get much worse than that, a quotation in The Economist attributed to a Republican Congressman. Polls are showing that stinking mess tied with Hillary. If there is such a thing as “momentum” in politics, it doesn’t look good for the lady who will be the Democrats’ nominee. A month ago, she was a clear leader in Clinton vs. Trump surveys. In the bluster that marks a political campaign, and perhaps this one more than mo... Full story
The current American presidential campaign features candidates who seem all too willing to set aside ethics for the sake of greater profits. One presumptive nominee proudly made large donations to politicians “so they would do what I want” to facilitate his business goals. The other took actions that benefited special interest groups, which then “coincidentally” donated large sums to her family’s private foundation. It’s clear that their approaches to accumulating wealth have worked. According to Forbes, Donald Trump is worth more than $4.5 b... Full story
PITTSBURGH (JTA)—As a U.S. immigrant and a parent, I’m somewhat fanatical about my kids’ appreciation for their citizenship. Last year I organized what I hope will be an annual second-grade field trip to our local swearing-in ceremony for new American citizens. As a result of that experience, I discovered the students at our children’s Orthodox day school weren’t reciting the Pledge of Allegiance every day. I just assumed—like a lot of parents at the school—they did. Years ago, when the school had a PA system, the pledge was recited to th... Full story
Ever ask yourself why during the 30 year period-between 1917 and 1947- thousands of Jews throughout the world ‘woke up’ one morning and decided to leave their homes and go to Palestine? The majority did this because they heard that a future National Home for the Jewish people was being established in Palestine, on the basis of the League of Nations obligation under the “Mandate for Palestine” document. The “Mandate for Palestine,” an historical League of Nations document, laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Pal... Full story
The last time I wrote about Donald Trump in this column was back in December 2015, when the Republican presidential primary race was in full swing. Then, I voiced concern about what the Middle East policy of a Trump administration might look like, pointing out that his failure to address Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, along with his deference to Russian autocrat President Vladimir Putin, was perilously similar to the approach of President Barack Obama—whom the New York billionaire reviles. Six months later, and in the face of endless hig... Full story
Israel’s Yom Ha’atzmaut—Independence Day—is particularly meaningful to my family. My uncle brought his family to the country from Poland in 1936, and he and my aunt fought on the streets of Tel Aviv in the War of Independence in 1948. My grandmother’s sister and her husband escaped the Nazis, making aliyah in the 1930s. My brother, sister, first cousin, and their families all have made aliyah. Two nephews and a niece are now serving in the Israel Defense Forces. As I was growing up, Israel was an ever-present part of my life, and my father co... Full story
It seems appropriate to call these two contenders for the world’s most powerful office by their first names. Even this far away from their campaigns, where the news is usually about something else, we’ve been listening for more than a year to a great deal of commentary, along with video clips of them speaking in numerous settings. Neither seem up to the best who have reached the office they seek. Indeed, there is enough in both of their records to suggest that they may compete for the lowest ranks of presidential esteem. So first names app... Full story
Islamophobia: dislike of or prejudice against Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force. When UCF students walk toward the Student Union, they are greeted by a cacophony of music and welcomed by tables of students. Among the student organizations manning these tables are the Catholic Ministry, Knights for Israel, College Republicans and so on. As students continue to walk, they are handed pamphlets from religious, political, recreational and student government organizations. Students can walk inside the Student Union and witness many... Full story
As the British began to dismantle their Mandate (The British Mandate) and leave western Palestine, Israel’s War of Independence began (November 30, 1947‑ May 14, 1948). During the war, Palestinian Arabs became belligerents in the conflict, and by its end, rather than accept a Jewish state after five-and-a-half months of warfare, Palestinian Arabs called upon their brethren from seven surrounding countries to invade and crush the nascent Jewish state. Six thousand Jews—1 percent of Israel’s Jewish population—lost their lives during the War o... Full story
Sophie Wortsman. 16. Toronto. Student. Benji Zoller. 18. Dallas. Student. Sam Peltz. 83. Florida and New York. Survivor. Jacob Kamaras. 30. Houston. Journalist. We all shared the same experience on May 5—the 28th annual March of the Living, a 1.86-mile walk from Auschwitz to Birkenau as a tribute to victims of the Holocaust. But we took vastly different journeys to get there, and we arrived at the former death campsites with divergent emotions. Worstman—who marched with a sign bearing the name of her great uncle, Holocaust victim Abraham Rotenb... Full story
“It is generally admitted that anti-Semitism is on the increase, that it has been greatly exacerbated by the war, and that humane and enlightened people are not immune to it. It does not take violent forms (English people are almost invariably gentle and law-abiding), but it is ill-natured enough, and in favourable circumstances it could have political results.” So wrote George Orwell in a 1945 article for the Contemporary Jewish Record journal titled, “Anti-Semitism in Britain.” In that short essay, Orwell related a series of personal encount... Full story
I’ve hesitated to write this for some time because every time I think there might be a lull in the plague of terror attacks to which Israel has been subjected these past several months, there’s another attack. This past week alone there was a stabbing, an attempted stabbing, a “successful” car ramming, car stoned with a mother and three kids, a shooting at Israelis from across the border with Gaza, and something else. I forget. Israel has been suffering an ongoing plague of terrorist attacks - shootings, stabbings, stoning and car ramming... Full story
Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin are at opposite poles. One comes from a long tradition of idealism, speaking about great values, and usually ending up a long way from what was promised. The other represents the essence of realpolitik, or “if I can take it, it’s mine.” Woodrow Wilson was an extremist of the American type, fighting a war to end all wars, demanding open diplomacy, and working to create a world parliament and free nations from their colonial masters. Wilson couldn’t convince his own Congress to join the League of Nations. He coll... Full story
