Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2681 - 2705 of 3706
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
(JTA)—They survived unimaginable horrors, yet went on to live productive lives, despite the haunting memories, the profound loss and physical scars from years of deprivation. Now many Holocaust survivors need our assistance so they may live their twilight years with dignity in their homes and communities. Most Holocaust survivors are in their 80s and 90s, and an astounding 25 percent of them in the United States live in poverty, struggling to meet basic needs for food, housing, health care and transportation. Many live alone and have no e... Full story
MONTREAL (JTA)—Yom Hashoah arrived this year on the eve of two historic anniversaries: the 80th anniversary of the coming into effect of the Nuremberg Race Laws, which served as prologue and precursor to the Holocaust, and the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, which served as the foundation for the development of contemporary international human rights and humanitarian law. This historic juncture was the theme of an international legal symposium on May 3 at Jagiellonian University in Krakow. It was followed the next day by the March o... Full story
Have you ever bought a slice of pizza in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem? Have you visited friends at the Hebrew University dormitories in the city’s French Hill section? Or taken the Jerusalem light rail train to the Neve Yaakov stop? Guess what—you just might be a Zionist war criminal! Ramot, French Hill, and Neve Yaakov are decades-old Jewish neighborhoods that are physically indistinguishable from other sections of Israel’s capital city. Ramot (population: 70,000), French Hill (23,000), and Neve Yaakov (40,000) technically are situa... Full story
In the ongoing struggle between Islam and the West, one civilization has the will to triumph, but not the way; the other has the way to triumph, but not the will. Some who dread Islam do not seem to understand this. They think that Islam is an irresistible force to be reckoned with; they see Muslim migrants as hordes of violent men invading Europe; they call on Western men to make a stand, resist the onslaught, save their women and children. To be sure, this portrayal is historically valid: for one thousand years, Muslims repeatedly invaded and... Full story
Loud voices of “fair but not biased” countries, members of the UN, and “well informed but not at all anti-Semitic” private citizens can be heard almost daily demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state. Why is it not established yet? Of course the answer of those who hate the Jewish people and Israel is: “It’s Israel’s fault.” Really? What prevented Palestinian Arabs from accepting the UN partition plan of November 1947, which allocated to Jews a miserably small portion of the historic Jewish land (lately conveniently called Palestin... Full story
