Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 2994 - 3018 of 3854
Routines are everywhere, with everyone. Almost all our waking hours we are employing one or another. How we brush our teeth, fix our breakfast, drive to where we’ve been before, get ready for bed. They are crucial for government and politics. Just as an individual cannot be bothered to ponder at length what to do in most situations, officials, politicians, and activists generally do what they have done in similar circumstances. Routines simply life, make expectations more predictable, and serve well in most cases. They are also limiting. R... Full story
A memorial ceremony was held at Ben Gurion Airport just before the body of 18-year-old Ezra Schwartz was flown to the United States for burial last Saturday night. William Grant, deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, was in attendance. Yet if the ceremony had taken place at the site of the attack in which Ezra was murdered, U.S. diplomats would have boycotted the event. That’s because the attack took place in Gush Etzion, and believe it or not, the policy of the U.S. government is to boycott the funerals of American victims o... Full story
Our revulsion at the Paris attacks and subsequent Isis violence was palpable, and our reaction almost universal. We want action. But are we prepared to accept the difficult truth? The only answer to brute force by evil and depraved fanatics is brute force by the good guys—working with some of the not-so-good guys. The French wasted no time launching counterstrikes against ISIS targets in retaliation for the brutal slaughter of 129 citizens at multiple Paris locations. At the same time, the Russians, once confirming their airliner was brought d... Full story
From the attacks in Paris to the deadly toll of terror in Israel, events of the past week have reminded us of the wide gap between Jews and the rest of the world. As if we needed any reminding. Following the rampage in Paris, which left over 140 dead, Jewish organizations, Israeli officials, and everyday Jews rushed to condemn the murders and express their solidarity with the people of France. Friends adopted the Tricolorefilter on their Facebook pages; the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City were illuminated in blue, white, and red. But even in s... Full story
One of the most memorable scenes in the 2010 film “Four Lions,” a dark British comedy about a group of the most incompetent jihadis imaginable, takes place as the aspiring martyrs climb into a van for the long nighttime drive down to London, where their plan is to bomb the annual marathon. As they set off in the dark, the four jihadis are silent and pensive, listening to a somber recording of chanted verses from the Qu’ran. But as dawn breaks on the outskirts of London, they swap out the Qu’ran for the irrepressibly joyful song “Dancin... Full story
Clearly in 2015, in Israel, there has been a noticeable increase in violent attacks on civilians by Muslims. In Israel, almost every day, there are reports of attempts to murder Israelis. On Oct. 3 two Israeli men were stabbed, in Jerusalem, and killed by a Palestinian. On the same day a mother and her 2-year-old child were attacked. While on Oct 12, in three separate stabbing attacks in Jerusalem, six were wounded. One victim was a 13-year-old Israeli boy riding his bike. On Oct. 13, in four separate terror attacks, three Israelis were killed... Full story
In 1948 I was in high school. Okay, now you have a pretty good idea of how long I’ve been around. Point is—I was in a high school of 1500 kids, of whom about 12 were Jews. When the State of Israel declared its independence, let’s just say there was not dancing in the halls. I was plumb ignorant of the situation. Ours was not a kosher home. My family was not active in the Jewish Community and while we had been impacted by the Holocaust as every Jew alive had to be, we had not lost any family members of whom we were aware. Two years later we move... Full story
“This is an act of war,” French President François Hollande proclaimed after convening his security cabinet on Saturday. Hollande said the Islamic State terror group was responsible for Friday night’s appalling series of terrorist attacks, in which at least 129 people lost their lives, and that the attacks were planned outside of France. “France will be merciless toward the barbarians of the Islamic State group” and “will act with all the means necessary…on all fronts: interior and exterior, in coordination with our allies who themselves are... Full story
(JTA)—The international outrage over the barbaric terrorist attacks in Paris is absolutely on target. But the absence of an outcry over the weeks of attacks against Jews in Israel—stabbings, shootings and car rammings are among the most common tactics—is equally outrageous. More than a dozen Israelis have been killed during the past month. Yet these terror attacks against Jews have largely drawn silence from the civilized world, or worse, questions about whether Israel deployed “excessive force” to defend itself. If people were being stabbed i... Full story
Dear Editor: My name is Rachel Huss, and I grew up in a Jewish community. Having gone to a Jewish school and having been surrounded by Jews my entire life, I never experienced any form of anti-Semitism firsthand. My name is Tamara Zishuk and I grew up in a secular town, but I was constantly involved in Jewish life. Even so, my town has always been very welcoming, and I was never targeted on the account of being Jewish. Now, the two of us are a part of a separate community, the University of Central Florida. It’s a place where we live and l... Full story
Last week marked the 40th anniversary of one of the worst instances of anti-Semitism since the end of the Second World War. On Nov. 10, 1975, the United Nations—a body created out of the ashes of the Holocaust—passed General Assembly Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement, with racism and racial discrimination. That resolution was the culmination of a lengthy campaign by the Soviet Union to turn Israel into the only state within the U.N. system to have its legitimacy questioned. Soviet Jews had been per... Full story
Nov. 9, 2015, was the 77th Anniversary of Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass,” the term applied to the night of Nov. 9- 10, 1938, when, across Nazi Germany and German-annexed Austria, 91 Jews were murdered, tens of thousands of Jews were placed in Concentration Camps, and 267 Synagogues and 7,500 Jewish owned shops and businesses were destroyed by gangs of Nazis and other anti-Semitic persons. The news of the brutalization was known around the world, but no national government was willing to help the Jews under Nazi rule. The und... Full story
This letter is prompted by a note I received from an Internet friend who chided me for minimizing the threats of Barack Obama, John Kerry, and BDS. He thinks like Caroline Glick, whose columns express the view that if things aren’t optimal, they are terrible. Ms. Glick has a substantial audience. Some view her as the best thing since ice cream. She expresses a Jewish malady we’ve known about for years. A prominent symptom is the frequent expression of oy gevalt. Or Not again, and Why us? for those whose Yiddish is less than minimal. I have str... Full story
Disagreement on the status of the Temple Mount is at the core of the recent wave of violence and terror in the region. This is a religious war, we are told, not merely a political one, and wars in the name of God are far more dangerous than those fought for earthly goals. One problem with this description is that wars in the name of God are also often motivated or fueled by political causes. More particularly, and with regard to the present conflict, political considerations affect the perceived religious significance of holy sites. This is a... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—I have visited Europe many times, but last week I looked at it through a new lens in my first trip as CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. I undertook the trip after an invitation to address the annual meeting of the CRIF, the representative body for the French Jewish community and a valued ADL partner. It was an intense learning experience, with reason for hope and cause for concern. The hope came from hearing Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve speak forcefully at the CRIF meeting about the government’s intention to provide phy... Full story
Dear Editor: Right now, I am sitting on an airplane scrolling through my Facebook feed. I am sitting here wondering how is it possible that our country is so advanced that we are able to provide in-flight WiFi (thanks, JetBlue), but we can be so primitive that people still resort to bullying and violent crime to boost their own self-confidence. I grew up in Oviedo. When I moved here from North Carolina, I experienced more diversity and inclusion in my own neighborhood than I had ever experienced in the five years I lived in Concord. On my cul-d... Full story
A few years ago, the British anti-Semitism scholar David Hirsh remarked that while Israel was the ostensible target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, first in the firing line were diaspora Jews. This shouldn’t be surprising if you consider it carefully—Jewish organizations are typically called on by the media to defend Israel, particularly during times of conflict, and many individual Jews have faced ostracism within their own professional communities for speaking in support of Israel and against the boycott. So, whe... Full story
As defenders of Israel we are constantly emphasizing that Israel promotes unconditional co-existence and would never stand for such an awful establishment like institutional discrimination. However what if I said we were wrong and that Israel does in fact actively permit prejudice to flourish? We as educators commit a severe injustice by failing to recognize this. We are so pre-occupied with convincing an obstinate side that apartheid against non-Jews does not exist in Israel that we commit the deprecating mistake of overlooking the... Full story
It is not yet clear what caused the destruction of the Russian airliner as it flew from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh over the Sinai toward Saint Petersburg. However, the betting is an explosive device. Maybe slipped on the plane by a Bedouin baggage handler doing the work of Allah and the Islamic State, carried on by a passenger with similar motives and willing to die for the cause, or shot from below. Egypt is worried about its once flourishing tourist industry, now hanging on at a south Sinai beach a long way from the heart of the... Full story
Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) head Matthew Brooks recently told The Hill, “We as a Jewish community have to take a long, hard step back and acknowledge the reality ... that today there is one pro-Israel party and that is the Republican Party.” What a boneheaded thing to say—both because it isn’t true, and because it’s a sure-fire way to hurt Israel. (Full disclosure: I’m a proud RJC member.) Let’s look at some of the ways we know the Democrats continue to support Israel: • In a survey last December nearly three times as many Democrats... Full story
CHICAGO (JTA)—At a campaign event in Virginia last week, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders invoked his Judaism in response to a question about Islamophobia in the media. The exchange drew widespread attention, in part because Sanders has mostly avoided discussion of how his religion informs his politics. The contrast between his approach and that of other candidates is striking. But whatever else we might say about the merits of his candidacy, Sanders’ reticence to don the cloak of sanctimony is refreshing. Americans in gen... Full story
Fifty years ago this week, two prominent figures in the American Jewish community startled their colleagues by calling for democratic elections to choose Jewish leaders. The occasion was a two-day conference in New York City, in November 1965, on “Planning for the American Jewish Community of Tomorrow—1975.” Jewish organizational professionals, rabbis, and scholars came together to discuss what should be done to ensure the wellbeing of American Jewry 10 years hence. Most of the speakers confined themselves to generalities and platitudes. But t... Full story
By Stephen M. Flatow JNS.org Another American victim of Palestinian terrorism was buried this week. Does it matter that he was an American? Why should the American government, or American Jews, take any more interest in the latest victim than in any other victims? Richard Lakin, a 76-year-old former Connecticut school principal, died Oct. 26 of wounds he suffered in a recent Palestinian terrorist attack in Jerusalem. He was the 137th American citizen murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the 1960s. Since he was an American citizen,... Full story
The death of any Jew at the hands of Palestinian terrorists should make American Jewish organizations sit up and take notice. But the death of U.S. Jewish peace activist Richard Lakin poses a special challenge to left-of-center advocacy groups such as J Street. Lakin, 76, a retired Connecticut school principal, was a passenger on a bus in Jerusalem’s Armon HaNatziv neighborhood when two Palestinian Arab terrorists attacked with guns and knives on October 13. He passed away on October 26, from the injuries suffered in the attack. Lakin family fr... Full story
We are seeing in recent events the advantages of a state, as well as reasons to doubt the wisdom of creating a Palestinian state. It’s not a simple issue. A state can discipline its people, via decisions of a government, police, and courts. However, Palestinians speak and act in numerous ways, with no leadership capable of imposing its will, reaching agreements with others, and likely to implement those agreements. We can’t be certain they’d do better with a state. Various claimants of leadership—Palestine National Authority with ostensi... Full story
