Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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“What will you tell the president when you see him?” was my daughter Eva’s first reaction when I told her I’d been invited to the White House Chanukah party (Actually, it was her second reaction. Her first was, “Take me!”). Kids are innocent that way. They don’t realize that when you have over a hundred people crowding the leader of the free world, it’s not so easy to get in a word edgewise. But I got lucky. It’s not what I told the president that mattered, it’s what I heard him say when few people were paying attention. After the president... Full story
Dear God, If I were Christian and under age 10 I suppose I’d be writing to Santa Claus, but I’m not. I’m Jewish and 58 years old and I don’t know who else (what else?) to turn to, so I’m writing you, and hoping you read the Heritage. I’m not asking for much. Just eight simple requests, one for each night of Chanukah. Which brings me to my first ask. God, can you please tell me the correct spelling for Chanukah? I’m so confused. Is it Hanukah, or Hanukkah, or Chanukkah, or Chanukah? Is... Full story
It is an absolute fact. The number of Islamic terrorists are growing rapidly as are their violent actions killing more and more non-Muslims. We must stop thinking there is nothing one person can do. There are many options on how an individual can get involved in counteracting terrorists. Below are a few ideas how you can help defend our freedom. A small amount of assistance from a lot of people can make a big difference. The very important first step is a firm commitment to learn, with an open mind, about Islam and the terrorists. Clearly,... Full story
Currently Israeli politicians are wrapping themselves around a high intensity bit of meaninglessness, which is also dangerous, about the country’s self definition of being a Jewish state. The issue was settled 60 years ago when the founders left dangling in the Declaration of Independence the wonderful sounding ideals of being both Jewish and democratic, with rights for all. It’s worked, as well as democracy and equality has worked in other western democracies. Not perfect, but it ain’t perfect anywhere. Minorities generally suffer short share... Full story
A winter of discontent is brewing in America. Over the last fortnight, large parts of the country have seethed with anger, first at the decision of a grand jury in Ferguson, Mo., not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown—18 years old, and black—and second, at the decision of a grand jury in New York not to indict Daniel Pantaleo, the Staten Island police officer who placed Eric Garner—43 years old, and black—in the chokehold that contributed to his death minutes later. The proximity, in terms of timing,... Full story
They don’t have plush offices or secretaries or gala dinners, but a group of 15-year-olds on Long Island are providing an inspiring model of leadership for the rest of the American Jewish community. Tenth graders at the Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence, New York, recently initiated an on-line crowd sourcing campaign, which has raised an astonishing $2.4-million for the families of the four American-Israeli rabbis, and the Druze police officer, who were murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue last month. We were all horrified and saddened by the... Full story
In the 21st century, Chanukah is celebrated by more Jews than any holiday other than Passover. Both are performed at least one night a year by almost 90 percent of American Jews, more than the number who observed Chanukah in the 1930s. The sociological reason is surely related to the competition with a commercialized, publicly observed Christmas and holiday season. Yet Jews could have also adopted a secularized Christmas, as many German Jews did in the 19th century and early 20th century. If social pressure and a desire to be like everyone... Full story
To properly understand how the Holocaust has been seared onto Israel’s collective consciousness, one should visit the country on the 27th of Nisan, a date in the Hebrew calendar that falls in either April or May in the solar one. On that day, Yom HaShoah, the unsuspecting visitor is dumbstruck by the sight of an entire country coming to a halt. At 10 a.m. on the dot, a siren sounds across the country. Schools, hospitals, trading floors, garages, news rooms, tech start-ups—all these and more freeze exactly where they are as Israeli citizens obs... Full story
It all started when I took out some anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) information sheets at a Brooklyn College-sponsored event last year that featured Omar Barghouti, the founder of the BDS movement. You’d expect that of any student opposed to the speaker’s anti-Israel views. I planned to challenge Barghouti by taking notes as he spoke and asking questions during the Q&A period. But I never got the chance to participate. A member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the event’s main organizer, had other plans. He had the v... Full story
It would be prime material for a standup comedian if it were not the reality that could do us all a lot of harm. The current triumvirate dealing with three interdependent, national entities, with more than the average capacity to affect wider catastrophes, have all been operating as political caricatures, making things worse while proclaiming their certainty about making things better. They are Mahmoud Abbas, Benyamin Netanyahu, and Barack Obama. A cynic would say that they deserve one another. They all speak in hyperbole, talk past one another... Full story
By Dr. Norman Berdichevsky Many observers of the Israeli scene are convinced that the extreme views of the elected Arab Knesset members and scenes of violent demonstrations, stabbings and other acts of terrorism are the only true measure of the Arab minority community’s rejection of any accommodation of living peacefully and harmoniously with the Jewish majority. To do so is a common error in the mistaken and often ignorant understanding of Arab culture and the realities of Middle Eastern politics. George Deek is a young Christian Arab from Jaf... Full story
Thirty years ago, President Reagan won reelection by a landslide and then led the United States into the final phase of our Cold War victory over the Soviet Union. If America’s 40th president were alive to see Russia’s current resurgence and its all-too-familiar policy of intimidation against Europe, he would know exactly what to do: confront the Russians with American and allied policies designed to check their ambitions across the board. As Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to redraw the map and establish a sphere of influence thr... Full story
“Bringing down Israel will really benefit everyone in the world and everyone in society, particularly workers.” These words were spoken by Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab Resource and Organizing Center, at a Nov. 12 panel discussion at U.C. Berkeley organized by the BDS Caucus of UAW 2865, the union for 13,000 University of California graduate student workers. Those grad student-teachers and other workers voted on a union resolution to boycott Israel on Dec. 4. (The results were not available at press time.) Throughout her tal... Full story
By Ben Cohen JNS.org The older I get, the more my childhood memories fade, but I still vividly remember the morning of Sunday, July 4, 1976. I was eight years old at the time, spending Shabbat with my grandparents at their house in London. Early on that Sunday, I woke to the sound of my grandpa, the eminent Sephardic Rabbi Dr. Solomon Gaon, whooping and yelling and generally making a racket in the kitchen—behavior that was most definitely out of character. Thinking something was wrong, I bolted downstairs to discover my elated grandfather l... Full story
The Nov. 24 deadline for negotiating a deal on Iran’s nuclear program expired, as the P5+1 powers (U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China, and Germany) were unable to reach an agreement with the Islamic Republic. But the talks were extended to June 30, 2015. At the same time, an Iranian official said over the weekend that his country gave the Hezbollah terror group—which is based in Lebanon, Israel’s northern neighbor—hundreds of missiles with 160-220 mile ranges. “Our strategic guiding principle is the appropriate arming of Hezbollah and Hamas wit... Full story
The scenario has been repeated more times than I can remember: Palestinian terrorists murder Israelis. The Obama administration condemns the attack. And that’s it. No change in U.S. policy, no penalties or consequences for those who encourage and praise the killers. The Palestinians are, quite literally, getting away with murder. Secretary of State John Kerry condemned the Nov. 18 slaughter of four Jews in a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood. He even acknowledged that it was “a pure result of incitement, of calls for days of rage... Full story
Does Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas want peace with Israel? Given his posture since peace talks broke down in April, his inflammatory U.N. speech and ongoing rhetoric, and now a new wave of terrorism, one wonders. The horrific attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, killing five and wounding others as they were praying, triggered outrage among some world leaders. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Abbas to end the incitement that led to this latest tragedy. For Abbas, however, the forthrightness of his condemnation of “the at... Full story
I’m repulsed by these anti-Israel groups on college campuses that pretend to care about oppressed people in the Middle East. They don’t. What they really care about is undermining Israel. Groups like Students for Justice in Palestine, for example, have no interest in engaging in a debate about Israeli-Palestinian co-existence. What they live for is to single out Israel and crush it. No wonder UCLA Chancellor Gene Block quickly released a statement last week opposing the vote by anti-Israel students that singled out Israel in a divestment res... Full story
AKRON, Ohio (JTA)—Five years ago, when I began to work for Lippman Kanfer Family Foundation, I met with a colleague who worked with early-stage nonprofit organizations that are creating new ways of involving people in Jewish community life. How wonderful, I gushed, that there are all these people who felt outside of Jewish life and who are now trying out new approaches to Jewish engagement. “Dara,” my colleague stopped me to say, “these entrepreneurs aren’t outsiders. They are day school graduates and rabbis’ kids, and many are rabbis them... Full story
There are few subjects in Israel these days that arouse greater passion than prayer rights at the Temple Mount. The dramatic uptick in Palestinian terror attacks on Jews in Jerusalem in recent weeks, including Tuesday’s killing of four at a synagogue in Har Nof, has raised the temperature of the long-simmering debate over control of the holy site to a boiling point. Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a promoter of Jewish access to the Temple Mount, is still recovering from being shot by an Arab gunman on Oct. 29. Increased Muslim riots have prompted p... Full story
I have known Dick Sharkansky since my first memory. Our families lived for a while in the same building on Belmont Street, and sometime during our second year, I’m pretty sure that he bit my finger. He may have a differ set of memories. We were in the same classes from about fifth grade through high school. Dick went the route of engineering and law, and we’ve drifted apart and gotten closer together over a half century or so. What prompts this note is Dick’s complaint about my using the word “goyim” in my notes. I replied that the word has... Full story
The fact that the world has a double standard when it comes to Israel is no secret. Things that are either accepted or ignored in the wide world become big news when Israel is involved, allowing the public at large and the United Nations in particular to go through a session of Jew bashing. Five Jews died in an unbelievably dastardly attack on an Orthodox synagogue in Jerusalem. The New York Times headlined the story “Four Killed in Jerusalem Synagogue Complex.” How stupidly insensitive, inaccurate and anti-Jewish. Second case in point: A bunch... Full story
Today (Nov. 18, 2014) is my 69th birthday so why am I so sad and so mad? I’m sad for the three obvious reasons: The death of five Israelis at the hands of terrorists; the ongoing world-wide attacks against Jews; and the belief that things will probably never get better but keep on getting worse. I’m mad for many reasons: That so many people, including Jews who should know better, believe Israel’s so-called settlements are the problem. That, if Israel would retreat to the 1967 borders things will be ok—there will be peace. That so many people, i... Full story
A woman holds a sign during a demonstration against a deadly attack on a Jerusalem synagogue, across the street from the Palestine Mission to the United Nations in New York, Nov. 18, 2014. Two Palestinian men, armed with meat cleavers and a gun, entered the synagogue in a quiet, ultra-Orthodox neighborhood during morning prayers on Tuesday and attacked around 25 worshippers, killing four and wounding eight, several seriously. Three of the victims held dual U.S.-Israeli citizenship. (Carlo Allegri/Reuters) As I read the news of the terrible... Full story
Israel must stop acting and thinking as if “Peace Concessions” buy Israel an ounce of legitimacy. The reality is that Israel’s “Peace Concessions” only prove to the Muslims, and to the average American viewer, that Israel has no right to exist at all. Take for instance, a recent speech Israel’s by UN Ambassador Ron Prosor at the UN Security Council. Ambassador Prosor gave what was an otherwise truly great speech except for one sentence that is directly related to Israel’s Temple Mount-Prayer Ban: “Following Israel’s victory in 1967, Israel reun... Full story
