Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3438 - 3462 of 3730
Meyer Lansky and Jonathan Pollard are both significant for what they say about US-Israel relations. Lansky was a gangster, a good American, and a good Zionist. He worked his underworld connections in behalf of U.S. efforts in World War II, the movement of refugees from Europe to Israel, and arms shipments to Israel at a crucial time. Israelis quarrel as to whether the country should have given in to U.S. demands to extradite him, despite claims of achieving sanctuary in Israel under the Law of Return, but we’ve pretty much stopped arguing a... Full story
Here are three disturbing memes about Jews and Israel that I’ve noticed in three separate-but-related news stories recently. Meme No.1: “You’re ungrateful.” Here’s State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf responding to reported remarks by the Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon attacking Secretary of State John Kerry. “We find the remarks of the defense minister to be offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the United States has done to support Israel’s security needs and will continue to do,” said Harf. Now, one can certainly... Full story
Illegitimacy hangs like smog over Secretary of State John Kerry’s obsessive-compulsive Israeli-Palestinian diplomacy. Even assuming he succeeds in brokering a one-legged peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority administering the West Bank, it will not: • Affect the Gaza Strip, where half the Palestinian Arabs in the disputed territories live. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, a Muslim Brotherhood derivative that violently ousted the Fatah-led P.A. Its charter is genocidal regarding not only Israel but also Jews in general. • Legally bind succe... Full story
The Jewish world seems worried about Hillel. “Are you okay?” people keep asking me. Our phones at Ohio University Hillel are ringing with those calling to hear the “real” story, or to leave long-winded diatribes on our voicemail. Reporters ask if we’ll answer a few questions (no thanks). Hillel has been in The New York Times, The New Republic and every Jewish news outlet on the planet: Everybody wants to know how we feel about Swarthmore’s Hillel chapter deciding to open itself up to anti-Zionists, against the policy of national Hillel. Wel... Full story
The intensifying Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have caused opponents of a Palestinian state to revive former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir’s 1969 canard that “there is no such thing as a Palestinian people.” However, “Palestine Denial” is less a debating point than a conversation-stopper: if there are no Palestinians, then there is no Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and thus no need even to discuss West Bank policies. One problem: Palestinians do, in fact, exist. Last month, Israeli diplomat Danny Ayalon posted a YouTube video ent... Full story
There ain’t much that is new under the sun. Israelis, Diaspora Jews and others who are concerned with us should have ceased hoping years ago for the kind of peace that prevails between the US and Canada, or among the countries of Western Europe. Something like the U.S. border with Mexico might be attainable. That is, a fenced or patrolled border; lines on the outside of people wanting to pass inspection in order to enter; conditions on the other side significantly less than desirable; and the economy on the good side profiting from joint v... Full story
In the 1920s, the Jerusalem Waqf, the local Muslim religious authority, published and distributed a pamphlet for visitors to the Haram al-Sharif, the Temple Mount. It explained that the location is named Al-Aqsa, in accordance with the Quran reference to the place the prophet Mohammed visited on his night journey to Heaven. It indicated that the prophet visited this site precisely because it was holy since time immemorial, and was where King Solomon built the Jewish Temple for divine service. The Temple connection is also reflected in another... Full story
There was a time when American Jewish families sat shiva when a child married out of the faith. Even two or three decades ago the prevailing attitude was one of disappointment, embarrassment and regret, coupled with a parental commitment to make the best of it and hope the grandchildren would be raised as Jews. Times have changed. With the increase in intermarriage has come greater communal acceptance, to the degree that for some Jewish religious leaders it is no longer standard to publicly endorse endogamy, or Jewish in-marriage. For them... Full story
Several incidents, seemingly centered on Israel, sparked nationwide reactions from academic institutions and Hillels in recent days. I would argue, though, that they have much less to do with Israel than we might think. First, dozens of university presidents and provosts around the country rejected the boycott of Israeli academic institutions recently adopted by the American Studies Association. In response, they pointed to the importance of free speech and free academic exchange. Second, at the University of Michigan, an anti-Israel student... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—When I first heard about Ariel Sharon’s stroke—the first one, a minor brain attack about four weeks before he suffered the massive hemorrhage that would leave him comatose for the final eight years of his life—I was having dinner at a Jerusalem restaurant with a colleague from The Jerusalem Post. We both sat transfixed as we watched the TV over the bar. It was December 2005, just five months after Sharon had completed Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and there was a sense that Sharon was in the midst of engineeri... Full story
Dear Editor: A person’s perception of any other individual is always influenced by what is “public” and what is “personal.” There is the public Arik Sharon—which has been and will be written about, especially now with his death. Then there is what I would call the “personal”—the individual I got to know on a somewhat personal level. Two experiences... 1) OK, you may not consider this first experience so “personal” as it happened with about 200 other people—but, to me it was. During my tenure as the executive director of the Greater Orlando Jew... Full story
When it comes to the most asinine response to the purported deal between the world’s main powers and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program, top honors to go Harvard University’s Stephen Walt. Walt was the co-author, with his academic colleague John Mearsheimer, of “The Israel Lobby,” a badly researched, poorly argued screed about how a cluster of pro-Israel organizations have cajoled successive U.S. administrations into doing things they otherwise wouldn’t have done. Paranoically obsessed with what he regards as the malign influence o... Full story
Islamic terrorists attack America in many ways. Their goal is to Islamize America. We need the help of good Muslims to identify not so obvious ways that we are being attacked, such as noted below. They attempt to control work conditions. An employee at Disney World who, for her religion, suddenly insisted on modifying her costume with an Islamic headdress. It seems it was not good enough for this Muslim woman that Disney offered to allow the headdress for a different position. Then there are the employees at Target stores who suddenly refused... Full story
The latest Palestinian threat to leave the negotiations and turn to the international community to give it what it wants comes after the passage in the Israeli government of a proposal to attach the Jordan Valley to Israel. The principal promoter of the proposal is MK Miri Regev, one of the most outspoken of the parliamentarians in the right wing of the Likud delegation. Most likely this will join several other efforts of Israeli politicians to threaten Palestinians and Israeli Arabs with something approaching an apocalypse. Remember the... Full story
(This is part of a series of essays on Jewish day schools being published by the Sustainable Stories project of PEJE, the Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education.) SILVER SPRING, MD. (JTA)—I don’t know about you, but as a Jewish day school graduate, parent and former board member, I am a little tired of hearing about how excellent we are. This is not because I embrace mediocrity but because I am increasingly unsure of what it means. I do see the word “excellence” strategically placed in development materials all the time. It is used in s... Full story
As we again approach U.N. sponsored International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan.27, it is fitting for all peoples, not just Jews, to reflect on its significance. The threat to the world is as present today as it was in the 1930s. Humanity didn’t succeed very well when confronted then by the so-called master race, so we all get to take teacher’s test again to see if we have learned anything ‘in class.’ Today, everyone is called to struggle against a new form of regime evil and totalitarianism threatening the world—master jihad, an aberratio... Full story
“Folk song calls the native back to his roots and prepares him emotionally to dance, worship, work, fight, or make love in ways normal to his place.” —Alan Lomax, Folk Songs of North America Over sushi in Brooklyn the other night, I was asked to justify why we made the kids see “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the Coen brothers new movie. The answers flowed easily. One: The creators of the film are geniuses and as far as art is concerned, kids, go with the geniuses. They always have something to say. Two: The movie is a snapshot of an historical moment i... Full story
Israel ended 2013 in much the same way as previous years: facing a surge of terrorist activity from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. On Dec. 24, Salah Shukri Abu Latyef, a 22-year-old Israeli Defense Ministry worker who was repairing the border fence with Gaza, was shot dead by a Palestinian sniper. Abu Latyef’s murder was followed by a series of rocket attacks that provoked response strikes from the Israeli military—which deemed that the assault directly threatened the 13,500 Israelis living in the immediate vicinity—on weapons manufacturing facil... Full story
At the outset of this new year, I’m reminded of the line from “All About Eve,” the classic 1950 film about ambition and betrayal on Broadway: “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” This year portends to be a momentous one for Israel, hinging on its all-important relationship with the U.S. It could bring real progress on the road to peace or lead to at least one and possibly more dangerous military confrontations between Israel and its adversaries. By April, the deadline will be approaching for two major diplomatic... Full story
Was Jesus a Palestinian? That is the latest historical claim of Mahoud Abbas. The status of Abbas is its own problem, due to his term as president of the Palestine. National Authority having run out in January 2009, and there being no subsequent election. His claim about Jesus is even more problematic. While the reliable documentation is sparse, most agree that he was born to a Jewish mother in what was then Judea, three or four years before or after the beginning of what became the Common Era. The area did not become “Syria Palaestina” unt... Full story
On Sunday, Dec. 29, The New York Times published an article regarding the “Open Hillel” vote, which took place three weeks ago at Swarthmore College. It is teased on the front page and appears on page 21 of the A-section; it is also available online. As you know, there have been many articles on this topic, and we expect more. Although this article has been in the works for weeks, the Times does little more than repeat claims made in other publications by a handful of students. Instead of seizing the opportunity to look deeply into this iss... Full story
One hundred years ago, Southern Jew Leo Frank sat in jail, a year after his conviction of murdering a 13-year-old girl and a year before his lynching. To American Jews familiar with the case over the last century, Frank’s slaying has exemplified America’s anti-Semitism. But the Frank affair has received so much attention precisely because of its rarity. Jews have been quite fortunate in America, facing less prejudice than other minorities, and certainly less than they suffered elsewhere. In 1913, the 29-year-old Frank ran a pencil factory in an... Full story
If one would ask a member of any ethnic group who he or she is, the answer would be “I am Italian,” “I am French,” and so on. That person would be surprised if the follow-up question was, “What makes you Italian or French?” When a Jewish person is asked the same question, the answer is, “I am Jewish.” Strangely enough, the follow-up question, “What makes you Jewish?” is considered legitimate, and always concerns two subjects: religion and ethnicity. The following arguments are an attempt to show that being Jewish is first and foremost an eth... Full story
(JTA)—It started as barely a blip on the radar. At its annual conference last April, the Association for Asian American Studies, or AAAS, unanimously approved a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli universities to protest the country’s treatment of Palestinians. While the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement had been active for some time on campuses across the country, it was the first time an American academic organization had signed on. But since the AAAS is a tiny group of barely 800 members, and fewer than 100... Full story
On a virtual stroll through the website of the “U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel”—a deeply unpleasant experience, I should add—I came across an article that drew an analogy I hadn’t encountered before. Intellectually ludicrous and morally ugly, the writer compared the situation of Aida, a Palestinian refugee camp near Bethlehem, with the bombing by the German Luftwaffe of the Basque city of Guernica in 1937, during the Spanish Civil War. The Aida camp is not the most luxurious place on earth, yet it is far from... Full story
