Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the coming days, there will be much reflection on the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela, following the former South African president’s passing on Dec. 5. And in the coming weeks, we can anticipate a febrile exchange over his true views on Israel and the Middle East. We shouldn’t underestimate the significance of such a debate. Mandela has entered the pantheon of 20th-century figures that exercised the most extraordinary influence over global events, touching the lives of ordinary mortals in the process. In the 1940s, many Britons could tel... Full story
BAYONNE, N.J. (JTA)—Arik Einstein, who died last week at the age of 74, basically invented Israeli popular music. He was a unique Israeli combination of Sinatra, Dylan and the Beatles, embodying the spirit and the struggles of a younger, more optimistic Israel. His death brought tributes from the top leaders of Israeli society. Shy, almost reclusive, he died in the same Tel Aviv house in which he had been born. Find another rock star who has never changed addresses. But Einstein’s death has broader cultural implications. At a time when the U.S... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—Right now, there is just one way for someone who is not Jewish to become Jewish in a publicly recognized and officially authorized fashion: undergo religious conversion under the auspices of a rabbi. Whether the path to Jewish identification follows Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist or other auspices, conversion is explicitly and entirely religious in nature. These movements and their rabbis vary both in the preparation they demand and the religious commitments they seek of potential converts. But all require a s... Full story
By Gary Rosenblatt The Jewish Week Ari Shavit, the popular Israeli newspaper columnist for Haaretz, seems to be everywhere in the American media these days, talking about his newly published and highly praised book, “My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel.” That’s a good thing for those of us who believe that the better Israel is known and understood, flaws and all, the more it will be appreciated and supported. In the past week Shavit, 57, and a native of Rehovot, was on “The Charlie Rose Show” and NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gro... Full story
Imagine the following scenario. A storied American university holds a conference on the future of democracy in Europe. Among the invited speakers are representatives of two of the continent’s neo-Nazi parties, Jobbik in Hungary and Golden Dawn in Greece. Better yet, imagine that same university holding a conference on current trends in Israeli politics, featuring a speaker who is an open admirer of Baruch Goldstein, the Jewish extremist who murdered 29 worshippers and wounded more than 100 when he opened fire in a Palestinian mosque in H... Full story
The best feature of the Iran deal—and maybe its only good feature—is that there is a deal, showing that the Iranians are willing to deal. The weakest points from an Israeli perspective are the Iranians, the U.S. administration, and the U.N. agency charged with inspection, none of which are particularly trustworthy. Some may object to an Israeli perspective. Primary for Americans, Europeans, Russians, and Chinese is what is good for them. Yet an Israeli perspective is legitimate in itself, especially for Israelis, and in this context may cla... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—For the first time in a decade, the United States and a coalition of world powers have reached an agreement with Iran to curb the country’s nuclear program. The deal requires Iran to limit its nuclear enrichment and freeze most of its centrifuges for six months, as well as halt construction on its plutonium reactor. In exchange, the U.S.-led coalition—including Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany—will roll back some of the sanctions on Iran. Both the United States and Iran have strongly praised the deal, but Israeli... Full story
When I see the earnest and eager John Kerry globe-trotting the world in his sharp business suits trying to convince mullahs not to build a nuclear bomb, I can’t help but have these politically incorrect thoughts that are loaded with stereotypes. The most obvious stereotype is that of the golly-gee American sucker in long shorts and black socks getting ripped off by a wily merchant in a Middle Eastern souk. The first question I ask myself is: Does Kerry realize what this is about? Does he realize that in a region where honor and glory are everyt... Full story
By Ben Cohen JNS.org Over the summer, the Israeli media highlighted a phenomenon that is both intriguing and encouraging: a movement among Israel’s Christian Arabs advocating that their community be drafted, along with the country’s Jewish and Druze citizens, into the Israel Defense Forces. Historically, Israel’s Arab citizens have been exempted from mandatory conscription. There have been exceptions—many Bedouin, for example, have served in the IDF with distinction—but those who actually volunteer are a tiny minority. At the same time, man... Full story
The latest incident of violence to reach the headlines, which is not to say that it is the latest incident, involved the murder of a young soldier not yet finished with basic training, while on a bus returning from sick leave. The even younger lad who stabbed him numerous times before he was overwhelmed by other passengers is 16 years old. The story he told the police involves him getting into Israel illegally, via one of the paths that Palestinians use, most of them concerned only to find work. This young man came with a knife, and apparently... Full story
Rachel and I sat in the comfortable living room of prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem. We had been invited for tea by Aliza Begin, wife of the prime minister. It was the spring of 1980. When Menachem Begin entered the room there were greetings and hugs all around. Rachel and I had been close friends of the Begin family since our meeting on an airplane in 1968. The prime minister had just returned from a meeting at the American Embassy in Tel Aviv. As I remember, we sat, had tea and some cookies. I asked Prime Minister Begin what could h... Full story
Providing a proper response is like being caught in the horns of a dilemma. The real issue is a combination of first, how to avoid war; second, how to inhibit Iran from nuclearizing weaponry; and, third, how to impact Iran to become less of a terrorist outreach state. I assess the pragmatic goals in the following order: First priority is to keep Iran from a nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, there’s no practical way, short of all-out war, to keep Iran from having nuclear capabilities. Had the U.S. taken them on seriously five or eight years ago, w... Full story
Dear Editor: Now that the Roth Renovation Project nears completion with a fabulous new courtyard playground, I would like to thank all community members who generously donated to the project. Along with the playground, the revitalized campus features a renovated pool area, a resurfaced and relit outdoor basketball court, resurfaced tennis courts and auditorium improvements. All of these components make the whole campus greater than the sum of its parts and promote sustainability as a vibrant and vital community hub. When my wife, Caryn, and I... Full story
This year, the stars aligned! The first day of Chanukah and Thanksgiving fall on the same day! According to many calculations, it is the rarest of occasions that will not be repeated for many, many years. It is fascinating to delve into calculations and assumptions stemming from the differences between the Jewish and the Gregorian calendars, but let’s rather think about the meaning and the message behind this coincidence. Just like everything in Jewish life, the unique convergence makes sense and comes at a very important time when many of u... Full story
Here, in a nutshell, are the principles driving the Obama Administration’s Middle East policy. Screw the Syrians. Don’t upset the Iranians. And stop those damn Israelis from wrecking Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations. We are coming to the end of year marked by shameful climb-downs in the face of our enemies and utterly unreasonable demands made of our allies. In Syria, Obama temporarily toyed with the idea of launching air strikes against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, before being seduced by a Russian proposal to have that same reg... Full story
There was so much Jewish outrage in the wake of professor Steven Hawking’s decision to join the academic boycott against Israel, it’s hard to know where to start. The most dramatic expression of that outrage could be found in the many commentaries and Facebook posts suggesting that if Hawking is going to boycott Israel, then why not also boycott the Israeli computer chip that enables him to communicate despite his severely handicapped state? As Rabbi Shmuley Boteach wrote on JPost: “Why would one of the world’s leading academic minds condemn th... Full story
Israelis and Americans are going through a couple of bad patches with Barack Obama. The two issues are as different as they could be, but are united in reinforcing distrust of duplicity at the top. Americans’ problems are currently focusing on the limping roll out of what is linked directly to the president via its popular label of Obamacare. In particular, lots are remembering a presidential promise that they could keep their present insurance if they liked it, as they read the letters of cancellation received from their insurance companies. O... Full story
The Jewish Daily Forward 2013 ’Top 50‘ represents their annual survey of the 50 men and women who’ve made “a significant impact on the Jewish story” over the past year, and is informed by ”rules require that every one is an American citizen whose actions speak with a Jewish inflection.” Their 2013 list includes such prolific Jewish voices as Philip Roth and Ruth Wisse—as well as a former Guardian columnist we’ve commented on quite frequently: Their selection of Glenn Greenwald is explained thusly: The biggest story of 2013, and possibly the... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—As the extent of the catastrophic damage and tragic death toll continues to grow in the Philippines, a particularly heroic piece of history should be recalled by the global Jewish community, which owes a debt to the island nation. Seven decades ago, a Philippine president, a globetrotting Jewish family named Frieder and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, my organization, helped save the lives of more than 1,000 Jews who otherwise would have almost certainly died in the Holocaust. Thanks to their initiative, t... Full story
A tried-and-true method for lobbyists whose cause is opposed by the U.S. president is to bypass the White House by going to Congress. It worked for Jewish activists in 1943. But will it work in the current battle over sanctions on Iran? Seventy years ago, the Holocaust rescue activists known as the Bergson Group found themselves stymied by an administration that did not want to take action to save Jewish refugees from the Nazis. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his aides insisted that rescue was not possible until the Nazis were... Full story
One of the most irritating aspects of the international efforts to deal with Iran’s nuclear program lies in the unrealistic expectations that negotiations create, even among those—like the American Jewish advocacy groups who met with the White House Oct. 29 to discuss the nuclear issue—who have every reason to be cynical. From Nov. 7-8, members of the so-called P5+1, which comprises the five members of the U.N. Security Council along with Germany, will meet with representatives of the Iranian regime in Geneva. These talks follow from preliminar... Full story
America’s loss of dominance was inevitable. Its standing from the late ‘40s through the ‘50s could not last. The power derived from being the sole country on its feet after the most destructive war in history. The American economy thrived as a result of pent-up purchasing power from wartime full employment, the genius of sending demobilized troops to college, the skills they acquired, the economic boom associated with the babies they made, and the additional genius of foreign aid in the context of the Cold War that made the U.S. No. 1 in a wes... Full story
Should you be fearful of someone who demands you convert to his religion or he will kill you? What if there were 100s of such fanatics demanding you convert or they will kill you? What if you learned that they have killed thousands who refused to convert? There were thousands of people who took the fanatics’ demand too lightly. Below, are a handful of typical scary statements made by Islamic leaders. Read their words. Their words are similar to those spoken by many around the world. Then consider the possibility that they mean and intend to d... Full story
It’s common these days to micromanage what information we receive. Many of us have a list of favorite Web sites and blogs we regularly go to, as well as Facebook pages and mobile apps that reflect our individual tastes and ideologies. It’s a way of maintaining some level of control amid the chaos of the Internet. There’s an opportunity cost, however, to micromanaging this flow of information: We rarely experience the joy of what I call “bumping into knowledge.” That’s why I want to tell you about my all-time favorite Web site, Arts & Letters D... Full story
A new book published in the United States this week reveals that President Obama considers the prime minister of Israel to be a pain in the tuchus. For those Yiddishly challenged this translates as a pain in the posterior. No doubt the diplomatic fraternity will be frantically trying to play this latest revelation down and bury it under the proverbial carpet but for us mere mortals it is plainly obvious that despite spin doctors’ activities to the contrary, Israel’s reluctance to acquiesce to its own demise, does cause painful symptoms in the... Full story
