Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3519 - 3543 of 3854
NEW YORK (JTA)—The last time Ambassador Samuel Lewis was at an Anti-Defamation League podium was in April 2008 as part of a roundtable celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary. The speakers were each asked to share their most vivid and representative recollections of Israel. Sam, a distinguished State Department veteran, served as the U.S. ambassador to Israel from 1977 to 1985, and had engaged in tough battles with Israel’s leaders over the negotiations with Egypt and particularly over the Lebanon War. Yet, what he chose to recall, so poign... Full story
Dear Editor: It was very disappointing to see the Heritage rebuttal at the bottom of Jeremy Scheinberg’s very compelling letter regarding the inadvisability of a Jewish Academy of Orlando (JAO) move and the role of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando (JFGO). First of all, only after Mr. Scheinberg’s letter did you disclose the Feb. 7, 2014, piece written by Stan Roberts was actually written on behalf of the JFGO and was approved by them. How nice it would have been if this would have been disclosed when it was first published! Ins... Full story
#Rethink2014 is one of the more creative Twitter hashtags I’ve recently encountered. Launched by students opposing the hatefest otherwise known as “Israeli Apartheid Week” (IAW), the hashtag is designed for incorporation into tweets that explain why this ghastly annual event is a series of calumnies and lies from beginning to end. Some examples: “I oppose Israel Apartheid Week because I know what apartheid actually means.” “I oppose Israel Apartheid Week because I’m sitting next to an Arab-Israeli Muslim IDF soldier on the bus in Jerusalem.” ... Full story
Settlers and the ultra-Orthodox are important minorities in Israeli politics. Both are somewhere on the fringe of key decision-makers, but must be taken into consideration even if not part of the A-team. There is no precise measure of either group. “Settlers” are both more and less the people living in post-1967 neighborhoods of Jerusalem and elsewhere over the 1967 borders. Many, most, or the overwhelming majority of the people living in those locales chose their residence for any number of prosaic reasons, with no thought of making a pol... Full story
Patternicity” is what scientists call the human tendency to find meaning in random events (seeing patterns where none exist—like faces in the clouds or Jesus in a potato chip—is known as “apophonia”). Connecting the dots can lead to false conclusions (“Paul is dead!”), brilliant insights (“E=mc2”), or the latest Malcolm Gladwell bestseller. I spent Sunday at Limmud NY, the annual festival of Jewish learning, sampling classes on Israel, Jewish spirituality, anti-Semitism, and even Israeli comedy. And though it is not the coincidence of th... Full story
For 20 years now, we have seen the two sides of the controversy over “land for peace” talking past each other. The “peace camp,” as they like to style themselves, has argued that Israel is doomed to be either a bi-national state, which may not always have a Jewish majority, or an “apartheid state,” with democracy only for the Jews and second-class citizen rights, at best, for the Arabs; that, in order to be both Jewish and democratic, it is necessary for Israel to divest itself of the main Arab population by giving them a state of their own,... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—For Americans, the definition of national identity is straightforward: It goes hand in hand with citizenship. If you are an American citizen, you are also American by nationality. The same applies to the French, Germans and many others. In Israel, however, there is a different but equally valid conception of the relationship between citizenship and nationality. Indeed, this understanding is central to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state. The State of Israel maintains a national population registry in which every resident is cla... Full story
Dear Editor: In light of the article about J Street in the recent edition of the Jewish Heritage, I want to tell the community about the movie “The J Street Challenge,” which premiered last month in Miami. It was sold out in just 2 days, with 400 people attending. More screenings are planned. The movie will also be shown in the Orlando area later this month or early next month. Watch for further details or contact Sandi Solomon at sansolomon@hotmail.com to be on the mailing list. David Moldau Longwood... Full story
Dear Editor: While changing Birthright Israel’seligibility requirements to include young adults, who previously participated on a teen Israel experience, appears to be a worthy addition to Birthright israel, it is, in fact, a mirage and a misstep. The change has the appearance of bringing more young people to Israel, but because the experience will be duplicated, increased participation is an illusion. It is not that a second free trip is a bad thing. The misstep is that the precious dollars can and should be used to actually increase the n... Full story
At friendly dinners and agency meetings, on the phone and in emails, the plans outlined in a recent edition of the Heritage, detailing a way to restructure the Maitland campus and reduce if not eliminate the $5.8 million debt hanging over the property’s (and community’s) head, are being discussed with interest and, in some cases, a modicum of panic. Coming to be known as the Schwartz Plan (after Charles Schwartz, a Jewish community leader for decades and one of the prime reasons anything is eve... Full story
That there is widespread anxiety over the Obama administration’s Middle East policies is hardly a secret. If we have learned anything over the past six years it is that, contrary to the conspiratorial theory that the so-called “Israel Lobby” is the ultimate authority when it comes to Washington’s stance in the region, the opposite is true. It is presidents and their appointees who make policies, based on their assessment of the strategic interests of the United States at a given moment. In that framework, the “Lobby” only enjoys success whe... Full story
The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) was founded in Egypt in 1928 and is considered a terrorist organization by many countries, including Islamic countries. Its stated goal is to instill the Qur’an as the sole religion and political body in the life of every individual and country worldwide. According to Richard Clarke, former chief counterterrorism advisor on the U.S. National Security Council under Presidents Clinton and Bush, “The Muslim Brotherhood has provided the ideological underpinning for almost all the modern Sunni Islamic terrorist gro... Full story
One of the basic duties of Jewish parents is to provide for the instruction of their children. The obligation to teach one’s children is set forth in the first paragraph of the Sh’ma prayer: “Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children (V’shinan’tam l’vanekha)...” (Deut. 6:6-9). Formal Jewish education as a communal activity was instituted in Israel during the Second Temple period. In the Talmud we read “Then Yehoshua ben Gamla (a high priest during the Second Temple period) came an... Full story
Dear Editor: I would like to comment on some of the recent suggestions made as to the short- and long-term future and plans of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando as well as the agencies on the Maitland campus. While I am on the boards of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, Central Florida Hillel, and the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation, this letter represents my personal views and not necessarily those of any of these organizations. First, I should indicate that fundamentally I approve of the direction the Federation is going... Full story
Dear Editor: The way to memorialize victims and to teach the lessons from the monumental human tragedy of the Holocaust is through education—not through inappropriate contemporary Nazi analogies as argued by David Benkof (“The ADL should value Nazi analogies, not call them offensive,” Feb. 21 Heritage). Benkof’s analogizing endemic signs of Nazis stripping the rights of and de-humanizing Jews during the Holocaust era to present-day examples of policy debate trivializes the Holocaust. This misguided theory confuses the importance of remindi... Full story
Ever since its founding in 2008, J Street, the liberal Jewish advocacy group, has expended a great deal of time and energy trying to convince American Jews that it is a credible and more ethical alternative to traditional pro-Israel organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). J Street believes, not unreasonably, that there is a constituency for its work among those American Jews who are generally supportive of Israel but queasy over certain of its policies, most obviously creating and sustaining Jewish communities i... Full story
So, what does that mean? If it is the duty of the Jewish People to “Heal the World,” where would you start? Is it up to us to finally wake the world up to the fact that the world—our world—really needs healing? Yes, it is. No one in this winter of snowy discontent will disagree that something is really changing. That the snows, where they are, are deeper and more frequent and where they are not the drought gets worse. That we know. That is a given. That last year was the warmest on record and this year, despite a brutal winter will probably be... Full story
There is a long tradition, no less prominent in Judaism than in other cultures, of voluntary service and donations collected for the benefit of the needy or some other public purpose. There is also a long list of eleemosynary organizations that have gone bad, with leaders using the resources collected for their own enrichment. The schnorer is an established character is Jewish myth and humor. The man or woman who asks for money, some of which may be for him/herself, but is skilled in telling a story that warms the heart and opens the wallet.... Full story
Los Angeles—Anne Frank is the most universally known of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her diary has been read by millions of people around the world, and her tragic story of living in fear, hiding from the Nazis in a secret annex in Amsterdam with her family and others for more than two years, has been told in a Broadway play, Hollywood movie, television dramas and in countless other ways. Is there anything more to be known about this precocious young girl with a gift for writing, a poignant faith in humanity, and maturity fa... Full story
Dear Editor: In regard to the article in the Heritage Feb. 14 issue, about the communities, I would like to know where the funding for Ms. Paiss’ NGO comes from. The communities in Judea and Samaria are part of Israel. The Knesset should annex those areas. Calling all the cities in those areas “settlements” does a disservice to all the thousands of Jews living there. Visit Judea and Samaria when you go to Israel and you will see those cities are permanent for all the Jews who make their homes there. Sandra Solomon Casselberr... Full story
Dear Editor: I was disappointed to read your cover article in the Feb. 7 edition of the Heritage regarding a member of the community’s supposed “master plan” for the Maitland campus. I am referring specifically to Mr. Schwartz’s idea to re-combine the Jewish Academy of Orlando back into the JCC. I would encourage Mr. Schwartz to read Olga Yorish’s email (coincidentally sent on Feb. 7) about the importance of day schools for the future of a Jewish populace that is growing less connected to its Jewish roots. In addition to citing a Pew Research... Full story
By Ben Cohen JNS.org There is a smug sense of “I told you so” about much of the recent commentary concerning the challenge that Israel faces from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street—a left-wing Israel advocacy group which believes the best way to advocate for Israel is by opposing sanctions on Iran and castigating Israel’s democratically elected government—is one example. Speaking to a Jewish audience in New Haven recently, Ben-Ami talked, and not for the first time, of Israel be... Full story
The people of Israel have survived worse than the threats currently being made by Palestinians, John Kerry and Thomas Friedman. The betting is that Israel and Palestine will agree to continue talking for another year, if only to avoid a frontal insult to the American administration. Kerry and Friedman do not appear inclined to comprehend the threats faced by Israel and many others from the various streams of Islam, now at one of their historic feverish highs in both Syria and Egypt. Perhaps they should turn to something that may be easier,... Full story
PHILADELPHIA (JTA)—In the past few weeks, Secretary of State John Kerry has come under attack from prominent Israelis as well as American friends of the Jewish state for some of the methods he has adopted in his determination to find a solution to the Middle East conflict. Such criticism strikes the Obama administration, as well as many friends of Israel, as absurd. After all, what better favor could the United States do for Israel than to help it find the peace for which its people have hungered since the birth of their state? But while K... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—The hostile intentions of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement toward Israel are clear. But some believe it is possible to be pro-Israel while supporting just a little BDS—boycotting Israeli businesses located on the West Bank but not those within pre-1967 Israel. While such a strategy may make people feel good about themselves, it is a distinction without a difference—like being just a little pregnant. More important, by adding to the boycott pressure, it will make resolution of the Israe... Full story
