Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3652 - 3676 of 3712
Tolerance is justifiably one of liberal Democracy’s most cherished values. But what do we do when tolerance, with its openness to multiple views, permits and even supports intolerance? This is particularly an issue today when open prejudice against Jews and Israel, and anti-Semitism, go unchallenged. Fundamentalism and prejudice are rife in the Middle East, where many countries practice forms of gender, religious, ethnic and sexual apartheid. Yet, Saudi Arabia remains a U.S. ally despite the fact that women there are subjugated and it is i... Full story
FALLS VILLAGE, Conn. (JTA)—Judaism is designed to be a person’s operating system, the platform on which other areas of one’s life functions. But for many Jews, religious practice sits on a shelf alongside theater subscriptions, gym memberships and soccer practice, relegated to one of many offerings from which we can pick and choose. For Jewish educators like myself, this mindset poses particular challenges, forcing us to adopt the tactics of public relations agencies to induce Jews to participate in Jewish life. Why can’t these opportu... Full story
LOS ANGELES (JTA)—It’s that time of year, when Jewish institutions pull out their 2013-14 calendars and fill them with events. Many of the programs are very good, with clever names and slick marketing: Jews and Brews, for young Federation leadership; L’mazeltov, for expectant parents; Torah and Tacos, for synagogue members who favor a certain southwestern cuisine with their Bible study. And yet, after all this well-meaning effort, membership in synagogues and JCCs is declining, federation campaigns are flat and a generation of young Jewis... Full story
Dear editor: The executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Tampa, Mr. Shibly, was extremely troubled by a letter from Sandra Solomon, advising us to Stand Strong Against Islam [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 12, 2013]. I am extremely troubled that CAIR never really condemns the terrible crimes committed in the name of Islam, and the evil influence of comfortably situated imans in our free society on young idealistic people to convert them to mass murderers. Most recently a 30-year-old student who was... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—I have mixed emotions about Natan Sharansky’s proposed agreement to expand the public space at the Western Wall to include the currently secluded area known as Robinson’s Arch. As a lifelong Conservative Jew, I applaud any plan that seeks to treat egalitarian worshipers and women’s prayer groups as full members of the Jewish people deserving of a place to pray at Judaism’s holiest site. But I worry that in the zeal to achieve equality, Reform and Conservative Jews are about to shut the door on a unique spiritual experienc... Full story
When I was a junior in high school, I decided to skip my senior year and go straight to college. No one questioned my decision. Everyone thought I knew best for myself, in large part because the world perceived me as a really smart kid. Which was true, up to a point. I was also unsure, unclear, with no path before me and no real idea who I was. So I applied to college, without anyone advising me where to go or what to look for. Harvard told me to wait a year. Amherst and Yale turned me down dire... Full story
By Ira Sharkansky Barack Obama has said that Syrian use of chemical weapons is a “game changer.” According to the lead paragraphs in a New York Times article, the President said “…he would respond ‘prudently’ and ‘deliberately’ to evidence that Syria had used chemical weapons, tamping down any expectations that he would take swift action after an American intelligence assessment that the Syrian government had used the chemical agent sarin on a small scale in the nation’s civil war... He was seeking further proof of culpability for c... Full story
At a synagogue talk I recently gave, the topic turned to the treatment of Israel’s Arab citizens. A woman in the audience was obviously upset. “You talk about the Israeli Arabs, but how much more should we give them?” she asked. “They have schools, they get health care, they can get jobs. Isn’t that enough?” This, in my business, is known as a “slow pitch.” “You’re right, you don’t have to give the Israeli Arabs anything,” I said. “But the real question is, what kind of country do you want Israel to be? We call it the only real democracy in th... Full story
CAIRO (JTA)—My first visit to Egypt was eight years ago. My guide was Carmen Weinstein, the head of Egypt’s Jewish community, and on a hot September day we drove through the usual chaotic traffic with our driver to visit 10 synagogues. I am the son of American Jews, the grandchild of Jews from Poland, Lithuania and White Russia, and knew little about the history of Jewish life in Egypt. But the synagogues tell that story. Together, the ancient Ben Ezra synagogue in Fustat; the stately Shaar Hashamaim on Adly Street; the soaring interior of the... Full story
Dear editor: I must respond to Mr. Hassan Shibly, Esq; CAIR Florida; Tampa executive director letter printed April 26, 2013. Make no mistake about it, Mr. Shibly, CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood have a “hidden agenda.” Mr. Shibly cries “crocodile tears” about being misunderstood; about being discriminated against because he is a Muslim; about being the target of disparaging comments. So be it. Let the facts speak for themselves. Mr. Shibly gets very emotional in his condemnation of the truth because he and his ilk don’t want the truth to... Full story
Dear editor: According to RAND Database of Worldwide Terrorism Incidents, the number of deaths as a result of terrorist attacks in Europe and North America from 2000 to 2010 was 4,873. Of those 4,873 people killed, 4,703 were casualties of attacks committed by Muslim terrorists. That is over 96 percent. Terrorism is a violent act used to advance a political agenda. If you look at the constitutions of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc...they are listed as “Islamic States” under Islamic Law. Islam is politics of expansion. Pol... Full story
Dear editor: There is no doubt that Sandi Solomon went overboard in her condemnation of the entire Muslim religion [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 12, 2013]. Her interpretations of Quranic text (e.g. “Muslims can lie to non-Muslims…”) seems somewhat reminiscent of hundreds of years of Talmud distortions and libel by anti-Jewish haters of every stripe. However, her denunciation [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 26, 2013] by Hassan Shibly of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) is somewhat disingenuous and brings to mind... Full story
Dear editor: Why does a Jewish publication give space to an organization that supports and raises funds for those who wish to destroy Israel and the Jewish people? It was shocking to see the letter in the April 26 issue of the Heritage Florida Jewish News from CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations). The letter was in reply to a letter written by Sandi Solomon published in your April 12 issue. Anyone can research the activities of CAIR on the Internet. Quoted from ZOA (Zionist Organization of America): “CAIR is a Saudi-funded Islamist g... Full story
A few months ago Rabbi David Stav, the 53-year-old founder and president of Tzohar, a rabbinic organization that strives to make the face of traditional Judaism more appealing to Israelis, was seen as the Don Quixote candidate in the upcoming national Chief Rabbinate election, held once a decade. After all, he is an idealistic moderate who stresses a compassionate approach to halacha, or Jewish law, in the face of a religious establishment that is increasingly powerful and rigid in its views. His conversations are sprinkled with words like... Full story
I—and most of the world—was struck by the photo of young Martin Richard, tragically killed by the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Martin is holding a poster he created saying simply: “No More Hurting People” and underneath “Peace.” Martin will never get to know who set the bomb or why. Nor will the youngsters killed while sitting at the Sbarro Pizza Parlor in Jerusalem in 2001. One wonders, what, no matter their religious views or governmental concepts, would make someone actually take the action of killing and maiming innocent people who... Full story
A hundred meters from these fingers is a border between civilizations. To the east of that border is the “village,” “suburb,” or “neighborhood” of Isaweea. With more than 20,000 residents, the label “village” is misleading, but that’s the term many use. “Suburb” suggests something outside of Jerusalem, but it is formally within the city as defined by Israel in 1967. There is no wall between us and Isaweea, but it is “outside” insofar as few Jews risk themselves by entering it. “Neighborhood” is problematic, insofar as the frequent mobil... Full story
My grandfather stared out the airplane window, smiling. My mother stared at my grandfather, crying. I stared at both of them, overcome by what we had just experienced together. A day earlier we had marched with a group of Israeli officers through the gates of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the death camp where my grandfather had been a prisoner 68 years ago. This was not my family’s first visit to Auschwitz. We had visited Poland in 2005 so my grandfather, Joseph Gringlas, could show his children and grandchildren where he had come from and what he had b... 
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With all of the many issues confronting the state of Israel—the Iranian nuclear threat, the challenges of renewing meaningful peace talks with the Palestinians, the increasing social divisions in Israeli society, an unconventional and somewhat precarious coalition government, serious deficits in the educational system, insufficient employment opportunities for Israelis with advanced degrees and an increasingly turbulent and unpredictable neighborhood—one might assume that the Jewish state has more than enough on its collective plate. For the fi... Full story
Dear Editor: I was extremely troubled to read the letter to the editor by Sandi Solomon, “Stand strong against Islam,” which you published April 12. The misinformation, intolerance and prejudice echoed in the letter was simply epic in proportion. Perhaps what was most troubling was that the accusations made by Solomon that 1) Islam seeks global domination and 2) Muslims are taught to lie and cannot be trusted, are the same false and hateful types of accusations Nazi propagandists made against Jews prior to the Holocaust. We must learn from our... Full story
Jeff Fager, chairman of CBS News, has a problem. Either he doesn’t know what he’s talking about or he’s lying about the security fence that Israel built to protect its citizens from suicide bombers coming from the West Bank during the Second Intifada. I came to this troubling conclusion during a talk he gave at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in New Canaan, Conn., on Sunday, April 7, 2013. Invited to speak at the church by his pastor the Rev. Peter Walsh, Fager showed an audience of more than 200 of his fellow parishioners a segment about Palesti... Full story
Charged by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to come up with a Solomonic solution to the growing controversy over women’s prayer at Judaism’s holiest site, Natan Sharansky, the chair of the Jewish Agency for Israel, is prepared to recommend a bold plan to allow any and all Jews to pray at Jerusalem’s Western Wall. After extensive private consultations and meetings here this week with high-level communal and religious leaders from the major streams, Sharansky told The Jewish Week in an exclusive interview that the talks “gave me great e... Full story
Here’s a Jewish joke I just made up: The pro-Israel activist goes to see a doctor. The doctor says, “I have some good news and some bad news.” The pro-Israel activist says, “Just give me the bad news.” If that made you smile, even a little, then you probably read a lot of Jewish websites or the fund-raising letters that come from Jewish organizations. The tone is relentlessly gloomy. They portray an Israel that is besieged militarily, isolated diplomatically, divided internally. Even the good news is served with a dose of medicine. “Sure, Is... Full story
Here’s a term that rarely crops up in discussions of American policy towards northeast Asia: the Korea Lobby. And as for the pejorative term “Korea Firsters,” that isn’t one I’ve come across. It’s not as if a cluster of organizations working to enhance our relationship with South Korea, or highlight the danger posed by the communist North, doesn’t exist. There’s a group called Korean American Civic Empowerment, whose website boasts a photo of its supporters with the refreshingly combative U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). The group works... Full story
Apparently, there are smart people out there who still believe it’s up to Israel to revive the dead Middle East peace process. Just last week, over 100 prominent American Jews released a letter, sponsored by the Israel Policy Forum (IPF), urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take “concrete steps” to entice the Palestinians back to the peace table. Hmm, haven’t we seen this movie a few too many times? Somehow, I doubt that any of these prominent Jews would negotiate against themselves for years to buy a house from an owner who did... Full story
Dear editor: The big news is that the Reconstruction Movement has a new leader who is gay [Heritage Florida Jewish News, April 5]. Rabbi Klein does not think that synagogue worship is all that important, and he was disappointed to find the College Hillel wasting valuable time with religious services on Saturday mornings. The students could be doing more important things to save the world. Really? It is interesting that the article about Mr. Klein points out that there are 100 Reconstructionist congregations and 300 Reconstructionist rabbis.... Full story
