Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 3658 - 3682 of 3706
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
Many, many years ago a dear friend sent me a story in the mail. This was before the advent of email or text messages. It was old style, hard copy, stapled and folded and sent in an envelope. She worked in New York City at the Atlantic Monthly. My wife and I had moved to Orlando, so the gap was great, and where we had once carpooled together into work in Detroit, now we talked occasionally and saw one another less and less frequently. Today we are barely in touch at all, but for some reason I... Full story
A major reason for observing Holocaust Remembrance Day is to recognize when a Holocaust is in the making. With the drastic escalation of anti-Semitism in the world, history could be repeating itself. Many Jews fought in the German army during the First World War. And doing so they felt a strong allegiance to Germany. However, once in power, Hitler moved quickly to end German democracy and was permitted to suspend freedoms of the press, speech and assembly. Presently in many countries throughout Europe, in Canada and, particularly, in the... Full story
The news reminds me of a Kingston Trio ballad that begins with They’re rioting in Africa, They’re starving in Spain. There’s hurricanes in Florida, And Texas needs rain The whole world is festering With unhappy souls. Take your pick for what is most festering this week: The North Korean threat to bombard the United States, and maybe South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons. Pundits are doubting the reality, but worrying about a repeat of what Barbara Tuchman described in The Guns of August, i.e., a move toward catastrophe that none of the p... Full story
Is Nate Silver destroying our ability to argue? When I was a kid, my parents would have what I would call “encyclopedia” arguments. Say, did FDR die on April 12 or April 13? They would marshal personal history (“My cousin’s birthday was April 12”), dubious logic (“If I remember our anniversary, how would I forget a date like Roosevelt’s yahrtzeit?”), and ad hominem attacks (“Oh, you can never admit when you’re wrong….”). This could go on for an entire evening, while I was thinking, “Just look it up in the World Book, for God’s sake.” Of course,... Full story
During a recent interview in my office with Mark Borovitz and Harriet Rossetto, the guiding lights of Beit T’Shuvah: The House of Return, a unique coåmmunity in Los Angeles that combines spiritual and psychotherapeutic approaches to addiction recovery, I became increasingly impressed with their work and their own life stories. But that was just the start. Rossetto, a handsome, forthright woman in her 70s, was a social worker and self-described misfit, adrift and at a low point when she found her calling in the mid-1980s, helping recently re... Full story
Dear Editor: Islam is a religion like no other. It is both political and religious. It aims to take over the whole world. It is already doing that all across Europe and Africa. Islam has no tolerance for any other religion. In fact, Muslims are killing Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Jainists, Hindus, and all other religions everywhere. Unfortunately, very little appears in the press or on TV about persecution of other religions by Muslims because many media outlets are owned by Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia also funds many colleges across the world... Full story
Some months back, Charles and Roz Schwartz were coming home from a trip to Israel when they found themselves surrounded by young adults who were returning from a Birthright Israel mission. Charles was smitten, instantly enamored, impressed with the enthusiasm every single one of the young men and women expressed. By the time he got off the plane, he’d made a vow to himself to help Birthright in some way. For those of you who don’t know, Birthright Israel began with a simple, if bold con... Full story
We did not intend to flee Jerusalem when the great man arrived, but we saw no reason to change our plans when we heard about his trip. On the basis of previous presidential visits, we knew that the city would be dysfunctional. Our visit to Greece provided insights into the functioning of empires, even if it kept us away from the flood of interpretations about what Obama said and did not say None the less, it is possible to conclude from a number of sources about as much as it is possible to know at this point. At least to some extent, the... Full story
As we mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 8 for the 60th consecutive year—this somber day was first placed onto the Jewish calendar in 1953, at the instigation of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion—we again ask ourselves a deceptively simple question: Why do we still remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust, along with millions of others? There is no better day than Yom HaShoah to explore these issues. Unlike the various other Holocaust Memorial Days that take place during the year, most... Full story
There is a narrative that has been gaining adherents in America, that it is within Israel’s control to make peace with the Palestinians. If only it were so. The story says that the issue is territorial, and the “occupation” and/or settlements are the root cause of the conflict. Unfortunately it is the Palestinians who need to be confronted with a reality check. The same people, who feel that Israel can magically create peace by itself, also feel that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is a man Israel can trust and is a partner for p... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—Three weeks ago, JTA reported on a new alliance between Jewish leaders and domestic gas and oil companies. Called the Council for a Secure America, the alliance is based on a “common interest” between American Jews and domestic energy companies to “increase domestic oil and gas production and to decrease U.S. reliance on imported oil from the Middle East,” the report said. But the alliance represents neither the Jewish community nor its interests. To say that reducing our dependence on foreign oil is our No. 1 priority is not onl... Full story
Every now and then I like to take a break from dissecting the Jewish world’s problems and solving the Middle East crisis by writing a humor piece. I can’t remember the serious columns I write from one week to the next, but I’ll never forget having compared the Muslim Brotherhood with the Temple Brotherhood, or having composed the award-winning poem “I’m a Jew Who Went to State School and I Don’t Care What You Think.” I write a lot of humor for my blog, JustASC; this week I had fun with President Obama’s visit to Israel and wrote a respons... Full story
