Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Dear Editor: Editor’s Note: This article was written and sent to Heritage right after Marcia Hahn read Myrna Ossin’s recipe for a Passover birthday cake (“Birthdays during Passover? No problem when it comes to cake!”, April 4, 2025, issue.) The letter was in a pile with several subscription envelopes and finally made it to the editor’s desk on May 5.) Our apologies. My daughter, Cathy Hahn, was born April 18, 1963. For this story, it’s the year that matters. We grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. in the middle-class Midwood neighborhood. All my children...
This week, Palestinian Arabs and their supporters around the world have declared a “Day of Rage” on April 22. Again. Their “Days of Rage” along with “Nakba Day” are pretexts to rally support for Palestinian Arabs, my heart sinks — not out of fear, but out of a profound sadness for the moral bankruptcy it reveals. This phrase, dripping with venom and incitement, is not a call for justice, peace, or progress. It is an orgy of anger, a glorification of destruction, and a stark reminder of timeless failure of Palestinian Arab leadership to...
By (JTA) — I vividly remember each of the many times I was fortunate enough to meet with Pope Francis. The initial meeting was in June 2013, when the pontiff welcomed a group of Jewish organizations to the Vatican — the first of many such meetings of his tenure. We were expecting a large ornate hall, complete with the new pope seated on a royal chair atop a riser. But Francis had not yet (reluctantly) given in to the reality of his position, the one where he led more than a billion Catholics and became, perhaps, the most recognized and inf...
(JNS) — In India, an attack by Islamic terrorists against Hindu tourists visiting Pahalgam in the Kashmir region on April 22 was a heartbreaking reminder of the enduring pain caused by religious hatred and intolerance. A total of 26 people were murdered. Husbands and fathers were slaughtered in front of their families. As an Indian Jew observing Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, I lit a candle to honor the victims of the Holocaust. Yet it deeply saddens me that, even after 80 years, people continue to be killed simply for their faith. R...
(JNS) — As we mark the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany and the liberation of the concentration camps, that terrible chapter of history no longer seems so distant. While there are only 15.7 million Jews among a global population of more than 8 billion—still less than the nearly 17 million who were alive in 1938, the year before World War II broke out—the uninitiated could be forgiven for thinking that the number is at least twice that, given the volume of media and political attention that the Jewish state and Jewis...
(JNS) — I trust that Jews worldwide enjoyed a meaningful and memorable Passover with family and friends. Of course, no one could stop thinking of our brothers and sisters who have been held hostage in Gaza now for 18 months. We continue to pray for them to speedily enjoy their own anxiously awaited “season of freedom” and liberation. After all the excitement of Passover, we now return to the weekly Torah readings; the portion this week is Shmini (Leviticus, Chapters 9-11). We read about Aaron, the brother of Moses, who was consecrated into...
(JNS) — Are they serious? The president of the United States is finally doing what the Jewish community dreamed the Biden administration would do to stop antisemitism on campus. They are taking action — actual, tangible, visible action to hold campus agitators and foreign funders accountable. Yet instead of applauding this long-overdue shift in domestic policy, some in our community are wringing their hands and crying about “authoritarianism” and “chilling speech.” Let’s be honest. For years, the Jewish community has asked for federal enfor...
As an Iranian-born Christian who survived the brutality of Iran’s Evin Prison because of my faith, I’ve witnessed and suffered the Islamic regime’s cruelty firsthand: their lies, their oppression, their unrelenting hatred for, and repression of any freedom. When I hear about the United States negotiating with Iran’s Islamic leaders, my heart aches for both my homeland and my adopted country, America. Negotiation with this regime is not just futile — it’s dangerous. Those who champion an “America First” approach, yet shy away from maximum pr...
(JNS) — It’s official. Former J Street press secretary Amy Spitalnick, who runs the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and has turned it into an anti-Israel pressure group, boasted of bringing together the Union for Reform Judaism (and other Reform groups) and the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism along with Reconstructionist groups to stand up for campus Hamas supporters. The letter claims that Jewish safety is tied “to the safety of others,” in this case the safety of those calling for the murder of Jews on college campuse...
(JNS) — It’s official. Former J Street press secretary Amy Spitalnick, who runs the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, and has turned it into an anti-Israel pressure group, boasted of bringing together the Union for Reform Judaism (and other Reform groups) and the Rabbinical Assembly of Conservative Judaism along with Reconstructionist groups to stand up for campus Hamas supporters. The letter claims that Jewish safety is tied “to the safety of others,” in this case the safety of those calling for the murder of Jews on college campuse...
(JNS) — Free speech is a right enshrined in the fabric of our country. Just as we must be vigilant in protecting it, we must also be clear-eyed about what it is and what it is not. Where speech is motivated by hate or is intended to support or encourage fear or violence or terrorism, the right of free speech is not absolute. Free-speech protections have never extended to terrorist activity. Pro-Hamas documents found recently on college campuses and the Internet told people to: “Build your cell”; “Pick your target”; “ … remember that your action...
By Mitchell Bard (JNS) — Nicholas Kristof, a longtime member of The New York Times stable of inveterate Israel-bashers, has taken a new angle in his ongoing campaign: using the plight of Palestinian Christians to turn American Christians against the Jewish state. In a recent piece, the columnist paints a picture of Israeli oppression in Bethlehem while ignoring relevant context that doesn’t fit his narrative. Kristof’s op-ed appeared as a new Pew survey shows that 72 percent of evangelicals view Israel favorably. Evangelicals are typic...
(JNS) — How important is tradition in Judaism? Obviously, the answer is that it is very important. I mean, they even dedicated a major song by that title in “Fiddler on the Roof.” How strong is the need for tradition in the spiritual consciousness of Jews today? Despite the effects of secularism, I’d venture to suggest that there is still a need inside us to feel connected to our roots, our heritage and our sense of belonging to the Jewish people. Perhaps more than any time of the year, Passover is the season when millions of Jews embrace...
(JNS) — I watched Eli Sharabi. An eyewitness to horror. A forced journey through hell. I have no right to claim understanding. How can anyone? Empathy is the only tool of the imagination to relate, but for these hostages, there is no precedent. Hearing him, I ask myself — could I remain this composed? He must be numb. How can he process 491 days of forced and torturous containment? He is now a free man in a deal with the devil. “Where are my wife and daughters?” he asks in the Israel hospital intake room. He learns for the first time that they...
(JNS) — It’s been 18 months since Hamas’s invasion of Israel and the barbaric pogrom that followed. Hamas is still holding and torturing hostages. The Israel Defense Forces is still fighting not just Hamas but also Hamas’s allies, all of them guided and supported by the jihadi regime in Tehran. That’s the bad news. The good news: Painfully but steadily, Israelis have been making progress against enemies who intend not to subjugate but to exterminate them. Israel’s first War of Independence, 1948-49, lasted 20 months. This one will take longer...
(JNS) — Ron Tomer, head of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, wrote to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn against the “severe consequences” that would result from President Donald Trump’s slated 17 percent tariff on Israeli exports to the United States. Tomer wasn’t alone in his reaction to Trump’s new trade policy. Indeed, since “Liberation Day” was declared on April 2, forecasts of gloom and doom have been rampant, particularly among those whose view of Trump was already dim. One Israeli economist who rejects the hysteria of his...
(JNS) — Jews have long been champions of freedom of speech in the United States, yet they often have not hesitated to advocate canceling speakers who are antisemitic or virulently anti-Israel. Many Jews feel that those who spread hatred against them or Israel should face consequences, but they are frequently uneasy about the mechanisms used to deliver those consequences. This ambivalence was true before Donald Trump returned to the White House but has become more prevalent since his administration began taking aggressive steps against a...
(JNS) — Each year in the weeks leading up to Passover, I sit down with my children, one on one, for something I’ve come to cherish deeply: preparing a personal d’var Torah, or Torah thought, ahead of our family seder. It’s become a quiet tradition in our home—time carved out not for homework or logistics but for Torah. For ideas. As my son, Jake, and I began to think about the topic for this year’s d’var Torah, we turned to the Haggadah for inspiration. What we struck was the proverbial jackpot of ideas, where Torah and family history are i...
(JNS) — The name “West Bank” conjures up visions of a complex and contentious region of the Middle East. As Mike Huckabee’s nomination to be ambassador to Israel nears confirmation and his unapologetically Christian point of view comes to the fore, there’s increasing discussion of the label itself. The time has come to return to the true, historical, biblical names of Judea and Samaria — names that reflect the deep, millennia-old connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland. Last month, House Foreign Affairs Committee c...
(JNS) — Passover is here, and I will be so presumptuous as to suggest that you may have opened your favorite Haggadah to have a look and start preparing for the big seder night. Seder means “order.” And one of the items in the order of the seder agenda is yachatz. Well, what is yachatz? It’s one of the first things we do on seder night, even before anyone says the “Ma Nishtanah.” We break the middle matzah of the three matzahs on our seder plates. The larger part is put away for the afikomen and the smaller part remains inside the seder plate...
(JNS) — Many in the media have spent the last few days debating the detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and activist who led tension-filled campus protests in the past year that targeted Jewish and Zionist students and faculty. Much of the discussion has been on the First Amendment and free-speech rights. Surprisingly, the elephant in the room has been largely ignored. After the December 2023 congressional hearings that saw three university presidents grilled over their inaction to protect Jewish American students and fa...
(JNS) — Harvard University’s decision to “pause” a research partnership with Birzeit University, a Palestinian university near Ramallah, was long overdue. In 2023, Israeli security forces arrested eight students from Birzeit University who were planning what was described as “an imminent terror attack.” That apparently meant that the plan wasn’t just theoretical; it was on the verge of becoming operational. Birzeit should be known as “Terror U” for its students’ active support of Hamas. For instance, a basketball championship game w...
(JNS) — Hundreds of Palestinians rallied last week in Beit Lahiya, in northern Gaza, chanting, among other things: “Out, out, Hamas out!” This is the first time masses of Gazans have openly called for the terrorist group to be removed from power. Protests against Hamas rule have since spread throughout the Gaza Strip. Good news, right? But wait: Why have no pro-Palestinian protesters in the West stepped up to support these brave demonstrators? Why have no mass protests been held echoing Gazans’ demands that Hamas relinquish power? No surpris...
(JNS) — Among my various occupations, I am a tour guide, primarily for Christian groups. On Oct. 7, 2023, I was with a group of Christians from Norway and African countries. It was supposed to be the second-to-last day of their trip. At breakfast in a hotel in Tiberias, I turned on my phone and started seeing WhatsApp videos, mostly of white pickup trucks driving through the streets of Sderot. I knew something unusual was happening, but I still didn’t grasp the magnitude of the event. Slowly, more and more reports started coming in amid the unc...
(JNS) — Among those who forcibly occupied Trump Tower recently to protest the deportation of a violent antisemite, were members of the Jewish Voice for Peace, who, along with other far-left groups like IfNotNow, have been parading support for Hamas since its Oct. 7 attack. The scene was a chilling reminder of the giant rift splitting American Jewry. On one side of this rift are American Jews of all denominations, including secular ones, who love Israel as our ancestral homeland and the United States as the greatest country on earth. On the othe...
