Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Let’s state a few things at the outset. Many Palestinians oppose Hamas and violence. Every possible effort should be made to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. No one residing in Gaza would be in danger if Hamas had not launched rockets into Israel and committed a massacre of Jews not seen since the Holocaust. What else do we know about the people of Gaza? The people elected Hamas in the last election held in the Palestinian Authority, and surveys consistently have shown that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than P.A. hea...
Israel’s heart has been broken. At war once again against genocidal enemies, its people are shattered by shock, grief and horror. At time of writing, the number of those murdered has risen to 1300, with at least 2,315 wounded and more than 100 being held hostage in Gaza. The images of what happened will stay with us forever. Dozens of Israelis were gunned down in their homes and their cars. Elderly people and small children were slaughtered; women were raped; bodies taken into Gaza were paraded and desecrated; mothers with children in their a...
(JNS) — I have so many unanswered questions. I am free to ask them because I am not an Israeli being held hostage in Gaza. I am not one of the half-million Israeli refugees in internal exile in their own country. I’m not in a stalled-at-the-border IDF fighting unit (I only wish I were). And so I wonder: Have Israeli leftists finally been “mugged by (a terrible) reality?” Does anyone realize that their/our problems may be far greater than the mere presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Are any of the chanting, drumming, “in your face...
In the summer of 2014, my 17-year-old daughter knocked on my bedroom door late one night shortly after my wife and I had gone to sleep. She asked us not to come downstairs, saying that she had just brought two guys home. This was not an announcement I ever expected, except she didn’t use the word “guys.” She said soldiers. Israel was embroiled in what became known as Operation Protective Edge which began a few weeks after the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers, one of whom was our neighbors’ nephew. The seven-week-long battle saw the Isl...
(JNS) — President Joe Biden’s address yesterday on Israel’s war was almost everything you could have hoped for. It was tough. By naming Hamas as the enemy of civilization and condemning their acts of evil, it was unambiguous. It pledged unconditional support for Israel. In retrospect, it seemed like the most pro-Israel speech that an American president has ever delivered. Yet these incredibly strong and supportive words were uttered by the same man who, despite Israel’s vehement protestations, did his best to restart the Iranian nuclear...
I am writing this because I have to. I am writing this for myself. If it gets read or answered, that’s fine. If it does not, I care not. I am writing this, but I have no words. I am writing this because I have not lived a day like this in my 93+ years. I was 11 years old when Pearl Harbor was struck by the Japanese. I was sad, felt somewhat scared — but not angry, sorrowful and helpless as I feel now. I am writing this because while September 11 was a “one off” what happened in Israel this week has been going on for thousands of years. No Jew...
(JNS) — Originally published on July 31, 2015. “The flagbearer of Jihad to liberate Jerusalem.” This is how the blurb of “Palestine,” published by Islamic Revolution Editions last week in Tehran, identifies the book’s author. The author is “Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Husseini Khamenei,” the “Supreme Guide” of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a man whose fatwa has been recognized by former U.S. President Barack Obama as having the force of law. Edited by Saeed Solh-Mirzai, the 416-page book has received approval from Khamenei’s office a...
Dear Editor: As an associate professor of Judaic Studies, I cannot speak officially on behalf of my university, but as a private citizen I can express my deepest solidarity with the State of Israel (where I resided for several years) during this perilous time of unprovoked atrocities against its civilian population. Mere words seem insignificant in the face of such brutality, enacted by the terrorist organization called Hamas. However, there is little doubt that every thought, every sentiment, every prayer offered on behalf of the people of...
Dear Editor: I am angry, disgusted, and most of all not surprised. The silence is deafening. The comparisons are gruesome, and the justification is just, well, I don’t have the words. If you believe that speaking about what is happening in Israel is “too political” and “you don’t share about politics” you are part of the problem. If you identify with groups whether on the left or right that say “let’s look at the context” you are part of the problem. There is no context in this scenario. If you are staying silent when you speak out about everyt...
Please note: The referenced book, compiled by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser just came to print in June. It is a compilation of Jewish thinkers and academics whose credibility warrants thoughtful consideration. It is my hope that the result will stimulate every contemporary Jew to become a proactive contributor in protecting our Jewish future. In the recent publication of “BETRAYAL, The Failure of American Jewish Leadership,” authors Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, assess the reasons for Jewish leadership’s ineffectiveness in comba...
(JNS) — My neighbor doesn’t work in an office. He created a niche company that offers adventure experiences to Israelis and visiting tourists. His experience in the outdoors have taught him certain life skills that are needed by the IDF during emergencies. When he drives off in a rush, especially on a quiet Shabbat, there’s no need to check the news to know something has happened. We returned from prayers on Saturday and one of our children told us our neighbor had rushed off early in the morning. That was the first sign something was wrong...
On our return to Warsaw we took some time to rest from our day’s touring, to prepare for Kabbalat (Evening) Shabbat services at a local synagogue and Shabbat dinner at our hotel. We were advised at the last minute that we would not be attending the local synagogue; rather Kabbalat Shabbat services would be in the hotel led by one of the guides from a companion group which had combined with our tour group for Shabbat services and dinner. I was a looking forward to Kabbalat Shabbat services at an actual “working” local synagogue since all the syn...
(JNS) — Earlier this week, ultra-Orthodox Jews parading through Jerusalem’s Old City passed a group of Christians bearing a large wooden cross. Some of the Jews spat on the ground in the Christians’ direction. Two days later, Jerusalem police arrested five Jews involved in a similar spitting incident. The spitters provoked widespread outrage and disgust. They were denounced by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the chief rabbis of Israel and the U.K., and a number of ultra-Orthodox politicians too. The rabbis and other Orthodo...
(JNS) — Saturday’s Hamas assault is the 2023 version of the 1973 Yom Kippur war. The complete surprise—the governing paradigm, the collapse of the lines of defense—is very reminiscent of what happened here exactly 50 years ago. In a well-synchronized and orchestrated attack, Hamas managed to surprise Israeli intelligence and completely topple the Israel Defense Forces Gaza Division’s doctrine, which relied in recent years on the false security of the border fence. There are several difficult questions that someone will be forced to give answ...
The Feast of Tabernacles is how many Christians refer to Sukkot, the biblical festival we celebrated this past week. It is also a multi-day event known in shorthand as “the Feast,” organized by the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, arguably Israel’s largest annual tourist event, drawing thousands of Christians from all over the world since 1980. As I have done for years, this year I celebrated both. But this year, all the more so, I celebrated the thousands of Christians who came to Israel to celebrate with us all the more so, in li...
(JNS) — On that day 50 years ago, I was in the parking lot of my synagogue in Keene, N.H., taking a break from Yom Kippur services. Someone had the car radio on and tuned to the news. I heard that Israel had been the victim of a surprise attack on our holiest day. Like millions of others, my heart sank. The news sounded ominous. I worried first for our relatives who lived on a kibbutz in the Jordan Valley, not far from the Syrian border. As the news dispatches came in, it only got worse. The existential threat to the Jewish state was coming fro...
(JNS) — Depending on the pundit, the Oslo Accords were at best a broken dream, at worst a deadly disaster. No one calls them a success. Thirty years ago this month, in 1993, Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization signed the first of the Oslo Accords, a series of agreements intended to create a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israel signed the accords believing that if the Palestinian Arabs received land in Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, they could fulfill their desire for a state. In return, the Jews w...
(JNS) — This Yom Kippur, one of my favorite songs came to mind, and it was not a happy occasion. Each year on the holiday, I take the opportunity to walk in a carless Tel Aviv. This time, I found myself returning home via Dizengoff Street. I knew there was a controversial prayer service set to take place in Dizengoff Square. Amidst the ongoing clash over the government’s judicial reform campaign, it had become a flashpoint. Some activists opposed it because of the planned mechitzah, which technically violates laws against gender seg...
(JNS) — Palestinian Arab journalist Bassam Tawil recently described a “fierce crackdown” on Palestinian reporters by the Palestinian Authority, including arbitrary arrests and beatings. Meanwhile, U.S. President Joe Biden, in his recent meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly last week, emphasized the importance of “upholding democratic values.” Then the president called for the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state next to Israel—a state that would be governed by the same regime that...
(JNS) — It’s become a cliché to say that Jews are our own worst enemies. Nowhere is that truer than in academia, where Jewish professors, often from the field of Jewish and Middle East studies, have become some of Israel’s most vitriolic critics. Several decided to write an anti-Israel screed and solicit signatures from colleagues and, later, anyone happy to sign their name. The text was originally written by Lior Sternfeld, professor of history and Jewish studies at Penn State (and associate editor of Palestine/Israel Review, whose editor...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — I stood next to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he said what he said about the protesters against him “joining forces” with Iran. He was simply trying to be cooperative and answer the journalists’ questions, which does not always happen. The questions they shouted at him were as expected: “You do not have a meeting at the White House.” “The emperor wears no clothes.” These statements were fired at Netanyahu and, apparently, rattled him. At that moment, his interest should have been in controlling the agenda. That...
It might be my age. It might be what our world has become. It might be weariness of the whole thing. This year’s High Holy Days had a whole different effect on me. I have written before that I was raised in a home that could be called “Not Jewish.” I didn’t celebrated my bar mitzvah until I was 40. My family never went to synagogue until I had children of my own. It was, as I have written, my father. His father, my grandfather, was again, as I have written before, a dyed-in-the-wool Socialist. His father, that would be my great-g...
(JNS) — In the wake of the devastating floods in Libya, the Palestinian Civil Defense Service, which operates under the auspices of the Palestinian Authority, announced that it was sending a 37-member team to assist with the humanitarian effort. The team, which includes search-and-rescue experts and two neurosurgeons, set off on Sept. 19, joining similar efforts that have been mobilized by other Arab countries and the international community more broadly. A cynic would be right to say that the Palestinian contribution is strongly motivated b...
(JNS) — History is difficult to study because it is so often rewritten. As a result, it is difficult to separate myths from facts. Forgetting the unpleasant aspects of history demonstrates Hegel’s famous statement, “The only thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” Ukrainian officials, from President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to Ukraine’s Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk have demanded that Israel stand on the “right side of history.” Israel, they hold, should do so by joining the sanctions regime against Russi...
(JNS) — Once again (Sept. 5), New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has offered his wisdom for a solution to the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. He claims that “far-right Jewish supremacists,” also known as the “right-wing zealots” who lead the Netanyahu government, pose “an internal Israeli Jewish threat” that obstructs the two-state (Israel and Palestine) solution that Friedman has long craved. Israel’s government, he insists, is not normal. Friedman’s discomfort with Israel is hardly new. It dates back to his...
