Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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By Jonathan Feldstein Outside of Iran’s remaining several thousand member Jewish community, few Iranians will be engaged in prayers this weekend beseeching God for a year of health, happiness, prosperity, much less freedom. According to the ancient Jewish liturgy, on Rosh Hashanah for millennia Jews have prayed to be inscribed into the Book of Life. Part of the liturgy is that we understand our fate is in God’s hands, and it is His decision who shall live, and who shall die, who by fire, who by water, and even who are at the hands of Ira...
(JNS) — Dear Mr. Friedman, Our paths have crossed many times over the years, and I have always been struck by your evident passion for Israel, a passion that resonates in your writings and columns on the Jewish state and the Middle East. However, as much as your enthusiasm for our country is clear, I respectfully find myself at odds with many of your recent perspectives on Israel. Your recent criticism of the Jewish state, while undoubtedly heartfelt, appears to be rooted more in emotion than facts and more in impulsive reactions than a g...
Following our visit to the Jewish Historical Society Museum in Warsaw we took a walking tour of the Okopowa Jewish Cemetery (Cm. Zydorfski), the largest Jewish Cemetery in Europe with an estimated 250,000 graves dating back to 1806, when the Jewish community of Warsaw made up a substantial part of the Warsaw population and the need for more Jewish burial sites necessitated the new site. According to the Jewish Community of Warsaw website, the cemetery is, “the resting place of many spiritual leaders, political activists, creators of Jewish c...
(JNS) — As today’s 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords approached, Palestinian Media Watch uncovered yet another statement by a Palestinian leader admitting, or more correctly bragging, that PLO leader Yasser Arafat successfully deceived the Israeli leadership into signing a peace agreement he had no intention of fulfilling. According to Palestinian Authority MP Munib al-Masri, Arafat’s intention from day one was for the Accords to serve as another step in his plan to destroy the State of Israel. In a recent interview, al-Ma...
(JNS) — President Joe Biden has just nominated former President Barack Obama’s Treasury Secretary Jack Lew as the next U.S. ambassador to Israel. Although Lew identifies as an observant Jew and is certainly a skilled public official, his failure in the waning days of the Obama administration to take a definitive stand in favor of Jewish dignity and Jewish history disqualifies him for such an important office. In the Scroll of Esther, Mordechai tells his niece Queen Esther that she must intervene with her husband King Ahasuerus to prevent the...
(JNS) — It is not the best of times. It may actually be the worst of times. While half of Israel continues to demonstrate in the streets against their own government, Iran is building an airport in Lebanon that is only 13 miles away from Israel’s northern border. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama’s hirelings have tied Israel’s hands so it cannot preempt the construction of such a dangerous, Hezbollah-controlled airport. At the same time, the Biden administration has just given Iran $6 billion in exchange for hostage...
(JNS) — “Understand that they want you all dead. You are the only threat to them. When you are gone, all the races will be under the great Jewish heel forever. Fight back white man!!!” This is an excerpt from one of several tweets promoting or inciting violence against Jews that, according to a March 2023 report from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), X declined to remove or sanction. The report concluded that “despite purported changes to its policy enforcement and the stated intent of its management, Twitter continues to host antisem...
(JNS) — Israel’s detractors accuse the Jewish state of intentionally killing Palestinian civilians. Moreover, they maintain that because in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict many more Palestinians have died than Israelis, Israel uses disproportionate force. Finally, they imply this death toll is the outcome of Israel blocking a solution to the conflict. Of course, each of these accusations is an outright lie. The truth is, the Israel Defense Force does its utmost to avoid civilian casualties. The IDF’s Code of Ethics stresses the i...
(JNS) — There are many measures by which the success of the Abraham Accords can be determined: Volume of trade, number of tourists, the extent of academic collaboration and so on. As the third year since the signing of the Accords winds down, it’s safe to say that, by all indicators, the relationships have taken off. Trade between Israel and Accords countries has been growing exponentially, mutual investments have taken place and numerous cultural and academic delegations have convened. Much (if not too much) has been said about the high exp...
Preparing for Rosh Hashanah should not be a downer. It’s an auspicious, exciting time for clarity and closeness, grounded in positivity and love. The Hebrew month of Elul, a spiritually super-charged time leading up to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, has a surprising theme. The word “Elul” is an acronym for the phrase “Ani l’dodi v’dodi li – I am for my beloved and my beloved is for me” that comes from King Solomon’s Song of Songs (6:3). To borrow from Tina Turner’s famous song, what’s love got to do with it? Why does this phrase that articulat...
(JNS) — Time always flies, but somehow during this time of year it seems to fly faster than ever. Can you believe it’s only 10 days until Rosh Hashanah? We are deep into the Hebrew month of Elul, which is traditionally dedicated to spiritual preparation before the Days of Judgment on Rosh Hashanah. In Sephardic communities, selichot, penitential prayers, are recited for the entire month. Ashkenazi communities will begin selichot services this coming Saturday night, one week before the new year, as a final run-up to the Yamim Noraim, which mea...
(JNS) — “Sex and the City” fans appropriately expressed outrage after SATC’s reboot “And Just Like That” made an offensive joke about the Holocaust on Holocaust Remembrance Day. They further charged that the show was permeated with overdone “woke-ism.” But other deeply disturbing things about AJLT received little to no notice. First, AJLT repeatedly promoted the dangerous George Soros-funded Israel-bashing propaganda organization Human Rights Watch. This became even worse in the just-aired AJLT Season 2, which also displays giant HRW signs...
The days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are devoted not only to examining our relationship with God, but also to self-reflection and our relationship with others. Our tradition, developed over more than three thousand years, has created a rich narrative of prayers and readings which, selectively are an integral part of synagogue services for all denominations. Included in the High Holiday liturgy is the retelling of our rich history from the rituals and pageantry of the High Priest in the Holy Temple to our religious experiences throughout the...
(JNS) — “A fool is someone who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” Oscar Wilde famously quipped. In Milwaukee last week, the Republican candidates for president—minus one Donald J. Trump—quarreled over both the price and value of American support for Ukraine. Only Nikki Haley crunched the numbers correctly. From the February 2022 Russian invasion to August of this year, the United States has committed roughly $43 billion to Ukraine. As Haley suggested, that’s just 3.5 percent of U.S. spending on the Defense Department over...
(JNS) — Reports confirm the Biden administration will gift Iran a whopping $6 billion in exchange for the release of five American hostages. This decision is a godsend for outcast regimes and terrorists around the world—starting with Iran itself—that will no doubt feel emboldened to pursue further acts of belligerence against America and its allies. The decision reflects the president’s naive view that friendly diplomacy can subdue our enemies. Rather, Biden’s policies have only encouraged rogue elements like Iran’s Islamist regime to continue...
(JNS) — There are many kinds of blessings. Every situation, every occasion, has a different blessing. We wish success to some, to others long life or good health, and to still others we wish nachas and pride from their children. When my sister was a small child, she was somewhat confused by the traditional Yiddish blessings we give people at various life milestones. Someone had a baby and she wished them biz hundert un tzvantzig! In plain English, that means, “till 120!” It’s what we say when someone, particularly a more mature person, has a b...
(JNS) — Many uber-wealthy people believe they are wise and well-informed on all subjects because they have achieved financial success. Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is a frightening example of this type of hubris. Born in Cincinnati to Indian-American parents, the 38-year-old Ramaswamy is a perfect example of what can be achieved in America. He became a billionaire as a pharmaceutical executive, hedge fund manager and lobbyist. His success should be applauded. However, this does not mean he knows anything about history or t...
When Israel declared the forming of the Second Jewish Commonwealth on the very land where the First Jewish Commonwealth was declared centuries ago, there were those who were thrilled, those who were nervous and those who violently protested the change in that part of the world. It took a war, according to biblical accounts, because there were people living there. This has been proven through archeological digs and other evidence – so whether it was God or Providence or a people tired of wandering – the First Jewish Commonwealth was formed, fou...
(JNS) — The role of halachah in the State of Israel was a point of contention even before the state was founded. In his landmark book The Jewish State, modern Zionism’s founder Theodor Herzl wrote, “Shall we end by having a theocracy? No, indeed. Faith unites us, knowledge gives us freedom. We shall therefore prevent any theocratic tendencies from coming to the fore on the part of our priesthood.” “We shall keep our priests within the confines of their temples in the same way as we shall keep our professional army within the confines of their...
(JNS) — In a dramatic scene from the new film “Golda,” Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir meets with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Kissinger says, “You must remember that first I am an American, second I am secretary of state and third I am a Jew.” Golda replies, “Henry, you forget that in Israel we read from right to left.” The upcoming release of “Golda” will remind and educate Americans, Israelis and people around the world about the tense days of the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when Israel’s fate hung in the balance. It will no...
(JNS) — Things cannot go on like this. Well, they can, but it would be beyond the pale. We must not tolerate a situation in which Jews are killed all over the country as if this was some incurable disease or natural phenomenon that cannot be prevented. It’s not that the settlers can’t stand it anymore—they have shown resilience in the past, and during tougher times. They know full well why they are not giving up their hold on the areas of the Land of Israel: They’re doing it for the sake of the entire nation. Nor are Israelis in general going t...
My heart sunk when I read of an impending deal to pay the evil Islamist Iranian regime several billion dollars (or more) in ransom to free Americans held hostage in Iran. Taking American and other hostages is not new for the Islamist regime. They keep doing it because it works. It’s profitable. And the West caves into their demands. This has to stop. As an Iranian-born American citizen, I can raise my voice without consequence. I especially admire the brave Iranians who are raising their voices publicly against this deal which millions of Irani...
The City of Warsaw was ravaged in WWII by the Nazis, who destroyed close to 95 percent of all its buildings including museums, historical landmarks, churches, and of course synagogues. The Warsaw Ghetto in which the Jews courageously fought the Nazis was reduced to rubble. Once liberated from Soviet domination, having prospered economically from European Union membership and increased national security under the umbrella of NATO, Poland undertook a major rebuilding of its war-torn country. As our tour bus entered the city at dusk we were met...
(JNS) — “Where there is unity, there is always victory,” the famed Latin writer Publilius Syrus wrote. In much of the world, this statement would likely to be used by politicians or others to rally people around a certain ideology or policy. In Israel, however, unity is a matter of life or death: Safety or destruction, victory or defeat. Jewish sovereignty in its ancestral and indigenous homeland was reestablished in 1948 only because Jews—and some non-Jews—stood side-by-side to overcome unimaginable odds and defeat their enemies. There are num...
(JNS) — Michigan State Sen. Sylvia Santana has publicly apologized to her state’s Arab community for the “sin” of visiting Israel earlier this month. Her only intention, she pleaded, was “to improve my understanding of matters related to Michigan.” Well, if Santana is genuinely interested in Arab-Israeli developments that are “related to Michigan,” then she didn’t have to travel 6,000 miles. All she had to do was look in her own backyard—at least four Michiganders have been murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists. I’m sure the victims’ fam...
