Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
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...
