Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — In addition to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, many Palestinians live in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Roughly 98 percent of Palestinians in the disputed territories are ruled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Palestinian human-rights advocates, NGOs, international bodies, the media and campus activists focus on Israeli policies. The principal abusers of Palestinians, however, are their fellow Palestinians and other Arabs. For example, Bassam Tawil noted in just the last week, the media widely reported on the death of a senior m...
(JTA) — With the conclusion of Passover last month, we now find ourselves in the period of the Jewish calendar known as the Omer, the 49-day span between the Exodus from Egypt marked on Passover and the giving of the Torah celebrated on Shavuot, which begins this year on Thursday evening, May 25. Jewish tradition considers these two holidays inextricably linked, the seven weeks between them seen as an incremental process of purification from the defilement of slavery to a state in which the Israelites were able to receive the Torah. In this sen...
On May 15, Palestinian Arabs and their supporters commemorated what they call the “Nakba,” the catastrophe. This year, sadly, it was even commemorated in the halls of the U.S. Congress. Indeed, Palestinian Arabs have suffered many catastrophes, although what they are commemorating and what the reality is are miles apart. What are the real catastrophes we need to recognize? Despite having declared statehood, and dozens of countries recognizing if not even having diplomatic relations with the “State of Palestine,” rather than celebrating their in...
(JNS) — The assassination of three senior Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists is a welcome change of tactics against those who incessantly fire rockets at Israel’s south. Named “Operation Shield and Arrow,” this latest operation appears to be in response to more than 500 missiles fired at Israel. It is my hope that this is just the opening gambit in a much wider operation. The Israeli military and political hierarchy should look further than the most recent skirmish and see the wider war, with a fuller understanding of the long-term battle...
(FLAME via JNS) — Over the last 75 years, since Israel’s founding, the Palestinians have achieved the dubious distinction of being among the world’s most persistent and brutal terrorists. Against all evidence, Palestinian leaders apparently believe this strategy will eventually achieve self-determination. Note that the world’s most famous and beloved leaders usually motivate their people with an uplifting vision regarding how to achieve freedom, prosperity, or greatness. Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech, for example, was an inspir...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s visit to Baku last week could be a harbinger of things to come beyond bilateral relations between Israel and Azerbaijan. After his meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 19, Cohen said the leaders discussed “the strategic regional challenges we share, chief among them regional security and the fight against terrorism.” Although Cohen’s comments did not directly reference Iran—Azerbaijan’s Shia Muslim neighbor—recent developments in the region amplify the significance of...
This year 2023 marks the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the 75th anniversary of the Jewish State of Israel’s independence. It is also the 35th anniversary of the first annual March of the Living. In that first March of the Living, Jews from around the world descended on the city of Oświecim, Poland to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camps. They walked in the same path that over one million of our people — men, women, children and babies — unbeknownst to them, made on their one-way trek from Auschw...
(JNS) — There is something about the story of the eight Jews who spent more than two years hiding in the secret annex on Prinsengracht 263 in Amsterdam that is irresistible to readers, as well as audiences for plays and movies. The travails of Otto Frank and his family, who were trapped in an intolerable prison with friends and a few others in an attic where they were forced to spend most of their time in silence, were immortalized by his younger daughter, Anne. Aptly characterized by Dara Horn as “everyone’s second favorite dead Jew” in her...
(JNS) — On Sunday, Jan. 8, in Davie, Fla., the organization Teach Florida had their legislative breakfast with members of the Florida legislature. More than 750 people attended to thank the group for its increased financial support for school choice. After the event ended, I spoke to Republican Rep. Randy Fine about my idea to combat the rise of antisemitism in Florida. Fine told me he had the same idea, but it could be helpful if I spoke to the Speaker of the Florida House about it. I approached the speaker and it was clear from his c...
(JNS) — Harvard University is building ties with a Palestinian Arab university that supports terrorism, even though some of Harvard’s own students have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists. Last month, Harvard president Lawrence Bacow paid a friendly visit to Al-Quds University near Jerusalem. According to an Al-Quds press release, “he met some of the students and faculty, who expressed their enthusiasm about collaborating with Harvard on future research and educational projects.” I wonder if Bacow had a chance to discuss with the student...
(JNS) — Israeli judicial reform must pass in order to secure Israel’s future as a democratic state. Over the past four months, the public’s trust in its officials and democratic elections has fallen due to the uncompromising campaign against the reform. Thus, the right-wing coalition needs to enact the policies it was elected to pursue, though compromises will need to be made and the unity of the country preserved. The political landscape of developed countries in Europe and the U.S. is similar in many ways to Israel’s and underst...
(JTA) — Last week marked Yom Haatzmaut, our beloved Israel’s 75th birthday — the day on the Hebrew calendar when David Ben-Gurion proclaimed “the natural right of the Jewish people to be masters of their own fate” by establishing a Jewish state in the land of Israel. Together with countless Jews around the world, we express our gratitude to be alive at this moment in history when the Jewish people have sovereignty and a nation to call their own. But on this anniversary, Yom Haatzmaut’s special prayers and festive afternoon barbecues f...
(JNS) — It will be 30 years in September since a grim Yitzhak Rabin shook hands on the White House lawn with a beaming Yasser Arafat following the signing of the Declaration of Principles that marked the beginning of what many thought could be a five-year road to peace. Plenty of people were skeptical and now are happy to say, “I told you so.” There will be plenty of time for the rehash on the anniversary of the Oslo Accords, but I was struck by a statistic that really tells you all you need to know about why the cynics proved right. A mothe...
(JNS) — Words cannot describe the pain I feel, the silence I go through. I would do anything to go back a month to the days before the tragedy, before all of this happened, before our lives took a turn for the worse. I can’t digest that the whole world knows my face because of this horrific event. I can’t believe that I sit as a VIP in all the ceremonies. This is not what I want at all, it makes me feel ill. How much more pain is possible? I sit and hear about more terror attacks around me, it’s not over. Arriving at the ceremony and standin...
(JNS) — Amid the latest wave of Palestinian Arab terrorist attacks, international condemnations of Israel and assorted other controversies, a significant recent development has received scant attention—the attempt by Palestinian Arab terrorists to shoot down an Israeli plane. It happened on April 2, when an Israel Air Force cargo plane flew over the city of Jenin. Terrorists on the ground shot at the low-flying Hercules C-130J aircraft. Video posted on social-media networks was adorned with the boastful caption, “Soldiers firing on a Zioni...
There seems to be a zealous increase in the United States of the banning of certain books from both school and general libraries. From what I’ve read and researched it seems that the overwhelming reason for this is that certain conservative Christian groups have decided that the material in these books are “not acceptable” for certain groups, basically young readers. This may be so but I do not believe many books of any kind are taken out of libraries by 10 year olds. Their parents – yes. And I am sure that some of these books are indeed...
(JNS) — We are fast approaching Sept. 13, 2023, which will mark 30 years since the Oslo Accords were signed on the White House lawn under the auspices of then-President Bill Clinton. It was one of the worst mistakes Israel has made over its 75 years of statehood. The Accords elevated arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat into a statesman, but he never changed his stripes. Israel has suffered immensely since Arafat and his minions were given diplomatic status and legitimized. Since the Oslo Accords were signed, at least 1,661 Israelis have been murdered...
(JNS) Gallup’s headline was attention-grabbing: “Democrats’ Sympathies in Middle East Shift to Palestinians.” The trend has been clear and seemingly inexorable since support hit its second-highest level of 58 percent in 2014 (the peak was at the time of the 1991 Gulf War when support for Israel hit its high for the first time—64 percent —and Democratic support was 62 percent) and steadily fell to 38 percent in 2023. During that period, sympathy for the Palestinians increased from 23 percent to 49 percent. Meanwhile, Republican support has...
(JNS) — My wife and I left South Africa for a trip to Israel on Tuesday. As we were going through the security checks at the El Al departure area, we suddenly heard the soft hum of a siren. There and then, in middle of the busy Johannesburg International Airport, a moment of silence was observed for Yom HaShoah by Jewish staff and travelers alike. Heads were bowed in reverence and memory before we got back to the business at hand. I found it a particularly moving moment. We Jews are somewhat obsessed with remembering. Memories are profoundly i...
(JNS) — The central theme of Holocaust Remembrance Day this year is “Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Marking 80 Years since the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.” Resistance encompasses a wide range of actions and, contrary to popular belief, does not necessarily involve taking up arms. Jewish resistance during the Holocaust could be a Shabbat Kiddush, staging a play in the ghetto, or even applying a little rouge to the cheeks—any action, simple or complex, that preserved the human spirit in the face of the Nazi German extermination plan that sou...
Throughout the streets of Efrat, the Judean mountain town of about 12,000 in which I live, on Sunday afternoon, thousands of people stood silently, in reverence and grief, to provide comfort. Praying. We had been asked to line the streets as the Dee family drove from their home in my neighborhood to the cemetery just a few miles away, to bury Maya (20) and Rina (15) who had been murdered in a terrorist attack two days earlier. Entire families stood silently, even with children too young to know why they were standing there. Among the thousands...
(JNS) — In a social-media post on Friday night, Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (res.) Tal Russo urged fellow anti-government activists to skip the demonstrations scheduled for the following evening. “In light of the difficult events throughout the country, security and police forces are on high alert and deployed in central locations from the Gaza Strip to the northern border,” he tweeted. “I therefore call on my comrades-in-protest against the coup to cancel tomorrow’s countrywide rallies. The situation demands it!” Russo, who served in v...
(JTA) — Picture a cute-looking, 6 1/2-year-old girl with curly braided hair. She is standing on a sidewalk, on a cold, dreary day in Leipzig, Germany, together with her parents and my wife and me. My granddaughter Vivi is staring intently at a 75-year-old worker, kneeling on the ground. He is digging a hole through the pavers to install several 4” x 4” brass plaques mounted on cement cubes — memorials to relatives who perished at the hands of the Nazis more than 80 years ago. In February, we traveled 9,500 miles round-trip to dedicate 12 Stol...
(JNS) — Many years ago, I was stuck in a New York City traffic jam. When I finally got to the source of the bottleneck, I discovered it was caused by a group of young demonstrators. Most looked like classic hippies and they were protesting the plight of the world’s whales. “Save the Whales!” posters and placards filled the intersection. Later, I saw a cartoon in The New Yorker in which two whales were having a conversation and one says to the other, “But can they save themselves?” There are 27 conflicts going on in the world today. Ukraine is...
(JNS) — Over 3,000 years ago a slave revolt took place that has been repeated every year since. It was not just a rebellion against a long since vanished pharaoh whose dynasty and people have been consigned to dust along with his treasure cities that the Jewish slaves had labored over. The revolutions of the past come and go. Nations rise and fall, and then fall further into the history books. Passover, however, was a remarkable revolt not just against an empire, but paganism, and it remains relevant even all these thousands of years later. In...
