Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The saga of Kanye West’s antisemitism is not without irony. Even after he had engendered controversy by engaging in anti-Jewish rants, West, who now calls himself “Ye,” boasted that his status as a rap music star and fashion mogul rendered him exempt from facing any real financial consequences for spreading hatred. The Adidas brand, in particular, would, he said, stick with him. “I can literally say antisemitic s*** and they cannot drop me,” he said. A few days later, he found out this wasn’t true when Adidas dropped him, on the ground...
(JNS) — This month, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong reversed the previous government’s decision to recognize western Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The question that should be asked is why that recognition was controversial at all. No fair-minded person who believes in two states for two peoples thinks Israel should not be entitled to at least the western part of Jerusalem in any future settlement with the Palestinians. This principle has been part of every peace proposal in recent memory and the area has been in possession of the Jewis...
(JNS) — Vladimir Putin is slaughtering Ukrainian men, women and children. Xi Jinping is committing genocide against the Muslims of East Turkistan. Ali Khamenei is murdering Iranian girls for wearing their hijabs in what he considers a provocative manner. What is the United Nations doing in response to these crises? It’s going “death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.” That quote, of course, is from a recent tweet by Kanye West. “DEFCON,” an acronym for “defense readiness condition,” is how the U.S. military indicates states of alert, ranging from on...
Last week, Jews around the world read the Torah portion about Noah (Genesis 6:9-10). Noah is fascinating. God doesn’t say he was a great guy. What happens after the ark comes to rest, after the floodwaters subside, planting a vineyard and getting drunk, is a great example. The Torah says he was righteous in his generation, which means he was better than others, deserving of being saved along with his family, and reliable enough to gather every species of animal to repopulate the world. Even though God made a covenant never to destroy the world...
(JNS) — Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli, the head of Israel’s falsely dubbed “center left” Labor Party, doesn’t even bother these days to temper the radicalism that makes her indistinguishable from Meretz leader Zahava Gal-On. This isn’t the sole reason that the outspoken feminist — who has boasted of carrying on the legacy of the late (assassinated) prime minister Yitzhak Rabin — is polling so poorly in the run-up to the Nov. 1 Knesset elections. Her drawing of such a comparison would be merely comical if it didn’t serve a purpose b...
Dear Editor: I was saddened to read of Tess’ death. She was a very special lady — a true Eishet Chayil. The Orlando Jewish community benefited greatly and will continue to benefit greatly for many future decades from Tess’s commitment and efforts. I’d like to expand on this one sentence in the Heritage article: “What began with her “Holocaust Project” in the early 1980s with small conferences and discussions about extremism and terrorism, stands today as the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida.” As with Hy Lake, Tess (...
(JNS) — The latest brouhaha surrounding former U.S. President Donald Trump pertains to comments he posted on Sunday about—and directed to—American Jews. “No president has done more for Israel than I have,” he wrote on his platform, Truth Social. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than the people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” All true, other than the “surprisingly” part. The majority of Jews in the United States wouldn’t support a Republican if their...
While almost every federal election is generally perceived as “the most important election the American people have ever faced.” this year’s midterm elections should accurately be described as one of the most confusing and potentially dangerous ever faced by Jewish Americans. For starters, there have never been so many candidates in this year’s national, state and local elections who believe the elections are rigged and fraught with fraud. These candidates and their supporters are continuing to persist, in spite of the overwhelming evidenc...
I have been a Ken Burns fan for years. His technique and artistry have taken everything from Country music to the Civil War, from disjointed history to present day entertainment and handled it superbly. His loving treatment of Country music was praiseworthy. From the Civil War to Jazz, he has documented American history in an entertaining, frank and historically accurate manner. In undertaking “The Holocaust” he has tackled a major challenge. This sensitive subject, written about, discussed, argued over and never forgotten is at the same time e...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — Something remarkable, perhaps even miraculous, is happening halfway around the world. For more than 43 years, post-revolutionary Iran has been forbidden to the millions who escaped from the country. But today, due to the unbelievable courage and sacrifice of thousands of Iranian protesters, the prospect of the regime actually crumbling has Iranians in the diaspora bursting with anxious anticipation, wondering if they’ll be able to return to a free Iran. There’s so much at stake. In the words of one Iranian American fr...
(JNS) — For more than 50 years, Israel’s critics have claimed that if Israelis would just agree to create a Palestinian state, the Palestinians would live in peace with them. Well, last month, Israel’s prime minister offered to create a Palestinian state. How did the Palestinians respond? Is the long-promised peace at last dawning upon the Middle East? Not quite. At the United Nations on Sept. 22, Prime Minister Yair Lapid announced his willingness to create a non-terrorist Palestinian state. Did the Palestinian Arab leadership respond by an...
(JNS) — Should Israel align with the West and aid Ukraine its fight against the ongoing Russian invasion? Should Israel remain neutral because it needs to coordinate with Russia in Syria in order to defend Israel’s northern border? Perhaps the most important question, however, is should Israel consider Ukraine and Russia’s treatment of the Jewish people and Israel in making its decision? Ukraine, to say the least, has a problematic record in regard to the Jewish people and Israel. During World War II, one-fourth of the Jews murdered in the H...
(JNS) — At what point does a rise in antisemitism stop being viewed merely as a series of isolated, troubling occurrences and start being treated like an emergency? When mass- media programs mainstream hatemongers who target and seek to delegitimize Jews? When elite academic institutions behave as though it’s acceptable conduct? When Jews are attacked in the streets? The ongoing epidemic of violence against Jews in New York City is mostly ignored, both by the media and much of the organized Jewish world. This is not only because the vic...
(JNS) — Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022 was the 40th anniversary of the 1982 Palestinian terror attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome, in which a two-year-old child, Stefano Tache, was killed and 37 others wounded. Stefano’s brother Gadiel, also wounded in the attack, has just published his memoir, “The Shouting Silence,” in which he deals with the Italian government’s complicity with the terrorists. The whole of Italy must thank Gadiel for his strength and determination, and for telling the story of his suffering and that of his whole family, especially...
(JNS) A movement is now afoot in the United States to drive Jews out of higher education — both teachers and students. The movement, using the poisoned spear tip of anti-Zionism, is gaining momentum. It is reminiscent of nothing less than the movement to expel Jews from the educational system in Nazi Germany. In 1933, Germany’s new civil service law excluded Jewish university professors as well as Jewish elementary and secondary school teachers from the profession. In the same year, Germany’s Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Unive...
This week in 1986, U.S. President Ronald Regan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev met at a summit in Rekjavik, Iceland. With the nuclear threat of Vladimir Putin today, wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had world leaders who could sit down and debate over a few words regarding nuclear disarmament as was done in Rekjavik, rather than brash statements in response to Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine. I wasn’t in Rekjavik but made my presence felt. My issue was not nuclear weapons, but rather saving Soviet Jews. In that con...
In an interview with Maariv last week, former Israeli Air Force commander Amir Eshel made several startling admissions about the role he and other IDF generals played in scuttling former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s most significant strategic policies. His most startling admissions related to former U.S. president Donald Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. In 2019, then-Israeli opposition leader Benny Gantz appointed Eshel to serve as his interlocutor with the Trump administration and its Middle East peace plan. In this pos...
On the eve of The Day of Atonement, “Erev Yom Kippur”, it is traditional for Jewish families to recite the Kapporeth prayer in the morning before Yom Kippur as part of our atonement, asking G-d to forgive our sins of the past year; and to give charity in support of our request for forgiveness and to be written into the Book of Life. This year I recited the Kapporeth prayer on behalf of 19 relatives. Among these 19 relatives are one Holocaust survivor, two second-generation Holocaust survivors, five third-generation Holocaust survivors and six...
(JNS) — On Sept. 21, U.S. President Joe Biden addressed the U.N. General Assembly. In his speech, he referred to a negotiated “peace between the Jewish and democratic State of Israel and the Palestinian people.” He added that such a peace is “the best way to ensure Israel’s security … and give the Palestinians the state to which they are entitled.” Entitled? The pernicious political fantasy of the “two-state solution” has been so thoroughly inculcated into the minds of most Western leaders that it is almost axiomatic. It leads to the assu...
(JNS) — It has often been said that the media is a pillar of democracy because it keeps our politicians honest. Lifting the veil of secrecy in which authorities like to cloak themselves, revealing inconvenient truths that expose the inadequacies and worse of government actions and subjecting all politicians to forensic questioning without bias—this is how the media acts in the public interest. But when the media doesn’t deliver, truthfulness goes out of the window, propaganda and ignorance take over and democracy stumbles. We see this in much...
(JNS) It is an article of faith among European leaders, the political intelligentsia and the Biden administration that “two states for two peoples” is the only solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Failure to achieve this goal is usually blamed on Israel, with many accusers going so far as to assert that Israel has no right to exist and accusing it of being an apartheid colonial entity perpetrating ethnic cleansing against the indigenous population of “Palestine.” With Israeli elections set for Nov. 1, the public debate is heating...
(JNS) — The latest exchange in the ongoing battle between Yeshiva University and the YU Pride Alliance, a student LGBTQ club, allowed for at least a temporary ceasefire between the two sides. But the case continues to generate controversy, as the status quo of other recognized groups continuing to operate on the campus, while the gay club still seeks equal treatment, remains. YU stands a good chance of eventually prevailing if, as expected, a decision on the merits of the case is decided by the U.S. Supreme Court at some point. But even if i...
(JNS) — It’s impossible not be astonished and humbled by the bravery of the Iranian people. From bus drivers to university teachers, once again a cross-section of Iranian society has taken to the streets of Tehran and other cities in a fresh round of protests against the brutal Islamist regime that has ruled them since 1979. The immediate trigger for these latest demonstrations was the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22. Amini was arrested in Tehran by the regime’s so-called “Morality Police”—uniformed thugs whose job would correctly be...
(JNS) — “We stand with Israel.” That is the sign in front of my Conservative synagogue and many other synagogues. What could be less controversial? What could be more fundamental to Jewish identity? Alas, at too many synagogues, standing with Israel is too much for some. On Rosh Hashanah, my rabbi felt compelled to defend the sign after a congregant complained. He later admitted to me that he’s not sure such a sign could be put up in the Bay Area where he previously lived. Even worse, the problem is no longer surprising. A year ago, while t...
In May 2019, Governor DeSantis went to Jerusalem to sign a law that makes religion a protected class with respect to discrimination in public education, equating antisemitism with racism. In signing the bill, protecting students from discrimination based on religion at all grade levels, K through college, Governor DeSantis said “…antisemitism has no place in our state and our educational institutions will not tolerate discrimination against the Jewish people. … Florida is the most Israel-friendly state in the country and as long as I’m Governo...
