Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 951 - 975 of 3678
(JNS) When COVID-19 struck the United States, I thought that it would become a unifying force. I naively reasoned that the coronavirus pandemic would bring people together. I believed that the bitter polarization that began with the crash of the stock market in 2007-08 would finally end. I was wrong. COVID has caused a greater rupture. It has brought health-care workers closer together, but few others. It has socially distanced society even further. The political divide that used to be a significant crack has become a huge chasm. It has also...
(JNS) — The Jewish communities of North Africa and the Middle East are often inaccurately represented in academia and the mainstream media. Their rich, complex history is purposely obscured to undermine Zionism. Indeed, professors, anti-Israel student organizations, and influential figures have denied the unique indigenity of Jews in the Middle East. Moreover, these groups have minimized the widespread historical subordination, persecution, and exile of Jews under Arab and Muslim rule. Unlike the harmonious depictions of an interreligious c...
This letter from ZOA was sent to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Deputy Prime Minister Benjamin Gantz, Justice Minister Gideon Sa’ar, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, State of Israel, Jerusalem, Israel Re: URGENT Request to stop Minhal Ezrahi’s immoral and discriminatory planned destruction of terror victim Ezra Schwartz vineyard and Jewish families’ livelihoods at Arugot Farms Dear Prime Minister Bennett, Deputy Prime Minister Gantz and Justice Minister Sa’ar: The Zionist Organization of America urges you to use your good offices to stop th...
At the UN General Assembly last week, a large majority of member nations voted to lavishly fund a permanent inquisition against the Jewish state. The member states funded the operation of an “ongoing independent, international commission of inquiry,” against Israel. The commission, run by outspoken haters of Israel with long records of demonizing the State of Israel and its people, was formed by the UN Human Rights Council in a special session in May. Its purpose is to deny and reject Israel’s right to exist, its right to self-defense, its r...
There are bad people in this world who do bad things. Sometimes they’ll blow up buildings or shoot people in schools or burn down a police precinct or even violently riot at the U.S. Capitol. When these horrible crimes are committed, some of the questions we ask, especially with assaults on public buildings, are: How could we have prevented it? Was our security sufficient? Did we take the proper precautions? And yet, no one seems to be mentioning any of these crucial concerns as we review and analyze the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the Capitol by T...
News of prominent NYC business woman and Jewish philanthropist, Helene Fortunoff’s death brought back memories of working in the Fortunoff family business during my college years in the 1960s. Helene was the last of the second generation of matriarchs of a very successful family of retailers who created a mini-retail empire, a model and forerunner for the Walmart and Target stores, which today dominate the big box retail business Soon after graduation from high school in June 1960, I landed a summer job in a warehouse and housewares store o...
David Leonhardt wrote an opinion article in the New York Times Morning Newsletter on Tuesday titled “No Way to Grow Up” in which he posited that “Americans have accepted more harm to children in exchange for less harm to adults.” This ‘sacrifice’ is precisely the attitude that the Israelites had when sacrificing their children to the Canaanite diety Molloch an Israeli rabbi charges. “American children are starting 2022 in crisis,” Leonhardt wrote. “I have long been aware that the pandemic was upending children’s lives. But until I spent time pu...
By now, Dr. Fauci’s Covid “fearspeak” has become background noise. Yes, the new “Omicron” variant is making its way around the world. Fortunately, reports from South Africa as well as other studies indicate that Omicron’s illness is milder than Delta. Even Fauci-friendly public health physicians have cautioned that there is “absolutely no reason to panic.” In 2022, we should panic because opioid overdoses took the lives of 100,000 fellow Americans from April 2020 to April 2021—an increase of 28 percent from the same period the year before....
(JNS) — The campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel has recently moved into a higher gear with the increased use of one particularly vicious falsehood. This is the claim that Israel is an apartheid state. The claim is as fatuous as it is pernicious. Apartheid was the name given to South Africa’s systematic oppression of its black inhabitants, who were denied political, civic and human rights. By contrast, Arab Israeli citizens have fully equal rights. They study in Israel’s universities; enjoy Israel’s beaches and parks; receive equal trea...
(JNS) — First, some background: Israel’s current government is a leftist-Islamist coalition that includes some former conservatives “out front” as stalking horses. One of those is serving as the current prime minister. Another was Gideon Sa’ar’s New Hope party. Dani Dayan, a former consul general and Yesha council leader, ran on the New Hope party list. The only purpose of New Hope was to tear away enough conservative votes to create this leftist hybrid government. Now it’s expected to be wiped out in any future elections. Former Israeli Prime...
(JNS) — This past Shabbat, we read the Torah portion of Shemot, where Moses is asked by God to go to Pharaoh and demand that he “let my people go.” It is Pharaoh who recognizes that the Jews are a nation. He is the first to call us Am Bnei Yisrael. He recognizes the unity and destiny that the people of Israel share, and he is afraid of our strength. Today, we see the reverse situation happening in Israel. The COVID-19 pandemic has led to many restrictive regulations and the latest Omicron variant has seen the skies of Israel once again closed t...
Last week, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul blocked what would have otherwise been unanimous passage of the Iron Dome funding bill, HR5323, providing Israel with $1 billion to replenish its Iron Dome system following the war Israel endured with Palestinian Arab terrorists in Gaza this past May During the 11-day barrage, Hamas and other Palestinian Arab terror groups fired over 4000 rockets at Israeli cities. The Iron Dome is a defensive system that shoots down short-range rockets with a 90 percent success rate, saving both the lives of countless...
(JNS) — Jerusalem’s security outlook, which goes back to the days of Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, is focused first and foremost on responding to existential threats. In the past, this meant regular Arab armies that threatened to invade its territory. Today, the country is investing great effort in thwarting the Iranian nuclear threat. The arsenal of missiles at the disposal of Hezbollah and Hamas may not constitute an existential threat but could result in loss of life and material damage, disrupt the lives of Israeli citiz...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — While tens of millions of poor souls are dying and starving under brutal regimes in places like Yemen, Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Congo and Somalia, among others, the United Nations decided last Thursday that only one country merits an open-ended investigation. If you haven’t been living on Mars the past few decades, you’ve already guessed the name of that country — Israel — the recipient of more U.N. condemnations than all other countries combined. So, what did the world’s only Jewish state do this time to deserve...
(JNS) — Looking back at 2021 in the hope of having something sensible to say about the past year, I found myself musing on a perennial question. Is history a story of progress, in which greater numbers of human beings become healthier, happier, more affluent, more tolerant and more educated with each year? Is it a story in which we learn from our past errors and those of our predecessors in order to not repeat them? Or is history a series of random cycles, in which health, happiness and wealth are at best fleeting experiences in a world w...
As the holiday season concludes with this evening’s New Year’s celebrations and tomorrow’s recovery, the same old problem of 2021 confronting the Jewish people is carried over into 2022, namely global antisemitism. As we move into the new year, virulent antisemitism continues to grow unabated here in America and throughout the world. How long must we deal with the endless and meaningless apologies for the use of antisemitic tropes, for physical attacks on Jewish citizens and for attacks against Israel based on knowingly false accusations that...
Antisemitism is alive and well in the United States. Everything from shootings in a Kosher food market in New York to marches with Neo-Nazis chanting “Jews Will Not Replace Us” to cold-blooded killings in a synagogue. Now it has entered the halls of Congress. Meet “The Squad” (although I’m sure you have heard of them): From New York, Alexandria Ocasio Cortez; from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar; from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib. And on the Right we have the Supreme Whacko: from Georgia, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Interesting that they are all women. And excep...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s announcement on Sunday evening of additional steps to confront the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus illustrates how easily government policies can be inherently contradictory. Even when giving the benefit of the doubt to hysterical health authorities — and refraining from the natural inclination to suspect ulterior motives for fanning the flames of a crisis — it’s hard not to be disdainful of the double-speak surrounding anything coronavirus-related. This isn’t exclusive to Israeli dec...
(JTA) — When I finished rabbinical school in 2018, I entered the “real world” with $40,000 in student loans. I acted fast, prioritizing repayment over everything else. Within six months, I paid nearly $10,000 to eliminate interest, and I continued allocating three times my expected monthly payment. Interest didn’t get much chance to build, and when we hit the pandemic pause, I was on track to clear my loans in two years. I am unbelievably lucky. My parents were able to help me with undergrad (due to generational wealth resulting from many Jews...
(JNS) — To the casual observer of news from the Middle East, it would appear that the biggest story coming out of Israel lately is what some outlets are describing as a surge in settler violence against Palestinians. According to B’Tselem, an anti-settler group that is nonetheless treated as if it is an impartial and objective source by Western publications, the number of attacks by Jews living in West Bank settlements on neighboring Arabs is allegedly up by nearly 50 percent in the previous year. In this telling, radical Jews — motiv...
(JNS) — On an average day in December 2015, Rabbi Reuven Biermacher finished teaching Torah to his students in Aish Yeshiva’s Spanish program in the Old City of Jerusalem. He walked out of the building and through the Jaffa Gate. While on his way home to his family, he was suddenly attacked by two terrorists who stabbed him repeatedly. He was evacuated to the hospital, where he succumbed to his wounds. This month marks the sixth yahrzeit, the anniversary of his death. I wish that we lived in a world where this tragedy was a unique, sol...
With the passing of Sunny Mandell z’l the Orlando Jewish community has lost one of its most significant matriarchs. I would guess that the vast majority of Jews living in Orlando today did not know Sunny. For sure, most never met her. I wish that they had the experience of knowing and working with this unique and wonderful person. Sunny was the first woman to chair the Major Gifts Committee of the Federation’s campaign. She was the first woman overall Campaign chair, and she was Federation president from 1981 to 1983. Sunny’s commitment to th...
(JNS) — The loudest Israeli message to the Biden administration was sounded by Defense Minister Benny Gantz during his appearance last week at the Israeli-American National Council Summit in Hollywood, Fla. Gantz said that he had notified his counterparts in the U.S. government that he had ordered the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This is far from the first indication that Israel is stepping up preparations for acting on its own to prevent Iran from attaining the status of a nuclear power. But for...
(JNS) — ADL national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt deserves credit. On Dec. 7, he posted two tweets. He urged CAIR to condemn their San Francisco Bay area executive director Zahra Billoo for her “textbook vile, #antisemitic, conspiracy-laden garbage attacking the mainstream U.S. Jewish community” and sounding like a white supremacist. Unsurprisingly, CAIR stood by Billoo. They condemned Greenblatt instead. Days later on Dec. 12, Greenblatt expanded, tweeting about Billoo’s “classic conspiratorial antisemitism,” noting that Billoo’s sp...
B(JNS) — The Oct. 9, 1982, Palestinian terrorist attack on the Great Synagogue of Rome, in which two-year-old Stefano Gaj Tachè was killed, and the blood of 37 others who were wounded flowed on the stones of the building that should have been the safest refuge for Jews in the Italian capital, was a double slap in the face — not only by the murderers, but by those who didn’t lift a finger to defend their victims. According to a front-page story in the left-leaning Italian daily, Il Riformista, Italian authorities had been warned that an attack...
