Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 201 - 205 of 205
In a recent, exhaustive study of anti-Semitism, the German scholar Clemens Heni explains the significance for Christian theology of the story of Ahasver, a Jewish shoemaker in Jerusalem who, legend has it, refused Jesus a resting place as he made his way to Golgotha bearing the cross on his back. Ahasver’s punishment, says Heni, was to wander the world for eternity, an image that formed the basis for what the Nazis famously called “der ewige Jude”—“the eternal Jew.” “The attribute ‘eternal’ cries out for redemption,” writes Heni. “For Christia...
Here’s a term that rarely crops up in discussions of American policy towards northeast Asia: the Korea Lobby. And as for the pejorative term “Korea Firsters,” that isn’t one I’ve come across. It’s not as if a cluster of organizations working to enhance our relationship with South Korea, or highlight the danger posed by the communist North, doesn’t exist. There’s a group called Korean American Civic Empowerment, whose website boasts a photo of its supporters with the refreshingly combative U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL). The group works...
As we mark Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) on April 8 for the 60th consecutive year—this somber day was first placed onto the Jewish calendar in 1953, at the instigation of Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion—we again ask ourselves a deceptively simple question: Why do we still remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Nazi Holocaust, along with millions of others? There is no better day than Yom HaShoah to explore these issues. Unlike the various other Holocaust Memorial Days that take place during the year, most...
Christianity is the world’s largest religion. And with more than 1 billion members, the Roman Catholic Church is its largest denomination. Anyone who watched the recent installation of Pope Francis I, attended by luminaries from 132 nations, would have taken away the enduring impression of a powerful, influential faith that commands respect even from its detractors. But in other parts of the world, it’s a very different story. In the dusty alleyways of Lahore in Pakistan, or in the choked streets of northern Nigeria’s cities, Christians lead...
Sometimes you have to give politicians a little credit. If you heard through the grapevine that two of your friends had been discussing you, with one calling you a “liar” and the other one replying, “I have to deal with him even more often than you,” chances are you would cut ties. And that’s exactly what former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and U.S. President Barack Obama said, respectively, about the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in an unguarded moment at the G20 Summit in France two years ago. Yet, in the aftermath of this e...
