Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Abraham Accords have led to a host of programs to bring together Jews and Muslims. One new project, the Mukhayriq Initiative, is named after a Jewish rabbi who gave his life fighting to defend the Prophet Muhammad at the legendary Battle of Uhud in 625 C.E. The story of the rabbi’s sacrifice—and his close friendship with Muhammed—is known mainly to Islamic scholars, but the founders of the initiative say it reflects a positive, if suppressed, aspect of Muslim-Jewish history. To underscore the importance of the story, coming as it d...
(JNS) — The Knesset, which was to vote to revamp rules regarding Jewish conversion, has delayed the bill until the start of its summer session in May due to the political sensitivity of the issue. The delayed vote represents the latest in a series of efforts to resolve religious disputes through political means—most recently, an attempt to establish prayer sections for different streams of Judaism at the Western Wall (Kotel) and to introduce competition to kosher certification, currently a monopoly of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Of the three...
(JNS) - As part of a two-and-a-half-day trip to Israel, former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence visited Hebron's Jewish community on Wednesday, becoming the most senior international leader to visit the city since it was retaken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. Hebron, where 1,000 Jews live surrounded by 200,000 Arabs, is most notable for the Machpelah,the Cave of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, revered by Jews as the place Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial place for his...
(JNS) — Pro-Israel groups working on campus agree that the situation for Jewish students is growing steadily worse. Just this fall, antisemitic incidents erupted at campuses across the country — from vandals desecrating a Torah scroll at George Washington University to a student at the University of New Mexico hospitalized after being attacked by a group shouting antisemitic slurs. “Recently at USC, we saw a member of student government threaten to ‘kill Zionists’ without repercussion while a Jewish member of student government was harassed int...
(JNS) — Israel abandoned its “red list” of countries last week — those destinations with high COVID-19 infection rates, from which foreign travelers were banned from entering Israel. It’s welcome news to pro-Israel groups whose bread and butter is organizing trips to Israel. They say the travel bans have complicated their mission to connect people to the Jewish state, and no amount of speaker series and digital events can compare to “putting two feet on Israeli soil.” Izzy Tapoohi, president and CEO of the Birthright Israel Foundation, t...
(JNS) — Last week, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid warned that Israel will face increasing allegations that it is an apartheid state in 2022, with the foreign minister saying that he fears that opponents of Israel will attempt to target Israel’s involvement in sporting and cultural events. “The concern from the foreign ministry is that you have three or four different legal proceedings in which allegations of apartheid have been made and that at least one of them may end up endorsing these allegations,” Yuval Shany, professor of interna...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed at his private palace in Abu Dhabi on Monday in the first official visit by an Israeli premier to the United Arab Emirates. The growing economic ties between their two countries were on the official agenda, though analysts tell JNS that behind the scenes the key topic of Iran was likely front and center. The optics couldn’t have been better for Bennett. Upon arrival on Sunday, he was greeted by an honor guard and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zay...
(JNS) - It was billed as the first Iranian delegation to Israel since the fall of the Shah 42 years earlier. Six Iranian Muslim dissidents, forced to leave their homeland decades ago and who made their way to the United States, came on a three-day solidarity mission last week to show support for the Jewish state following the May clash between Israel and Palestinian terror groups in the Gaza Strip - namely, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - that have long been backed by Iran. Accompanying th...
(JNS) Passersby were treated to a striking sight outside Jerusalem's City Hall on Tuesday. One-hundred and fifty bright orange "ambucycles" – motorcycles and scooters equipped with lifesaving medical equipment – were lined in neat rows at Safra Square to celebrate the dedication of the Dr. Miriam & Sheldon G. Adelson Ambucycle Unit of United Hatzalah. Hundreds of United Hatzalah volunteers attended the event, and Channel 12 news anchor Ofer Hadad served as master of ceremonies. The 150 amb...
(JNS) — Over the past few decades, evangelical Christians have emerged as one of Israel’s core bases of support both in the United States and many other countries as well. However, growing trends of secularization and liberal ideology, as well as the erosion of a pro-Israel theology, are threatening to undermine this support, particularly among young evangelicals. A recent poll, commissioned by University of North Carolina at Pembroke Professors Mordechai Inbari and Kirill Bumin, shows a sharp drop in support for Israel among the younger set ha...
(JNS) - "Israel, you are not alone. ... We represent 10 million-plus people in America and these people say to you Israel, we have your back." That was the message of Pastor John Hagee, chairman and founder of Christians United for Israel, the largest pro-Israel organization in the United States. Hagee was in Israel on a June 13-14 solidarity mission that included former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley. Haley, who served in that role from January 2017 to December 2018, stood... Full story
On Feb. 23, the Zionist Organization of America sent a letter to Penguin Random House to complain about the anti-Israel bias in former President Barack Obama’s memoir “A Promised Land.” The organization has yet to hear back, says ZOA National President Morton Klein. “Having received complaints from our supporters and conducting our own review, we are deeply concerned about the factual inaccuracies, material omissions and outright falsehoods” contained in Obama’s book, the letter states, which was co-signed by Klein, ZOA Chairman Mark S. Lev...
The Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee held a special meeting on Monday to give MKs a chance to bid farewell and thank U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman. Committee chairman Zvi Hauser of the Derech Eretz faction thanked Friedman for righting a historical wrong concerning Israel's capital. "During your tenure, you have fulfilled the dreams of us all. During your shift, a historical distortion was corrected, and the traditional position of the United States realized in...
