Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Valerie Greenfeld, 58, immigrated to Israel just before Passover 2021 from Washington D.C., amid widespread travel restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19. She began her quarantine immediately after arriving in Israel, which coincided with the first night of Passover. She had her own one-woman Passover seder and though it was a different way to celebrate the holiday than most years, she told JNS that she "felt very connected." Beginning the aliyah process in 2019,...
(JNS) - Israel's Upper Galilee region is positioning itself to become a global leader in foodtech. Several food-tech and agritech accelerators and companies have established themselves in Israel's northern "periphery," where the Israeli government provides incentives for individuals and businesses to establish themselves there. The region boasts open and fertile land that brings forth some of Israel's top produce, as well as an ecosystem of budding infrastructure - public bodies and...
(JNS) - American Jews are often criticized these days for distancing from Israel as a result of political considerations. To counteract that trend, the "Israel trip" has become a central way to positively interact with the Jewish state and all it has to offer. But due to the coronavirus pandemic and the inability of traveling there this High Holiday season, Israel-loving foodies say it's more vital than ever to find new ways to connect. Bringing Israeli cuisine to the Rosh Hashanah or Sukkot...
(JNS) - The Psagot Winery sits on the peaks of the Binyamin region mountains in Judea and Samaria, north of Jerusalem and just east of Ramallah. Though Psagot and many Israeli-owned businesses operating over the 1967 armistice lines have historically experienced boycotts in Europe and throughout the Arab world, many say that in the context of the Abraham Accords, this may be changing. When Yaakov Berg and his wife, Naama, established the Psagot Winery in 2002, they made fewer than 3,000...
(JNS) — Media representatives from 30 countries joined online last week to discuss the right of Jews throughout the world to intervene in what’s going on in Israel, as well as Israel’s new diplomatic ties and the influence of social networks on the hatred of Jews amid the coronavirus. The Government Press Office, in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, hosted the fourth International Jewish Media Summit on Dec. 7, held virtually due to the ongoing pandemic. Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevitch of the Blue and Whi...
(JNS) - Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevitch announced on Thursday that she is introducing a Knesset bill that would require government ministries to consult with world Jewry on matters directly related to the Jewish people, such as Jewish informal and formal education, engagement and anti-Semitism. "Creating an official forum that ensures mutual dialogue between Israel and world Jewry is the first step towards ensuring the relationship between Israel and the greater Jewish...
(JNS) - Due to global coronavirus pandemic, this year's CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) student conference was held via Zoom, teaching students how to effectively combat anti-Israel and biased propaganda on college campuses and online. Unable to attend the typical five-day, in-person training session in Boston, more than 100 students from 66 universities in North America, the United Kingdom and Israel joined together virtually earlier this month,...
(JNS) - In somewhat of a role reversal, Israel has emerged during the global coronavirus crisis as the main supporter of Jewish communities worldwide. In a Wednesday briefing with Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Isaac Herzog and other leaders, including those from Italy, France, Argentina and South Africa, Herzog maintained that "there is a common table between the government of Israel and the Diaspora... the coronavirus affects the stability and well-being of community institutions all...
(JNS)-Israel's Ministry of Tourism and Land Authority recently announced the winners of two tenders for the construction of four new Dead Sea hotels, part of a new complex that will be constructed alongside a shopping center and 430,000-square-foot conference center. Africa Israel, Fattal Hotels, Elad Hotels and Barclays Israel won the tender to build their hotels, amounting to 1,000 rooms, in the new tourism area between Ein Bokek and Hamei Zohar in the southern Dead Sea. In the same area,...
(JNS)-Some 30 campus Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries concluded an eight-day training program at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, learning cutting-edge, relevant and effective tools that will allow them to teach about the Holocaust and the growing problem of Holocaust denial. Equally important was guidance on how to grapple with and counter increasing instances of anti-Semitism on college campuses. The emissaries hailed from campuses in North America, Australia and Austria, including Dartmouth College in...
(JNS)-With campaigns under way before the third round of Israeli elections within a year on March 2, Likud officials, and the Blue and White Party, have repeatedly made statements over the past few weeks in favor of annexing the Jordan Valley. And that has elicited vocal reactions among the public both for and against the idea. The Trump administration's peace plan, revealed at the White House on Jan. 28 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in attendance, gave American approval for...
(JNS)-As many as 500 Christian students gathered in Jerusalem recently for a mega-event marking the Passages organization's fifth anniversary. With 8,000 students who have arrived in Israel so far, that number is expected to reach 10,000 by the end of next year. For many of the students, the Passages nine-day trip to Israel represented their first-ever visit to Israel. Throughout the experience, students discover the deep roots of Christianity in the place where that ancient faith was born,...
(JNS)-This year, more than 5,000 Christians from all parts of the world gathered on Thursday for the city's annual Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) festive march around Israel's capital, which saw 10,000 participants in total. The Jerusalem municipality organized and funded the march and entertainment events, with participants coming to Israel from 100 nations. The arrival of the Christian pilgrims, who come annually to Israel for Sukkot, was facilitated in part by the International Christian Embas...
(JNS)—Among news consumers, the first association one has with the State of Israel is often war and religious violence. However, for many Jews who choose to immigrate to Israel—or “make aliyah”—the Jewish state is considered to be the safest place to live freely and without concerns about anti-Semitism. Such is the case for Rachel, 34, and Teddy Gnassia, 35, who are certain that their children will be safer living and going to Jewish school in Israel as opposed to their home country of France. With their three children—Meir, 10; Liam, 7; an...
(JNS)-A young Arab girl and her older teenage sister spray-painted the words "slaughter the Jews" in Arabic on Friday on the Kotel HaKatan ("little wall" in Hebrew), a portion of the Western Wall on the Temple Mount about 650 feet north of the Western Wall Plaza and next to the Iron Gate entrance to the Old City. "Last Friday, I was going to pray, walking by the Kotel HaKatan right before Shabbat, around 7:30 or 8 p.m. At the entrance, I saw a small girl writing in Arabic right on the walls,"...
(JNS)-Michał Laszczkowski, CEO of Poland's Cultural Heritage Foundation, spends a great deal of time discussing Jewish law with rabbis at various Jewish cemeteries across Poland; in fact, it's safe to say that he does so much more than the average Jew. And yet, Laszczkowski is not himself Jewish. As the visionary behind the $28 million restoration and documenting of Jewish sepulchral heritage in Poland, Laszczkowski has helped the organization raise funds from Poland's Ministry of Culture and...
(JNS)—Despite multiple raids and a detainment made by the Palestinian Authority against participants of the “Peace to Prosperity” economic workshop in Manama, Bahrain, Ashraf Al-Ghanem says that he will remain strong and courageous. Al-Ghanem is the CEO of Al-Ghanem Furniture Company and a participant in last week’s workshop, making him a target of Palestinian Authority arrests. While he told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that he feared for his life, by Tuesday, Al-Ghanem said, “I feel stronger than yesterday.” His home was one of four raided...
(JNS)-Just like "Rome wasn't built in a day," neither was Jerusalem, says Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum. As a part of the city's development endeavors, Jerusalem's main entrance will undergo a grand makeover-a million-square-meter project including construction of a new entryway into the city, extension of the light rail and various new towers. Along with such growth, Jerusalem residents can expect associated growing pains since private vehicles will be blocked from entering...
(JNS)-Professor Melvin L. Oliver, president of Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., who defied pressure to boycott Israeli academia by vetoing the vote by a Pitzer governance body to suspend the college's study-abroad exchange with University of Haifa, gave the keynote lecture at University of Haifa's 47th annual board of governors meeting on May 28. The two academic institutions have been at the center of a highly publicized Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement debate in recent months....
(JNS)-At the sixth BDS National Conference on March 16 in Ramallah, the BDS National Committee presented a comprehensive 2019-2020 strategic plan for the movement, focusing on expanding boycott practices, implementing a strict "anti-normalization" policy with Israel and seeking to lobby key international organizations such as the European Union against Israel. Conference workshops were focused on BDS policies, labor sectors and trade unions, normalization standards and BDS efforts in the...
(JNS)-As part of the annual Israel Festival in Jerusalem, I boarded the light rail with my fellow performers, each donning a white headset. Our choreographer was a pre-programmed Siri-like female voice named "Rachel" telling us exactly how to perform the show. But I am no actor, and neither were my fellow performers; in fact, we were the ones who needed tickets to the show! So there we were, in the middle of a performance on the Jerusalem light rail. "Try to look someone in the eye. Try! They...
(JNS)-At New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Monday night, Birthright Fellow and student leader Ariel Tidhar reported that the American Jewish activist group IfNotNow waylaid their group, as well as four other Taglit Birthright groups trying to check into their flights to Israel. IfNotNow attempts "to end American Jewish support for the occupation," referring to lands administered by Israel after wars, including eastern Jerusalem. Tidhar told JNS, "They set up a table with a sign and snacks, a...
(JNS)-Author Michael Chabon ignited controversy in the Jewish world following his May 14 commencement speech at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles with students and prominent Reform rabbis criticizing the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist for his take on Jewish inner-marriage and various Israeli security policies. "Security is an invention of humanity's jailers," he said to the audience of young people. "Anywhere you look, it is and has always been a hand of...
(JNS)-While it is well known that Birthright trips provide American participants with a transformative, often life-changing experience, it is perhaps less known that the young Israelis who accompany the participants on the trip often have similarly transformative experiences. Young Israelis Ayelet,* a 23-year-old computer scientist, and Racheli, a 22-year-old speech therapist, accompanied a Mayanot Birthright trip from March 12-19 with the goal of traveling the country with contemporaries eager...
(JNS)-Ahead of Israel's 70th birthday in May, longtime Harvard University law professor, attorney and author Alan Dershowitz announced that he is donating an ambucycle to Israel's volunteer medic organization, United Hatzalah, in honor of his 80th birthday. JNS interviewed Mr. Dershowitz about this gift and to hear his thoughts on Israel at 70-and what the next seven decades might look like. Q: What prompted you and your friends to donate an ambucycle to United Hatzalah for Israel's 70th? A:...
