Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 42
(JNS) — The Florida Department of Education has distributed $25 million in security funding—of $43 million allocated by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R)—to more than 130 Jewish day schools and preschools across the state, the governor’s office announced earlier this week. “During a time of increased antisemitism around the world, Florida will continue to protect the Jewish community,” DeSantis stated on Jan. 30. “Today’s funding will give Florida’s Jewish day schools the tools they need to continue to keep their students safe.” The funding will help s...
(JNS) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill on Monday to establish a statewide voucher program in which every child will be eligible to receive nearly $8,000 toward schooling, tutoring or other educational-related expenses. "The State of Florida is No. 1 when it comes to education freedom and education choice, and today's signing cements us into that No. 1 position," said DeSantis. He called the new law "the largest expansion of education choice not only in the history of this state but in...
(JNS) — A woman pushed her shopping cart down an aisle filled with Passover foods in a supermarket in northern New Jersey. She lifted a box of kosher-for-Passover soup cracker off the shelf and started to stack it with the rest of her groceries. Then she noticed the price tag. “Five dollars for this?” she murmured aloud as she returned the container to the shelf. “Food costs are high everywhere,” chimed in a fellow shopper nearby. This exchange last week in a supermarket that stocks a good numbe...
(JNS) - A sheriff in Central Florida made it loud and clear that white supremacists are not welcome following a series of antisemitic incidents in Volusia County and adjacent areas. "When you are trying to crush a radical group of cowardly scumbags, unity and sunshine destroy it," said Sheriff Mike Chitwood of Volusia County in Central Florida on the eastern coast, which includes the popular resort cities of Daytona Beach and Ormond Beach, at a press conference on Feb. 27. "We stand beside one...
(JNS) — A fraternity at the University of South Florida was suspended after photos circulated of a Feb. 11 event in which members of the group, including a Jewish student, reportedly had swastikas drawn on their “shirts or body parts.” Noting that the school’s rules against hazing and alcohol were violated at the off-campus “bid party” by the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, university officials said in a letter to the president of the fraternity that “the continual operations of the organization at USF likely pose an ongoing threat, disruption, o...
(JNS) - A Jewish man from Ann Arbor, Mich., is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether anti-Jewish protesters outside a local synagogue on Shabbat morning violate his right to freely practice religion. "I think Jews have to stand up for themselves against people who are obviously Jew-haters," says Marvin Gerber. "People of Beth Israel have the right to be free from harassment." The case stems from weekly anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protests led by Henry Herskovitz in front of...
(JNS) — Jewish groups and some politicians are decrying neo-Nazi activity that took place in Orlando, Fla., over the weekend, even as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis alleges his political enemies are trying to use the incident to “smear” him. On Saturday, some two dozen neo-Nazis from two hate groups, Goyim Defense League and National Socialist Movement, rallied in Orlando, calling Jews “the devil” and saying, “Jews rape children and drink their blood,” according to the watchdog group StopAntisemitism.com. They also hung flags with swastikas and bann...
(JNS) — Jewish groups in California took out a full-page ad in a local newspaper on Wednesday to voice their displeasure and concern with a school-board decision to engage an ethnic-studies curriculum for high school and middle-school students that they say will lead to hostility towards Israel and Jewish students. Appearing in the Castro Valley Forum, the ad reads, in part: “The Castro Valley Unified School District claims it is committed to ensuring the inclusion and belonging of all students and families with its tagline ‘All Means All....
(JNS) — The British publisher of a children’s book about strong Middle Eastern women that included a map of the region with “Palestine” in place of Israel has removed the title from its website after complaints from pro-Israel groups. Author Wafa Tarnowski’s “Amazing Women of the Middle East: 25 Stories From Ancient Times to Present Day,” released by Pikku Publishing in the United Kingdom, had also provided teacher resources. “It is good news that the U.K. publisher has removed the book from sale,” said Caroline Turner, director of UK La...
(JNS) - The last time Rabbi Shlomo Litvin, co-director of Chabad of the Bluegrass, had been in Hopkinsville, Ky., he was joined by thousands of other people to see a total eclipse. He returned to the area on Monday to find a much-changed landscape after a massive tornado ripped through the western part of the state on Dec. 10, rendering much of it temporarily uninhabitable. The tornado was one of a series of others that struck six Midwestern states on Dec. 10. "The kindness they had shown to...
(JNS) — Jewish groups are sounding the alarm after the New York City Police Department released statistics on Wednesday indicating that hate crimes have doubled in a single year. Of the nearly 500 hate crimes reported in the city as of November, some 180 were antisemitic in nature. The total is up from 121 incidents the year before and accounts for the largest number of hate crimes against any group. Scott Richman, NY/NJ regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said “it’s alarming that in the past seven weeks alone, we have had to is...
(JNS) Addressing supporters with a "heart filled with hope purpose and love for this city," Eric Adams accepted his win as New York City's mayor-elect with a nod to strong support from the Orthodox Jewish community, especially in Brooklyn, N.Y. Adams, a Democrat, received 66.5 percent of the vote to Republican Curtis Sliwa, 67, founder of the Guardian Angels, who won 28.8 percent with nearly 78 percent of precincts reporting as of Wednesday afternoon. In the district that includes the Crown...
(JNS) - A state-of-the-art security command center was unveiled this week by the Secure Community Network to ensure that the Jewish community is prepared in the event of any violence or threats. Dubbed the National Jewish Security Operations Command Center, JSOCC, was built with funding by private donors and gives the SCN - the security arm of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations - a high-tech, centralized location where...
(JNS) As Americans gathered this year to remember the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, they did so amid a landscape that is increasingly divided domestically, where hate crimes are at a record high, the Taliban has become the official government of Afghanistan, and experts say that homegrown terror threats continue to be a major security concern. "The issues facing the United States and how we have dealt with them have changed dramatically over the last 20 years," according to Michae...
(JNS) - Many in the Jewish world are sharing in Israel's record-setting four medal wins at the just-concluded 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Leading the pack were rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram and men's gymnast Artem Dolgopyat, both of whom captured gold medals during the two weeks of competition. Additionally, Israeli Avishag Semberg took home a bronze for taekwondo, while the Jewish state's mixed judo team also celebrated with a bronze-medal win. Team Israel Olympic baseball members had hoped...
(JNS) — The state of Florida notified Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s ice-cream, on Tuesday that it has 90 days to cease its “boycott of Israel” or face a ban on contracts and investments with the Sunshine State. The move is in response to the July 19 announcement that the ice-cream maker will stop selling its product in areas it calls “Occupied Palestinian Territory,” which includes the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem. It comes after Florida state officials held talks with Unilever’s investor-relations department on July 28 an...
(JNS) — The fallout over the decision by Ben & Jerry’s to no longer sell its products in what the company calls “occupied Palestinian territory,” which includes parts of Jerusalem, immediately rippled throughout the Jewish world, with Israel’s leaders and pro-Israel groups urging action and threatening legal consequences against the ice-cream company and its corporate owner, Unilever. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Unilever CEO Alan Jope on Tuesday, saying that the Jewish state takes the move very seriously. According...
(JNS) — During a symposium about online anti-Semitism sponsored by the U.S. State Department last year, a representative from the social-media platform TikTok assured that his company was working to combat hate. Speaking in October 2020, Jeff Collins said TikTok’s mission is “to inspire and bring joy. … There’s no place for hate on TikTok, and we are investing a lot in people and tech to really get this right.” The goal, stated Collins, was to “disrupt the ecosystem of hate” by limiting the “discoverability” of such content. His commen...
(JNS) - The countdown started weeks ago, and it's finally time for many to return to sleep-away camp after a year of lockdowns, Zoom school, and separation from friends and family amid a worldwide pandemic. "I'm so happy! It'll be so nice to see everyone," said 14-year-old Eliana Menasha, who calls herself a "full-on camper" and noted that "last year was kind of hard." While camps in parts of the South and the Midwest have been operating for several weeks now, most Jewish camps in the Northeast...
(JNS) — During a symposium about online anti-Semitism sponsored by the U.S. State Department last year, a representative from the social-media platform TikTok assured that his company was working to combat hate. Speaking in October 2020, Jeff Collins said TikTok’s mission is “to inspire and bring joy. … There’s no place for hate on TikTok, and we are investing a lot in people and tech to really get this right.” The goal, stated Collins, was to “disrupt the ecosystem of hate” by limiting the “discoverability” of such content. His comments coinci...
(JNS) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis visited a synagogue in South Florida on Monday to sign legislation that had the support of many in the Jewish community there. At the Shul of Bal Harbour in Surfside, Fla., a Chabad-Lubavitch synagogue north of Miami, DeSantis ensured that faith-based, volunteer first-responder services, like the Orthodox-run Hatzalah ambulance corp., can operate more fully, including using lights and sirens in an emergency if they meet specific criteria and have been operating...
(JNS) - The Jewish United Fund is taking the fight over antisemitism to residents of Chicago and the surrounding suburbs with a major media blitz that included TV ads, billboards, social-media posts and more. The "Stop Antisemitism" media campaign, which launched in late May, is being undertaken because of the rise of attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions across the country and in Western Europe. During Israel's conflict with Hamas in Gaza in mid-May, anti-Semitic attacks soared worldwide and...
(JNS) — The Anti-Defamation League is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of men who assaulted patrons at a Los Angeles restaurant on Tuesday night in what is being looked at as a hate crime. “We are outraged over reports of this anti-Semitic assault and thank the Los Angeles Police Department for investigating the incident as a potential hate crime,” said ADL Los Angeles regional director Jeffrey I. Abrams. “These acts of hate have no place in our community, and we hope this reward will bring about information that w...
(JNS) - Across the country from the big cities to suburban towns, thousands of Jews gathered on Sunday to show their support for Israel and to take a stand against the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents. At a rally in New York, Sarri Singer, who survived a 2003 suicide bombing of an Israeli bus, said "whether it is in Paris, London, Brussels, Israel, New York City or anywhere else in the world, terrorism does not discriminate. It can happen anywhere and at any time. All of us have an obliga...
(JNS) Young American Jews are moving in two very distinct directions—towards Orthodox or little Jewish engagement. That was one of the major findings from “Jewish Americans in 2020,” a new study by the Pew Research Center. This is the second Pew study of Jewish Americans. The first, released in 2013, sent shockwaves through the Jewish community as it found a community that was increasingly less connected and more assimilated than previous generations. The current survey of some 4,700 Jews nationwide shows a community that is increasingly multi...
