Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(New York Jewish Week) — Jews and comic books, two deeply entwined entities, will be the subject of a new pop culture convention coming to New York this fall. Billed as the “ultimate comics and pop culture event,” the first-ever Jewish Comics Experience, or “JewCE,” will take place at the Center for Jewish History on November 11-12. Created by Fabrice Sapolsky, a comic book creator and publisher, and Dr. Miriam Eve Mora, the director of academic and public programs at the Center for Jewish History, the event aims to be “an inclusive c...
(New York Jewish Week) — The New York Police Department has reported 100 anti-Jewish hate crimes in the city since the start of the year, a decrease of some 20 percent when compared to the same period last year. Anti-Jewish incidents have comprised nearly 45 percent of the 223 total hate crimes the NYPD has reported this year. Jews are targeted for hate crimes more than any other group in the city and have been the victims of a plurality of hate crimes each month. These incidents include assaults, vandalism such as swastikas being drawn in f...
(New York Jewish Week) — New York Republican Rep. George Santos, who spread a series of falsehoods about being Jewish and other parts of his life story, was arrested Wednesday on federal criminal charges on Long Island. The indictment said that Santos — who has also gone by other names, including the last name Devolder — used donations to a fraudulent political fund for personal expenses, such as buying designer clothes and paying off his credit cards. He was also accused of lying about his finances on congressional disclosure forms and receivi...
(New York Jewish Week) — Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has a new project, a year and a half after resigning amid a flurry of sexual harassment allegations: a pro-Israel organization targeting Democrats. Cuomo delivered the message via video on Monday evening at an event at Carnegie Hall hosted by the World Values Network, the organization led by Rabbi Shmuley Boteach — an author, television personality and onetime Republican congressional candidate. Boteach organized the event in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Upr...
(New York Jewish Week) — American Eagle Outfitters now has a mezuzah on the front door of its flagship Times Square location, courtesy of Chabad, the Hasidic outreach movement. The parchment with Jewish holy text in an oblong metallic case, traditionally a marker of a Jewish home or establishment, was affixed on the apparel brand’s door as part of the recently concluded convention of CTeen, Chabad’s youth group. At a concert in Times Square on Saturday night, thousands of teens from more than 30 countries gathered to sing Jewish songs — and...
(JTA) - When people enter the world of "Hogwarts Legacy," the blockbuster video game that was officially released on Friday, they will find themselves immersed in the fictional universe of "Harry Potter" - and face-to-face with an alleged antisemitic caricature. The narrative of the game centers on a goblin rebellion in the 1890s, about a century before the fantasy books take place. Some who have had an early look at the game have echoed longstanding concerns that the creatures' prominent hook...
(New York Jewish Week) — Regular listeners of Conan O’Brien’s podcast generally expect to hear the comedian interview A-listers such as Michelle Obama and “Fleishman Is in Trouble” star Lizzy Caplan. But the former late-night host interviews “regular” people, too, and sandwiched between two recent episodes — featuring “The Office” star Ed Helms and “You” star Penn Badgely — listeners can hear O’Brien crack jokes about Jewish life with a New York rabbi. David Schuck, who is the rabbi at New Rochelle’s Conservative Beth El Synagogue Center, app...
(New York Jewish Week) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced a new “hate and bias prevention unit” to combat antisemitism and other forms of hate. The unit will include public education and outreach efforts, a “rapid response team” to assist communities affected by a bias or hate incident, and regional councils where community members can share concerns, host events and conduct training, among other functions. Hochul’s announcement came during a 90-minute conference held by the Orthodox Union at Manhattan’s Lincoln Square Synagogue to discuss...
(New York Jewish Week) — A tip from a Jewish security organization helped lead to the arrest of two suspects Saturday in connection with online threats to attack a New York City synagogue. The Community Security Initiative, a group created by UJA-Federation of New York and its affiliated Jewish Community Relations Council, discovered threatening tweets on Friday morning and brought the information to law enforcement, according to a UJA spokesperson. In a news conference at City Hall on Monday, UJA CEO Eric Goldstein said that after they shared...
(New York Jewish Week) — NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell said in a press conference on Monday evening that the police will increase patrols near synagogues in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, due to an increase in antisemitic attacks happening throughout the neighborhood. “In the wake of these senseless attacks, we deployed round-the-clock house of worship cars to routinely visit synagogues,” Sewell said at the press conference on Lynch Street in Brooklyn — the same location where a suspect allegedly slapped a 27-year-old man dressed in traditional Or...
(New York Jewish Week) — Polio has been detected in New York City wastewater, three weeks after a Jewish man in Rockland County was diagnosed with the first polio case in the U.S. in 10 years. The announcement suggests that the potentially deadly virus is circulating in the city, officials say. New York City and State health officials made the joint announcement on Friday. Traces of polio had previously been found in wastewater samples from Rockland and Orange Counties, north of the city. “The risk to New Yorkers is real but the defense is so...
(New York Jewish Week) — Leaders of mostly left-wing Jewish groups and progressive New York Jewish politicians demanded an apology from the head of the Anti-Defamation League, saying he had maligned the progressive group Jews for Racial & Economic Justice. In a letter circulated by JFREJ, the signatories condemned “smear campaigns that seemed designed to isolate and divide progressive Jews from the rest of the Jewish community.” The letter is signed by City Comptroller Brad Lander, City Council member Lincoln Restler, former Manhattan Borou...
(New York Jewish Week) - The latest chapter of the surreal saga over who is making decisions for the aged pop artist Peter Max is pitting two children of Holocaust survivors against each other. One is Libra Max, Peter Max's daughter. The other is Barbara Lissner, an attorney who represents Holocaust survivors, including in their efforts to secure restitution. She became Peter Max's guardian in 2019, shortly after the New York Times first reported alleged abuse by Max's previous guardian and...
(New York Jewish Week) - A family Torah belonging to a New York City jeweler was reported stolen at the Venetian Resort hotel in Las Vegas last month. Jack Abraham, who has run a jewelry business under his name since 1962 in Manhattan's Diamond District, told the New York Jewish Week that the Torah was taken on Sunday, June 12, during the Luxury JCK trade show at the Venetian Hotel. "I've been going to the expo since its inception for 25 years," Abraham said. "I organize Shabbat services there....
(New York Jewish Week) — Seeking the endorsement of Borough Park Orthodox leaders in his run for Congress, former mayor Bill de Blasio apologized for a 2020 tweet berating Jews for large gatherings held during the pandemic. In a video of Sunday’s meeting, called by an activist of the Bobov Hasidic movement, de Blasio is seen being asked about the tweet. In the tweet, he blasted “the Jewish community” following the packed funeral for a rabbi who died of COVID-19, and said the NYPD had been instructed to “summons or even arrest those who gathe...
(New York Jewish Week) - At the Brooklyn Amity School, a majority-Muslim private school in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, high school students are taking part in a new Holocaust education initiative with an unlikely ambassador: NBA center and free agent Enes Kanter Freedom. Kanter Freedom, who is Muslim, grew up in Turkey and played for five different NBA teams between 2011 and 2022. Over the last couple of years, he has become outspoken about human rights violations in Turkey and other parts of the...
(New York Jewish Week) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spoke about the success of the Jewish community in the Sunshine State and the need to fight "wokeness" in an address to a conservative Jewish group in New York City. "They can't cancel me," the Republican governor began his speech, delivered before an audience of approximately 700 at the Tikvah Fund's Jewish Leadership Conference, held at Chelsea Piers. "I'm gonna speak my mind. When the left is having a spasm, that just tells you that in...
(New York Jewish Week) — A group of Orthodox Jews are demanding an apology from Lufthansa airlines after they were expelled from a flight from New York to Budapest last Tuesday. The travelers say all of the identifiably Orthodox Jews were prevented from boarding a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany because a group of passengers had allegedly not complied with the German national carrier’s mask regulations on the first leg of the flight. In a video taken by a passenger, a Lufthansa supervisor is seen saying that “everyone has to pay for a c...
(New York Jewish Week) - Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Consulate General of Israel in Manhattan on Wednesday in what was billed as an emergency rally to support Palestinian resistance and liberation "by any means necessary." As dozens of police officers lined up around the area, the protesters began calling to "globalize the intifada." Tensions are high in Israel, where Palestinian rioters have clashed with police on Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Israeli security forces have...
(New York Jewish Week) - The 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach who died Tuesday after being pushed to the ground by an unknown assailant over the weekend in Manhattan was mourned by cantorial students she had taught at various Jewish seminaries. Barbara Maier Gustern worked in musical theater for decades, most recently for the 2019 Broadway revival of the musical "Oklahoma!" She also coached Debbie Harry of Blondie, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Taylor Mac, and many more singers. But Gustern...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Jewish parents at P.S. 145, the only public school in Manhattan with a Russian dual-language program, are speaking out against the war in Ukraine. PTA co-president Sasha Stashwick said that it was important the school makes it clear that its families do not stand for this war. “We all stand together as a Russian-speaking community,” Stashwick told The New York Jewish Week. “What’s happening in Ukraine, it’s not acceptable.” She added that while Ukrainian people are the victims, it’s important to recognize that R...
