Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Just how far are Jewish institutions willing to go to accommodate the principles of critical race theory and its “cancel culture” view of American and Jewish history? In the case of Brandeis University Press, even that respected liberal institution realizes that identifying American Jewish life as part of the fabric of institutional racism should not go unquestioned. A controversy over the editors of that publishing house’s refusal to include an essay glorifying the Black Lives Matter movement by a historian who claims that Jews ar...
(JNS) — A group of 122 Palestinian academics, journalists, writers and filmmakers signed a letter last month taking issue with the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of anti-Semitism. Their statement has gotten a lot of attention and been rightly criticized as both disingenuous and illegitimate since it is absurd for a group that is the object of prejudice, as is the case with the Jews, to be denied the right to define the hatred that is directed at them. But as much as the Palestinian p...
(JNS) — Chanukah’s popularity with American Jews was largely the result of a futile though determined effort to compete with Christmas. While enjoying freedom, prosperity and influence that was unprecedented in the history of the Diaspora, American Jews needed a holiday that would allow them to play a part in the annual December festivities without abandoning their identity altogether. That is why Chanukah has become far more important to American Jews that it was to their ancestors in Europe and elsewhere, who regarded it as a minor win...
(JNS) — Many Americans are anticipating a return to normalcy now that the votes have been counted and the presidential election determined. For some, that just means an end to the constant bombardment of election ads on television, the Internet and even via unsolicited text messages turning up on your phone. For others, it’s a more specific hope that the outcome will mean the defeat of President Donald Trump. Love or hate him, Trump is a unique figure in American political history and perhaps the most polarizing. His unorthodox manner, coarse d...
(JNS) — He did it again. When presented at the first presidential debate of 2020 with another opportunity to make a straightforward condemnation of white supremacists, he refused. Or at least that’s what many headlines screamed the next morning after the train wreck of a debate that was held in Cleveland. The responses from liberal Jewish groups and most of the chattering classes were angry. According to them, Trump had dog-whistled to extremists and made it clear that he was on the side of the neo-Nazis, the Ku Klux Klan and the Proud Boy...
(JNS) — U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died on Sept. 18, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, at the age of 87 was a symbol of female empowerment, as well as a renowned scholar and jurist. Though not religious, she was a proud Jew, and her achievements as an attorney in an era where women were not fully accepted in the legal profession and then as a principled judge justify the many laudatory eulogies about her. But Ginsburg’s status as a pop-culture icon and idol of liberals, feminists and others, who nicknamed her the “Notorious RBG...
(JNS) — A year ago, Jews looked back on 5779 and wondered, after the Pittsburgh and Poway synagogue shootings and a resurgence of anti-Semitism on the right as well as the left, how things in the United States could get any worse. As I do every year, I cautioned that such a turn of events is always a possibility. But 5780 proved me more right on that score than I could have ever imagined. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have a worldwide deadly coronavirus pandemic that would send a thriving global economy into a near-depression as one of m...
(JNS) — To read the statement signed by more than 600 Jewish groups, in which they identified their denominations, synagogues and organizations with the Black Lives Matter movement, it’s clear that they believe they are on the right side of history. The letter, which was published as a full-page ad in The New York Times on Aug. 28, is forthright in its claim that “the Black Lives Matter movement is the current day Civil Rights movement in this country, and it is our best chance at equity and justice. By supporting this movement, we can build...
(JNS) — Three years later we’re still quoting, discussing and debating it. If there is a defining moment of the presidency of Donald Trump, it took place at a press conference on Aug. 15, 2017, when he allegedly called the neo-Nazis who conducted a frightening torchlight parade days earlier in Charlottesville, Va., “very fine people.” According to the narrative about Trump that is believed by most of his critics, that signaled a green light to extremists to attack Jews in their synagogues, as well as African-Americans and Hispanics. It allowed...
(JNS) — Heading into the 2020 presidential campaign, centrist Democrats as well as those who are supporters of Israel had good reason to be worried about the future of their party. After Hillary Clinton’s defeat in 2016, Bernie Sanders’s wing of the party was still nursing a grudge about being supposedly robbed of the presidential nomination by the establishment. They were confident that the rise of a new generation of radical politicians marked a changing of the guard, and that they were poised to take over. That seemed likely earlier this...
(JNS) — Maybe everything would be better if we could all go for walks in the woods with people who say or tweet hateful and deeply offensive things. Then again, maybe the Jewish community would be better off if those who represent it weren’t quite so eager to ingratiate themselves with those who do not have the best interests of the Jews at heart. There are people who think a simple formula is the path to resolving all conflicts. It was the conceit of a Broadway play about nuclear arms talk called “A Walk in the Woods,” as well as the theory...
(JNS) — In the view of those cheering on the efforts of the Black Lives Matter movement, this July 4 was one less of celebration than of soul-searching and reassessment. Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the normal festivities were always going to be muted. But the brutal death of George Floyd on May 25 sent angry crowds of sometimes peaceful protesters into the streets seeking to topple monuments of not just Confederates, but also the nation’s Founding Fathers and a host of other historical figures who don’t measure up to the woke stand...
(JNS) — It turns out The New York Times has lower standards when it comes to those who spread anti-Semitic canards than even Britain’s controversial Labour Party. Tweeting an anti-Semitic blood libel about Israel being responsible for teaching American cops the tactics that led to the killing of 46-year-old George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer led to the firing of a member of parliament from the opposition party’s leadership. Yet tweeting a similar lie about Israel training American cops to commit human-rights abuses was no bar to a...
(JNS) — Angry mobs of activists are roaming American streets pulling down or defacing statues of historical figures. In some cases, governments and private institutions are joining their efforts by agreeing to take down examples of public art that reflect worldviews that are either now considered offensive or long gone out of fashion. Some are doing so because they’ve been intimidated by the 21st-century Jacobins who march under the banner of the Black Lives Matter movement. Others are acting out of genuine conviction that they must join in the...
(JNS) — In the weeks since the brutal and unjustified killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, America has been undergoing what The New York Times approvingly called a “reckoning” that marks a fundamental shift in attitudes about race. But the onset of this surge of public soul-searching and consciousness-raising about race has brought with it a trend that is deeply troubling. The heightened sensitivity about racism has led not merely to an epidemic of insincere virtue signaling about racism. It’s also brought about a flood o...
(JNS) — Americans are united in their outrage about the death of George Floyd, an African-American man who was wrongfully killed by a Minneapolis policeman. However, a commendable desire to oppose hate has quickly morphed into something beyond advocacy for a cause that all decent people support. Along with the opposition to police misconduct and racism has come the push to attack, shame and silence anyone who dissents not just from the main message of anti-racism, but of slogans, groups and gestures associated with it. To violate these new rule...
(JNS) — Former Vice President Joe Biden apologizes. President Donald Trump doesn’t ever apologize. While both said things that can easily be construed as offensive, the thinking behind their talk about being entitled to votes from particular groups was based in something we shouldn’t condemn. As Biden learned, talking down to voters is bad, but appealing to them to support their community’s interests is kosher. Or at least it is, unless you’re talking about something that most Jews consider important, like the security of the State of Israel. B...
JNS) — If you think you’ve seen this movie before, you’re right. Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has declared that he is abrogating all agreements with Israel so many times it’s a wonder that he could do so again with a straight face. Indeed, he started making these threats as soon as he succeeded PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and has never really stopped during the course of the 15 years of his four-year term as leader of the P.A. The latest occasion for his usual theatrics is the possibility that Israel might extend sovereignty into p...
(JNS)—Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg thinks he’s found a way to avoid further skewering at the hands of those looking for a whipping boy for the failings of the Internet. Actor Sacha Baron Cohen scorched him last fall for running what he called “the greatest propaganda machine in history” because of the site’s willingness to take both ads that some deem either hateful or false. Cohen said the social-media entrepreneur’s refusal to adequately police Facebook was the equivalent of giving Nazis free reign to act as they liked. Nor...
(JNS)—In today’s hyperpartisan world, nobody escapes the watchful eye of the thought police. Not even a pop superstar like Taylor Swift. The 30-year-old singer has sold tens of millions of recordings in her career that span the genres of country and pop music. That’s made her one of the highest-paid female musicians in the world with legions of fans who admire her for her talents and philanthropic endeavors while also buying the various products she endorses—from Diet Coke to Elizabeth Arden perfumes. But that hasn’t exempted her from bein...
(JNS)—Outside of Israel, it was the alternative ceremony that got the most coverage. The official commemoration of Yom Hazikaron—the country’s Memorial Day that occurs the day before celebrating the Jewish state’s Independence Day—began with a one-minute siren that sounded throughout the country and continued at the Western Wall, where President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi led a small ceremony that, due to the coronavirus pandemic, had no audience. Most Israelis, all too many of whom have lost a loved o... Full story
(JNS)—Israel’s yearlong government standoff is finally over, and the only real winner is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Although there were moments when it seemed as if there was no way he could hold onto office for long, Netanyahu again proved that it’s a mistake to underestimate his political acumen or survival instincts. But there’s something else about this outcome that Netanyahu’s American detractors need to understand. The agreement does reaffirm the conventional wisdom that views Netanyahu as a ruthless, skilled and self-inte... Full story
(JNS)—The coronavirus pandemic is not the first deadly contagion to ravage the globe, but it is clearly the first that modern nations have sought to combat by essentially shutting down public life and much of their economies. While most of us may have initially thought that this necessary effort would be of short duration earlier in the month, few are still laboring under the illusion that things will soon be back to normal. But whether we emerge from this hiatus from our normal lives within a few weeks or a few months, it’s clear that the econ... Full story
By Jonathan S. Tobin (JNS)—It seems like a devastating argument. If Israeli Jews are willing to accept life-saving treatment from Arab doctors, why won’t they give their representatives in the Knesset a seat in the country’s government? That’s the point The New York Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief David Halbfinger made last week both on Twitter and in an article that made the same point. It’s been echoed elsewhere in features in the Israeli press. But the premise is false. The idea that objections to giving anti-Zionist Arab parties a role in t... Full story
(JNS)—It’s time to take the threat from the coronavirus seriously. That’s as true for local Jewish communities as it is for governments. But just like some of our leaders have been slow to comprehend the peril from the spread of the disease, the same is undoubtedly true for those in charge of schools, synagogues and communal organizations. But now that more cases are being reported, there’s little doubt that overcoming resistance to canceling events and reverting to virtual services or classes where possible is rapidly becoming an imperat... Full story
