Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)—Anybody who pays attention to the sorts of things honored by contemporary popular culture knows that stories about heroism are passé. But why then do we still long for them? One example comes from an incident that took place almost a century ago. In March 1920, Arab gangs attacked the Jewish settlement of Tel Hai in the Upper Galilee. Josef Trumpeldor led the defense of the isolated farming village. He was a rare Jew who had served in the army of the Tsar and then helped lead the first contingent of Zionist Jews fighting with the Br...
(JNS)—In the international hit Israeli TV series “Fauda,” the head of the Palestinian Authority security service is a fictional character named Abu Maher. Played by Qader Harini, an Arab actor from eastern Jerusalem, Abu Maher is reconciled to peace and coexistence, and therefore willing to cooperate with the Israelis to combat Islamist terror. In an episode of the show’s second season (this is not a spoiler for the main plot line, so you can keep reading even if you haven’t watched the series), Abu Maher takes his son—a student who sympath...
(JNS)—When security breaches threaten airports, there’s not much doubt about who is usually called in to deal with the situation. Israel’s prowess in dealing with threats to its borders, and especially its air-transportation system, is legendary. What makes their methods so reliable? Leaving aside the reputation for toughness, smarts and facial-analysis techniques that the Jewish state’s security services have cultivated both inside airports and during covert operations, it’s actually something that doesn’t require much derring-do: a willingnes...
(JNS)—In ancient times, people looked to portents involving the heavens and earthbound events in order to try to understand the baffling world in which we live, as well as to discern the will of their Creator. In the 21st century—armed with science, sophisticated technology and mass communication—we’re much smarter than that. Instead of pondering the stars, we now expect the fall of a loose rock in an old stone wall to explain it all. When a boulder that was part of the ancient Western Wall fell this past week, it was just a matter of gravity...
(JNS)—Only hours after the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision to uphold U.S. President Donald Trump’s right to restrict entry into the United States from seven countries, including five with Muslim majorities, Jewish groups were issuing condemnations and organizing protests. Much of the organized Jewish community has been involved in opposing the administration. That opposition has deepened as the understandable anger over the government separating children from their parents who had crossed the southern border without permission ign...
(JNS)—There was a time when defending religious freedom was at the top of the Jewish agenda. Jews understood that as a religious minority, our rights could only be defended when those of other religious faiths are also respected. Though anti-Semitism is on the rise elsewhere, American Jews don’t worry anymore about their government seeking to restrict their rights to practice their religion. Nor should they. Arguments about reasonable accommodation for Jewish religious observances are no longer a matter of much dispute. The widespread acc...
We live in a time when, as the U.S. State Department has noted, a “rising tide of anti-Semitism” has swept across the globe. Anti-Semitism has crept into the mainstream from the margins of society in the West, as a coalition of intellectual elites and Muslims has produced a surge of venom against Israel and Jews who identify with it. That movement has found a foothold on American campuses and among left-wing groups, resulting in Jews being stigmatized and isolated in the public square, and students being subjected to violence and int...
