Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Articles written by Josh Lipowsky


Sorted by date  Results 1 - 3 of 3

  • Jewish groups ramping up response to sex trafficking 

    Josh Lipowsky, JTA|Aug 23, 2013

    By Josh Lipowsky NEW YORK (JTA)—It started when she was 13. “Sarah” became involved with a man 10 years her elder. He began setting her up with his friends for sex. She knew they would sometimes pay him, but she always thought she could trust him. He became her world. Even though he would beat her, Sarah internalized it as affection. When she tried to leave, threats to her family kept her coming back. “I didn’t realize I was a sex-trafficking victim until I got out,” said Sarah, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home and is now in her 20s. “I...

  • Foreign Ministry labor dispute complicating plans for new immigrants to Israel

    Josh Lipowsky, JTA|Aug 2, 2013

    NEW YORK (JTA)—Eventually, all Jews will end up in Israel, Cliff Katz says. But for now, a labor dispute in the Jewish state is holding things up. Katz, 47, decided to immigrate from Texas about a year ago. He filled out all the paperwork, paid the fees and already had two job interviews lined up for later this summer. But the dispute between the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s union and the Finance Ministry has led the Foreign Ministry to halt all consular services, including processing new imm...

  • In small-town South, Jewish newcomers provide infusion of optimism

    Josh Lipowsky, JTA|Aug 2, 2013

    (JTA)—Standing beneath the chuppah during his wedding in May, Doug Friedlander said he felt a “magical moment,” and it wasn’t just because of his blushing bride. Theirs was the first Jewish wedding in Helena, Ark., in more than 20 years. An ailing Mississippi River town of 12,000, Helena once was home to a Jewish community of 150 families. Today, fewer than a dozen Jews remain, most of them 85 or older. By 2006, the community could no longer support a synagogue, and Temple Beth El was turned...