Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Bill of Rights, one of the most important underpinnings of our American experiment in free self-government, is in realty a “Bill of Obligations,” instructing our government not to unreasonably intrude into the private lives and freedom of the American people. The very first words of the 1st Amendment are, “Congress shall make no law ...” The rest of the text details in what areas Congress is restrained or prohibited from acting. The language does not define what the people can do but rather, what the government is prohibited from doing....
This coming Tuesday Americans will go to the polls, to elect a new House of Representative and one-third of the U.S. Senate. This election has been called by the political pundits and media talking heads the most important election in American history. As a side note, I do not remember an election in my lifetime that has not been so categorized by the media. The fact is every American election cycle is important, not only to Americans, but to people world-wide because America’s policies both at home and abroad effect vast numbers of the world’s...
Earlier this month my wife and I flew to Iceland to chase and hopefully observe the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights, a spectacular colorful light show appearing in the night sky above the arctic circle, and in some instances even at lower latitudes. This heavenly event is caused when intense solar activity increases the solar wind and spews out highly charged particles strong enough to break out of the sun’s gravitational pull, which then travel to the outer limits of the solar system. As this solar wind passes through Earth’s magnetic fie...
It is not surprising that the Arabs of Gaza, worked into a frenzy of hate and victimhood by their Hamas masters, have bought into the fantasy that they are entitled to claim what is now Israel. After the British Mandate ended, Gaza was ruled by Egypt from 1947 until 1967. During this period the Egyptian government used the territory to mount frequent cross border terrorist attacks by the fedayeen on Jewish communities along the border. The fedayeen were made up of irregular Egyptian troops with some assistance from the local Arab population...
By Mel Pearlman This has been a rough year for the Palestinian Arabs. First they lost the diplomatic battle for Jerusalem. Then they lost the battle to prevent the relocation of the U.S. and Guatemala embassies to Israel’s declared capital city. On March 23, 2018, President Trump signed into law The Taylor Force Act. The Act is named for an American college student who was stabbed to death in Jaffa in 2016 while on an educational tour of Israel as part of his studies at Vanderbilt University. His killer, a Palestinian from the territories, w...
In a previous Everywhere column, “Love is not the antidote to hate,” (Heritage Florida Jewish News, Aug. 17, 2018), I suggested that respect for one another was the only effective antidote to hate. Now, as we approach the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a time of self-reflection in our relationship with the Divine, we will also likely hear from the pulpit of many synagogues, the need to reflect on our many personal relationships, on our general behavior, and how well we treated those with whom we have interacted within the pas...
When did the idea take hold in public policy conversations that every American was at first morally bound, and now legally required to love every other American? “Love” is not a legal term and as best I can tell, not being a religious scholar, religious texts only seem to deal with the concept of love as an emotional factor between and among individuals who are familiar with one another, such as spouses, children, relatives, neighbors and friends. Love of the divine is beyond the scope of this column. Psychology concepts broaden the use of the...
By Mel Pearlman As if we have not been emotionally exasperated and mentally mutilated by the endless debates regarding the existential question of “Who is a Jew,” playwright Joshua Harmon has come along to challenge us with an even more vexatious question: What makes a Jew a “good” Jew or a “bad” Jew? Growing up in Brooklyn in a neighborhood of Orthodox Jews and not one, but two orthodox synagogues down the block on which we lived, we always did Shabbat dinner on Friday night and regularly attended Shabbat services. My parents kept kosher and...
The announced retirement of Supreme Court Justice Anthony M. Kennedy and the current process to appoint and confirm his successor, will further politicize the judicial branch of government if ideology is a primary factor in the confirmation hearings. This would be contrary to the intent of the founders of our nation who sought to create an independent judicial and nonpolitical buffer between the executive and legislative branches, as the third branch of government. The creation of this judicial buffer was to resolve disputes between and among...
The idea to fully enforce the immigration laws of the United States, a fundamental right of every sovereign nation, even democratic ones, is not only good policy, but obligatory under our notion of the rule of law. The Trump administration however, has an uncanny ability to pursue a sound public policy idea only to implement it with disastrous results. The idea to separate children from their parents or alleged parents before vetting each “family” unit is not only contrary to generally accepted American values, but in fact, makes it more diffic...
By Mel Pearlman I became a subscriber to Time Magazine in my sophomore year in high school, when my English teacher compelled each student in his class to subscribe to either Time Magazine, Newsweek, or U.S. News and World Report. Each week we were to select an article for discussion and be prepared to discuss its language architecture in class. He used these publications as examples of excellent journalistic writing and as resources to build our English skills as to grammar, sentence structure and vocabulary. I have been a continuous...
By Mel Pearlman 2018 The diplomatic world is aglow with optimism regarding the apparent and sudden turnabout of Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, as he appears to have overnight transformed from nuclear bully to a peace-loving flower. His rapprochement with South Korea and renunciation of his nuclear program has won him a summit meeting with President Trump in Singapore on June 12, 2018. Since the two heads of state share similar egotistical personalities and erratic mindsets it comes as no surprise that there would be bumps and surprises...
Most people are familiar with the biblical story of David and Goliath, which occurred during the reign of King Saul. The ancient Philistines, who did endless battle with the Israelites in a futile attempt to conquer the land of Israel and to bring the Jews to their knees in servitude, had gathered a massive army on a mountainside near a place called Socoh. The Israelites were camped and arrayed for battle on an opposite mountainside overlooking the valley of Elah, in what was then Judah. Apparently, they were locked into a battle in which...
This coming week the United States of America will officially move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The selected date, May 14, 2018, comes exactly 70 years after the declaration of the establishment of the modern state of Israel with its capital in Jerusalem. On May 14, 1948, the longing of the Jewish people for the return to Zion, memorialized in its prayers and literature for almost two thousand years, had finally become a reality. Within hours of its nascent existence the country was attacked by all the surrounding Arab nations whose...
The Trump administration may be patting itself on the back by playing tough guy with tariffs in its effort to convince the Chinese government to return to the negotiating table for the purpose of revising reciprocal trade arrangements. President Xi, however, may have turned the tables in China’s favor with his hosting last month of North Korea’s Kim Jong Un who received a very warm welcome in Beijing. The economic brinkmanship game being played out by the two leaders of the world’s two biggest economies is not occurring in a diplomatic vacuu...
Despite the incredible contributions the Jewish people have made to civilization throughout history, envy and irrational hatred continue to plague them. It is one of the ironies of history that we have never had the luxury to not be concerned with our security, even in the lands in which we are relatively safe, and in which we enjoy full citizenship. We are living in a very complex time of political polarization and intersection of issues in which we try to support groups who have faced discrimination and injustice, but who in turn spurn their...
There is a webpage, JewBelong and other web pages on the Internet, whose alleged purpose is to bring Judaism to new heights of “contemporary cool,” and thereby attract young Jews back to Judaism. The result of their methodology is to dilute Judaism. The current effort is to incorporate and to politicize the seder with contemporary issues, to change the symbolism on the seder plate to include symbols for gay rights and other causes, to read selections from Christian and Muslim sources, and to promote a progressive political agenda that has not...
Last week we observed the holiday of Purim with the reading in synagogues around the world of the Megillat Esther, partying with strong drink and masquerades, eating Hamantashen (named after the notorious Haman), and exchanging Shalach Monot (gifts of food and sweets). Purim commemorates a theme which occurs too frequently in Jewish history: our struggle for survival against those who “in every generation would rise up to destroy us”. Of course, the outcome happily is always the same: with the help of G-d, we prevail over our enemies. Ear...
By Mel Pearlman Not everyone in the Jewish community is happy with two recent announcements concerning respectively, the Jewish Academy of Orlando and the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center. I participated in the organizational meetings back in the 1970s for what was then designated to be the Hebrew Day School of Central Florida. I also served on the board for a number of years. The original intention of the school was to furnish a learning institution of excellence in both secular and Judaic studies. It was built with Jewish...
After the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the country entered into a period of patriotic and political unity that it had not experienced since World War II and the decade that followed. The 1960s and 1970s were periods of political tension over a disputed war in Vietnam, civil rights for African Americans and equal rights for women. Although great progress was made, much is still left to be done on these issues and a host of other issues that currently confront our American society. In periods of political and soci...
