Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Harry Haft’s real-life story is shocking and little known. He was imprisoned in Jaworzno, a concentration camp that was part of the vast Auschwitz complex, and was forced to box his fellow inmates. The loser of each fight was murdered by Nazi guards, who enjoyed watching this macabre spectacle. Haft was forced to fight in 76 matches. The horror of his experiences never left him. His story is portrayed in HBO’s new film, “The Survivor,” directed by Academy Award-winner Barry Levinson and starring Ben Foster, who visited Auschwitz and lost 30 lbs...
China has been accused of committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Here's what you need to know, and what you can do about it. Some people are refusing to watch the Winter Olympics this year because of concerns over China's dismal human rights record of the Uyghurs, a persecuted minority in China. The US, Britain, Canada, and other nations have refused to send officials to the Games in a quasi-boycott. A recent British report accused China of committing genocide against the Uyghurs. Here are som...
News that Israeli actress Gal Gadot is to play Cleopatra in a new film has ignited a storm of protests. Critics accuse Gadot of perpetrating "genocide" and cultural appropriation by planning to play the ancient Egyptian queen. A prominent Pakistani journalist blasted "Your country steals Arab land and now you're stealing their movie roles ..." Some are claiming that a Jew cannot play Cleopatra, and the role should go to an African or Arab actress instead. Nonsense. Cleopatra was a complex...
SKOKIE, Ill. (JTA) — After a synagogue in this Chicago suburb was vandalized on May 16 in what police are calling a hate crime, local rabbis could not dwell on the damage: They had to prepare for Shavuot, the two-day Jewish holiday that began that evening. A week later, though, the rabbis were the engine behind a 500-person rally in this heavily Jewish town against antisemitism. Skokie perhaps is best known as the place town where, in 1977, free-speech advocates fought for neo-Nazis to be able to march, only to have the eventual rally be o...
With anti-Semitism skyrocketing, many Jews are finding themselves under attack. At times it can feel that few non-Jews want to stand up in defense of Jewish communities in their midst. Yet three recent events in Europe have given Jews some hope, as unexpected heroes stepped up to say enough is enough. Standing up against hatred on British train Asma Shuweikh, a 36-year-old Muslim mother from the British city of Birmingham, was travelling on the underground tube in London on Nov. 22, 2019, when she witnessed a Jewish family with young children...
(JYA)—A few months ago, when two of my kids and I boarded the London Underground, all eyes seemed to rest on us. My son’s small black kippah, which he always wears, seemed to be drawing dozens of staring faces—and also a few glares and frowns. It was an uncomfortable moment. “Maybe you should take off your kippah,” my daughter, 15, whispered to her brother, 17. “No!” he whispered back. “The day I’m afraid to wear my kippah in public is the day I wear it for that reason!” Wearing a kippah is a traditional symbol of piety, signifying that we...
(JTA)-For months author JK. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred. Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism. "Lethal White," the fourth series in Rowling's Cormoran Strike mystery series, written under the pen name Robert Galbraith, features a pair of hard-left...
Holocaust denial isn’t just getting “a few things wrong.” It’s a pernicious form of anti-Semitism that serves no other purpose than to attack Jews. Dear Mark Zuckerberg, I’m one of your many fans. Like over two billion people around the planet, I use Facebook to keep in touch with friends, hear new ideas, and digest news. Your decisions about social media affect my life every day. Unbelievably, now those decisions include giving Holocaust denial free reign. On July 18, 2018, you gave an interview to Kara Swisher of the tech site Recode in...
CHICAGO (JTA)-This city's kosher restaurant scene has long lagged behind other metropolises like New York and Los Angeles-but changes might be coming. A bold forthcoming restaurant, an authentic taqueria and reports that two established neighborhood eateries are looking to change hands are raising hope for kosher diners who want more options and fresh new flavors. Chef Laura Frankel, who brought fine kosher dining to Chicago when she opened the upscale restaurant Shallots in 1999, is planning to...
J.K. Rowling, French celebrities and German officials are making it clear they stand with the embattled Jewish minorities within their midst. In the past few days, the author J.K. Rowling—along with dozens of other people in Britain, France and Germany—have been saying enough is enough in the face of relentless anti-Semitism. Their words, coming amid record-breaking levels of anti-Semitism, are a welcome beacon of moral clarity. Rowling issued a series of Tweets on April 18, 2018, (Holocaust Remembrance Day), attacking anti-Semitism and ass...
The Anne House employee isn’t the only person told not to wear his kippah at work. When Barry Vingerling, a 25-year-old Dutch Jew, started working at the Anne Frank House in 2017, he might have assumed his new employers would be sensitive to his religious identity. After all, Anne Frank House commemorates a teenager who was hounded and murdered solely because she was Jewish, helping to make “never again” a reality when it comes to anti-Jewish discrimination. Vingerling wore a kippah to his interview and got the job. Yet, when he started weari...
Father Desbois is on a mission to expose the Holocaust’s hidden crimes. Father Partick Desbois, a French priest, might be one of the greatest detectives of all time. In nearly a decade of work, he has uncovered the murder of 1.5 million Jews in Eastern Europe during World War II. His most recent book, “In Broad Daylight,” maps out the mass killings of Jews in Eastern Europe in exhaustive detail. While the mass execution of Jews in Poland, France and Germany in Nazi concentration camps and death camps is well documented, in the eastern count...
(JTA)-Tufts University's Hillel is described as "an organization that supports a white supremacist state" in a student-written guide to activist life at the university. The Tufts University Disorientation Guide offers information on social, spiritual, health and academic resources at the Boston-area university, but singles out Hillel for opprobrium, calling it a "Zionist space" and accusing it of "exploit(ing) black voices for their own pro-Israel agenda." The guide has been widely read and...
Jerry Lewis, who has died at the age of 91, was a consummate entertainer, one of the 20th century's great comic geniuses and a great philanthropist. Beloved on screen, his personal life was often tumultuous. Suffering through decades where his work languished, he nonetheless continued to challenge himself with new projects well into his late 80s. Lewis was born in 1926 in Newark, New Jersey. Most sources give his original name as Joseph Levitch. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Russia...
Standing up to anti-Israel sentiment on campus and around the globe makes a real difference. The head of Kent State’s Students for Justice in Palestine was urging the erasure of Golda Meir’s quote that adorns a wall on campus, along with other inspirational sayings. Here’s the offending quote: “Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.”—Golda Meir This outlandish demand to remove Golda Meir...
Many of the concepts espoused in the Torah and Jewish tradition seem quintessentially modern, yet go back thousands of years. Here’s a roundup of some ideas that we take for granted today that are an integral part of ancient Jewish wisdom. 1. Monotheism Judaism introduced the powerful notion that one God created and rules the universe. This was a profound break with the idolatrous models that came before, in which an angry or capricious god was seen to govern events at random, and had to be appeased—often in horrible ways, like child sac...
They’re divesting from three companies for the crime of selling products to Israel security forces and Jews in Judea and Samaria. “In no way is this a reflection of our lack of love” for the Jewish people. So assured Heath Rada, the Presbyterian Church (USA)’s moderator, at their annual Assembly on Friday, June 20, 2014, moments after his church voted to divest from three companies. Their crime: selling products to Israel security forces and Jews living in Judea and Samaria. Supporters of divestment erupted in tears when the results were re...
Jewish names speak to our very essence. As the world celebrates with William and Kate over the birth of their baby boy, speculation over what they will name their son is over. They chose George Alexander Louis. But you can call him His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge for short. A name is one of the first gifts new parents bestow on their children. Names convey powerful symbolism about our hopes and dreams for our kids. Modern researchers have even found that names can correspond to our life choices and circumstances, indicating how...
