Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Jonathan Pollard landed in Israel early Wednesday morning, one month after his parole restrictions were lifted and five years after he was released from U.S. federal prison after serving 30 years for spying for Israel. He was accompanied on the flight by his wife Esther. Due to Esther's medical condition, the Pollards chose to fly by private plane directly from New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport to Tel Aviv. As the pilots prepared to land, Pollard was...
(JTA) - There's no way to tally all those we lost in 2020, a year when we mourned even our ability to carry out time-tested rituals of grief. Among those who died this year were some of the Jewish world's most famous and influential pillars in a range of industries, realms of thought and areas of activism - from the pioneer jurist Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the moral thought leader Rabbi Jonathan Sacks to the Modern Orthodox rabbi Norman Lamm to the influential LGBTQ activist Larry Kramer. But many...
(JNS) - Israel vaccinated its millionth citizen against COVID-19 on Friday, just three days after announcing the 500,000th Israeli had received the first dose of the vaccine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein were on hand in Umm al-Fahm to meet Arab-Israeli Jabarin Muhammad, 66, in the presence of Mayor Samir Sobhi Mahameed, Clalit Healthcare Services chairman Harel Locker, Maccabi Healthcare Services chairman Ran Saar and Ayman Saif, the official...
(JNS) - A graphic on Fox News last week showed "Palestine" as a country, despite it not being an independent nation. The graphic appeared during the Dec. 23 broadcast of "America's Newsroom" during a segment about U.S. President Donald Trump complaining about foreign aid in the legislative package Congress passed this week that included $1.4 trillion to fund the government and around $900 billion in COVID relief. Fox News did not respond to a request for comment. A similar error occurred in...
Starting a business in the age of Covid may sound risky but a Winter Park couple, Evan and Susanne Roberts, saw it as an opportunity. They launched Sign Greeters, a company that installs large, cheerful yard greetings for customers who have something to celebrate or promote. "Basically, we do anything from birthdays to anniversaries to welcome back to school," said Evan Roberts. Surprisingly, the coronavirus hasn't been a hindrance, explained Evan. "If anything, social isolation has helped us,"...
As part of their monthly guest speakers via Zoom "Physically Apart - Emotionally Together", Chabads of Greater Orlando and North Orlando invite you to hear the fascinating story of Rabbi Motti Flikshtein on Jan. 13, 7:30 p.m. Motti will take you back in time to the days of his youth as a drug dealing rapper, and retell his journey of becoming a rabbi. You will hear the incredible story of a man who completely turned his life around. Coming from the darkest of places, he not only brought light...
Even though three quarters of 2020 was under quarantine, JFS Orlando had many things to be thankful for. These are the agency’s 10 favorite things: 10 The Pearlman Emergency Food Pantry provided enough food for more than 175,000 meals to about 9,000 individuals 9 JFS Orlando’s mental health counselors transitioned all appointments to telehealth (overnight with very few hiccups) to stay safe and still meet with clients. 8 The Family Stabilization program helped more than 140 families fight homelessness and become more self-sufficient for the...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — The pro-Israel educational organization StandWithUs sent a letter to the University of California Merced on Dec. 24 calling on it to take action against professor Abbas Ghassemi over his use of “anti-Semitic statements and images on social media.” StandWithUs CEO and co-founder Roz Rothstein, Saidoff legal department director Yael Lerman and Center for Combating Antisemitism head Carly Gammill wrote to UC Merced Chancellor Dr. Juan Sanchez Munoz and professor emeritus Dr. Thomas Peterson that Ghassemi has issue...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Saudi authorities have been removing anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist content from the country’s textbooks for the coming school year, a report by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education has found. The report came amid growing speculation of a potential rapprochement between the Jewish state and the Arab Gulf power. Saudi Arabia’s neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, normalized ties with Israel in September in a deal brokered by the United States. Washi...
(JNS) — Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Gilad Erdan reflected on 2020 and how “Israel’s future looks brighter than ever” in his address on Sunday night at the Zionist Organization of America’s Virtual Superstar Gala. Erdan, also Israel’s incoming ambassador to the United States, received the ZOA’s Woo Kai–Sheng Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Diplomacy. In his acceptance speech, he said that while this past year “supplied a fair amount of hate, it also delivered a fair amount of peace.” He noted that the signing of the Ab...
(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) — Of all the efforts that U.S. President Donald Trump made on behalf of the Jewish people, the most meaningful and lasting may be the orchestration of peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The benefits of those accords for security and business are hugely significant. Perhaps even more meaningful and lasting are the personal connections and cultural implications, as Israelis shift to closer relations with their Abrahamic cousins. These peace deals, then, will not be so much government-to-government agreements as they a...
Let us forget for a moment that Israel is not the nation-state of the Jewish people. Let us fantasize that it is not engaged in an intractable conflict with Palestinian Arabs who refuse to recognize or make peace with the legitimacy of an indigenous people who historically, biblically, legally, and irreversibly have reestablished their homeland in the Land of Israel. The realty of course is that despite numerous efforts and generous concessions over the last 73 years by Israel to make peace with the Palestinian Arabs, the Palestinian Arab...
(JNS) — “Build Back Better” was Joe Biden’s campaign slogan. How different is that, really, from “Make America Great Again”? Both BBB and MAGA suggest the need for restoration, for reversing deterioration and decline, for fixing what’s broken. In foreign and national security policy, President Donald Trump —following eight years of President Barack Obama’s unwillingness to bolster the credibility of American power against America’s enemies — achieved some significant successes. He also suffered some significant failures. In other areas, he ma...
In the year of the pandemic, it’s no wonder that horrible things continue to come back in ways that are threatening and objectively wrong. This year, maybe because of the virus and people being stuck at home with nothing better to do, a gross lie has resurfaced as it does every year at this season, undermining truth and the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Each year around Christmas, efforts to propagate this malicious lie get stronger and more brazen. It’s part of a slanderous campaign of deception, whose end goal is to erase Jew...
(BESA Center via JNS) — While the number of anti-Semitic incidents worldwide increased in 2020, there were several positive developments in the fight against this hatred. The decision this year by the European Court of Justice that the Flemish and Wallonian governments can only allow ritual slaughter of animals after stunning was a major anti-Semitic act. It also affects part of the Muslim population. When Adolf Hitler came to power, the Nazi government introduced a similar measure in Germany, as it fit their anti-Semitic policies. Though t...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, some minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) Chabad of North Orlando is holding in-person minyans. Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 4...
(JTA) - After an Orthodox-owned health clinic appeared to be administering COVID-19 vaccines to members of the public contrary to state guidelines, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the investigation would be referred to the state attorney general's office and that vaccine-related fraud would come with consequences. "We will not tolerate any fraud in the vaccination process," Cuomo said at a news conference Monday. "Anyone who engages in fraud is going to be held accountable." His comments come...
(JTA) - Pixar's "Soul," released on Friday on Disney+, is a tender balm of a movie about an aspiring jazz musician who dies on the day he gets his big break. Watching "Soul," which is set in a richly imagined New York City, as well as in a blissed-out, blue-ish, and minimalist realm of unborn souls, in the final days of 2020 is once elegiac (the riotously crowded New York it depicts sure isn't there at the moment) and soothing, like applying a poultice to a wound. The New York of our dreams may...
MYSORE, India (JTA) - From the flashing outdoor lights that deck out Park Street, to the bustling pop-up Christmas market at the central rotunda of the sprawling New Market, Christmas has always been a celebratory affair in Kolkata. While this year celebrations are toned down due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the damaging after-effects of Cyclone Amphan that hit the city in May, Isaac Nahoum, a Jewish baker who has seen business tumble from more than 300 customers a day to a mere...
As the world continues to race toward a vaccine for Covid-19, new Israeli research shows that the humble light bulb could become a major player in the fight against the pandemic. Researchers have discovered that coronavirus can be killed quickly, efficiently and cheaply using ultraviolet light-emitting diodes, or UV LED lights. In a study recently published in the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology researchers found the optimal wavelength for killing the coronavirus is 267...
If it gets any colder, I'm moving to Florida! ... (I shouldn't complain. I get to wear a jacket and hide my tummy!) Anyway, I must say, the more I research for this column, the more I find reasons to be proud! For instance, the songs of today do not compare with the great American songbook (that was written mostly by Jews.) As a vocalist, I stick to the beautiful songs, the ones written mostly in the '30s and '40s and mostly by Jews. This morning I watched a movie on television (what else is...
WHEELING, W.Va. (JTA) - Surrounded by silver crucifixes and Christmas ornaments, Samuel Posin and Joan Berlow Smith sell vintage jewelry and myriad tchotchkes at their church-turned-boutique gift shop in this city. This is not the kind of place you'll find many Jews. In this deeply rural state where just over half of all voters identify as Christian evangelicals, fewer than 1,200 Jews are thought to be scattered among West Virginia's 1.8 million residents. Yet born and raised in Wheeling,...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Prominent figures on Israel’s right are furious with Defense Minister Benny Gantz for telling London-based Saudi news outlet Asharq Al-Awsat in a recent interview that he does not envision full regional peace without the Palestinians, and that Jerusalem had enough room to include a future Palestinian capital. When asked about the status of Jerusalem, Gantz was quoted as saying, “Jerusalem must remain united, but it will include a place for a Palestinian capital. It is a very big city and full of places sacred to us al...
Paul C. Gips, age 91, of Maitland, passed away Dec. 28, 2020. He was the only child born to parents Leon and Anne Gips June 9, 1929, in Boston, Massachusetts. Paul grew up in Miami Beach, served as a sergeant in the Army Corps of Engineers in the Korean War, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Construction Engineering from the University of Florida. Shortly after graduating from college, Paul found his life-long career at H.J. High Construction Company where he worked as Vice-President until his retirement. Paul met Sandra Hornbuckle in 1...
