Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)—In just a few weeks, tens of thousands of kids will be on the move, leaving home for Jewish overnight camps. This year though they’ll be doing so under the specter of heightened security concerns as anti-Semitism is at a near-record high nationwide and it has been just half a year since two deadly synagogue shootings. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents for 2018, 1,879 attacks were committed against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country last year, including the attack at the Tree of Life*...
(JNS)-Two tankers, one carrying oil and the other transferring a freight of methanol, in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz were attacked on Thursday, less than a month after Iran was blamed for attacking four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Norwegian-owned tanker Front Altair and a Japanese-owned ship Kokuka Courageous were hit in the attack. The Norwegian Martime Agency said that three explosions were reported onboard the tanker. U.S. Secretary of State...
A unique opportunity is coming to Jewish high school students in Orlando this fall: the chance to earn two private college credits while exploring the tenets of Judaism. The course is being offered by CTeen U: a collaboration of Yeshiva University and CTeen International. Yeshiva University is the world’s premier Jewish institution for higher education. It is home to a network of undergraduate and graduate programs. The undergraduate programs offer a unique dual curriculum comprising Jewish studies and liberal arts, sciences, and business c...
NEW YORK (JTA)—New York City is shuttering an Orthodox school in Brooklyn because it has continued to admit unvaccinated students in violation of a city order. The Central UTA Satmar School for Boys, a hasidic school in the Williamsburg neighborhood, is being closed Tuesday afternoon for violating city orders regarding vaccines and vaccination records, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. It is the tenth Orthodox school in New York City to be closed this year due to the issue, according to a city official with knowledge of the matter. W...
Forty some years ago, a young man named Eliot Lasky was driving with his friend when he saw a Chabad rabbi dancing on the street with a few other Chassidim. The young man was shocked. He'd never seen anything like this in Buffalo, a city that at the time was known as the "Berkeley of the East" for its university's hippy counterculture vibe. Lasky was no stranger to what he'd just encountered. He'd grown up in Brooklyn in an Orthodox home, but had left that life behind to seek his fortune. Where...
The Jewish Pavilion’s mission is to bring Jewish life and culture to residents in senior living facilities. This includes Shabbat and holiday services and programs, along with individual visitations. The outcome is obvious and predictable—an opportunity to enjoy the rich array of prayers, songs, stories, food, and social interaction. However, many times during a Shabbat service, the opportunity arises to go beyond the words of the service or the routine of the day. Opening up dialogues and telling personal stories during the program bec...
The Congregation Beth Sholom Sisterhood will have their monthly meeting on Sunday, July 7, at 2 p.m. The meetings are held at the Beth Sholom Synagogue located at 315 North 13th Street in Leesburg with the entrance on Center Street. The meeting and presentation are open to the public. Following the business meeting, there will be a presentation by Lt. Colonial Herb Siegel who will give an introduction to Jewish genealogy. This is a great opportunity to meet the warm and friendly women of Congregation Beth Sholom and answer your questions on...
The RAISE program for adults with special needs is now accepting online applications for RAISE employees as well as opportunities to volunteer as a job coach. RAISE is a 6- to 12-month work and social skills training program for adults with special needs offered through the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando. RAISE provides paid employment at our partnering agencies. If you know of someone who may benefit from RAISE please apply online by clicking on BEGIN THE APPLICATION PROCESS at jfgo.org/RAISE. If you are interested in volunteering as a...
(JNS)-The campaigns for Israel's second elections in 2019 are underway and, after reviewing the first polls, many Israelis are asking if they may end up with a stalemate and no government following the second go-around. Initial polling results indicate that the Israeli right will once again be the closest to form a coalition. However, the numbers also reveal that following the Sept. 17 elections, Israel may very well end up again in a situation in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot...
It’s Yiddish for the win at the Scripps National Spelling Bee! OK, not quite, but last week, when the first rounds of the finals kicked off, the word “Yiddishkeit” nearly stumped contestant No. 5, Rishik Gandshari from San Jose, California. The seventh-grader didn’t quite know what to make of the quintessentially Jewish word, which the contest defined as “a Jewish way of life.” After asking what the language of origin of the word was, and receiving the answer “Yiddish,” Rishik chuckled nervou...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The last living survivor of the Nazi death camp Sobibor has died. Semion Rosenfeld died on Monday at a hospital in central Israel at the age of 96. He moved to Israel from the Ukraine in 1990, according to the Jerusalem Post. Sobibor was built and operated by the SS during World War II near the railway station of Sobibor in Poland. At least 200,000 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers at Sobibor though some have put the number as high as 350,000. The camp was destroyed by the Germans at the end of 1943. Rosenfeld, who was b...
Coming in for a landing on July 2 at the Orlando International Airport will be EL AL’s inaugural flight from Tel Aviv to MCO. The flight will ferry out empty back to Tel Aviv. Then on July 9 at 9:30 a.m. EL AL will make its first flight out of MCO with passengers....
(JNS)—Iran has increased its uranium enrichment since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, warned the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday. However, while IAEA chief Yukiya Amano informed reporters about this development, he noted, “I did not say Iran is implementing [the JCPOA], but I did not say Iran is not implementing either.” Newsweek reported that “Amano specifically said that the country had increased its production of low-enriched uranium, the type of uranium that is used for produci...
(JNS)—A few days ago, Britain’s Daily Telegraph revealed that in 2015 the British authorities had uncovered a Hezbollah terrorist plot. The key point was that this had been kept secret until now. In a bomb factory on the outskirts of London, a total of three metric tons of ammonium nitrate was discovered—more than was used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people—stashed in ice packs. This was apparently no rogue plot, but part of an international Hezbollah operation laying the groundwork for future attacks. The London cell wa...
(BESA Center via JNS)—The Jewish diaspora in the United States is becoming increasingly estranged from Israel. American Jewish youth are being pushed away from affiliation with the Jewish state, and some Jewish students are even forced to hide their religious identity or their support for Israel to stay safe on campus. A central issue hindering a solution to this problem is the continued, uncompromising political support of American Jewry for the Democratic Party, which is increasingly vocal in its disdain for Israel. Though Israel urgently n...
(JNS)—At a time when violence against Jews is on the rise around the world, should the United States provide advanced weapons to a government that actively promotes anti-Semitism? That’s the question we need to consider as the Senate debates Senate Joint Resolution 26, which would block the administration’s plan to provide Qatar with 24 attack helicopters, 2,500 Hellfire missiles and other sophisticated military hardware. Qatar is the world’s leading financer of the Hamas terrorists. Qatari money pays for the missiles that Hamas fires at kind...
By Howard Lefkowitz Last weekend, I had a heated discussion with my son-in-law, a political science professor at Virginia Tech, as to America’s right to demand change in Israel’s internal and external political directions. He asserted that Israel’s regional activities, as well as internal political structure, could become detrimental to the U.S.’s best interest. He argued that the US provides $4B a year in foreign aid to Israel. Therefore, the U.S. is entitled to demand certain actions that it deems appropriate. My son-in-law has a point r...
As a youngster said to her mother, “Why am I called a dirty Jew? I shower everyday.” I am a Jew who has helped many children. Let me introduce myself. I am Elaine. I was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey to Jewish parents. My background is all Jewish. All my great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents were Jewish. I went to an all-girl public high school. The town fathers tried to decrease teen pregnancy by having an all-girls high school and all-boys high school. Mine was a glorious same-sex high school. We were everything: a class pre...
(JNS)—Palestinian and leftist Jewish leaders called for America’s Israel ambassador to be fired for telling The New York Times in a recent interview that the Jewish state has, “under certain circumstances, the right to retain some, but unlikely all, of the West Bank.” Yes, for daring to suggest that Israel has the right even to “some” of its land, David Friedman was called a “settler” by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who had previously dubbed him a “son of a dog.” And the P.A. Foreign Ministry announced that it would weigh fili...
Dear Editor: Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg said in a speech this week: “If Prime Minister Netanyahu makes good on his threat to annex West Bank settlements, he should know that a President Buttigieg would take steps to ensure that American taxpayers won’t help foot the bill.” By invoking assistance to Israel, Mayor Buttigieg used one of the most long-standing bipartisan issues as a political instrument in his fight for the 2020 Democratic nomination. In doing so, Buttigieg is feeding the growing and alarming debate within the Democ...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A rocket fired from Gaza hit a school building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Thursday evening. The building, identified as a Jewish religious school, was damaged but no injuries were reported. It was reported to be empty at the time of impact and was fortified against rockets. No one has taken responsibility for firing the rocket, but the Israeli military typically blames Hamas, the terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip. A Code Red rocket alert was sounded in the area and one rocket was identified as being f...
(JNS)—Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $42 million contract by Israel’s Defense Ministry to conduct “expansive maintenance services to the State of Israel,” as well as to operate and maintain an F-35 training center southeast of Beersheva over the next decade, announced the ministry. Additionally, the U.S. defense contractor will hire about 25 new workers from Israel’s southern area. Israel will cover half of the cost over the next five years, with the remainder conditional on a five-year extension. “This project is of great strategic i...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—David Friedman, U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Israel “has the right to retain” some of the West Bank. Palestinians fumed, Jewish settlers rejoiced, and the punditocracy predicted gloom and doom. What was it exactly that Friedman said in a New York Times interview. And what happens next? War, war crimes trial, one state, two states? What Netanyahu said Before we get to what the ambassador said, we first have to deal with what prompted his comment. The Times asked Friedman to speak on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan...
(MEMRI via JNS)-A Palestinian sheikh said during an address at the Al-Aqsa mosque uploaded to the internet in June that Jerusalem is the "heartland" where the banners of the caliphate will flutter, where military convoys and brigades will assemble, and where policies will be designed to herald the "dawn of justice" and the birth of the Islamic Caliphate. Sheikh Abu Hanifa Awda said that the "army of Islam" would set forth from Jerusalem to conquer to world. Sheikh Abu Hanifa Awda: "Indeed, oh...
(JNS)—Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran deal in May 2018, saying that it was “close to a true ‘art of the deal,’ ” a reference to one of the president’s books. “Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons should remain a core tenet of our global leadership,” said Buttigieg, 37, in a speech focused on foreign policy and national security at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. “F...
