Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Twitter [has] agreed to release data identifying users to French authorities in response to a January ruling by a French court regarding anti-Semitic tweets posted last October under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew). Users had jumped on the chance to tweet phrases like “a good Jew is a dead Jew,” ultimately forcing the French Jewish students’ union (UEJF) to file a lawsuit against Twitter for allowing that content to appear. [The] decision by Twitter was “a great victory in the fight against...
A new study published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology shows that rates of preventable blindness in Israel have been cut by more than half over the last decade, from 33.8 cases of blindness per 100,000 residents in 1999 to 14.8 in 2010. Israel’s success in preventing and treating all four main causes of avoidable blindness—age-related deterioration, glaucoma, diabetes and cataract—is unmatched anywhere else in the world, says the study’s lead author, Dr. Michael Belkin of the Goldsch...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—During Ramadan, Muslim communities around the world experience a month of fasting, devotion and increased consciousness of their faith. They also remember those who are suffering around the world and seek an end to the forces of hatred that lead to violence against people of all faiths. The spirit of Ramadan, which lasts this year through Aug. 7, can serve as a positive force to bring people together and a powerful reminder of the common humanity that all people share. Muslim communities collect donations to aid those in n...
First of a three-part series. My big mistake, upon arriving at Jeffrey Katzenberg’s office, is that I didn’t bring my ballet slippers. But no one really told me about the choreography of a visit here, in which Katzenberg’s vassals at DreamWorks Animation, the company he co-founded and oversees, welcomed me in, warmed me up and made me wait. It’s a very pretty dance, though, past the koi ponds and cobblestone drive, the sports cars and sprawling courtyards, and into the sleek reception area wh...
RAMALLAH—Palestinians are torn between being happy that many have received permits to visit Jerusalem and Israel during the holy Islamic month of Ramadan (July 8-Aug. 7), and being concerned for the West Bank shops which will lose a great deal of business to stores in Israel. Ramadan is considered the holiest month in the Islamic calendar. Religious Muslims all over the world fast from sunrise to sunset. At the end of the month, Muslims celebrate Eid Al Fitr where they visit relatives or take a few days off to travel. On a recent morning, d...
Seventy years ago this month, on July 28, an eyewitness to the Nazi atrocities against Europe’s Jews brought the horrifying news directly to the most powerful man on earth. It was the moment that President Franklin D. Roosevelt came face to face with the Holocaust. By the time he was 26, Polish underground member Jan Karski had been imprisoned by the Soviets, tortured by the Gestapo, and nearly drowned while escaping from a hospital in German-occupied Slovakia. After all he suffered, it would h...
JERUSALEM—Several dozen Israelis – families, singles, religious, secular—sit on small rattan stools on Prophet’s Street in Jerusalem scooping up gado-gado with chopsticks. Gado-gado, for the uninitiated, is a vegetable-noodle dish with a curry-and-coconut milk sauce. So what does an Indonesian dish have to do with summer nights and culture in the capital? The delicacy is being offered by Foodtrip, served out of a food truck as part of the Jerusalem Season of Culture – a month-long festival of art, music and food in the city. The answer ca...
THE HAGUE, Netherlands—The intensity with which Israel reacted last week to new European guidelines prohibiting support for projects based in disputed territories surprised not only EU diplomats, but also their Israeli counterparts. The guidelines, which preclude already nonexistent EU grants to Israeli entities in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem, prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene an emergency meeting and release a sardonic statement t...
BEERSHEVA, Israel (JTA)—In four years, it’s slated to be bigger than New York’s Central Park and consist of open fields, a sports complex, and a lake and a river filled with recycled water. Now, though, Beersheva River Park looks like much of the area surrounding the desert city of Beersheva: a panorama of sand and dirt, with a bit of trash and, on a good day, some dirty water trickling through a gorge. In one patch of empty space, workers in hard hats walk up and down rows of stadium seats...
