Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The interview for this year's Heritage Human Service Award winner was unprecedented. Since an "in person" interview was not possible, Heritage requested a bio and this chosen recipient obliged with an excellent introduction: "The designee for this year's Heritage Human Service Award, Hank Katzen, first visited Israel at age 18 on a UJA Family Mission. It was on a very hot day that Hank and his father [Marc Katzen] climbed to the top of Masada. On the way to the top, Hank experienced a peace and...
Abby Sanchez, member of the Seminole County School Board, represents District 3 in Central Florida. First elected in 2016, Sanchez's current term ends in 2020. She is running for re-election in the primary election on Aug. 18, 2020; the general election is on Nov. 3 (check your local polling place for early voting). Growing up in South Florida, Sanchez, earned the nickname "Dear Abby" for her compassion, desire to listen, and problem-solving propensities. The moniker lives on four decades...
Adrian and Geanne Share came to the Orlando area in 1998. "My husband's an engineer whose passion is to see high-speed rail built in the U.S., and we came to Florida for that purpose. He's spent 20 years on different attempts to bring high-speed passenger service between Miami and Orlando. He led the engineering for the system that is being built between Orlando and Miami by Brightline, and oversaw the construction of the first phase between Miami and West Palm Beach that is temporarily shut dow...
(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) praised the support by at least 10 anti-Semitic groups for a letter issued by her and signed by other Democrats, The Washington Free Beacon recently reported, citing “an internal email circulated to House Democrats.” The “supporting organizations” listed on the letter include ones related to the anti-Israel BDS movement, including the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, American Muslims for Palestine, American Friends Service Committee, Churches for Middle East Peace and Defense for Children...
(JNS) — A group of 10 Jewish organizations has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a discrimination case from the 1970s that involved a Jewish employee who couldn’t work on Saturdays, which is the the Jewish Shabbat. The amicus curiae was filed by the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs. It was joined by Orthodox Jews groups, including Agudath Israel of America, Agudas Harabbonim, the Coalition for Jewish Values, the National Council of Young Israel, the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, the Rabbinical All...
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $740.5 billion National Defense Authorization Act for 2021 on Tuesday that includes the continuation of American assistance to Israel for missile-defense programs and other initiatives. The Pentagon blueprint for the upcoming year allocates $500 million towards missile-defense systems in Israel such as the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow 3 in accordance with the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, between the United States and Israel worth $38 billion over a decade. The NDAA would con...
(JNS) — Peter Beinart’s two pieces, one in The New York Times and the other in Jewish Currents, are calling for the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Beinart no longer supports a two-state solution, but rather a binational state where Jews and Arabs share sovereignty in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. This idea is ahistorical, unrealistic and holds Israel to an impossible standard and, if implemented, will likely lead to disaster. Many Jews feel guilty for the plight of the Palestinians. Beinart’s way of de...
(JNS) — Irony may be dead in America, but if any were left alive, this would count. Consider the work of Vincenzo Miserendino (1875-1943). An Italian-American sculptor, he created statues and busts of famous Americans and other notables, including several of Theodore Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus. In today’s America, they can only be called “endangered.” One of his Columbus statues in Hartford, Conn., has been removed quietly; another, in Reading, Pa., is the subject of a petition to remove it and already has been vandalized. It’s in...
(JNS) — On March 7, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 183 condemning anti-Semitism. The resolution, which passed 407-23, was initiated in response to anti-Semitic comments made by Democratic Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib. The text of the resolution, whose purpose was to “ensure safety” for the Jewish people, states that “accusing Jews of being more loyal to Israel or to the Jewish community than to the U.S. constitutes anti-Semitism.” Clause 1 rejects the perpetuation of anti-Semitic stereotypes, including...
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. (JTA) — The Babylonian Talmud in Tractate Kiddushin teaches that “devarim shebalev einam devarim” — words not put out into the universe are irrelevant — and that we must speak our minds when we feel the imperative to do so. I want to be clear that the following does not speak for, or represent, the congregation where I serve as a senior rabbi. These are my own words within my heart that I am bringing out into the open. During Rep. Ilhan Omar’s time in the House of Representatives, I have talked and worked with her, even t...
ST. MICHAELS, Maryland (JTA) — The day is one of my most vivid and treasured memories. I was associate director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, and we were in the middle of our flagship public policy conference. One of my responsibilities was to assign Reform Movement leaders to introduce each of our speakers. The power went right to my head, and I began by assigning myself to introduce John Lewis, the congressman from Georgia who was an icon of the civil rights movement. Somehow the many higher-ups who reviewed the list eithe...
Dear Editor: I believe that it is worth noting that your fine publication noted in separate columns that the prime minister of the Palestinian entity has submitted in writing plans for a Palestinian state (“PA says it is ready to restart peace negotiations with Israel,” July 10; and “52 years late isn’t too late,” July 17). This was apparently a response to the solution offered on behalf of the Trump Administration after an extensive research by very knowledgeable and highly intelligent professionals. The Trump plan reflected the realizati...
MORNING MINYANS (Please note, because of the coronavirus, all minyans have been canceled or held virtually.) 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., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy...
(JTA) — Since retiring from his post as national director of the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, Abraham Foxman has had plenty of opportunities to take on other projects in the Jewish world. Until now, he’s almost always said no. But now the 80-year-old is coming out of retirement with an ambitious goal: to raise $28 million to feed Holocaust survivors during the pandemic. Foxman will lead the national initiative for the Met Council, a social service agency and the largest distributor of kosher food to New Yorkers living in poverty. Since ear...
When I was six years old, I loved summer storms. As the sky turned dark, the thunder clapped, and the lighting shot across the sky, I would watch from the safety of our living room window. My mother assured me that the noise was just God bowling. When I was 16, I loved summer storms. By that time, my parents had purchased a cottage on Willsboro Bay in Upstate New York. From the safety of our porch, I would watch the rain come down in sheets and the waves rock our boat that was moored 200 yards o...
(ISRAEL21c) - Remember when pollution was our worst respiratory worry? Now, scientists say airborne virus particles may be the main cause of Covid-19 infections. In the face of new evidence, the World Health Organization has changed its tune about the virus not being transmitted through air. "WHO, together with the scientific community, has been actively discussing and evaluating whether SARS-CoV-2 may also spread through aerosols ... particularly in indoor settings with poor ventilation," the...
Sad news ... As I've said before, I write this column almost two weeks in advance of publication so I just learned of the death of Congressman John Lewis yesterday. What a great loss! I had so much respect for him, starting back in the days when he and Martin Luther King marched together. He was always a well-spoken, likeable young man fighting for a good cause. Rest in peace, Congressman Lewis. You will never be forgotten. Things you need to know ... I'm referring to Israel, 10 things you need...
Not only are Brooke and Olivia Chepenik bright and beautiful, but they are artistic and philanthropic as well. The sisters decided that they wanted to help seniors in long-term care during the Covid epidemic and let them know they are still cared for. The family connected with the Jewish Pavilion and over 100 candy jars have been delivered to our elders in two senior communities. Each jar has a beautiful cover and is painted with “JP” (Jewish Pavilion) and a heart. Their grandmother, Claire Che...
(JNS) - Since taking office in 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has become one of the most outspoken critics of Israel in the U.S. Congress. She has become part of a growing cadre of young progressives within the Democratic Party whom critics fear will erode the long-heralded bipartisan support for Israel. Last month, this concern further grew when pro-Israel Democratic stalwart Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who headed the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, lost in a primary to Jamaal...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When John Lewis, the civil rights icon and congressman from Georgia, died at 80 over the weekend, Jews in America and abroad lost an ally of nearly six decades. Lewis never tired of telling folks to “get into good trouble,” to defy the authorities and the conventional wisdom. It was a creed that guided him as he helped organize the 1963 March on Washington; that led to police severely beating him in Selma, Alabama, in 1965; and that underscored his 33-year career in Congress. He also had a close relationship with the Jewis...
(JNS) - In somewhat of a role reversal, Israel has emerged during the global coronavirus crisis as the main supporter of Jewish communities worldwide. In a Wednesday briefing with Jewish Agency for Israel chairman Isaac Herzog and other leaders, including those from Italy, France, Argentina and South Africa, Herzog maintained that "there is a common table between the government of Israel and the Diaspora... the coronavirus affects the stability and well-being of community institutions all...
(JNS) - Israel and the Jewish people are always looking for friends, and they seemed to have found one in Holly Huffnagle. A Christian now employed to help tackle anti-Semitism in the United States, she has more than one thing in common with the Jewish and pro-Israel community of late. On July 12, Huffnagle was targeted by the anti-Israel group IfNotNow, which retweeted a post by the American Jewish Committee, where in April she was named its U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism, claiming...
(JNS) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sent a letter Monday notifying the Village of Airmont in Rockland County, N.Y., that they plan to file suit against the village on the grounds that are violating terms of the Federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. RLUIPA, as the law is commonly referred to, was created in part to ensure that municipalities did not create zoning or landmarking laws that would discriminate against religious institutions or “unreasonably” limit religio...
Trump names former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka to defense education body By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump named Sebastian Gorka to a committee that promotes national security through the education system. A onetime White House staffer, Gorka had come under fire for his associations with the Hungarian far right. On Tuesday, Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board, which oversees the National Security Education Program, a congressionally mandated program that dispenses grants and scholarships t...
(JNS) - Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and increasing tensions between the United States and China, Israeli companies continue to view China as a major market for growth and development. Executives from two such companies have told JNS in recent weeks about their ongoing operations in China. The PTL Group is an Israeli-owned Chinese company that provides support to multiple international companies taking their first steps in the Chinese market. Its chairman, Zvi Shalgo, said in a...
