Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA)-There are 56 candidates for Congress who identify as Jewish. Among them are 41 Democrats: five are running for the Senate-three incumbents and two challengers. Among the 36 in the U.S. House of Representatives, 18 are incumbents and 18 are challengers. (Three incumbent Jewish House Democrats are retiring.) The 15 Republican candidates are running for the House. There are two incumbents and 13 challengers. Additionally, two House candidates, both Democrats, have Jewish fathers...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Nikki Haley, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations and a strong defender of Israel in the world body, will leave her post by the end of this year. President Donald Trump in an Oval Office appearance with Haley on Tuesday morning praised the former South Carolina governor and said that about six months ago, she told him that she was ready to leave by the end of this year. "She's a fantastic person, very importantly, but she's also somebody that gets it," Trump said. The...
(JNS)—The University of Michigan is again under fire for anti-Israel sentiment as a pro-BDS instructor rejected a Jewish student’s request for a letter of recommendation to study in Israel for a semester, just a few months after an associate professor refused to do the same for student Abigail Ingber. In August, associate professor in the American Culture Department John Cheney-Lippold wrote to Ingber via email: “As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Pa...
(JNS)-A University of Michigan professor, citing his support for the BDS movement in denying a student's request in August for a letter of recommendation for a semester-long study-abroad program at Tel Aviv University, was sanctioned on Tuesday by the university. "As you may know, many university departments have pledged an academic boycott against Israel in support of Palestinians living in Palestine," John Cheney-Lippold, an associate professor in the American Culture department, wrote to...
Twins Herbert and Martin Siegel, will be celebrating their 83rd birthdays on Oct. 24, 2018. What is more significant about this date is that it is also the 70th anniversary of their bar mitzvah. To honor this event, the brothers will again be called to the Torah to recite the traditional prayers and read the Haftarah portion on Saturday, Oct. 27, at 10 a.m. at Congregation Beth Sholom in Leesburg. Herbert will be wearing the same tallit that he wore for his bar mitzvah. After the service they...
The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will offer three programs during the month of November, an Oneg Shabbat following 7:30 p.m. services at First Congregation Sons of Israel on Friday evening, Nov. 9; a Memorial Service at the St. Augustine National Cemetery on Nov. 11 at 11 a.m., the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended World War I; and a free 2-hour walking tour of Jewish St. Augustine to begin at Mission Nombre de Dios at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 14. The Nov. 9 Oneg Shabbat following regular 7:30 p.m. Friday evening services...
Congregation Ohev Shalom Sisterhood is hosting a special event with Mark Cooper, JD, who will lead a non-partisan discussion on the 12 proposed Constitutional Amendments and Revision for the 2018 election, on Thursday, Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. Cooper is a longtime member of COS, a community leader and attorney and adjunct professor at UCF. Refreshments will follow the discussion. The cost is a donation of $5 for non-sisterhood members. To review the amendments in advance, go to dos.myflorida.com/elections....
Please join your friends from Congregation Ohev Shalom Men’s Club at Mulligan’s in Altamonte Springs, 165 Wekiva Springs Rd, 32779, on Thursday, Oct. 25, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for a choice brew and some good conversation. Contact: Michael Asher, 407 401-3522. Please RSVP - michaeldasher3@gmail.com....
By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA)-The organizers of a rally to support pro-Israel students at Columbia University didn't want the Jewish Defense League to show up. And yet there they were, a few demonstrators wearing the extremist right-wing group's insignia, a clenched fist punching into a yellow Jewish star. The leader of the group's New York chapter, Karen Lichtbraun, marched up and down the small police barricade chatting up the other protesters. She said six of her members had come to...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Two Israelis were killed and another injured in a terror attack in a West Bank industrial area that employs thousands of Palestinian and Jewish workers. The attack in the Barkan Industrial Park factory took place shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, at the beginning of the work week. The gunman, a 23-year-old Palestinian who remains at large, had been employed at the factory for several months and reportedly knew the two dead victims-a man and a woman from central Israel. Both had been...
Israeli police were alerted to a house in Givat Ze’ev, a Jerusalem neighborhood, late Sunday night after a Molotov cocktail was found tied to a balloon was found in the backyard. Police sappers examined the balloon and transferred the findings for further investigation, officers said. The police called on the public to exercise extreme caution with regards to suspicious objects such as kites and balloons, which may contain explosives or flammable materials. Givat Ze’ev is situated adjacent to several Arab neighborhoods. This concerning inc...
At the end of the month, the Jewish Federations of North America will hold their annual General Assembly in Israel. And while the Federations’ decision to hold their annual conference in Israel rather than America seems at face value to be a statement of solidarity with Israel, in this case, it isn’t. Five months after U.S. President Donald Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv in an extraordinary act of friendship, the Jewish Federations of North America chose to hold their annual General Assembly in... Tel Aviv. The nam...
There was a time when “real” anti-Semitism was alive and doing well in the United States. I have written before that had we moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio, two years earlier than we did, we could not have bought a house there. It was not until 1948 that the “No Jews” restriction was declared illegal. At that time there were quotas on the number of Jews allowed in many medical and law schools around the country. Most country clubs did not allow Jews (we retaliated by opening our own country clubs and not allowing gentiles). Before the war, Je...
(JNS)—Some American pundits are slamming Israel for denying entry to Palestinian-American student Lara Alqasem. Perhaps they should take a look at America’s own laws concerning the admission of extremists before they throw mud at Israel. In 2014, Ms. Alqasem became a member of the anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine at her home campus, the University of Florida. She didn’t join as some passing lark; she was an activist who rose through the ranks, becoming vice president of the chapter, and then serving as president in 2016-...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Something is rotten in the state of liberalism that threatens the future of progressive Judaism. Jews who call themselves “liberal” join organizations seeking to boycott, divest and sanction Israel in disproportional numbers. They lead the attack against Israel with a kind of ferocity normally reserved for the world’s worst regimes. Their antipathy for Israel leads them to join groups that even have anti-Semitic tendencies. But the danger is not only in the political realm. Like everything else in life, our actions, our politic...
(Mida via JNS)—I write this just hours after an Arab terrorist shot and killed two Jews and seriously wounded a third in the Barkan industrial center in Israel’s Shomron region, where thousands of Jews and Arabs work side by side. I write this just after learning that Arab terrorists set fire to chicken farms in the Yizrael Valley in northern Israel. I write this as southern Israel is still ablaze, for months, due to Arab terrorists in Gaza that began their arson attacks early this past summer. I write this just 22 days after Ari Fuld ...
(Mida via JNS)—There is an evil that exists in “Palestinian” society. An evil that seeks to destroy and to kill and to hurt and to eliminate all those around it. An evil that takes great joy in the murder of innocents. An evil that celebrates the tears and heartaches of the Jewish people. An evil that has only darkness in its heart, and only murder in its mind. Destroy. Murder. Burn. Wreck. These are the words it lives by, and these are the words it kills by, too. Today that evil visited two beautiful Jewish souls and snuffed out their light. K...
MORNING AND EVENING MINYANS (Call synagogue to confirm time.) 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 of Orlando—Monday—Friday, 7:45 a.m.—8:30 a.m. Temple I...
(JNS)-A Jewish Community Center in Fairfax, Va., was vandalized with 19 spray-painted swastikas early Saturday morning. Building staff noticed the building had been vandalized when they arrived to open the facility at 7 a.m. Security camera footage showed a suspect defacing the center at around 4:30 a.m, and local authorities released photos to the public. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine tweeted that an "insidious rise in hateful actions and anti-Semitism" must be met with "fierce condemnation and an...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Going to high school for the first time last month, Linda Shamah felt like many other incoming freshmen: really nervous and really excited. The large lecture-style classes seemed daunting. She'd be getting less personal attention from teachers. At the same time, she was looking forward to trying out for volleyball and participating in a program at the Fashion Institute of Technology. But for Shamah, the shift from middle school to high school came along with an added transition:...
Jewish Academy of Orlando students celebrated Sukkot and Simchat Torah at Temple Israel and Congregation Ohev Shalom. The Jewish holidays at Jewish Academy of Orlando have always been special. This year, the holidays were even more memorable as the students celebrated with their friends, teachers, and the community at two local synagogues. On Sukkot, students visited Temple Israel where they celebrated by participating in services, visiting the Sukkah, using the Lulav and Etrog, hearing...
An 18th anniversary is a meaningful milestone for a Jewish organization-one that surely warrants a glitzy black-tie affair. But the Jewish Pavilion's Gems and Jeans 2018, to be held Oct. 28, was deliberately designed to be a more laid-back and "haimish" (welcoming) party, where fun and friends are the main focus and where the simple good works of the Pavilion's hundreds of volunteers are honored and celebrated. The evening will begin with a cocktail hour with appetizers, while guests can view...
Something to think about... From Hezbollah's terrorist army in Lebanon to Iran's growing military presence in Syria, Israel's northern border separates its citizens from one of the most dangerous places in the Middle East. Just miles from the tiny town of Metula, on Israel's border, Hezbollah terrorists have turned Lebanese towns into militarized compounds, armed with thousands of rockets. (I'm having nightmares!) A meaningful tribute... I read this recently and pass it along to you: The...
(JNS)—The city of Jerusalem will evict the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in light of the organization’s illegal activities and incitement of Palestinians against Israel, according to Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday. In a statement, Barkat said the new U.S. policy cutting $300 million to the controversial organization inspired the move, which will see unlicensed UNRWA-run schools, medical centers and sports facilities transferred to Israeli authorities. According to Barkat, who is stepping down from his position after municipal ele...
(JTA)-When Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel created the Superman character in the early 1930s, they were still living at their parents' homes. Of course, the character and his story-the arrival from another planet, his dual identities as mild-mannered reporter and flying, bulletproof crime fighter -would go on to change the comics industry in several ways and pave the way for the super-heroization of our popular culture. But Siegel and Shuster originally just wanted to make a little income to...
