Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-The anti-Israel group IfNotNow approached the leading Democratic presidential candidates in New Hampshire, ahead of the state's primary on Tuesday, to ask if they will skip the annual AIPAC Policy Conference next month-only to get one commitment so far. That commitment was from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who relayed her decision via an answer to a question by a potential constituent at a town hall in Derry on Feb. 6. "I'm an American Jew, and I'm terrified by the unholy alliance...
(JTA)—When Adam Sandler was shut out of this year’s Academy Award nominations for “Uncut Gems,” the Oscars lost out on the chance to have an acceptance speech as hilarious as the one Sandler delivered Saturday at the Independent Film Spirit Awards. But this year’s Oscars had some pretty wonderful Jewish moments nonetheless. Here’s a roundup. Maori Jewish director, writer and actor Taika Waititi had a big moment Waititi, 44, took home the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for “Jojo Rabbit,” his first Oscar win and the first ever by an Indigenou...
Jewish Academy of Orlando has made private education more accessible by initiating the Tuition Assistance Program. The TAP program adjusts tuition based on a family’s income for new students in grades TK-5th. TAP is designed to boost enrollment of new students by specifically targeting middle-income families. The TAP program includes a simple online tuition calculator for parents, which they can use to determine their student’s tuition fees based on their income. If the calculated tuition fees are acceptable, parents can submit their req...
(JNS)—Restoration of the National Library of Israel’s renowned Moskowitz Mahzor has been completed with the manuscript online for the first time. It was created on parchment in the 15th century by Joel ben Simeon, considered by many to be the most important Jewish artist of the Middle Ages. Ben Simeon was a scribe and illuminator active in Germany and Northern Italy. The manuscript is considered exceptional due to the illustrations and illuminations found throughout, including images of rab...
MAITLAND, FL—The Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center of Florida is honored to feature Vedem Underground: The Secret Magazine of the Terezin Ghetto (1942-1944) from Jan. 13 through April 3, 2020. “Named one of the Smithsonian’s 10 “Don’t Miss...” new exhibits for Winter 2017, Vedem Underground, produced by the Vedem Foundation, is an art installation that deconstructs and reinterprets the literary work of the teenage Jewish creators of the longest-running underground magazine in...
Mark your calendar to participate in a free, unique “Legacy Letters Workshop” led by nationally known freelance writer, speaker, author, and inspiring presenter Leah Dobkin on Sunday, March 1, starting at 1 p.m. at Congregation of Reform Judaism. Dobkin has over 30 years of experience writing, developing, and managing innovative programs, and consulting with nonprofit and for-profit organizations and government agencies. During the Legacy Letters Workshop, Dobkin will guide participants in the creative process to write a heartfelt legacy let...
Tu B'shvat, Jewish Arbor Day, is an opportunity to connect with nature and remember how vital our natural resources are. Each year at this time we reflect on the importance of taking care of our environment and how to leave a better world for the next generation. The fifth-grade students from the Ohev Shalom Hebrew school visited with seniors residing at Cascade Heights in Longwood to present background information on this holiday and to also help the residents decorate pots and plant parsley...
The United Nations Human Rights Council has released a list of more than 100 companies it says are operating in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. In a report issued on Wednesday, the council said that the activities of these companies “raised particular human rights concerns.” The list is dominated by Israeli companies, including banks and construction firms. However, it also lists a number of international firms, including travel companies Airbnb, Expedia, and TripAdvisor, tech giant Motorola, and construction and infrastructure compan...
(JNS)—AIPAC apologized for and removed at least four ads it sponsored on Facebook that slammed “radicals in the Democratic Party.” “We offer our unequivocal apology to the overwhelming majority of Democrats in Congress who are rightfully offended by the inaccurate assertion that the poorly worded, inflammatory advertisement implied,” said AIPAC in a statement that it shared on Twitter on Saturday. “We deeply appreciate the broad and reliable support that Democrats in Congress have consistently demonstrated for Israel. The bipartisan...
NEW YORK, NY—The Hadassah Foundation, a nonprofit organization that awards grants to social change programs that empower women and girls in Israel and the United States, is pleased to announce $330,000 in new grants. The recipients are six organizations in Israel that increase opportunities for women and girls of all backgrounds to obtain and advance in decision-making positions. Co-Chair of The Hadassah Foundation Israel Grants Committee Diane Sigel exclaims: “The expertise and ingenuity reflected in this year’s Israel grant recipients is rema...
(JNS)—Leave aside, for the moment, the deepening rows about U.S. President Donald Trump’s “vision” for ending the Middle East conflict. Leave aside the question whether the plan’s lead author, Jared Kushner, and the U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, backtracked on an “immediate” Israeli declaration of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and the “Triangle” of disputed territory (they didn’t; the need to first map out and agree on the details was stated from the start). Leave aside the uproar among Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria,...
(JNS)—Even before the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan was revealed earlier this month, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas was planning his trip to New York City, where he plans to address the United Nations and protest the plan’s outline, which the P.A. has rejected outright. That has been the Palestinian leader’s modus operandi for the past 17 years, and it has kept him on the wrong path of sparing no effort to fight Israel in the international arena, which at times seems to be his primary goal—something far more importan...
In Donna Nevel’s Feb. 7 op-ed in the Orlando Sentinel (“Bloomberg’s ‘kibbutz’ comment brings to mind Zionist history”), the self-styled “social justice activist” author capitalizes on an opportunity to convert a simple sentence on socialism into a wildly distorted and historically inaccurate diatribe against Israel and reality. In her highly romanticized rendition of history, the author portrays the creation of Israel as a catastrophe for the Palestinians. She offers the Palestinian narrative of the “Naqba,” or “Catastrophe,” whic...
Since 1976, the Heritage has been the only regularly published Jewish newspaper in our community. It was “founded with the purpose of helping to unify a scattered community by focusing on Jewish issues. It is published independently of any outside agency and depends solely on subscribers and advertisers for support.” The Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando has been alerted to material in the Heritage that community members have found contrary to Jewish principles and values, as well as inc...
By Morton A. Klein and Chairman Mark S. Levenson, Esq. In our view, AIPAC made a serious mistake when it retracted and apologized for its recent ads expressing the accurate concern that radical, Jew-hating Israelophobes in the Democratic Party are infecting and influencing an alarming number of other Democratic Party members to become more hostile to Israel and even Jews. AIPAC should rescind its retraction, and resume its discontinued ad campaign to urge Democratic representatives to support Israel. Pro-Israel organizations must do everything...
(JNS)—In the halls of the United Nations, they’re calling it a “database,” but it’s more commonly and accurately known as a “blacklist.” It’s a list of more than 100 companies conducting business activities with Jewish communities and Israeli enterprises in the West Bank that was published, a good four years after it was first mooted, by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Wednesday. Given the litter of authoritarian states and theocracies that compose the UNHRC, as well as its notorious “Item 7”—an annual fixed agenda item that focuses the...
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 Israe...
If you have not had experience with senior citizens, you may have difficulties interacting and connecting. Some relationships are immediate; some take time. All interactions with strangers may be difficult. The Jewish Pavilion has solved the communication problem. Recognizing that new volunteers may not have experience except with their own parents, the Pavilion has come up with some ideas to use when volunteers visit seniors in elder care communities. The Pavilion recognized everyone likes to talk about themselves. Try these questions to get...
(JTA)-A group of undergraduate students at Harvard University has formed what they call an "anti-Zionist Jewish organization" that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The Harvard Jewish Coalition for Peace introduced itself in a public statement posted Monday on Facebook as "a new organization founded in the idea that Jewish liberation is inextricably bound up with the liberation of all people." The group said it will focus on Palestinian solidarity work;...
(JNS)—J Street president Jeremy Ben-Ami embraced Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas after the latter made statements at a hotel on Tuesday following his remarks earlier at a U.N. Security Council session, denouncing the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan. “Absolutely disgusting that @jstreetdotorg’s @JeremyBenAmi would embrace Mahmoud Abbas. Abbas funds terrorists to kill American and Israeli Jews. He is a virulent anti-Semite. Ben Ami isn’t a head of state, he doesn’t have to pretend Abbas is legitimate,” tweeted the Republica...
There is a thriving Jewish community in DeLand, Florida and it's growing by leaps and bounds. Temple Israel of DeLand has been in existence since the late 1940s, not to be mistaken for Temple Israel in Winter Springs or Temple Israel of Daytona. They are separate entities. The synagogue is situated 22 miles from the Atlantic Ocean and is less than five miles from the St. Johns River. DeLand is located in Volusia County, which is the county seat, and it's near Stetson University, a highly...
We need protection!... I heard from the ADL and pass it along: "The end of year explosion of anti-Semitic violence in New York and New Jersey is cause for deep concern. A couple of months ago (mid-December), a chilling attack at a Kosher supermarket in Jersey City resulted in the deaths of three civilians and a police officer. Then, ADL documented 10 more incidents targeting Jews in the area, all occurring during the eight days of Chanukah, including the vicious stabbings at a Chanukah...
(JNS)-Former New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat, was removed by police from an event earlier this week after interrupting and questioning Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) about her past anti-Semitic remarks. The event at Rutgers University in New Jersey, titled "A Global Crisis: Refugees, Migrants and Asylum Seekers-Lessons from the Prophet Muhammad," was organized by the group Muslims4Peace. "Police just ejected me from an event of @Muslims4Peace at @RutgersU which was a fine event...
(JTA)—One flyer reads “Holocaust = fake news.” Another says “America is not for sale.” And another: “Diversity destroys nations.” These are just a few of the 2,713 pieces of propaganda distributed in the United States by white supremacist groups in 2019, according to a report published Wednesday by the Anti-Defamation League. The flyers, posters and bumper stickers—many using traditional American color schemes and iconography to advance racist, anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ ideas—appeared in every state except Hawaii and touched hundreds of colle...
(JNS)—The first full review of the Saudi curriculum in more than a decade shows that while improvements have been made, extremist content still exists. For example, Jews are blamed as assassins, described as monkeys, and will be fought and killed in the day of resurrection, according to a new report by IMPACT-se, a research institute that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula in accordance with UNESCO-defined standards on peace and tolerance. Additionally, martyrdom for the sake of Allah remains a “godly gift,” and Christians and Jews are still ca...
