Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — A former Massachusetts state legislator is being condemned by Jewish and Zionist organizations for accusing Israel of “being on a mission to kill Palestinians.” During her final week in office, Democratic Rep. Jamie Zahlaway Belsito, who represents the fourth Essex district in the northeastern part of the state, took to Twitter on Dec. 29 to attack Israel and its new government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The US must acknowledge that the @Israel administration is an apartheid run thuggery terrorist regime on a mission...
(JTA) - Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth - commonly referred to as the United Kingdom's chief rabbi - can now add a "Sir" to his title. Mirvis will be named a "knight commander of the order of the British Empire," according to King Charles' New Year Honours list. Since 1890, the U.K. has announced new knighthoods and other chivalric honors only twice a year, on New Year's Day and on the birthday of the ruling monarch, which in the...
(JTA) — Lithuania’s parliament passed a law this week to set aside over 37 million euros ($38 million) as restitution for Holocaust survivors and their heirs. Ingrida Šimonytė, Lithuania’s prime minister, introduced the bill in the Seimas, Lithuania’s national legislature in Vilnius, on Nov. 15, proposing to nearly double the money the government had already set aside for restitution claims in a country where 90% of its Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Today only 5,000 Jews remain in the country. The World Jewish Restitution Organizat...
(JNS) — B’nai B’rith International condemned the U.N. General Assembly’s request that the International Court of Justice issue a legal opinion concerning Israeli policies on Palestinian-claimed territories. The referral was endorsed by a UNGA committee in November and has now been rubber stamped by the assembly’s plenary. “The UNGA—in which Palestinians enjoy an automatic majority, including the overwhelming share of nearly 60 Arab and Muslim governments—annually passes more condemnations of the Jewish state than all other 192 U.N. member sta...
Bank of Israel hikes interest rate to highest level since 2008 (JNS) — The Bank of Israel Monetary Committee has increased the country’s interest rate to 3.75 percent — representing a 0.5 percent rise, the central bank’s largest since 2008. “Inflation in Israel is 5.3 percent over the past 12 months,” the Bank of Israel stated, reported Globes. “Economic activity in Israel remains strong, but the growth rate appears to have slowed relative to the first half of 2022.” Since the Bank of Israel increased the rate from its all-time low of 0.1 perc...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday welcomed the swearing-in of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government. “I look forward to working with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who has been my friend for decades, to jointly address the many challenges and opportunities facing Israel and the Middle East region, including threats from Iran,” Biden said in a statement released by the White House. “The United States is working to promote a region that’s increasingly integrated, prosperous and secure, with benefits for all of its peop...
(JTA) — Jewish leaders in Italy had strong words for the president of the country’s parliament after he published a post on Instagram honoring the history of the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, a neo-fascist party founded in the wake of World War II. Ignazio la Russa, a senator from Cologno Monzese, a municipality in Milan, wrote alongside a picture of an MSI campaign poster: “In memory of my father, who was one of the founders of the Italian Social Movement in Sicily and who chose the path of free and democratic participation with the MSI t...
Knesset passes ‘Smotrich-Deri’ amendment (JNS) — Israel’s Knesset on Tuesday morning passed an amendment allowing Shas Party head Aryeh Deri to serve as a minister and Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich to become a second minister in the Defense Ministry. The amendment to Basic Law: The Government, which passed by a 63-vote majority following an all-night filibuster, merged two bills. The first limits a law prohibiting elected officials convicted of a criminal offense from serving as a minister to apply only to those serving active...
(JNS) - Rabbi Mendy and Rivky Hertzel will move to Zambia early next year to establish a Chabad House and assist the small but thriving Jewish community in the southern African nation. Zambia has not had a rabbi in over 60 years. Rabbi Hertzel told JNS, "In February of this year, they tasked me to go to Zambia and investigate the possibility of establishing a permanent Chabad presence here. After a three-month stay, I saw firsthand that the country was a good fit for us to establish a Chabad...
(JNS) - It's been a difficult decade. 2020 was the year of coronavirus-pandemic panic and the general collapse of established norms. This was compounded by the Black Lives Matter riots that set off a moral panic about race, with the mainstreaming of fringe ideas and intersectionality. 2021 was a little better, as the world gradually shook off its COVID paranoia. But it was notable mainly for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot that has roiled American politics ever since, the disastrous withdrawal from...
(JTA) — Yes, Lionel Messi will forever be the face of Argentina’s long-awaited World Cup championship on Sunday. But the voice of the victory belongs to the Argentinean Jewish sportscaster who cried as he announced the win. Andres Cantor, a prominent soccer announcer, responded to Argentina’s game-winning penalty shot with his signature elongated “Gooooooool!” In a video clip that has gone viral, Cantor can be seen grabbing onto his broadcast partner as he yells “Argentina, campeon de mundo!...
(JNS) — A video of U.S. President Joe Biden saying that the nuclear deal with Iran is “dead” but that Washington will not announce as much surfaced on Tuesday, Dec. 20. The footage, which was apparently taken during Biden’s visit to California early last month, shows a woman asking him to declare that the 2015 agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is no longer in effect. “President Biden, could you please announce that the JCPOA is dead?” the Iranian-American woman asks, as the American president approaches...
(JNS) - It is being dubbed the "Christian Birthright." The group of 120 American college students had just crisscrossed Israel on a nine-day journey, visited the requisite sites including a Friday night at the Western Wall, stops in Bethlehem and Nazareth, and must-see places such as the Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, before diving into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with its diversity of narratives, security and multi-faith briefings, and visits to border areas. At first glance, the boisterous,...
(JNS) - Washington should steadfastly stand by the Jewish state, U.S. Congressman Dr. Andy Harris (R-Md.) said last week. "It is an American interest for Judea and Samaria - indeed all the land of the Bible - to remain a part of Israel. Unification of these biblical lands benefits people of all religions, ensuring religious freedom and access for all. It is not an obstacle to peace but a chance for real peace," said Harris during a visit to the Binyamin region. He vowed to ensure that the U.S....
(JNS) — In 2018, the Trump administration signed into law the Taylor Force Act to prevent the U.S. government from sending funds to the Palestinian Authority as long as it continues to fund terrorism. Now, a new lawsuit supported by victims of terror is seeking to compel the Biden administration to follow suit. Filed by America First Legal, a new firm founded and led by former Trump presidential senior advisor Stephen Miller, the lawsuit identifies the Biden administration funding the P.A. with more than $1 billion in taxpayer dollars as a v...
Secretary at Nazi concentration camp guilty of complicity in over 10,500 killings (JNS) —The former secretary of the Nazi commander of the Stutthof concentration camp was convicted on Tuesday of complicity in the murders of more than 10,500 people. Irmgard Furchner, 97, who worked as a typist at the camp in the German-annexed Free City of Danzig between 1943 and 1945, received a two-year suspended jail term. While Furchner was a civilian, the judge presiding over the case in northern Germany agreed she was aware of what took place at S...
(JNS) — From Tampa Bay to Edmonton, a campaign intends to Shine A Light on antisemitism this Hanukkah. “You can’t dispel darkness with darkness. You have to dispel darkness with light,” Adam Teitelbaum, executive director at the Israel Action Network and associate vice president for public affairs at Jewish Federations of North America, told JNS. “The ability to shine a light on the multiple ways in which antisemitism manifests in today’s society is an incredible opportunity for the coordination and collaboration of institutions across not...
(JNS) — Unilever plc announced on Thursday that its legal battle with the independent board of its wholly-owned autonomous subsidiary Ben & Jerry’s, over the brand’s sale of ice cream in Israel, has been resolved. The Vermont-based ice cream company announced in July 2021 that it would not renew the Israeli franchise agreement for the following year, saying that the sale of its ice cream in Judea and Samaria, commonly called the West Bank, was inconsistent with the brand’s values. This was met with a class-action lawsuit by a U.S. shareho...
(JNS) - Months after her nomination was held up due to prior antisemitic comments, the U.S. Senate confirmed Elizabeth Frawley Bagley to the post of ambassador to Brazil on Wednesday. The nomination has been blocked in June by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in a tie, party-line vote. It came after comments by Bagley, a longtime diplomat and Democratic Party donor, were uncovered by The Washington Free Beacon. Bagley's nomination was suddenly discharged by the committee last week. Her...
Biden sets up task force to fight antisemitism and Islamophobia By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — Less than a week after Doug Emhoff, the Jewish second gentleman, chaired a roundtable with Jewish organizational leaders, President Joe Biden has set up an interagency task force to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia. The group’s first task is coming up with a strategy to tackle the rise in antisemitism. “This strategy will raise understanding about antisemitism and the threat it poses to the Jewish community and all Americans, address antis...
(JNS) - Now that the shock has worn off, the question for Birthright is who will step up. Last week, Miriam Adelson, Birthright Israel's most generous donor, addressed a board meeting of the organization known for bringing tens of thousands of young Jews to Israel each year. She and her late husband, Sheldon Adelson, through the Adelson Family Foundation, have contributed nearly $500 million to Birthright over the past 15 years, but, after slashing the foundation's annual commitment nearly in...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration will base its relationship to Israel’s incoming government on the actions it takes, not the people installed in positions of power, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a speech Sunday. Blinken’s speech, to the conference of the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group J Street, was notable because it offered the first official response to deepening questions about how the White House would work with a Israeli government that includes far-right parties. Until now, sources close to the a...
Iran executes four convicted of working with Israel’s Mossad (JNS) — Iran on Sunday executed four men convicted of cooperating with Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Reuters reported. Three other people received prison sentences of between five and 10 years. “This morning, the sentences of four main members of the gang of mobsters related to the Zionist intelligence service were executed,” the Mizan Online website reported. Iran’s semi-official Mehr News Agency reported last week that those sentenced to death had been charged with “the crime...
(JNS) - On September 16, 2018, Israel lost one of its fiercest defenders when a knife-wielding Arab stabbed Efrat resident Ari Fuld in the back at the Gush Etzion Junction, south of Jerusalem. Fuld used his last breaths of life to chase down and shoot the attacker, wounding him and saving the lives of other Israelis in the terrorist's path. Fuld, 45, not only defended Israel on the battlefield in the IDF's Golani Brigade, and as a reservist in the Second Lebanon War in an elite paratrooper...
(JTA) — Nearly seven months after they were denied boarding in Frankfurt, a group of more than 100 Hasidic Lufthansa passengers are getting paid for their troubles. The airline is paying each passenger $20,000 plus giving them $1,000 to reimburse them for expenses incurred during the May incident, according to Dan’s Deals, the discount travel website that first reported the incident at the time. After legal fees and some other expenses, each passenger will net approximately $17,400, the site is reporting. Lufthansa would not confirm the dol...
