Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Over the last few weeks, while Israel has been roiled by demonstrations involving hundreds of thousands, and President Isaac Herzog has warned about the possibility of civil war, American Jews have been watching with grave concern. Even after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a delay in the government plan to overhaul the judiciary that sparked the mass protests, tensions in Israel remained high. It was precisely at this fraught moment that UJA-Federation of New York decided to bring a group of rabbis from the New York area...
Biden administration floats Iran agreement that would ease some sanctions (JNS) — Move over JCPOA. There could be a new Iran nuclear deal in town. Biden administration officials have been floating a proposed agreement with Tehran among European and Israeli partners. The terms “would include some sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran freezing parts of its nuclear program,” Axios reported. An Israeli official and a Western diplomat told Axios that Iran has rejected the proposal. The Republican Jewish Coalition also rejected it. “The Biden a...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A law passed by Israel’s government yesterday has sparked a strong rebuke from the Biden administration, words of caution from some of Israel’s strongest supporters in the Senate — and damage control from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The new law repeals a portion of Israel’s 2005 disengagement, in which it withdrew settlers and troops from the entirety of the Gaza Strip and from four settlements in the northern West Bank. While much of Israel and the world focused on the evacuation from Gaza, opponents...
(JTA) - Even though he hasn't officially declared his Republican presidential campaign (yet), Ron DeSantis has been pitching his governance of Florida as a model for running the United States - telling Fox News last week, for example, that "we can get America back on track and back on our foundations" by following Florida's example. This week, he repeated the pitch with a twist: His close relations with Israel are a template for the U.S.-Israel relationship, he said - and he's ready to make...
Agatha Christie novels edited to remove offensive references to Jews By Gabe Friedman (JTA) — HarperCollins has revised multiple novels by the famed British mystery writer Agatha Christie to remove references to Jews and other minorities deemed offensive by sensitivity readers. The edits, which the British Telegraph first reported on Sunday, add Christie to a growing list of authors whose work is getting tweaked for contemporary audiences. Roald Dahl, the children’s book author whose family recently apologized for his antisemitism, also had...
(JTA) — Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s upcoming visit to London, the United Kingdom’s chief rabbi is calling for “Jewish unity” in Israel and around the world in response to dramatic protests against proposed changes to the Israeli judicial system. “I never thought that we would witness a time when citizens of Israel, including respected leaders, are openly speaking about the possibility, God forbid, of civil war,” Ephraim Mirvis wrote in a short op-ed in the Jewish Chronicle, the U.K.’s oldest Jewish newspaper. “At...
(JNS) — Hours after China brokered a surprise deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, a reporter asked U.S. President Joe Biden what he thought about the two countries, which come out of rival Islamic branches that have competed for centuries over guardianship of the faith, re-establishing diplomatic relations. “The better the relations between Israel and their Arab neighbors, the better for everybody,” he said. Critics ridiculed the president’s non sequitur, but Biden’s statement raises the question of what impact the deal—and importantly...
Israel ranked fourth happiest country in world (JNS) — Israel is the fourth happiest country in the world, according to a report produced by the U.N.-affiliated Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Based on Gallup World Poll data, the study leverages six key factors to help explain variation in self-reported levels of happiness across the world: social support, income, health, freedom, generosity and absence of corruption. The report was released on Monday to mark the International Day of Happiness, which was established when the U.N. G...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor released the 2022 edition of its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices on Monday. The reports “cover internationally recognized individual, civil, political and worker rights, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international agreements,” stated Foggy Bottom. “The report embodies the importance of human rights for American diplomacy and for our vision of an open, free, prosperous and secure world,” Antony Blinken, U....
(JTA) — A delegation of U.S. Jewish federation leaders is lobbying in Israel against the government’s planned overhaul of the judiciary, a rare step that underscores the degree to which the proposed changes have rattled the U.S. Jewish establishment. The delegation came to Israel for 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday, and includes representatives of more than 30 U.S. Jewish communities. The delegation met with lawmakers from the governing coalition as well as the parliamentary opposition. Their main focus was on a proposal that would all...
(JNS) — Teachers and schools of the U.N. agency that runs education and social services for Palestinian Arabs “regularly call for the murder of Jews,” a new report by two Israeli NGOs finds. Teaching materials of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees “glorify terrorism, encourage martyrdom, demonize Israelis and incite antisemitism,” said the report, titled “UNRWA Education: Reform or Regression.” In December 2022, at UNRWA’s Al-Maghazi Middle School for Boys B in t...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — An Israeli nonprofit that studies Palestinian society has found a troubling possible linkage between U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority and the scope of terrorist attacks against Israelis. Palestinian Media Watch released a study this week that analyzed statistics taken from periodic reports published by the U.S. Congressional Research Service, from 2011 (the year the nonprofit exposed the P.A.’s terror-rewarding pay-for-slay policy) through 2022. It found that when aid to the P.A. dropped, such as during the Trump a...
13,000 Israeli children not vaccinated against polio (JNS) — The New York State Department of Health issued a warning over the weekend for travelers to Israel to ensure they are fully immunized against polio. It came after Israel’s Health Ministry earlier confirmed four positive cases in children who came into contact with a girl who was infected in Tzfat in the Upper Galilee. On Monday, Channel 12 news cited a Health Ministry statistic to the effect that at least 175,000 Israeli children are not vaccinated against polio, described by the New...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday night updated U.S. President Joe Biden on the terrorist attack in Huwara in which an Israeli-American was seriously wounded. The two leaders, who spoke via telephone, also discussed the Israeli government's judicial reform plan and the Iranian threat, according to a statement from Netanyahu's office. David Stern and his wife were driving on Route 60 in the Arab town in Samaria when a Palestinian gunman opened fire on their vehicle....
WASHINGTON (JTA) — For the first time, a poll by Gallup found that Democrats are likelier to sympathize with Palestinians than with Israelis, though a majority of Democrats have a favorable view of Israel. Asked, “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or more with the Palestinians?” 49 percent of Democrats sympathized more with the Palestinians and 38 percent sympathized more with the Israelis. An additional 13 percent, according to the poll, sympathized with neither, both or had no opinion. It was the first...
(JNS) — Iran has indicated its “readiness” to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, after the U.N. nuclear watchdog last month found uranium enriched to 83.7 percent in the Islamic Republic. IAEA chief Rafael Grossi was in Tehran for two days of high-level meetings that “addressed the importance of taking steps in order to facilitate enhanced cooperation, to expedite as appropriate the resolution of outstanding safeguards issues,” according to a statement released by the parties on Saturday. The statement said that the sides ag...
(JNS) — The United States expressed support on Tuesday for an Israeli counter-terror operation in Jenin earlier in the day. During the daylight raid, Israeli forces eliminated the terrorist responsible for the murder of two Israelis on Feb. 26, according to the Israel Defense Forces. “Israel, as we have made the point before, has the legitimate right to defend its people and its territory against all forms of aggression, including, of course, those from terrorist groups,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price during a press briefing. “And w...
KYIV (JTA) — In a historic building in the most industrial part of Podil, the hipster district of Kyiv that once was the heart of the Jewish trading community, a senior and passionate Esther seduces a much younger Ahasuerus. She flirts with the handsome king to the raucous giggling of the audience, which breaks into applause when the Purim shpiel comes to an end. A year and a few days into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Jews in Kyiv and the rest of the country have celebrated Purim in precarious economic and emotional cir...
Israel’s Supreme Court rules in favor of ‘Utah Zoom weddings’ (JNS) — Israel’s Supreme Court rejected the state’s appeal against registering civil marriages performed online through the U.S. state of Utah. The ruling directs the Population and Immigration Authority within the Interior Ministry to register these marriages, which are generally conducted via Zoom or Skype, as an alternative to a religious ceremony conducted through the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. These “Utah marriages” became popular after a 2020 rule change in the U.S. state made...
(JTA) - The fifth edition of the World Baseball Classic is just days away, as players and fans across the globe prepare for two weeks of competition beginning on Wednesday. Jewish fans may remember that Israel took the WBC by storm in 2017, winning four straight games as an underdog and advancing to the second round before being eliminated by Japan. Team Israel is back for the 2023 WBC, with more current MLB talent on its roster than ever. It will also face its toughest competition yet. First...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met separately on Tuesday with U.S. Sens. Jim Risch (R-Idaho) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), stressing to them the importance of the bilateral relationship and that America is the Jewish state’s “greatest friend.” Netanyahu told the lawmakers that despite any disagreements between Jerusalem and Washington, such meetings were an expression of the strength of ongoing bipartisan ties with Israel. Among the topics discussed were the Trump administration-brokered Abraham Accords and their possible expa...
(JTA) — Judging from the photos and the tweets, it looked like a set of normal Congressional delegations to Israel: Senators posing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The U.S. ambassador declaring that “Bipartisanship is alive and well in Israel!!” Pledges of mutual support amid external threats. Sen. Chuck Schumer standing arm-in-arm with Netanyahu, grinning. But these are not normal times in Israel, where the Netanyahu government is advancing legislation to sap the power of the judiciary, drawing hundreds of thousands of peopl...
(JTA) — Roger Waters, the Pink Floyd bassist who is a leading proponent of the movement to boycott Israel, has been blocked from performing in Frankfurt after the city called him “one of the world’s most well known antisemites.” Waters had been scheduled to perform May 28 at Frankfurt’s Festhalle, which during the Holocaust was the site of the deportation of 3,000 Jews to their deaths just after Kristallnacht. The city of Frankfurt noted the historical significance of the concert hall, which it partly owns, in announcing that it was canceling...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Biden administration officials will not meet with Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister who called for a Palestinian village to be “wiped out” then backtracked, and who is visiting the United States next week to meet with leaders of Israel Bonds, a U.S. organization. At least five liberal Jewish groups want the U.S. government to consider barring Smotrich from coming here. Ned Price, the State Department’s spokesman, said at Thursday’s daily briefing that questions on Israeli ministers’ travel should be referred to...
Israeli-American terror victim laid to rest (JNS) — Elan Ganeles’s funeral was held in Ra’anana on Wednesday afternoon, two days after terrorists shot him near the Beit Ha’arava Junction close to Jericho in the Jordan Valley. “He was the biggest gift in our lives. He wanted so much to see the world and all its aspects,” said Elan’s mother, Carolyn, at the funeral. “Our loss is a loss for the world—of such a bright, brilliant, emerging star,” she continued. “He was so loved, he will be missed so much. We feel like a part of our being has been...
