Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Illegal Palestinian construction in the Israeli-controlled regions of Judea and Samaria, known collectively as “Area C,” increased by 80 percent over the past year, according to a new report by Israeli NGO Regavim. According to the report, titled “The War of Attrition,” 5,535 illegal Palestinian structures have been built in Area C during Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s tenure. Meanwhile, Regavim pegs the total number of illegal Arab-built structures in Area C at 80,000. The organization’s members recently protested out...
(JTA) — The athletic wear company Adidas is ending its relationship with Kanye West, days after the rapper boasted that he could “literally say antisemitics — and they cannot drop me.” The brand had faced growing criticism of its continued relationship with West, who is known as Ye, as other brands affiliated with West broke ties with him. Adidas reportedly brings in $2 billion a year through its Yeezy brand, accounting for about 10 percent of the company’s revenue. Now, the brand will stop making Yeezy products and stop all payments to West a...
Orthodox basketball player Ryan Turell selected in NBA minor league draft (JNS) — Orthodox Jewish basketball player Ryan Turell on Saturday was selected No. 27 overall in the 2022 NBA G League Draft, ESPN reported. Turell, who went unpicked out of Yeshiva University in June’s NBA Draft, was selected by the Motor City Cruise, the minor league affiliate of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons. The NBA G League is the NBA’s official minor league system. “Being the first Orthodox Jew in the NBA would mean the world to me, and a dream come true, God willing,...
(JTA) — Over the past several years, dozens of Spanish courts have rejected Israel boycotts by nonprofits, municipalities and other groups. Now, the country’s top court has ruled that the movement to boycott Israel represents “discrimination” that “infringes on basic rights.” Separately, the Spanish parliament on Wednesday passed legislation that bars public funding for organizations that “promote antisemitism.” The law uses the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which cites as examples of antisemitism so...
(JNS) - Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar on Wednesday called on Moscow to denounce a top official's "vulgar" antisemitism, saying it posed a "huge danger" to the Jewish community in the country. The call to condemn Alexei Pavlov, assistant secretary of Russia's Security Council, came in response to an article (Russian) he wrote claiming that "neo-pagan cults," including the Chabad movement, had taken over Ukraine. Pavlov added that Chabad's guiding principle was to enshrine its superiority...
(JNS) - British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned on Thursday just 45 days after assuming office, amid a political firestorm set off by her economic plan that was panned by investors, sent the pound and stocks tumbling and created chaos in her Conservative Party. Truss, who goes down as the shortest-serving prime minister in Britain's history, was under increasing pressure from fellow lawmakers following Wednesday's resignation of Home Secretary Suella Braverman, and after she last week sacked h...
(JNS) — Israel has rebuffed repeated Ukrainian requests to supply the war-torn country with its Iron Dome system and other military equipment. This week, Israel’s refusal came into the spotlight as Russia attacked Ukraine’s civilian centers using Iranian “kamikaze” drones. Ukraine said on Tuesday that it will formally request Israel to supply air defense systems. It had made informal requests until now. Israel has provided Ukraine with humanitarian aid, including a fully staffed $6.5 million field hospital. But its desire to maintain a delicat...
(JTA) — Australia’s new left-leaning government is reversing the decision made nearly four years ago under a conservative administration to move the country’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. Then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced in December 2018 that Australia would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. The move put him in line with then-U.S. President Donald Trump, who had made a similar announcement a year earlier, pleasing his base, and had already opened an embassy in Jerusalem. But it made Morrison an outlier among the vast ma...
(JNS) - The United States is applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority to increase security coordination with Israel, as part of a larger effort to reduce violence in Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, a former Israeli defense official tells JNS. A senior P.A. delegation arrived in Washington in early October, headed by Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee. The delegation met with senior American officials including National Security Advisor J...
ANTAKYA, Turkey (JTA) - Jews have lived in the city of Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch, for over 23 centuries. And the city wants visitors to know that. A symbol composed of a Star of David entwined with a Christian cross and Islamic crescent has practically become the city's logo, as it's plastered all over town, especially on restaurants peddling the southern Hatay province's patently spicy cuisine. "I was born in Antakya and I will die in Antakya," said Selim Cemel, a Jewish...
(JNS) — The Lions’ Den terror group, recently formed in Nablus, comprises dozens of gunmen and is not very well organized. Nevertheless, the group’s activities serve the purposes of established terror factions like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which are amplifying its influence, according to a senior Israeli terrorism expert. The group has also been punching above its weight in terms of influence on the Palestinian street due to its shrewd use of social media, according to Dr Michael Barak, a senior researcher specializing in terro...
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (JTA) — Under a haze of early morning cigarette smoke, two Jewish men from Ukrainian cities in areas occupied by Russia were discussing how much they miss their parents. Neither had seen them for months and in the brief exchanges that they have had with them, they could only say so much without fear of putting them in danger. “We can’t talk about the war,” says Moshe, who is from Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine that has been occupied by Russian troops since early in the war. “I don’t want to make things difficult f...
Family of fallen IDF soldier donates corneas, saving sight of two people (JNS) — The family of an Israeli soldier who was killed last week in a drive-by shooting in Samaria has donated his corneas to two people, saving their eyesight, Israeli media reported on Monday. The recipients, both in their 80s, “Were moved to tears when they heard about the identity of the donor,” Walla reported. Baruch was securing a civilian march near Shavei Shomron in northern Samaria when he was shot from a moving vehicle. He was evacuated to Meir Medical Cente...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid was “making history” by agreeing to a maritime border deal with Lebanon to end a decade-long-plus dispute over gas-rich waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. In a phone call, Biden told Lapid, “You are making history,” and expressed his appreciation for the trust and confidence of all Israelis who participated in the U.S.-mediated process, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Biden also emphasized his commitment to upholding the Je...
(JNS) - The Israel Allies Foundation has named Pastor Larry Huch of Dallas, Texas, as the No. 1 Christian ally of the Jewish state in its annual Top 50 list. The list of "Top 50 Christian Allies," published by IAF on the eve of Sukkot, known by Christians as the Feast of Tabernacles, celebrates men and women from around the world and of different Christian denominations who tirelessly support and defend Israel. Besides pastors, the list includes Hollywood stars and politicians, from Pat Boone...
(JNS) - Russia is deploying Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles in its war against Ukraine, and although it is not yet possible to determine their exact operational effectiveness, the weapons could pose a significant challenge for the Israeli military in a future conflict, a prominent drone and missile expert told JNS. Tal Inbar, former director of the UAV Research Center at Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, and co-founder of the Ilan Ramon Space Conference, said t...
(JNS) — Israeli lawmaker Sharren Haskel called on Christian parliamentarians from around the world to demand their governments sanction Iran, in a dramatic address that culminated with her cutting her hair in a show of solidarity with Iranian women. “Demand that your governments and elected officials stand by the Iranian people at this time, support their protests and help them attain the freedom which they deserve,” Haskel said. “Demand that your countries impose sanctions on the leaders of Iran, the dictators who are leading us to a regiona...
(JTA) — Since March, Rabbi Daniel Litvak has been required to appear three times a week at the magistrate’s office in Porto, the Portuguese city where he is accused of submitting fraudulent citizenship applications for Sephardic Jews. His passports were confiscated and he was barred from contacting the lawyer who is the other defendant in the criminal case against him. Now, an appeals court in Lisbon has ruled that Litvak does not need to abide by the stringent restrictions. The court also criticized Portuguese prosecutors for how they hav...
Ben Bernanke, former Fed chair, shares economics Nobel for research on banks and crisis By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — Ben Bernanke, the Jewish former chairman of the federal reserve, shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with two other scholars for their work in examining how banks function in economic crises. Bernanke was recognized for an influential 1983 paper, written when he was a professor at Stanford University, that examined the Depression era to show how runs on banks during economic uncertainty tend to exacerbate and broaden a crisis. His t...
(JTA) — As the Jewish new year was coming to a close Tuesday afternoon, Mexican Authorities raided a compound on the outskirts of Tapachula, a city on Mexico’s pacific coast about six miles from the Guatemalan border. There they arrested 26 members of the Lev Tahor Hasidic sect, which has widely been considered a cult around the world. The members, including a leader, Menachem Endel Alter, were arrested on charges of being part of a criminal organization, along with human trafficking, the Associated Press reported. The group, whose name means ...
(JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has emphatically encouraged dialogue with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, despite his disagreements with the center-right pro-Israel lobby and calls among the pro-Palestinian community to disengage from the group. In a recording of his meeting last month with Palestinian Americans on the sidelines of the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York City obtained by The Times of Israel, Abbas also faulted the current Biden administration for not doing enough to pressur...
(JNS) — The heavily Jewish town of Surfside, Florida, passed a resolution last week establishing a twin city relationship with the Samaria Regional Council. Passed by a 5-0 margin, the partnership encompasses some three dozen Jewish communities and will honor Samaria Regional Council Chairman Yossi Dagan with a ceremonial key to the town. Surfside’s first Orthodox Jewish mayor, Shlomo Danzinger, told JNS the move was motivated in part by a desire to thank Israel for its help in the search and rescue operation at the site of the collapse las...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The Biden administration is still hoping to close a deal between Israel and Lebanon on a maritime border. Still, Israel is citing the deal's apparent collapse to prepare for tensions on its northern border. "Special Presidential Coordinator Amos Hochstein continues his robust engagement to bring the maritime boundary discussions to a close," a National Security Council spokeswoman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "We remain in close communication with the Israelis and...
New UK Prime Minister Liz Truss pledged "wholehearted" support for the Jewish State during a speech at the Conservative Friends of Israel conference on Monday. "I am so pleased to be here for the first time at the CFI event as your prime minister," Truss was quoted as saying by the Jewish Chronicle. "As you know I am a huge Zionist, I am a huge supporter of Israel, and I know that we can take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength." "In this world - where we are facing threats...
White House ‘alarmed’ by Iran crackdown, still committed to nuke deal (JNS) — The Biden administration is “alarmed” by the Iranian regime’s ongoing deadly crackdown on demonstrators across the country but is still committed to forging a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Monday. “So, we’re alarmed and appalled by reports of security authorities responding to university students’ peaceful protests with violence and mass arrests,” she said, adding that these “crackdowns are pre...
