Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - As the ongoing protests in Iran reached their two-week mark on Friday, the death toll has reportedly exceeded 80 people. Iranians have been protesting against the regime since the Sept. 16 killing of Mahsa Amini, 22, who was arrested for "unsuitable attire" by the Islamic Republic's "morality police" and then beaten to death. Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based NGO, tweeted that "at least 83 people including children, are confirmed to have been killed in (the) #IranProtests." On Friday,...
(JTA) — Doreen Alhadeff was the first American Jew granted Spanish citizenship under Spain’s 2015 law to repatriate Sephardic Jews from around the world. Now she is going to be knighted by Spain’s monarchy for helping others obtain that same citizenship. Alhadeff, a 72-year-old real estate agent from Seattle, will be knighted under the order of Queen Isabella the Catholic next month, the Seattle Times reported Monday. Since earning Spanish citizenship in 2016, Alhadeff has helped guide people around the world, from Greece to Hong Kong, through...
(JTA) - The success of Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party in Italy's national election last week means the country is poised to have its most right-wing government since World War II, when Italy was Hitler's staunchest ally in Europe. The prospect has unnerved many Italian Jews, even as several of their leaders appear to be taking a wait-and-see approach to Meloni's leadership, refraining from making public statements about the results. "Faced with the prospect of a prime minister that is...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — It appears that history is about to be made in Italy: Giorgia Meloni, the 45-year-old leader of the national conservative party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), who has pledged to fight mass immigration and Islamization and has been very critical of the European Union, became the country’s first female prime minister. Speaking with Israel Hayom, Meloni lashes out at those who engage in anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric, which is now a common feature in left-wing circles. Q: Some members of your party come...
(JNS) — A son of Holocaust survivors is demanding an apology from Facebook for blocking ads for his newly-released film “Beautiful Blue Eyes.” British filmmaker Joshua Newton said the tech giant’s move hurt his film, which was released in 143 theaters earlier this month. When his ads featuring the late actor Roy Scheider were flagged with a message that they violated Facebook’s policy against content that “includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race,” Newton assumed it was an algorithm error. He grew increasing...
Yeshiva University can go through appeals process without changing LGBTQ+ club’s status (JNS) — Putting aside their differences for the time being, Yeshiva University and the YU Pride Alliance have agreed to a stay of judgment in their ongoing court battle, allowing the university to go through the appeals process without making any changes to the status quo on campus. The move is the latest action in the case that pits the university against students who want to have an officially recognized LGBTQ+ club on campus. Yeshiva University cla...
(JNS) - The International March of the Living announced on Thursday a global campaign with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial to preserve thousands of shoes belonging to children, most of them Jews, who were murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Around 8,000 children's shoes found at Auschwitz are rapidly disintegrating and require immediate conservation so they can be retained as historic documentation, the Foundation said. The conservation project,...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid supported the creation of a Palestinian state in a speech addressing the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, sparking a swift denunciation from Israel's right. "Despite all the obstacles, still today a large majority of Israelis support the vision of this two-state solution. I am one of them," Lapid said. "An agreement with the Palestinians, based on two states for two peoples, is the right thing for Israel's security, for Israel's economy and...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday described as “successful” his government’s diplomatic offensive against a revival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. However, he conceded that there was a “long way” to go to ensure that Tehran does not benefit to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars should an accord be reached. “Together with Alternate Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Israel is conducting a successful diplomatic campaign to stop the nuclear agreement and prevent the lifting of sanctions on...
(JTA) — Yair Lapid called the people around the table “family” and “brothers and sisters.” The vibe was unusual for the 50 or so Jewish leaders who convened Wednesday to meet the Israeli prime minister, and who were used to being lectured at by the man Lapid hopes to keep from returning to office, Benjamin Netanyahu. That was the point: Ahead of what is likely a close election on Nov. 1, Lapid, who is in New York to address the United Nations General Assembly, wants to draw distinctions between himself and the leader of Israel’s Likud Party, am...
(JTA) — Germany’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has revised its code of conduct to require support for Israel’s right to exist, and employees who fail to do so may now be fired. The move announced Sept. 1 preceded a court order last week that DW reinstate a former employee fired who was fired after the company determined she had made comments about Israel that could be construed as antisemitic. In all, seven employees from the broadcaster’s Arabic service were let go last year on similar grounds, and so far two have successfully sued DW...
US Rep. Torres calls to probe NYC’s ‘failure’ to prosecute hate crimes (JNS) — New York Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.) sent a letter on Friday to the U.S. Department of Justice asking it to investigate what he called New York City’s failure to prosecute anti-Semitic hate crimes. “I am respectfully asking the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to consider investigating New York’s systematic failure to police and prosecute hate crimes and to issue recommendations for reform,” Torres wrote to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland...
(JNS) — Jews around the world are reflecting on the consequential 70-year reign of Queen Elizabeth II following her death on Thursday and what she meant for the Jewish community. Shortly after the news was announced, Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis released a video where he expressed condolences from the Jewish community throughout the Commonwealth. Mirvis said that the queen embodied “the most noble values of British society” and was a “rock of stability” in an ever-changing world, and that she had a warm relationship with the Jewish...
(JNS) - Queen Elizabeth II concluded her 70-year reign on Thursday with her passing at the age of 96. The longest ruling monarch in British history's death comes after years of deteriorating health. She was surrounded by the royal family, including her children at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and the Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow," said Buckingham Palace in a statement. The Que...
(JNS) - Liz Truss won the vote on Monday to become the leader of Britain's Conservative Party, a contest that also decided who will replace Boris Johnson as prime minister. Truss, who served in Johnson's Cabinet as foreign secretary, was the odds-on favorite. She received 57.4 percent of the vote among party members, while her opponent, former chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak, garnered 42.6 percent. In a brief acceptance speech, Truss said that she would cut taxes, tackle the energy...
(JTA) - At a ceremony held on the air base where 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered during the 1972 Munich Olympics, German officials apologized for the "lack of protection" that led to the tragedy and agreed to establish a joint research commission to look more deeply into the events surrounding the terror attack. "We cannot make amends for what has happened," said German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday. "I ask you, as the head of state of this country and on behalf of th...
(J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The founder of the American extremist group Goyim Defense League says he was arrested in Poland this week after demonstrating in front of the Auschwitz-Birkenau former extermination and concentration camp. Jon Minadeo Jr. posted about his arrest on Gab, the social media platform favored by right-wing extremists barred from other platforms, on Sunday. He said he had been charged with “(((Hate Speech))) regarding Aushwitz,” using a parenthetical notation adopted by neo-Nazis to identify Jews...
Bennett tells supporters he has ‘no plans’ to return to politics (JNS) — Alternate Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has told his supporters that he has no plans to run in the country’s upcoming general election, Israeli media reported on Sunday. The announcement comes after Channel 12 reported on Friday that Bennett had been presented with a series of polls indicating that a party led by him would succeed in crossing the electoral threshold in November. According to the figures, the would-be party could become the kingmaker during...
(JTA) - Last week, the chances that the United States would rejoin the Iran nuclear deal seemed higher than they had been in years. CNN and Reuters reported that Iran had dropped multiple demands in the ongoing negotiations over a new accord that would update the original reached in 2015. Senior U.S. officials were confident that the new deal would be sealed in days. Then on Monday, Iran's government said it wanted more time - extending into September - to examine the U.S. response to a recent...
(JNS) — After the Jewish investor network, JLens placed General Mills on its “Do Not Invest” list, it says the conglomerate is partially reversing its decision to remove its subsidiary Pillsbury brand entirely from Israel, months after selling its stake in a Jerusalem refrigerated-dough manufacturing plant. JLens CEO Julie Hammerman told JNS that her organization “spent the past couple of months engaging in dialogue with General Mills and also doing our own research.” Hammerman said that after sending people into grocery stores in Israel to...
Iranian leaders feared former President Donald Trump, and after the killing of a top Iranian general, Tehran adhered to the terms of the nuclear deal, a former top Israeli national security official said Tuesday. Speaking with Channel 14, Jacob Nagel, former chief of Israel’s National Security Council and former acting National Security Advisor to then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said that President Trump’s dramatic steps vis-à-vis Iran kept the Islamic regime in compliance with the nuclear deal – even after the U.S. withdrew from t...
(JNS) The city of Milan, Italy, has been named an honorary member of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation in recognition of its residents’ efforts to help rescue Jews from Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. IRWF chairman Eduardo Eurnekian and its founder Baruch Tenembaum sent the city a request to join the foundation, which was immediately accepted, Italian media reported last week. The foundation is named after the Swedish diplomat Raul Wallenberg, who helped save 200,000 Jews in Budapest in 1944 by giving them protective...
(JNS) — Echoing pronouncements by American and Israeli government officials, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called for the disbandment of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on Israel. The Conference of Presidents issued a statement on July 29, blasting the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments made by commission member Miloon Kothari during a recent interview. In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, it wrote that “since the U.N. General Assembly admitted Israel as a member...
Maccabi Haifa reaches Champions League group stage for first time since 2009 (JNS) — Maccabi Haifa FC has reached the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2009. The team will get between $26 million to $30 million due to Maccabi Haifa’s victory over FK Crvena Zvezda (“Red Star Belgrade”) and entry into the Uefa Champions League Group Stage. After winning the first leg 4-3 at home, the Israelis trailed 2-0 in Belgrade before goals from Daniel Sundgren and a last-minute own goal by Milan Pavkov lifted Maccabi Haifa to a 6-5 agg...
(JTA) — Hundreds of Jews from around the world have traveled to Basel, Switzerland, to mark the 125th anniversary of a historic gathering of Zionists there. The event was organized by the World Zionist Organization, a group inaugurated during the First Zionist Congress that Theodor Herzl, considered the father of modern Zionism, convened in Basel in 1897. At the 1897 congress, 200 participants from 17 countries voted to adopt as an explicit goal the creation of “a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine” for Jews. “At Basel, I founded...
