Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — On the sixth-month anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Jewish Federations of North America provided an updated summary of how its $73.5 million emergency campaign has helped with relief efforts. Funding has gone towards emergency operational costs, temporary housing and transportation, security, humanitarian support and trauma relief; and in Israel, aliyah and absorption. The relief aid has been directed to some 50 nongovernmental organizations providing humanitarian aid and relief to Ukrainian refugees in Ukraine and nei...
(JNS) — The Biden administration has responded to Iran’s latest offer to re-enter the 2015 nuclear deal, State Department spokesman Ned Price confirmed on Wednesday. “As you know, we received Iran’s comments on the E.U.’s proposed final text through the E.U. Our review of those comments has now concluded, and we have responded to the E.U. today,” Price said at a State Department press conference. “This negotiation at times has languished for months upon months on account of Iran,” added Price while refusing to give details about the U.S....
Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s attempts to hold a telephone conversation with President Joe Biden ahead of an emerging nuclear deal with Iran have been rebuffed, with the excuse that the American president is on vacation, Israeli media reported on Wednesday. The National Security Council has been scrambling in recent days to arrange a call between the two leaders as part of Israel’s last ditch effort to stop the Iran deal from being signed, Israel’s Channel 13 News reported. U.S. officials, however, denied the request, telling Lapid that Biden...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — On the evening of the third day of “Operation Breaking Dawn,” an extensive Israeli counterterrorism campaign against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, reports of a fatal attack in the Jabalya refugee camp began to appear on Palestinian social media. The reports were soon followed by gruesome pictures of the incident, including of the bodies of five children allegedly killed in the blast. “We immediately understood that there was an emergency here that could potentially become a public dipl...
(JNS) — Diligently following a master plan worked out over 10 years ago, the Palestinian Authority is laying claim to large tracts of Israeli state land through illegal building. Resembling Potemkin villages, many structures stand empty, hollow, windowless, alone or clumped together. The land grab has been hugely successful because Israeli countermeasures have been so feeble, Jews living in the area tell JNS. “Their side is focused, determined and has a well-developed plan. Our side is unfocused, indecisive and in many cases not even aware of...
Creator of ‘Shtisel’ is working on a series about Theodor Herzl By Philissa Cramer (JTA) — Modern Jewish history’s most famous bearded political leader could be coming to streaming services soon, thanks to one of the creators of “Shtisel.” Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in his native Austria in 1904, is the subject of a series being developed by Ori Elon, according to a report in Deadline. Elon wrote the script for “Shtisel,” the hit Israeli TV show about the travails of a haredi Orthodox family, as well as for “Srugim,...
BERLIN (JTA) — Nestled in the Bavarian alps, the city of Oberammergau has one major claim to fame: every 10 years, it hosts the world-famous Passion Play, which tells the New Testament story of Jesus’ death and resurrection. It has been doing so since the 17th century, almost without fail, and it happens to be on now, after a two-year, pandemic-related delay. About half a million spectators are expected to flock to the town by the time this season is over, on Oct. 2. Over the centuries, the play — in which all roles are filled by local resident...
(JNS) — A bipartisan group of Senators introduced a bill that would make energy sanctions placed against Iran in 1996 permanent. The co-sponsors of the Solidify Iran Sanctions Act (SISA) wrote in a news release that the bill was necessitated by Iran’s continued pursuit of a nuclear weapon and malign activities in the Middle East being a danger to Israel, America’s Arab partners and American military personnel in the region. Drafted and introduced on Aug. 2 by Sen Tim Scott (R-S.C.), its original co-sponsors included Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N....
New York police search for attacker who tried to choke Jewish woman at subway (JNS) — The New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force is investigating an antisemitic attack on a Jewish woman that took place at a subway station on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, reported the New York Post. The 44-year-old victim, whose identity was not revealed, was choked by an unidentified male suspect, who made antisemitic remarks while she waited on the subway platform of the No. 6 train at around 11:20 a.m. on Tuesday, according to police. The attac...
(JNS) — The United States, United Kingdom, France and the European Union have called for “restraint” following the launch by Israel on Friday of “Operation Breaking Dawn” against the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group in the Gaza Strip. The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to hold an emergency, closed-door meeting on Monday to discuss the matter. U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss also issued a statement on Saturday expressing her country’s support for Israel and its right to self-defense, while condemning the terrorists. She called for...
(JNS) — Hamas issued and then withdrew sweeping restrictions on foreign journalists working in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of this week’s conflict between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, according to the Associated Press. The restrictions included a ban on coverage about PIJ rockets falling short in Gaza and causing injuries and deaths, as well as a general rule requiring that Jerusalem be blamed for the latest escalation, according to the report. The Foreign Press Association, which represents international media in Israel, ann...
(JTA) - Negotiating the bomb-scarred roads of eastern Ukraine is the easy part of Ilya Pulin's day as he delivers food and medicine across eastern Ukraine as a volunteer. The difficult part, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, is finding and paying for fuel in the war-torn country. Since Russia invaded in February, "fuel prices have doubled. There are hour-long lines at petrol stations. And until a few days ago there was a five-gallon ration per person," said Pulin, a 38-year-old Jewish...
(JNS) British Foreign Secretary of State and Parliament member Liz Truss promised to consider moving the British embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem if she is elected Tory leader and becomes prime minister in September. The Conservative Party leadership candidate-one of two; she is vying against fellow Parliament member Rishi Sunak-made the promise in a letter written to members of Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI). She also participated in a CFI event on Monday night in which she...
(JTA) - Could the new owner of Ben & Jerry's Israeli business interests rename a flavor "Judea and Samaria"? Avi Zinger, who bought the company's Hebrew and Arabic branding from parent company Unilever last month, recently told an Israeli news outlet that he had the right to do so, and even proposed renaming "Chunky Monkey" to the biblical name for the West Bank. And that threat, Ben & Jerry's lawyers say, is reason enough why the sale shouldn't legally go through. "If Ben & Jerry's wanted to pr...
The judge who signed the FBI’s Mar-a-Lago warrant is facing violent antisemitic threats By Madeline Fixler (JTA) — Bruce Reinhart, the federal judge in Florida who signed the warrant allowing the FBI to raid former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property on Tuesday, has been hit with a wave of antisemitic threats online. The outburst has appeared on right-wing social media platforms and message boards, where users have published the judge’s name, address and personal information. Threats have been directed at his children and supposed fami...
(JNS) — Shortly after Cairo helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Egyptian diplomat let loose a barrage on Israel on the international stage. At Monday afternoon’s emergency session at the U.N. Security Council, Egyptian Ambassador to the United Nations Osama Abdel Khalek surprisingly tore into Israel, hours after his Israeli counterpart praised Egypt for mediating a halt of violence. Abdel Khalek made no mention of PIJ during his speech, labeling all Gazans killed in the weekend’s clashes as “martyrs,” with...
(JNS) — Despite repeated refrains by Biden administration officials that negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal cannot go on indefinitely, which the U.S. president himself reiterated during the Israel leg of his Middle East trip in mid-July, Washington has refused to set a deadline for ending talks even though they appear to be on life support and are possibly unsalvagable given Tehran’s recent claims that it could easily build a bomb. Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington, D.C.-based Foundation for Defense of Dem...
(JNS) — Attempts at mediation in the lawsuit filed by the board of ice-cream maker Ben & Jerry’s against its parent company Unilever for transferring the rights to produce its ice-cream in Israel to an Israeli distributor have failed. According to the New York Post, an attorney from Ben & Jerry’s wrote a letter to U.S. District Judge Andrew Carter asking to restore the company’s request for a preliminary injunction, as no agreement could be reached between the two sides to settle the case out of court. Another letter, from attorneys represe...
(JTA) — When Benjamin Netanyahu, then Israel’s prime minister, failed to meet his own deadline to announce a plan to annex portions of the West Bank during the summer of 2020, it wasn’t just his usual critics and advocates for the prompt creation of a Palestinian state who breathed a sigh of relief. The missed deadline was also a relief to insiders at the Trump White House, who knew that annexation would derail their ambitious effort to make peace between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. In fact, the very afternoon of the annexation deadlin...
Trial over ‘dissolution’ of Jewish Agency activities in Russia set for Aug. 19 (JNS) — A Moscow court on Thursday set an Aug. 19 trial date that could result in the “dissolution” of the Jewish Agency’s activities in Russia, even as an Israeli delegation was in the Russian capital in a bid to resolve an issue that has created a major diplomatic spat between the two countries. The Russian Justice Ministry earlier this month sent a letter to the Jewish Agency outlining a list of demands that created the legal basis for Thursday’s initial heari...
(JNS) - The Jewish Agency, which helps Jews immigrate to Israel, stands on shaky ground in Russia, as a Moscow court is set to hold a trial on its dissolution August 19. Even though it's operating under a cloud of uncertainty, and immigration to Israel has skyrocketed, the Agency continues to operate business as usual, JNS has learned from a government source familiar with the matter. Since the outbreak of the war on Ukraine in February, 19,100 Russians have immigrated to Israel, a leap from...
(JNS) — The Jewish Federations of North America has announced the launch of a Ukrainian Resettlement Grant Initiative to support refugees seeking safety in the United States. The new funding is in addition to the more than $70 million that JFNA has already pledged to help resettle refugees from Ukraine abroad. “The Jewish people have been refugees in so many countries, yet we have been blessed with freedom and protection in the United States,” said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of JFNA. “Supporting refugees and vulnerable populat...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has instructed the country’s Foreign Ministry to prepare a series of political measures against Russia to be implemented in the event it closes the Russian branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a nonprofit organization that promotes immigration to Israel. Although Moscow gave no reason for shuttering the agency’s offices, officials have said it is possibly due to Israel’s stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Lawmakers met on Sunday to discuss the matter, during which some even...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas has implemented measures that could turn the P.A. into a dictatorship, according to a new report, published just two weeks before the 29th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. The report was authored by Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, which has followed developments in the P.A. virtually since its inception in 1994. Over the past four years, the report states, “Abbas has made decisions and implemented fundamental changes to the Palestinian political system, the...
(JTA) - The Auburn University men's basketball team will travel to Israel this weekend for a 10-day Birthright-style trip, likely the first of its kind for a full Division I college or professional team. Coined "Birthright for College Basketball," the trip will feature some of Israel's most famous historical and tourist sites - from the Western Wall and the Dead Sea to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum - plus three exhibition games against teams of players from the top echelon of Israeli...
