Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — The fact that Ukraine’s president is Jewish has hurt the credibility of Russia’s claims that it invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 to “de-Nazify” it. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tried to boost his country’s argument during an interview with an Italian television channel on Sunday, by saying he said he believed Adolf Hitler also had Jewish origins and that Jewish sages say the biggest antisemites are Jewish themselves. Lavrov said this during an interview with Italy’s Channel 4, a commercial broadcaster, according to the simultane...
(New York, NY) - A group of students from the University of Florida arrived in Israel this Monday, marking the first of many Birthright Campus Trips this year. The contingent is one of 28 student groups arriving this week. A total of 14,000 students from nearly 900 universities and colleges in North America are expected to land in Israel in the coming weeks. Birthright Campus Trips are a unique opportunity for North American students to go on a life-changing trip to Israel with their college...
BERLIN (JTA) — Growing up in London had its ups and downs for Jeremy Issacharoff, Israel’s outgoing ambassador to Germany. On one hand, as a schoolboy he was beaten up by skinheads and called a “dirty Jew.” On the other hand, he had long, civilized discussions with Arab and Palestinian classmates at the London School of Economics. Such experiences prepared him for his life as a diplomat: With some people you talk. With others, never. Issacharoff, 67, recently reflected on his 40 years in the Israeli foreign service, days before leaving Germany...
Israel to end COVID-19 tests at Ben-Gurion Airport (JNS) — Israel is planning to end the requirement for travelers arriving at Ben-Gurion International Airport to test for COVID-19, Israeli media reported on Tuesday. It comes as more tourists are arriving for the spring season, including Birthright Israel trips. Currently, arriving passengers must take a test at their own expense. New reports by Channel 12 and Walla indicate that the restriction could be lifted in early June. Israel lifted its indoor-mask requirement last month, though the mand...
(JNS) POLAND - A Muslim group including participants from across the Arab world took part for the first time in the International March of the Living, the annual 1.9-mile walk from the concentration camp at Auschwitz to the extermination camp of Birkenau in Poland to commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. The precedent-setting move was the brainchild of Sharaka, an organization of young Israeli and Gulf State leaders formed in the wake of the Abraham Accords. The 18-member delegation,...
(JNS) - Jordan fears it is losing its recognized status as official custodian of Jerusalem's holy Muslim sites, including the Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest site, as Palestinians incited by Hamas, other terror groups and the Palestinian Authority continuously held riots during the Muslim month of Ramadan. In at least one incident, rioters nearly set the Al-Aqsa mosque on fire. Jordan has blamed Israel for the violence and for violating the status quo there. And now, it is demanding total...
(JNS) — An American Jewish Committee survey of U.S. and Israeli Jewish millennials shows that Israel-Diaspora relations remain strong but also indicates points of divergence regarding what role Diaspora Jews should have in influencing Israeli policies, anti-Semitism in the United States and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The first-ever parallel survey of Jews, ages 25 to 40, was conducted by YouGov in the United States and Geocartography in Israel for ACCESS, AJC’s young professional program and AJC’s Contemporary Jewish Life Depar...
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – At a time when the horrors of the Holocaust are again on the minds of Europe and the world, an alarming new survey shows widespread misunderstanding - and even real doubts - among a surprisingly large number of Americans regarding the darkest chapter in modern world history. The survey, conducted for the Holocaust Education Resource Council, underscores the need for continued and strengthened education to make sure that genocidal outrage is never again repeated or a...
(JTA) — The 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova died near her home in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 4, while the city was under a devastating Russian attack. Her family believed that her survivor testimony died with her. Obiedkova died, reportedly cold and emaciated, while sheltering in the basement of a store near her home; her daughter and son-in-law fled the city after burying her. The house they shared burned during the attacks, and the VHS tape containing the video testimony Obiedkova had recorded of her Holocaust e...
(JNS) — Nearly 80 years after the end of the Holocaust, the world’s oldest hatred continues to rise at alarming rates, despite an increased attempt to stem the tide of hate and the passage of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of anti-Semitism by more than 800 entities, including governments worldwide. That is the consensus of a new global study on anti-Semitism from the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University, released on Wednesday in time for Yom Hashoah. It found that...
Pete Davidson to star in autobiographical comedy series with a Yiddish name By Andrew Lapin (JTA) — Bupkis — meaning nothing, absolutely zilch — is one of those few Yiddish words that have become part of the American lexicon. It’s also the name of Pete Davidson’s new show. The series, which will air on NBC’s Peacock streaming service, Deadline reported on Wednesday, is a “Curb Your Enthusiasm”-style R-rated comedy that “will combine grounded storytelling with absurd elements,” and reflect Davidson’s self-deprecating sense of humor. The title c...
By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) - Their son may be on TV every night, but the parents of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have consistently declined countless requests for interviews about their own lives. The rabbi of their hometown of Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine's east, however, is apparently much more eager to talk about the Zelenskys, who are Jewish. This week, Rabbi Liron Ederi, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's emissary in the city, spoke at length to an Orthodox newspaper in Israel about his ties...
(New York Jewish Week) - Hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the Consulate General of Israel in Manhattan on Wednesday in what was billed as an emergency rally to support Palestinian resistance and liberation "by any means necessary." As dozens of police officers lined up around the area, the protesters began calling to "globalize the intifada." Tensions are high in Israel, where Palestinian rioters have clashed with police on Jerusalem's Temple Mount and Israeli security forces have...
In an interview with CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour about Israel's policies to control violent rioting on the Temple Mount and "settlements" - i.e. Jewish communities - in Judea and Samaria, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett didn't hold back. Pushing the narrative that stalled peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians are the reason for terror and that both sides are caught in a cycle of violence, Amanpour asked Bennett about his efforts on that front. "I object to the notion of 'both sides.'...
(JNS) — The Jewish Federations of North America announced on Monday that it has surpassed its fundraising goal of $50 million for aid to Ukraine. According to a news release, the funds have been allocated to 35 NGOs operating on the ground in Ukraine and neighboring countries. Some of these groups include the Jewish Agency for Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and World ORT, which the release called its core partner groups. The funds are being used to provide housing, clothing, cash assistance, medical attention, m...
(JTA) — Just days before Jews around the world gathered with their families and friends to read the Haggadah as part the Passover holiday, one family of reunited Holocaust survivors filed a lawsuit to reclaim a 700-year-old haggadah that they say was lost to them during the rise of Nazi Germany. Since 1946, the Birds’ Head Haggadah has been in the possession of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem where it has been examined by countless scholars and displayed prominently for millions of visitors who have passed it by. The medieval manuscript fea...
Ukrainian refugees to join March of Living at Auschwitz for first post-COVID commemoration By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA) — Refugees from Ukraine are scheduled to join the March of the Living commemoration event at Auschwitz. The refugees are among 2,500 people from 25 countries who have signed up for the mission to the former death camp, the first since March of the Living suspended such activities due to COVID-19, the educational group said in a statement. The March brings young people from around the world to Poland and Israel to study the h...
(JTA) - French prosecutors indicted two men for assaulting a Jewish man, Jérémie Cohen, seconds before he ran under the wheels of a tram and was fatally wounded. One of the two suspects, aged 27, is accused of "intentional violence in public." The other one, aged 23, is being charged with "intentional violence which led to involuntary manslaughter," according to a statement Friday by the prosecutor's office of Bobigny, the Paris suburb where the incident occurred on Feb. 16. The indictment d...
(JNS) - Despite Israeli requests for an American-led preparation of a "Plan B" in case of failure of talks to lead to a new Iran nuclear agreement, Washington has yet to formulate such an alternative in a detailed manner, a leading Israeli expert on U.S.-Israeli relations has cautioned. Professor Eytan Gilboa of Bar-Ilan University, who is also a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, also said, however, that good ties between the Israeli and American defense...
(JNS) — Iran is dangerously close to enriching uranium to 90 percent, or military-grade, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Monday. Addressing a policy forum hosted by the Washington Institute, Gantz said, “As we know, Iran is continuing its uranium enrichment and expanding its capabilities and they are close to 90 percent enrichment, once they decide to reach it. I understand the need for an agreement, but if an agreement [is not] reached, we must activate Plan B immediately.” On April 6, during an address to 80 ambassadors in Israe...
(JNS) — The Abraham Accords have led to a host of programs to bring together Jews and Muslims. One new project, the Mukhayriq Initiative, is named after a Jewish rabbi who gave his life fighting to defend the Prophet Muhammad at the legendary Battle of Uhud in 625 C.E. The story of the rabbi’s sacrifice—and his close friendship with Muhammed—is known mainly to Islamic scholars, but the founders of the initiative say it reflects a positive, if suppressed, aspect of Muslim-Jewish history. To underscore the importance of the story, coming as it d...
Barry Manilow tests positive for COVID, will miss NYC debut of his musical ‘Harmony’ By Andrew Silow-Carroll (New York Jewish Week) — Singer Barry Manilow tested positive for COVID-19, preventing him from attending the New York premier of his musical “Harmony.” The show, about a real-life musical group popular in Germany in the years before World War II, opened Wednesday night at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan. “I am heartbroken to say that I have just tested positive for COVID-19 and won’t be able to attend tonight’s ope...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The director of Amnesty International’s U.S. branch apologized to Jewish lawmakers for claiming to speak on behalf of American Jews. “I regret representing the views of the Jewish people,” Paul O’Brien said in a March 25 letter, first reported by Jewish Insider, to all 25 Jewish Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives, who had joined to condemn his remarks at a Washington, D.C., luncheon in which he rejected polling that showed the vast majority of U.S. Jews are pro-Israel. “What I should have said,” he added, “is th...
(JNS) — The International March of the Living will resume in person for the first time in two years but with a reduced capacity, due to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, and only eight Holocaust survivors participating. Organizers made the announcement last week in the United Kingdom House of Lords. The procession along the path leading from the Auschwitz to Birkenau concentration camps in Poland will take place starting on April 24, a few days before Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom Hashoah), as a tribute to the 6 million Jewis...
(JTA) — When it comes to consuming matzah, the Jews of the former Soviet Union are in a league of their own. At the top of the chart are Azerbaijan’s 8,000 Jews, who this year are expected to consume 10 tons of the unleavened bread cracker that Jews eat on the week of Passover to commemorate their ancestors’ hurried flight out of Egypt. That’s a provision of 2.7 pounds per person – a ratio that’s nearly three times what’s on stock for the average soldier in the Israeli army. In Russia, home to about 155,000 Jews, the rate of consumption i...
