Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1105 - 1129 of 1886
(JTA)-When the ushers locked the door to the sanctuary, and the congregants prepared to flee the synagogue in preparation for a mass shooting, Rabbi Neil Cooper made sure it all happened before they had to take the Torahs out of the ark. Ten minutes later the worshippers were back in the pews, doors unlocked, and getting ready to hear the weekly Torah portion. The first active shooter drill at this suburban Philadelphia synagogue was over. "It was not a high-energy, kind of catching people... Full story
(JNS)—Representatives of Jewish, Christian, Muslim and other religious groups gathered together recently at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., for a discussion on security issues facing faith communities. The timing couldn’t be more apt, as one FBI source noted that this is the most “complex and dynamic threat environment we have ever been in.” Every day, said the source, foreign governments are researching and identifying ways that they can “exploit” and “sow discord,” and turn people against their own communities. He added that faith comm... Full story
(JNS)—Walmart, Amazon and Barnes & Noble are among retailers selling an edition of Adolf Hitler’s “Mein Kampf” featuring a neo-Nazi blurb and a price tag with numbers that reference white power. “This book has set a path toward a much higher understanding of the self and of our magnificent destiny as living beings part of this Race on our planet,” stated the blurb on the Barnes & Noble website, which has apparently removed the listing. “It shows us that we must not look at nature in terms of good or bad, but in an unfiltered manner. It de... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)-A group of some 1,000 Jewish activists and others brought rush hour traffic to a halt in downtown Boston to protest immigrant detention in the city and across the country. Tuesday's protest followed a similar event Sunday where 36 Jewish activists were arrested during a protest at a New Jersey detention center. Following a rally at the New England Holocaust Memorial, protesters marched through the city's streets to the Suffolk House of Correction, where 18 people were arrested... Full story
(JNS)-Israeli defense electronics company Elbit Systems announced on Wednesday that its U.S. subsidiary has been awarded a $26 million contract by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to install a multi-sensor system to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border. According to a report in the Israeli financial daily Globes, Elbit will install an Integrated Fixed Towers system in Arizona. Elbit has been involved in a number of projects with U.S. Customs regarding border security. The IFT system is a... Full story
(JNS)—U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) rejected an invitation on Sunday to tour Auschwitz with a Holocaust survivor. The organization From the Depths, whose president, 93-year-old Edward Mosberg, is a Holocaust survivor, invited her to see the camp, where an estimated 1.1 million people, almost all of them Jews, were killed. “The opportunity you will have of visiting the German Nazi Concentration Camps along with Mr. Mosberg, a 93-year-old survivor of history’s most brutal genocidal regime, will enable you to become a witness of a wi... Full story
(JTA)-Gary Rosenblatt, the editor and publisher of The New York Jewish Week for 26 years, is stepping down. Under his stewardship, the newspaper started Write On For Israel, an educational/advocacy program to prepare high school students for the Mideast debate on campus, in 2002; and The Conversation, an off-the-record retreat with a diverse Jewish participation, to discuss major issues facing American Jewry, in 2005. It also launched the publication Fresh Ink for Teens, The Jewish Week Investig... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)—A rabbi here has asked congregants to consider bringing guns to religious services as a form of protection in response to recent shootings at synagogues across the country. Rabbi Dan Rodkin of Shaloh House in Brighton, a Boston neighborhood with a large number of Russian-speaking Jews, told the public radio station WBUR that the rise in hate crimes across the country and the loss of life at the Chabad at Poway and the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh influenced his thinking. Rodkin fears that increased safety measures i... Full story
(JNS)-In the aftermath of two synagogue shootings exactly six months apart, in addition to arson incidents at Chabad Houses in Massachusetts and an attempted arson attempt at a Chicago synagogue last month, the issue of security, specifically armed personnel, has been in the spotlight. Some have called for supporting the idea, while others, especially those who favor strict gun control, have expressed their opposition to the idea. Three arson incidents occurred in Massachusetts within a week... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum reiterated a strong rejection of analogies to the Holocaust in the wake of the debate surrounding the term “concentration camps” sparked by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. The museum “unequivocally rejects efforts to create analogies between the Holocaust and other events, whether historical or contemporary,” the museum said in a statement. “That position has repeatedly and unambiguously been made clear in the Museum’s official statement on the matter.” The statement linked to one from D... Full story
(JNS)—Outrage from pro-Israel and Jewish groups is growing at U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for her remarks on Monday on her Instagram account that the United States is “running concentration camps on our southern border,” in reference to the Trump administration’s policies regarding illegal immigration. “AOC should ask Holocaust survivors and ex-GIs who liberated Dachau what that charnel House was like,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the SWC’s associate dean and director of global social action for the leading international... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)-The Museum of Fine Arts bought two pairs of rare Torah finials, bidding $500,000 for the 17th-century German silver set. The set is considered among the earliest surviving examples of the ritual Torah ornaments. The final sale price exceeded the pre-auction estimate of between $300,000 and $400,000. A second pair, 18th-century English parcel-gilt silver, sold for $187,500, some $7,000 more than the high estimate. The finials, to which are attached tiny crowns and bells, are used to adorn the top handles on a Torah scroll. The two... Full story
(JNS)—The United States will send an additional 1,000 troops to the Middle East as tensions escalate between Washington and Tehran, the Pentagon announced on Monday evening. “In response to a request from the U.S. Central Command for additional forces, and with the advice of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and in consultation with the White House, I have authorized approximately 1,000 additional troops for defensive purposes to address air, naval and ground-based threats in the Middle East,” said Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patri... Full story
(JTA)—The U.S. Department of Education will investigate a Middle East conference on Gaza co-sponsored by two North Carolina universities over allegations that it had an anti-Israel bias. Rep. George Holding, R-N.C., called on the department to check into the late March conference co-sponsored by Duke University and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill held at the latter campus. Holding said he had seen “reports of severe anti-Israeli bias and anti-Semitic rhetoric at the taxpayer-funded conference,” The Raleigh News & Observer repor... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-President Donald Trump says he is "very prepared" for Iran. "We're looking at Iran," he said Tuesday when a reporter asked him what he had planned beyond sending another 1,000 U.S. troops to the area as tensions there appear to be escalating. "We have a lot of things going with Iran. We have-we're very prepared for Iran. We'll see what happens. Let me just say this: We are very prepared. Regardless of what goes, we are very, very prepared." Trump was short on details, which has... Full story
(JNS)—In just a few weeks, tens of thousands of kids will be on the move, leaving home for Jewish overnight camps. This year though they’ll be doing so under the specter of heightened security concerns as anti-Semitism is at a near-record high nationwide and it has been just half a year since two deadly synagogue shootings. According to the Anti-Defamation League’s Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents for 2018, 1,879 attacks were committed against Jews and Jewish institutions across the country last year, including the attack at the Tree of Life*... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—New York City is shuttering an Orthodox school in Brooklyn because it has continued to admit unvaccinated students in violation of a city order. The Central UTA Satmar School for Boys, a hasidic school in the Williamsburg neighborhood, is being closed Tuesday afternoon for violating city orders regarding vaccines and vaccination records, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. It is the tenth Orthodox school in New York City to be closed this year due to the issue, according to a city official with knowledge of the matter. W... Full story
It’s Yiddish for the win at the Scripps National Spelling Bee! OK, not quite, but last week, when the first rounds of the finals kicked off, the word “Yiddishkeit” nearly stumped contestant No. 5, Rishik Gandshari from San Jose, California. The seventh-grader didn’t quite know what to make of the quintessentially Jewish word, which the contest defined as “a Jewish way of life.” After asking what the language of origin of the word was, and receiving the answer “Yiddish,” Rishik chuckled nervou... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—The weirdest part of an Orthodox anti-vaccine conference here was probably when the emcee, a rabbi wearing a black hat and white beard, quoted the Gospel of Luke. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!” he cried, reciting the Gospels nearly verbatim. Rabbi Hillel Handler wasn’t referring to the 200 people gathered in the basement of a haredi Orthodox wedding hall in Brooklyn to hear about the alleged dangers of vaccines. Rather, he was talking about the doctors, rabbis and politicians who he says are all hoodwin... Full story
(JTA) — A large Orthodox synagogue in Atlanta is breaking away from the Young Israel synagogue movement. The exit comes months after its rabbi protested the movement’s right-wing political positions. In a statement provided Wednesday afternoon to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the Young Israel of Toco Hills announced that its name would henceforth be Kehillat Ohr Hatorah, Hebrew for “light of the Torah.” An email sent to the congregation Wednesday said that 93 percent of voting synagogue members voted to disaffiliate from Young Israel. “After d... Full story
CHICAGO (JTA)-If a pro-Israel activist were to conjure an image of an anti-Zionist synagogue, they'd probably come up with something like Tzedek Chicago. A congregation of 180 people that meets in a church basement, Tzedek Chicago's "Core Values" declare that it's non-Zionist. In practice, though, that means an explicit emphasis on advocating for Palestinian rights and criticizing Israel's conduct. Those themes were woven throughout its service last Yom Kippur-from the rabbi's sermon to the... Full story
(JNS)—A number of Massachusetts Jewish and pro-Israel groups are condemning several Democratic state lawmakers for participating in an Eid al-Fitr event at the Massachusetts State House that was co-hosted by the Massachusetts branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has a long history of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment. In response to an inquiry from JNS regarding the event, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston executive director Jeremy Burton responded: “We welcome the efforts and intentions of our pol... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Everyone started by praising the American Jewish Committee, naturally enough. But in their video greetings to the group’s annual policy forum here, 13 Democratic candidates proceeded to demonstrate a party grappling with what story they should tell to one of its most important demographics: Jewish voters. Some candidates started by decrying anti-Semitism. Others started by holding up the U.S.-Israel relationship. A couple didn’t mention Israel at all. Some remarks lasted under... Full story
(JNS)—In a commencement speech on Thursday to Yeshiva University graduating students, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman slammed the Obama administration’s treatment of Israel compared to that of the current one. “Should Israel still negotiate with the Palestinians even though Israel did not steal their land? Of course, it should, precisely because we are not suggesting, as our predecessor did—that Israel return to the bargaining table as a thief returning to the scene of a crime,” he said. “Precisely for that reason, there is a basis for... Full story
(JNS)—An Illinois school district is under fire for a course offered to teachers titled “Teaching Palestine.” The Niles Township High School District 219 serves Lincolnwood and parts of Morton Grove, Niles and Skokie in Cook County, home to Chicago. There are an estimated 291,800 Jews in Illinois with most of them living in the Chicagoland area. The district consists of Niles North High School and Niles West High School. The lesson, according to the course description obtained by JNS, “brings together critical educators who want to teach about... Full story
