Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1321 - 1345 of 1920
SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)-A Jewish inmate serving life in prison without parole took a step toward freedom Aug. 21 and credited the local Jewish newspaper for the turn of events. James A. White Jr., was sentenced in 1981 for the murder of his wife's ex-husband. Last week, California's Board of Parole Hearings unanimously voted to recommend commutation of his sentence after 37 years behind bars, in part because of the work he has done in establishing a comm...
(Chabad.org/News via JNS)-For the last 11 years, the Lieblich family of Wilmington, N.C., have always held Rosh Hashanah services on both days of the holiday. This year, for the first time ever, they did not have a minyan for the second day because of a looming catastrophic weather threat: Hurricane Florence, which made landfall along the South Carolina, bringing with it massive storm surges and between 30 and 40 inches of rain in some places. "There's a sense of urgency here that I haven't...
MEDFORD, Mass. (JTA)—Pro-Israel students at Tufts University say a new course on Palestine is one-sided and demonizes Israel, and violates the university’s own policies on taking political stances. The course, taught by Thomas Abowd, a faculty member in the American Studies program, was first reported by Jewish News Syndicate. The JNS story sparked a flurry of criticism and concern from the Anti-Defamation League and pro-Israel campus organizations. Titled “Colonizing Palestine,” the course is offered through the liberal arts school...
The Atlanta-based Center for Israel Education and the Emory Institute for the Study of Modern Israel invite Jewish 10th- and 11th-graders to apply to attend the Teen Israel Leadership Institute during the weekend of Oct. 26 to 28. The institute will feature a series of learning activities to expand students' knowledge and understanding of Israel and Zionism while they experience Jewish life on a college campus (Emory University) and forge friendships with peers from across the country. The...
Salmonella in Empire Kosher chicken has led to one death and 17 illnesses, the Centers for Disease Control said. Eight people have been hospitalized. The outbreak of the food-borne infection in the leading kosher chicken seller has shown up in Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to a CDC notice Wednesday afternoon. The death occurred in New York. JTA has reached out to Empire Kosher and to the CDC for comment. The CDC began investigating after the New York state Department of Health reported that several people who were...
(JNS)-With the indictment of U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, Democrat Ammar Campa-Najjar, a grandson of a Black September terrorist who killed 11 members of the Israeli athletic team at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, is likely to go from being a long-shot candidate to upsetting the California Republican this November in what is a heavy conservative congressional district. Campa-Najjar, 28, a practicing Christian born to a Palestinian father and a Mexican mother, has distanced himself from his...
NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS—On Aug. 9, 2018, the community group Education Without Indoctrination filed a lawsuit against the School Committee of Newton, Massachusetts, in Massachusetts Superior Court on behalf of three Newton taxpayers. The lawsuit claims multiple violations of the Massachusetts Open Meeting Law stemming from the school committee’s handling of a burgeoning scandal over anti-Semitic lessons and the promotion of Islamic religious beliefs as objective facts in the public school district’s history classes. In teaching world histo...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Rashida Tlaib, the Democratic nominee in a surefire congressional district comprising parts of Detroit, believes in a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and says she would vote against military assistance for Israel. Does she represent a trend? Republicans would like you to think so. "This is the Democrat (sic) party," the Republican Jewish Coalition tweeted, attached to a story about Tlaib's view on military aid. Is Tlaib indeed the future of the Democratic...
(JTA)-Dafna Michaelson Jenet traces her political career back to conversations around the Shabbat table as a 14-year-old. She remembers hearing her parents and their friends discuss the challenges facing Cincinnati, where they were living. But the conversations would quickly be forgotten once the day of rest came to an end. "I was distressed by this because I truly believed that they had the answer to the problems that I cared strongly about, that were plaguing our community, and they didn't...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Are Jews too powerful to be considered “victims” of racism? Some progressives think so and have been downplaying accusations of anti-Semitism in light of a debate over prejudice and power. This week, The New York Times took heat for hiring Sarah Jeong, a technology writer, to its editorial board. Some have called her racist against white people, pointing to past tweets in which she proclaimed that “White men are bullshit” and “#CancelWhitePeople.” The debate over her tweets often centered around the very notion of anti-white ra...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the Democratic congressional candidate and rising progressive star, was cheered at an event at a Jewish museum that did not touch on Israel or the Jewish community. Ocasio-Cortez appeared at a conference here hosted by the Immigrant Arts Coalition at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, participating in a panel focused on women in the arts. While politics did frequently come up, none of the panelists-including Ocasio-Cortez, who has been critical of...
(JNS)-A documentary featuring the notorious Louis Farrakhan will not be available to Netflix customers next month after all, with the media streaming giant citing an "internal miscommunication." "This film will not be released on Netflix. Due to an internal miscommunication, it appeared to be scheduled for release on Netflix, but it is not," a Netflix spokesperson told JNS. "We apologize for any confusion this has caused." The 2014 film, "The Honourable Minister Louis Farrakhan: My Life's...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—David Kustoff, running for re-election in Tennessee’s 8th Congressional District, had three things in his favor: incumbency, a solid Republican district and President Donald Trump’s endorsement. Kustoff was not taking anything for granted, though: In the Republican primary on Thursday, he faced a challenger, George Flinn, who spent more than twice what he has on the campaign and likes to remind voters that he is a “Christian conservative.” Which is notable because Kustoff is Jewish. “It’s unfortunate that someone would try and...
SAN FRANCISCO (J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)—Campers and staffers were evacuated from Camp Tawonga in Northern California on Tuesday morning due to potentially harmful smoke from backfires set by firefighters battling the Ferguson Fire near Yosemite National Park. A new crop of 330 campers arrived on Sunday, a day after officials at the Jewish camp were assured by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service that the fire would not impact camp. But on Monday, Tawonga camp officials w...
SAN DIEGO-The Jewish Federation of San Diego County (Federation) has named Michael Jeser as its new CEO. On Aug. 27, Jeser will succeed Michael Sonduck, who retired in June after his 12-year tenure, including six years as CEO, with the organization. Jeser joins San Diego's Federation after serving as director of financial resource development at the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, where he oversaw all aspects of the organization's annual and supplemental fundraising campaigns for three...
(JTA)-Like many heavily Orthodox sections of Brooklyn, Borough Park has been served for decades by an all-male volunteer ambulance corps called Hatzalah. The corps caters to a religious Jewish community with particular needs and customs-including one custom that can increase the tension for patients in already stressful emergency situations. The strict boundaries between men and women are familiar to anyone who has attended an Orthodox synagogue or has read the stories of airplane flights being...
NEW YORK (JTA)—Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried the “occupation of Palestine” during a television interview. Appearing July 13 on PBS’s “Firing Line,” Ocasio-Cortez, 28, also described herself as “a firm believer in finding a two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ocasio-Cortez, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, upset 10-term incumbent Joe Crowley in last month’s primary in New York’s 14th Congressional District, which straddles Queens and the Bronx. Although she has commented...
(JTA)-Kosher observers who pick up their coffee at Starbucks may need to look elsewhere for their caffeine fix. A kosher-certifying agency said it can no longer vouch for the kashrut of many beverages served by the coffee giant. The Star-K agency this week said it was ending a program under which it deemed many Starbucks products permissible without actually certifying them as kosher. Plenty of kosher consumers aren't taking the news lying down: As of Thursday afternoon, more than 7,000 have...
(JTA)—A welcome sign at the Hillel at University of Oregon was defaced with a pro-Palestinian message and obscenities The vandalism at the building on the campus in Eugene was discovered Friday. The Hillel posted a photo of the sign in the parking lot on Facebook. One message read: “Free Palestine you f***s.” No other damage or graffiti was discovered on or around the building, according to the organization. Two other Jewish groups on campus were left untouched. In a message to the campus Jewish community Kevin Marbury, a university vice presid...
NEW YORK (JTA)-After Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shocked the political world by defeating longtime New York Rep. Joseph Crowley in a Democratic primary last month, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez quickly aligned himself with the former political outsider, saying on a radio show that "she represents the future of our party." If so, that future appears to include the kind of sharp criticism of Israel once considered taboo in both major parties. Ocasio-Cortez ran on a platform of...
Criminal complaints are now being filed by students following the belligerent disruption of a May 17, 2018, Students Supporting Israel [SSI] event at University of California Los Angeles. At least a half-dozen students announced they would visit the UCLA police department to file formal complaints reporting criminal disruption of a meeting, as well as disturbing the peace and conspiracy. The move follows media disclosures that UCLA was reneging on the public pledge by two chancellors in the...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Not an hour after Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement as associate justice on the Supreme Court, the National Council of Jewish Women tweeted its dismay. "Justice Kennedy's retirement could drastically shift the balance of the Supreme Court, and threaten the very rights and liberties we've fought so hard to protect," NCJW tweeted Wednesday. "We need a justice who will stand up for all of our rights, not just the wealthy and powerful." NCJW's is a voice of the Jewish liberal...
BOSTON (JTA)-A century-old synagogue in Boston that now serves as a Jewish cultural center will receive $500,000 from the city for historic preservation. On the recommendation of Mayor Martin Walsh, the City Council last week unanimously approved the grant for the Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture, under the Community Preservation Act. The funding for the multi-story building, once abandoned but now a landmark and tourist destination, will be used to help make it fully accessible...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-It's like finding out that the White House has a mikvah in its basement and no one knows about it. Up an elegant stairway next to the concert hall at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is the "Concert Lounge dedicated by the State of Israel." It's a delicate, quiet refuge from Washington that bursts with, well, Israeliness: Paintings and wooden reliefs feature biblical scenes by Israeli artists who were well known in their time. Forty-seven years after it was...
(JTA)-When Mary McCabe explains America's immigration courts to children who have been separated from their parents, she tries to make it interactive. She draws a sketch of a courtroom and asks kids to identify the figures in the room-like the judge or the lawyers-and where they sit. For younger ones, ages 6 or 7, she brings a box of crayons and a sketchpad for doodling. Older kids sometimes play with a toy that drips colored oil into water. Anything to give them a little diversion from her...
