Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WALTHAM, Massachusetts (JTA) — The days before Thanksgiving break were supposed to be packed at Brandeis University’s Hillel: There was a talk on Sunday about sexuality in Judaism, a ceremony for students who participated in a study program and a forum for candidates running to help lead the campus Jewish center. Instead, Hillel canceled everything and instead threw open its doors for students and faculty in need of comfort and support after one of their classmates was killed and dozens more injured in an accident involving a shuttle bus man...
(JTA) – The foundation overseeing the rebuilding plans for the site of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh has selected its first director, and her aims are nothing less than the total end of antisemitism. Carole Zawatsky, a longtime veteran in Jewish nonprofit leadership, was announced as the first new Tree of Life CEO Tuesday. Her appointment came as the nonprofit, which includes a planned memorial, museum and education center, revealed its grand plans for what its leadership hop...
(JNS) — Two of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives announced on Thursday that they would not seek positions in leadership during the next Congress. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 82, the first woman speaker of the House in U.S. history, made the announcement on the House floor, stating that she would not seek reelection to the Democratic party’s leadership in the next Congress, even though she plans to continue serving. The decision was made as the House will flip into the control of Republicans in January. Pelosi cli...
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) blasted the White House Tuesday for authorizing the FBI to investigate the shooting death of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during a clash of Israeli soldiers with Palestinian terrorists in Jenin in May. “Joe Biden and his administration view Israel and Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu as political enemies, and so they are responding to them the way they respond to all their political enemies: by unleashing the FBI,” the Texan Republican said in a statement. “This outrage underscores how corrupt and blata...
(JTA) — The Orthodox Union has endorsed federal legislation that would enshrine the right to same-sex marriage, marking a reversal of its previous positions. When more than 100 Jewish groups endorsed the Respect for Marriage Act this summer, the OU, an umbrella group representing Modern Orthodox synagogues, was not among them. The group had previously sat on the sidelines as well when the U.S. Supreme Court weighed Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, in which the court ruled that same-sex marriage was protected under the Constitution. But things c...
(JNS) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his intention to run for president in 2024, vowing to renew American exceptionalism if he is once again elected to the White House. “In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” Trump told a crowd of supporters gathered at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “Two years ago, we were a great nation, and soon we will be a great nation again,” he said, adding, “This is not just a campaign, this is a quest to...
(JTA) — Five days after Nancy Pelosi made history in 2007 as the first woman elected to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, she held an event at her alma mater, the private Roman Catholic university, Trinity Washington. She asked a rabbi, the Reform movement’s David Saperstein, to headline the event because she saw the movement as taking the lead on a crisis that deeply concerned her, in Darfur. “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor,” Saperstein said, quoting Leviticus. Pelosi was so pleased with Saperstein’s remarks t...
(JTA) — Art Spiegelman’s “Maus,” along with six books about the Holocaust geared toward young readers, are among the hundreds of books that a handful of school districts in Missouri have reportedly removed from their shelves since the start of this school year. The list of books pulled from shelves was published Wednesday by the literary free-expression advocacy group PEN America, along with a letter of protest signed by Spiegelman and other authors. “This is what happens when we are operating in a climate of fear,” Jonathan Friedman, P...
(JTA) — Students at one of Chicago’s most selective public high schools are calling for improved Holocaust education after a classmate goose-stepped across the stage of a Halloween costume contest while wearing a German military uniform. The principal of Jones College Prep, which draws high-performing students from across Chicago, has already been suspended over his handling of the incident, which he initially downplayed. The Chicago school district has launched an investigation into whether the school followed “protocols for processing bias-ba...
(JNS) - One could circle Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School for blocks on Tuesday. There were no political activists handing out campaign material. A truck with inaudible speakers passed the school's polling place once in a four-hour window. Neighborhood residents could be forgiven for not realizing an election was taking place. Outside of the "Vote Here" signs zip-tied to the fence by the entrance to the polls, there was only one glaring reminder for this Midwood community, which is...
(JTA) — The Anti-Defamation League is bolstering its advocacy on Wall Street by absorbing JLens, an organization known for rating companies on their alleged support for the Israel boycott, according to an announcement on Thursday by the ADL. Founded in 2012, JLens was for years one of the only groups pressing pro-Israel positions in the growing environmental, social and governance movement, known as ESG, which advocates for a form of corporate decision-making in which profit is not the only priority. Over time, JLens managed to raise a...
(JTA) — A poll of Jewish voters showed them overwhelmingly listing abortion rights and risks to democracy as their top issues when they voted in midterm elections. The poll commissioned by J Street and another exit poll conducted on behalf of Fox News Channel and the Associated Press also showed substantial majorities of Jews voting Democratic, although they differed on how big the majorities were. That is commensurate with Jewish voting in the past, which favors Democrats two-to-one generally. The J Street poll showed 74 percent of r...
New York — In response to a detailed complaint filed last January by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating whether the Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia inadequately responded to incidents of antisemitic harassment. FCPS is one of the largest school districts in the U.S. In a November 3, 2022 letter, OCR notified ZOA that it will be investigating ZOA’s allegations that FCPS discriminated against Jewish stude...
(JTA) — Federal prosecutors have arrested and charged a New Jersey teenager with extremist Islamist views with making the threat that led to a sweeping FBI warning for the state’s synagogues last week. Omar Alkattoul, 18, of Sayreville, New Jersey, is charged with one count of transmitting a threat in interstate and foreign commerce for an extremist manifesto he shared on Nov. 1 on an undisclosed social media network. He faces up to five years in prison. Alkattoul had pledged allegiance to the leader of ISIS and researched how to obtain fir...
(JTA) — Dan Snyder, the Jewish owner of the Washington Commanders who is ensnared in a scandal involving sexual harassment in the team’s workplace, announced today that he and his wife and co-owner Tanya Snyder are exploring a possible sale of the NFL franchise. The Commanders released a statement Wednesday saying that the Snyders have hired Bank of America Securities to “consider potential transactions.” The release did not specifically mention selling the team. “The Snyders remain committed to the team, all of its employees and its countless...
(JTA) — Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving is defending his decision to promote a movie that argues that Jews were responsible for the transatlantic slave trade, despite criticism from his team’s owner. “I’m disappointed that Kyrie appears to support a film based on a book full of anti-semitic disinformation,” Nets owner Joe Tsai tweeted on Friday, shortly after Irving tweeted a link to the Amazon listing for a 2018 film called “Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America!” The film is based on an earlier book by the same name advancing the oft-rep...
(JTA) — Former NBA star Charles Barkley slammed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who is Jewish, for not suspending Brooklyn Nets All-Star Kyrie Irving after he promoted an antisemitic film on his Twitter account. “I think Adam should have suspended him. First of all, Adam’s Jewish. You can’t take my $40 million and insult my religion,” Barkley said, referencing Irving’s contract, during a Tuesday night segment of the popular “NBA on TNT” panels that airs on the network before, during and after game broadcasts. The NBA has “suspended peop...
By Jacob Henry (New York Jewish Week) — A worker at a beloved Brooklyn kosher bakery known for its black-and-white cookies was found dead inside a walk-in freezer there early Thursday morning, police said. The death of Mahamadou Dansago, 33, at Beigel’s on Avenue D appears to have been an accident. An immigrant father of five from Mali, Dansago got caught in rotating blades of the machine while working in the freezer and appeared to have been locked inside for some five hours, the New York Daily News reported. “Upon arrival, officers obser...
(JTA) — Jewish groups thought Elon Musk was listening to them about antisemitism on Twitter. Then Kanye West came back. In the week after the rapper who now goes by Ye lost most of his endorsements due to his antisemitic rants, and amid an apparent uptick in broader antisemitic content on the platform, the Anti-Defamation League met with Musk, the social media giant’s mercurial new owner, about keeping hate speech off the site. Three days later, all goodwill from the meeting has devolved, as anti-Jewish content on Twitter is experiencing a “pr...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The daughter of a Holocaust survivor, a gay man in a conservative-leaning area, and a Black woman from California — all are among the nearly two-dozen Jews who are hoping to enter Congress next year. Among the 46 Jewish nominees for the U.S. House of Representatives are 22 incumbents — 21 Democrats and a single Republican. (Five Jewish incumbents retired or lost a primary this cycle.) The remaining 24 are challengers or running in open seats. Using a number of nonpartisan sources, including the Cook Political Report and 2...
A lot of people, including Jaguars’ owner Shad Kahn, New England Patriots’ owner Robert Kraft, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, the University of Florida and the University of Georgia spoke out clearly against the antisemitic message posted during the Gators/Bulldogs game last weekend. The message “Kanye was right about the jews [sic]” flashed on the outside of one of the end zones at TIAA Bank Field stadium. The Universities of Florida and Georgia issued a joint statement condemning the hate speech at the stadium as well as in other areas a...
(JTA) — A feud between two Jewish bagel shop owners in Columbus, Ohio, has spilled out of the oven and into full public view, resulting in a lawsuit and restraining order. The Columbus Jewish News reports that the owner of Block’s Bagels, a local Jewish deli mainstay since 1967, last week sued former business partner Jeremy Fox, owner of the Fox’s Bagels & Deli chain, after the latter moved to rebrand two shops the parties had been operating jointly. In court earlier this week, the judge in the case ordered two Fox’s locations to continu...
(JNS) - Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently hosted events with Palestinian activist Mohammed El-Kurd, who has made a series of anti-semitic comments. El-Kurd, who appeared at MIT on Oct. 22 and Harvard on Oct. 24, has described Zionism as a "death cult," "murderous", "genocidal," and "sadistic," according to research compiled by the CAMERA media watchdog. He has also said that Israelis have "an unquenchable thirst for Palestinian blood." More than 60 MIT...
(JTA) - As images of the banner held above Interstate 405 in Los Angeles claiming "Kanye is right about the Jews" ricocheted around the internet this weekend, Jessica Seinfeld decided to take a stand A cookbook author and wife of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Seinfeld posted a simple piece of text on a black background that reads "I support my friends and the Jewish people" and encouraged her 580,000 followers to share the post. Seinfeld, who is Jewish, was weighing in two weeks after West, the...
(JNS) — In response to its student paper’s editorial board endorsing the controversial Boston “Mapping Project” of Jewish sites around Massachusetts, Wellesely College condemned the project for promoting antisemitism. “While it is not my practice to comment on the newspaper’s editorials, I do feel the need to make it clear that Wellesley College rejects the Mapping Project for promoting antisemitism,” Wellesley College President Paula A. Johnson wrote in a letter to the community. Johnson said she is concerned that the project “poses a sign...
