Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1369 - 1393 of 1886
NEW YORK (JTA)—A Jewish camp has created a scholarship fund in memory of a family who died in a plane crash in Costa Rica. Camp Ramah Darom, a Conservative summer camp in Clayton, Georgia, established a fund in memory of the Weiss family on Tuesday. The Weisses, of Belleair, Florida—Mitchell and Leslie, both physicians; their daughter, Hannah, 19, and son, Ari, 16—were killed Sunday when the small plane in which they were passengers went down in the Central American nation’s northwest shortly after takeoff. Another eight people died in the cra...
(JTA)—Four current and former flight attendants have filed a federal lawsuit against Delta Air Lines alleging that the company’s management has “an anti-Jewish, Hebrew and ethnic Israeli attitude.” The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in New York’s Westchester County. The plaintiffs worked on the airline’s New York-Tel Aviv route. Two are Jewish and two say there were disciplined or subjected to a hostile work environment for their association with Jewish flight attendants and passengers, attorney Brian Mildenberg said in a statem...
NEW YORK (JTA)—The suspect in a pipe bomb attack on this city’s Port Authority Bus Terminal said he was motivated by Israeli actions in Gaza, CNN reported. Akayed Ullah spoke with authorities at Bellevue Hospital, where he was taken after the bomb went off prematurely. He was among four people injured in the attack when his homemade bomb partially detonated in a tunnel connecting the Times Square subway station with the Midtown Manhattan transit hub during Monday’s morning rush hour. New York Police identified Ullah, 27, as a resident of Brookl...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Lawmakers finalizing the proposed tax overhaul reportedly have removed a provision that had sent shivers through the graduate student and Jewish day school communities. The House version of the reform bill, which was drafted by the Republican leadership, had removed the qualified tuition credit. The credit exempts from taxes the free tuition that private schools, including Jewish day schools, often extend to the children of employees. However, the Senate version maintained the...
The congregational arm of Conservative Judaism has severed ties with the longtime director of the denomination's youth movement after receiving "multiple testimonies" that corroborated an allegation of sexual abuse. Allegations about Jules Gutin, 67, who in 2011 completed his 20-year tenure as international director of United Synagogue Youth (USY) and since 2012 had conducted tours of Poland for USY, first came to light Nov. 9 through a Facebook post by a man who claimed that someone who worked...
(JTA)-Students at a Jewish school in New Jersey broke the world record for the world's largest human menorah. Over 500 students from Ben Porat Yosef, a private school in Paramus, stood in the shape of a Chanukah candelabra on Wednesday morning, the first day of the Jewish holiday, Paramus Patch reported. A representative from Guinness World Records certified that the formation was indeed the largest one in the world. Students dressed in colors to make the menorah come to life, with the younger...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—In a stunning upset, Roy Moore, the controversial Republican nominee backed by President Donald Trump in a Senate race in Alabama, was projected to lose against his Democratic challenger. Networks called the race late Tuesday night for Doug Jones, a former prosecutor. The counting closed with Jones 1.5 percent points ahead of Moore. Jones would be the first Democrat elected to the Senate from Alabama since 1992. Moore said he would not concede until absentee ballots are counted. Moore, a former state chief justice twice r...
(JTA)-It's a shame Al Franken has to go, Minnesota Jews say. But he has to go. That's the feeling Minnesota Jewish leaders expressed a day after the Democratic senator announced he would resign his seat in the coming weeks following a string of sexual harassment allegations against him. Eight women have accused Franken of inappropriate conduct, and many of his Democratic colleagues called on him to step down. Franken denies some of the allegations. "Minnesotans deserve a senator who can focus...
CHICAGO (JTA)-Baseball gloves and caricatures of famous ballplayers adorn the walls of Milt's Extra Innings-no surprise for a deli that's a short drive from Wrigley Field, the fabled home of the Chicago Cubs. But look closely and the picture becomes a little more unexpected: The memorabilia on the walls celebrate Jewish greats and not-so-greats like Sandy Koufax, Philadelphia Athletics first baseman Lou Limmer, and the catcher and sometimes spy Moe Berg. And there among the collection of...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Audience members greeted Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour with loud applause at an event here that in recent weeks became a rallying cry for both critics and defenders of Israel. Sarsour, a leading feminist as well as pro-Palestinian advocate, was the best-known speaker on a panel on anti-Semitism held Tuesday at the New School for Social Research. Billed as a discussion of anti-Semitism on the right and left, the panel was denounced by pro-Israel critics who have...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—As the Burning Bush crackles, God is heard. “Mow-zes,” God says in the mysterious mid-Atlantic accent that Hollywood once trained its actors to use—the one Anne Baxter as Nefertiti used to summon Charlton Heston’s Moses in the 1956 blockbuster “The Ten Commandments.” “Mow-zes, Mow-zes.” That epic, earnest and seemingly endless film has much in common with the Museum of the Bible, the $500 million extravaganza gifted to the National Mall by one of America’s leading evangelical families, the founders of the Hobby Lobby chain....
The US expressed horror on Friday, Nov. 24, over the release by Pakistan last week of Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai whose targets included Nariman House, the local Chabad center. “The United States is deeply concerned that Lashkar-e-Tayyiba (LeT) leader Hafiz Saeed has been released from house arrest in Pakistan,” a statement from the State Department declared. “LeT is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization responsible for the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in terro...
(JTA)—The team doctor for USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University, accused of molesting gymnasts who sought treatment from him including Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman, pleaded guilty to sexual assault against seven girls. Larry Nassar entered his guilty plea on Wednesday in Ingham County Circuit Court in Michigan. Nassar also has been accused of various levels of inappropriate or abusive sexual behavior by more than 130 women and girls, nearly all at Michigan State University. His accusers include Olympic gold medalists Raisman, M...
(JTA)—President Donald Trump will continue the White House tradition of hosting a Chanukah party. Invitations have been sent out George W. Bush started the tradition of an annual Chanukah party in 2001, the first year of his presidency. Barack Obama, his successor, continued the parties and often hosted two receptions to accommodate demand. Invitees typically include the heads of American Jewish organizations, Jewish members of the administration and Congress, and other prominent American Jews. Starting in 1979 with a lighting by Jimmy C...
Chanukah USPS Forever First class postage stamps are available on Amazon. The stamp features an illustration of a menorah in the window of a home. Forever stamps will always be valid for first class mail postage even if rates change....
(JTA)-As hurricane Harvey swept over Houston, Chava Gal-Or counted herself lucky. The water rose up to her door and a little bit seeped in, but her home did not flood. However, many in the Reform synagogue where she works had it much worse: Twenty-nine families lost their homes-about 15 percent of the congregation's members. At first, Gal-Or despaired the extent of the damage and how little she could do to help. "I can't rebuild their houses," said Gal-Or, the director of congregational...
(JNS.org)—A complaint filed by New Jersey’s Attorney General Christopher Porrino this week alleges that the New Jersey township of Mahwah has introduced laws that openly discriminate against Orthodox Jews, aimed at deterring them from moving into the area. A nine-count complaint filed on Tuesday accuses the town’s public officials of using methods implemented by “white flight” suburbanites in the 1950s “to keep African-Americans from moving into their neighborhoods.” The lawsuit centers on two laws, introduced in the town last summer, that...
Washington, D.C.—The RJC released the following statement from Executive Director Matt Brooks: Today, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs took a big step to enhance the security of Americans and Israelis. Sponsored by Representatives Doug Lamborn and Lee Zeldin, the Taylor Force Act takes the steps necessary to cut off American taxpayer money from going to the Palestinian Authority while the PA continues to encourage and incentivize the murder and injury of Israelis and Americans. The passage of the Taylor Force Act by the House Foreign A...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, called himself a "Christian Zionist" at the Zionist Organization of America's annual dinner. He also praised Republican Jewish megadonor Sheldon Adelson for his help in guiding Trump through a sexual assault scandal. Bannon, at what may have been his first speech at a Jewish event since becoming associated with Trump last year, received a standing ovation and loud applause throughout his speech on Sunday in Ne...
NEW YORK (JTA)-On a typical Shabbat in Teaneck, New Jersey, streets are blocked off outside of major synagogues. Uniformed off-duty police officers, paid by the synagogues for the morning, stand near a cruiser parked nearby or direct traffic on the main street. Volunteers, walkie-talkie earpieces disappearing beneath their lapels, stand at strategic points outside the synagogues keeping an eye on foot traffic. A few may have swept through the synagogue before services checking for suspicious...
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA)-When Henry Rosovsky first arrived at Harvard University in 1949, a newly minted graduate of the College of William and Mary, the young Jewish refugee could hardly have imagined that a building associated with the Harvard Jewish community would be named in his honor more than four decades later. Born in 1927 in what is now Gdansk, Poland, Rosovsky had immigrated with his parents to the United States when he was 13. Harvard's quota capping the number of Jewish students was d...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The big post-Election Day headline is the stunning Democratic sweep in Virginia's gubernatorial and House elections, coupled with the predicted Democratic win of the governor's mansion in New Jersey. Republicans are wondering what this says about the train that was Trumpism. In Virginia, Ed Gillespie was an establishment Republican who ran a campaign modeled after President Donald Trump's shocking win a year ago. Gillespie focused on social hot-button issues like preserving...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-On May 2, Israel's Independence Day, Texas state Rep. Phil King stood smiling as Gov. Greg Abbott signed King's bill banning the state from doing business with boycotters of Israel. "Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally," Abbott said of the bill that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature. Less than six months later, King had to explain why his signature pro-Israel policy was not an anti-Texas policy. City...
(JTA)—Gabe Kapler, a major league outfielder for 12 seasons and a coach for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, was named manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. Kapler, who played for seven teams, has been the head of player development for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization since 2014. “I’m equal parts honored, humbled and excited by the opportunity with the Phillies, an elite franchise in a city rich in history, tradition, sports excellence and with amazingly passionate fans,” Kapler said in a statement Monday. Kapler, 42, is Jewish...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Are Jewish millennials the most religious generation? And do one-fifth of them think Jesus was God in human form? Yes and yes, says a new survey of 599 Jews born from 1984 to 1999. The survey creates a contradictory portrait of Jewish millennials: These young adults describe themselves as religious, and practice Jewish ritual, but are unaffiliated. They value tradition and family, but don't plan on marrying only Jews. They are proud to be Jewish, but don't feel that contradicts...
