Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 168 - 192 of 1923
(JNS) — The pro-Israel writer who uses the pseudonym “Elder of Ziyon,” had the sense that Jewish community centers were downplaying Israel programming compared to what they had done in the past. So, he started looking at JCC websites at random to see if his impression was correct, the writer told JNS. “I saw lots of progressive-friendly events and very few Israel-centered events,” he said. “Then I decided to look at the mission statements.” “Most of them never had any mention of Israel, although the programming from 20 years ago was definit...
(JNS) — More than 450 Jewish executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing the speech film director Jonathan Glazer gave at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 10 when accepting his Oscar for Best International Feature Film, “The Zone of Interest.” “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” the letter states, according to Variety....
(JNS) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday received an award from the Israel Heritage Foundation in appreciation of his efforts to forge normalization agreements between the Jewish state and four Arab nations under the guise of the Abraham Accords. The award, a menorah, was presented to the former president at Mar-a-Lago by IHF Executive Director Rabbi David Katz, Executive Vice President Joseph Frager, Executive President Stephen Soloway, Executive Chairman Sam Nahmias, Lewis Topper and Harley Lippman. “This menorah, which represents...
(JTA) – More than a third of Americans would be reluctant to vote for a pro-Israel politician. One fifth are uncomfortable buying products from Israel. More than 40 percent at least somewhat agreed that Israel intends to cause as much Palestinian suffering as possible. But nearly all U.S. adults believe Jews have the right to an independent country. Those are some of the results of a survey published Thursday by the Anti-Defamation League, measuring antisemitism and anti-Israel views across the United States. The survey found that a...
(JTA) — A campaign to protest President Joe Biden’s support of Israel by voting “Uncommitted” in the Michigan Democratic presidential primary declared victory on Tuesday night, as returns showed the movement garnering more than 10 percent of the vote. Biden still won the primary overwhelmingly. But the Uncommitted movement, also called Listen to Michigan, had set a goal of drawing 10,000 votes — the margin by which Donald Trump won the state in the 2016 presidential election. By early Wednesday, with most votes counted, more than 100,000 p...
(FLAME via JNS) — If members of the Ku Klux Klan vote overwhelmingly Republican, should Republican politicians adopt policies that curry favor with white supremacists? Certainly not. It would not only be wrong, it would also offend the vast majority of American voters, who are not white supremacists. Similarly, if voters who support terrorists vote overwhelmingly Democrat, should Democrats craft policies to attract them? Definitely not. It would be immoral and unethical—and would alienate the overwhelming majority of Americans, who oppose ter...
(JTA) - Jewish billionaire businessman and philanthropist David Rubenstein has reportedly agreed to purchase the MLB's Baltimore Orioles. Rubenstein, a Baltimore native who is best known as the co-founder of the private equity firm The Carlyle Group, is leading a new ownership cohort that includes Jewish former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Orioles Hall of Fame player Cal Ripken Jr. Rubenstein's group will initially purchase a 40% stake in the franchise, taking over from the Angelos...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — In the wake of the global rise of antisemitism, a new campaign against Jew-hatred launched Tuesday with the participation of influential Jewish and non-Jewish celebrities, athletes and opinion makers. The project, named “New Year, New Voices,” which has already launched several videos on social media, includes model Cindy Crawford, actresses Connie Britton, Ginnifer Goodwin, Debra Messing, Jennifer Morrison, Jaimie Alexander, Rebecca Gayheart and Emmanuelle Chriqui, singers Lance Bass and Montana Tucker, actors David...
(JTA) — Two concerts by Matisyahu, the American Jewish singer famous for his peace anthem “One Day,” have been canceled after pro-Palestinian protesters targeted venues where he was set to perform. Meow Wolf in Santa Fe, New Mexico, canceled one concert on Wednesday. The Rialto Theatre in Tucson, Arizona, canceled a second on Thursday, after first saying it would not do so. Both venues cited staffing shortages and safety concerns. Both had been targeted by protesters who said Matisyahu’s record of performing for Israeli soldiers and pro-Isr...
(JNS) — Death may be the ultimate fate of us all, but it comes in many forms. In Chicago in recent years, all too often it has come from a bullet amid gangland turf wars and skyrocketing violent crime. In southern Israel on Oct. 7, it came for 1,200 men, women and children on a single day after hours of raping, torture and bodily mutilation at the hands of Hamas and Palestinian terrorists; for the 240 captives dragged back to the Gaza Strip by the invaders, the horror has continued. Brandon Johnson, not even a year into his first term as mayor...
(JNS) - During a fundraising trip to New York City on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden encountered protesters brandishing "Genocide Joe" placards who disrupted traffic and at one point stalled his motorcade. Biden attended a meeting of nearly 20 business leaders at the home of Larry Linden, who previously worked as a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he warned that former President Donald Trump would "undo everything we've done" and "we can't let that happen." The president reportedly also...
(JNS) — Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), a member of the so-called progressive “Squad” in Congress and originally from Mogadishu, is facing calls for her resignation after, critics say, she promised to do all she could to prevent a Somaliland deal with Ethiopia over access to the sea. “The language she employed was regrettably unbecoming of both the office she holds and the constituents she represents,” wrote Rhoda Elmi, deputy foreign affairs minister of Somaliland, which declared its independence from Somalia in 1991 but which most countries...
With only three representatives voting against it, the Florida House of Representatives passed House Bill 187 that defines what antisemitic speech is, and now it moves on to the Senate. Sponsor of the bill, Rep. Mike Gottlieb (D-Plantation), told the Orlando Sentinel the goal is to curb hate speech toward Jews and Israel. The bill includes the definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2016 into Florida educational statutes. “We live in a time where people think they can say things and that has no...
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives voted 422-2 on Wednesday to deny entry into the United States to non-U.S. citizen members of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad who attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) introduced H.R. 6679, the “No Immigration Benefits for Hamas Terrorists Act,” which drew dissenting votes from Reps. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), two leftist members of the so-called “squad.” Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.) voted “present.” “Any alien who carried out, participated in, planned, financ...
(JTA) — As reports of antisemitism have surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish groups have sought to spotlight the issue through rallies, news coverage, billboards and social media campaigns. Next month, it will receive airtime during the year’s most-watched television broadcast: Super Bowl LVIII. On Wednesday, Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism announced that it purchased a 30-second spot due to air during the big game on Feb. 11. It appears to be the first time ever that a Super Bowl ad will focus on antis...
(JTA) - Ron DeSantis' decision to end his presidential campaign leaves Nikki Haley as the only serious Republican challenger to Donald Trump, potentially consolidating her support among Jewish voters and donors in the party who seek an alternative to the former president. Trump responded to DeSantis' exit by ramping up his attacks on Haley, the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations who has close ties to the pro-Israel establishment and has been a favorite among Jewish and pro-Israel donors who want to avoid a...
(JNS) - Speakers at a "March for Gaza" in Washington on Jan. 13 promised that Israel would cease to exist and, to the cheers of thousands of attendees, accused U.S. President Joe Biden of supporting genocide against Palestinians. Osama Abuirshaid, executive director of American Muslims for Palestine and the final speaker of the nearly four-hour event, promised that Palestine would be "victorious" and accused Biden of fueling Jew-hatred by supporting Israel. "We're not the antisemitics [sic]...
(JNS) — A hostile environment toward Jews and Israelis has been growing for years at American University, in Washington, D.C., “but has intensified following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israelis,” according to a 26-page complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. Students “have been threatened, marginalized, shunned and made to feel unwelcome in their dormitories, classrooms and social spaces throughout the campus, which has become a hostile environment,” per the complaint, which The Louis D. Brandeis Ce...
(New York Jewish Week) – On Tuesday, a group of Jewish men gathered to pray under a leaky white tent in the drizzling rain outside the Chabad-Lubavitch movement's world headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, draping their wet jackets over portable bookshelves and talking about what had happened there the previous afternoon. As for the building itself, it was closed off. Outside the entrance to the complex's main synagogue, a line formed in the rain, with Chabadniks waiting patiently to r...
(JTA) — With the arrival of the Iowa Caucus on Monday, the 2024 presidential primary season is officially underway — and so is the race to win the votes of Jewish and pro-Israel voters. Four Republicans are vying to be the candidate to face off against President Joe Biden. Former President Donald Trump maintains a considerable lead in the polls, while challengers Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis remain firmly in the race. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is still in the mix but is polling below 1 percent. The Iowa Caucus has kicked off the Rep...
(JTA) — After Oct. 7, Michael Kahana joined hundreds of his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in signing an open letter condemning Hamas and expressing support for Israel and its right to self defense. But the psychology professor wanted to do more. So Kahana sent an email to the 340 signatories on the letter, which came amid scathing criticism of Penn’s response to Hamas’ attack on Israel, and invited them on a trip. This week, the 39 Penn professors who took Kahana up on the invitation spent three days traveling in Israel, in th...
Recently, the Heritage brought to its readers’ attention the suspension of Dr. Darren Klugman, a pediatric cardiologist and associate professor at Johns Hopkins University, for sharing his emotional anti-Hamas, pro-Israel comments on social media (see Dec. 29, 2023 issue, “The double standard of free speech may cost one doctor his career”). Since then, the Zionist Organization of America has called on Johns Hopkins University to terminate its investigation into Dr. Klugman and reverse the unjust and unwarranted decision to suspend him. “Dr....
(JTA) — On March 29, 2011, the body of a decapitated woman was discovered in a vineyard in Arvin, a town just over the Los Angeles county line. Earlier this month, nearly 13 years later, the victim was identified as Ada Beth Kaplan, a Jewish woman who was 64 at the time of her death. The tortuous journey to cracking the mystery of Kaplan’s name involved a “long and hard” multiyear effort by a DNA-focused nonprofit, eight generations of family records and the work of two Jewish genealogists who understood just how thorny it can be, sometim...
(New York Jewish Week) — Commuters faced major delays Monday morning as several pro-Palestinian protests shut down traffic on the Brooklyn, Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges on the East River as well as the Holland Tunnel under the Hudson River linking New Jersey to Manhattan. Organizers said that the goal of the coordinated protests was to escalate disruption and send a message to the city about Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. “Particularly with blocking main arteries of transit, the idea is to confront New Yorkers — just for a brief h...
(JTA) – A federal judge in Iowa has blocked much of a state law forbidding school libraries from stocking books depicting “sex acts,” in part because he said it was keeping a classic Holocaust memoir off shelves. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher granted a preliminary injunction against the law, Iowa Senate File 496, on Friday, just before a Jan. 1 deadline for schools to begin enforcing it. The “staggeringly broad” law, he wrote in his opinion, would prevent public schools from stocking “non-fiction history books about the Holocaust....
