Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1802 - 1826 of 1920
More than five months after the Pew Research Center's "A Portrait of Jewish Americans" survey drew widespread pessimism over rising intermarriage and assimilation, as well as declining connection with synagogues and other institutions, proponents of a newly released study believe they may have the antidote for what ails the Jewish community. On March 10, the Jewish nonprofit Hazon and six funders released "Seeds of Opportunity: A National Study of Immersive Jewish Outdoor, Food, and...
Prize-winning author of 15 books and Emmy Award-winner Simon Schama brings to life Jewish history and experience in a new five-part documentary series, "The Story of the Jews With Simon Schama," premiering Tuesday, March 25, from 8 to 10 p.m. EST (episodes 1 and 2) and April 1, from 8 to 11 p.m. EST (episodes 3, 4 and 5) on PBS. (Check local listings). The five-hour series follows Schama-who has written and presented 50 documentaries on art, literature and history and is a contributing editor...
A documentary on Alice Herz-Sommer, who died Feb. 23 at 110 and was at the time the world’s oldest Holocaust survivor, won an Oscar for Best Short Documentary at the Academy Awards on Sunday evening. Born in Prague in 1903, Herz-Sommer was an accomplished pianist who survived the Terezin-Theresienstadt concentration camp and went on to teach at the Jerusalem Academy of Music for several decades. The winning documentary, titled “The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life,” chronicled her life as a musician....
Israel’s “favorable” rating in the United States has climbed to a 23-year high in the Gallup poll, even as the Obama administration has been pressuring the Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make a peace deal that would result in the creation of a Palestinian state. Almost four times as many Americans view Israel favorably as view the Palestinian Authority favorably, according to Gallup. Currently, 72 percent of Americans surveyed say they have a favorable opinion of Israel, while only 23 percent say they have an unfav...
NEWARK, N.J.—In honor of Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM) and just in time for Passover, Manischewitz® is releasing limited run packaging on each of its five matzo boxes inside 5-lb packages. The matzo boxes feature fun and factual information about notable Jewish American inventors, comedians, historical figures, and more. These fun facts are sure to entertain and enlighten over breakfast or at the seder table. Some of the Jewish American figures featured include Ann Landers, Estee Lauder, Sandy Koufax, Irving Berlin, and the in...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-When Rep. Eric Cantor took the stage last week at the Virginia Military Institute to deliver a wide-ranging foreign policy address, Auschwitz was on the House majority leader's mind-and so, observers suggest, was the state of his party. In his speech, the Virginia Republican cited his recent visit-his first-to the Nazi death camp, connecting past horrors to the present-day danger of retreating into isolationism. "Standing there as the frigid wind swept through the eerily quiet r...
On Wednesday, Feb. 19, The American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando's Jewish Community Relations Council hosted a community briefing at the JCC Maitland campus. The program, "Expanding the Base: Bipartisan Pro-Israel Support Among African-Americans" featured two leading activists from Orlando's African-American community, Alisia Adamson and Lucas Boyce. The goal of the program was to educate the Jewish community about the strength of the American pro-...
NEW YORK-Abraham H. Foxman announced he will step down from his position as national director of the Anti-Defamation League on July 20, 2015, bringing to a close a 50-year career in Jewish communal service. "For almost five decades, ADL offered me the perfect vehicle to live a life of purpose both in standing up on behalf of the Jewish people to ensure that what happened during World War II would never happen again and in fighting bigotry and all forms of oppression," Foxman said. "My years at...
WASHINGTON, D.C.-Hillel International shared with more than 125 American university presidents, including Dr. John Hitt of the University of Central Florida, an unprecedented letter from major Israeli academic leaders, representing every national research university. The letter thanked the American university leaders for speaking out publicly against an anti-Israel boycott passed by the American Studies Association (ASA). The letter from the Association of University Heads, Israel, is a groundbr...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Think Expedia or Hotels.com or countless other vacation discount finders online, but instead to connect kids to Jewish camps. The Foundation for Jewish Camp announced Monday that it is piloting a new program this summer offering first-time campers from middle- and lower-income families camp sessions at prices that are 40-80 percent below the camps' standard rates. Called BunkConnect, the program, in partnership with the Center for Entrepreneurial Jewish Philanthropy, will make...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The highlight of AIPAC’s year is the final day of its annual policy conference, when thousands of activists ascend Capitol Hill to lobby for the passage of the organization’s legislative priorities. But just three weeks before the conference, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee is facing a dilemma: how to craft a legislative agenda after losing a bruising battle with the Obama administration over Iran sanctions and amid uncertainty stemming from regional turmoil and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts. An AIPAC...
Aviva Sufian was just 8 years old when her mother took her to an American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors event in Philadelphia in 1985. She remembers survivor after survivor standing up and announcing, "My name is..., and this is where I'm from." Sufian, whose grandparents had come to this country shortly after World War I, says her parents "placed a primacy on my understanding the world they came from," including understanding the devastation of the Jewish people under the Nazi...
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and MyJewishLearning (MJL) announced their intention to merge the two organizations. The combination will bring together two strong, growing and respected nonprofit media organizations dedicated to providing readers with news, information, content and interaction on Judaism and Jewish topics, without political bias or denominational bent. The planned merger will allow the two organizations to increase revenues and grow readership through the formation of unified and expanded audience d...
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Senate Special Committee on Aging today heard Holocaust survivors, their family members and Jewish community professionals call for social services to help low-income survivors live in comfort and dignity in their homes and communities. The Jewish Federations of North America praised the committee’s Chairman, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Ranking Member, Senator Susan Collins (R-ME), for convening the panel on this pressing issue. JFNA is submitting testimony for the record by William Daroff, Senior Vice President for...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont and the only self-described socialist in Congress, has long been an outspoken voice in Washington on issues of economic inequality. But with the vanishing middle class figuring prominently in the campaign for mayor of the country's largest city, and President Obama last month calling the gap between rich and poor "the defining issue of our time," Sanders' pet political cause has moved to the forefront of the national...
NEW YORK (JTA)-The murder of Menachem Stark has sparked intense media scrutiny of the Brooklyn real estate developer's troubled business record, prompting the New York Post to ask "Who didn't want him dead?" on its front page. But while mainstream media outlets scrutinized the Satmar hasid's relationships with tenants, contractors and lenders, haredi Orthodox publications offered a decidedly different take-looking not for clues to why someone would kill Stark, but celebrating his many virtues....
By Julie Wiener NEW YORK (JTA)-When Stosh Cotler takes over as CEO of Bend the Arc, a Jewish group that fights for immigration reform, workers' rights and other domestic liberal causes, she will be one of the few women leading a national Jewish group of its size. But Cotler's gender is not the only thing that sets her apart. It's not just that she only connected with Judaism as an adult or that her appearance during an interview in her Manhattan office-all-black clothes, dark red lipstick, pale...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Tehiyah Day School in El Cerrito, Calif., had a problem. Like many Jewish day schools throughout North America, Tehiyah has plenty of students from lower-income families and a number from affluent ones. But it couldn't seem to recruit and retain many middle-class students, even as it devoted increasing amounts to financial aid. Middle-class parents "felt they wouldn't be considered for financial aid or were just on the border of whether they could get aid," said Bathea James,...
NEW YORK—“We are pleased that we have reached a major milestone with over 100 universities publicly claiming their opposition to the boycott of Israeli universities and academia adopted by the American Studies Association. We anticipate more signing on as offices reopen and presidents return from their holiday vacations. As significant as this is, we have to be vigilant regarding efforts at other such bodies, like the Modern Language Association that will be convening on Jan. 9 in Chicago and will include a one-sided panel entitled ‘Ac...
(JNS.org) National Basketball Association (NBA) star Tony Parker apologized for using the anti-Semitic "quenelle" arm gesture. The gesture, which has been described as a "reverse Nazi salute," was made famous by French comedian Dieudonné M'bala M'bala. Dieudonné, who ran for the European Parliament under the "anti-Zionist" party list in 2009 and supports the French far-right party National Front, began openly attacking Jews in 2002. French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said his government is c...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The disclosure last week that American intelligence spied on former Israeli prime ministers has given new momentum to the effort to secure a pardon for convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and several leading members of Knesset have called in recent days for Pollard's release following reports that documents leaked by former defense contractor Edward Snowden showed U.S. intelligence had targeted the email addresses of Ehud Barak and Ehud...
(JTA)-In 1992, Edgar Bronfman was preparing to leave North America for Paris for his first meeting with then-French President Francois Mitterand at the Elysee Palace when at the last minute Bronfman decided he wanted to take an unexpected meeting in Geneva instead. So he asked Serge Cwajgenbaum, Bronfman's right-hand man in Europe, to phone the palace and ask to reschedule. The Elysee secretary, Hubert Vendrine, exploded. "He asked me who Edgar Bronfman thinks he is to move around a meeting...
NEW YORK (JTA)-For years, the historic Jewish cemetery was so overgrown with weeds, plagued by toppled headstones, and littered with fallen branches, beer cans and snack-food wrappers that at least a quarter of its graves were impossible to reach. Even now, after a $140,000 cleanup and improved maintenance procedures, the 35,000-grave cemetery relies on the generosity of a non-Jewish volunteer to repair its tombstones, fences and mausoleums. The cemetery isn't in Eastern Europe. It's the...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-For Jewish and pro-Israel groups, the congressional year is ending with an odd reversal: the prospect, however fragile, of bipartisan comity on budget issues coupled with a rare partisan disagreement on Middle Eastern policy. The groups that deal with social welfare and justice issues are heartened, albeit warily, by the end-of-year budget forged by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Budget Committee, and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), his...
(JNS.org) Boston University international relations professor Angelo Codevilla, who was a senior staffer on the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee at the time of the arrest of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard in 1985, wrote a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama calling for Pollard’s release and offering to give expert testimony on Pollard’s behalf. In his letter, Codevilla noted that Pollard is the only person in U.S. history “sentenced to life imprisonment for passing information to an ally, without intent to harm America,” a crime that normall...
