Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 755 - 779 of 1920
(JTA) — A school board member in Lowell, Massachusetts, called a former school district leader a “kike” on live television, spurring calls for his resignation. Bob Hoey should step down from the Lowell School Committee, the mayor of the Boston suburb said. “We lost the kike, oh, I mean, the Jewish guy,” Hoey said Wednesday morning on “City Life,” a news opinion show, according to video posted by the local Jewish Journal. “I hate to say it, but that’s what people used to say behind his back.” Hoey, an elected official in the city of 111,000, wa...
(JNS) - On any given day, people coming into the Kosher Palate in Dallas do so know they are going to be spending money on groceries or prepared foods. This past week, however, hundreds of people were treated to free hot meals made by the staff of the supermarket/catering company amid a week of brutally cold winter weather. "My husband being the kind of guy he is, he likes to feed people, and he said there are people who are at home and no way to get hot food, so we have to feed them," said...
(JTA) — President Joe Biden, saying domestic terrorism was the “greatest threat” in America and white supremacists are the “most dangerous people,” pledged to focus his Justice Department on the rise of white supremacy. Biden, in Milwaukee on Tuesday at his first town hall as president, fielded a question from Joel Berkowitz, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, about what Berkowitz termed the “ongoing threat” from white supremacists in the wake of the Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol. A number of far-right groups and figures w...
(Jerusalem Israel) — Gilda Radner is doing flips in her grave. If she were alive, the former star of Saturday Night Live (SNL) who died in 1989, would be crying, but not from laughter. Radner is one of many young comedians who got their start on SNL. She created and became famous for characters including Emily Litella, Roseanne Roseannadanna, Lisa Loopner, and Baba Wawa. Radner was also among a number of Jewish comics whose careers took off on and following SNL. Others include Billy Crystal, Jon Lovitz, Ben Stiller, and comedian-turned-Senator,...
(JTA) — The Democratic Majority for Israel political action committee has made an endorsement in a special congressional election in Ohio, a sign of how Israel tensions within the Democratic Party have not abated since the party’s sweeping wins in November. The PAC affiliated with the pro-Israel group announced Tuesday that it is endorsing Shontel Brown, a Cuyahoga County councilwoman who has the backing of the party’s establishment and who has cultivated the mainstream pro-Israel community. The field ahead of the May primary for the speci...
When Israeli-American violinist Itzhak Perlman debuted at Carnegie Hall in 1963, he performed while seated - a consequence of the polio that left him unable to walk without leg braces or crutches since age 4. "I got a standing ovation, but The New York Times reviewer wasn't sure if that was because of the way I played or because of the fact I was sitting down while playing," recalled Perlman, now 75. "That thing followed me for two or three years. Then people got used to me and they stopped...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Nikki Haley has finally and decisively broken with Donald Trump in a move that puts her at the front of the potential Republican presidential pack for moderate conservatives, including pro-Israel Jews who mainly stuck with the party over the past four years because of Trump's foreign policy. After serving as his U.N. ambassador and not taking a stand for months on what his lies about election fraud would mean for his legacy, Haley made the final cut on Friday in a Politico...
(JTA) - The Arizona Jewish Post, a 75-year-old community publication covering the Jewish population of Tucson and southern Arizona, announced it would cease operations effective March 1. The Jewish Community Federation of Southern Arizona, which owns and operates the Post, announced the closure in an email to subscribers this week. The letter cited declines in ad revenue and readership, loss of philanthropic support and the COVID-19 pandemic as factors that contributed to the Post's...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) - New York mayoral candidate Andrew Yang waded into the debate over the push for secular education at yeshivas, affirming "parental choice" and saying there is a "complete lack of trust" between the haredi Orthodox community and city government. Organizations that oppose government scrutiny of secular education at the Jewish private schools were quick to praise Yang for his comments. "We commend any candidate who affirms the importance of parental choice and who...
United States — Today, the Jewish Future Pledge and The Jewish Federations of North America announced their first cohort of local Jewish Federations for a two-year pilot program to proliferate a culture of legacy giving in communities across North America. The partners originally planned to onboard 10 Federations in the first cohort, but after receiving overwhelming interest in participation, expanded the program to accommodate 11 cities. Cohort Federation communities include Portland, Tidewater (VA), Dallas, Atlanta, Minneapolis, Greater M...
(JTA) — The U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously rejected an appeal by Holocaust survivors and their heirs who wanted to pursue restitution claims in the United States after failing in the countries where the art was stolen. The opinion published Wednesday, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, agreed with the defense and with the U.S. government, which joined the defense, that allowing the lawsuits to go ahead would contradict international agreements. “As a Nation, we would be surprised — and might even initiate reciprocal action — if a court...
(JTA) - What Donald Trump's lawyer likely wanted: for America to spend this evening talking about how the former president was not responsible for the deadly Jan. 6 raid on the U.S. Capitol. What he got instead: a firestorm of speculation about why he held his hand over his head every time he took a sip of water. David Schoen, one of Trump's impeachment lawyers, already asked (and then withdrew his request) for Trump's trial to pause for the Jewish day of rest. Was the fact that he covered his...
In a landslide vote Thursday the Senate approved a budget resolution amendment making the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem permanent, so that it could not be moved out of Israel's capital in the future. "Pleased the Senate overwhelmingly passed the amendment Senator Hagerty and I introduced to make sure the U.S. Embassy to Israel remains located in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel," tweeted the bill's co-sponsor, Republican Senator Jim Infofe of Oklahoma. "I am proud to introduce legislation to...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Statements and appearances by U.S. officials suggest the Biden administration's emerging Mideast strategy: reassuring Israel while resuming ties with the Palestinians ruptured by President Joe Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump. On Tuesday, the acting ambassador to the United Nations outlined plans to reverse Trump administration policies concerning the Palestinians. "The Biden administration will restore credible U.S. engagement with Palestinians as well as Israelis," Richard...
(JTA) — President-elect Joe Biden filled the months before Inauguration Day lining up a slate of Cabinet secretaries, assistants and advisors, many of them Jewish. Biden’s choices reflect a diverse cross-section of American Jewry and possess expertise gleaned from decades of experience in government, science and medicine and law. Here’s a rundown of the Jewish names you should know as the Biden administration begins. Antony Blinken, secretary of state Blinken, a longtime Biden advisor with an extensive diplomacy resume, is the stepson of a Holo...
(JNS) - The U.S. Senate confirmed Tony Blinken on Tuesday as the 71st U.S. secretary of state. The final tally was 78-22. Blinken, who is Jewish, will succeed Mike Pompeo as America's top diplomat. Blinken previously served as U.S. deputy secretary of state under U.S. President Barack Obama and was a top adviser to Joe Biden during the latter's 2020 presidential campaign. During his nomination hearing last week in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Blinken said that the United...
(JNS) — As the Biden administration prepares to take on major international issues of the day, a debate has emerged within the American Jewish community over whether the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism should be adopted into law. A group of left-wing Jewish and Israeli groups issued a joint statement last week in opposition to adopting the definition, claiming that doing so would silence criticism of Israel. The collection of groups — known as the Progressive Israel Network — include Ameinu, America...
Since the publication more than half a century ago of a landmark article that referenced the "vanishing American Jew," it's been hard to shake that idea as the dominant narrative of American Jewish life. Yet the U.S. Jewish community is the largest in the world, with an estimated 7 million Jews - slightly more than Israel's 6.8 million. And despite a low birthrate, American Jews actually are growing in number, primarily due to three factors: immigration, intermarriage and education. Over the pas...
(JTA) — In the final hours of his presidency, Donald Trump awarded clemency to more than a dozen Jews who had been convicted of crimes — but not Sheldon Silver, the disgraced former New York State Assembly speaker. Silver was not on the list of 143 people granted clemency, a traditional act for outgoing presidents. That means the former Democratic power broker will continue serving a prison term on corruption charges. The New York Times reported that Trump abandoned a plan to give clemency to Silver at the urging of New York Republicans and...
(JNS) — Several nominees for U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s national security team acknowledged on Tuesday that the United States isn’t ready to rejoin the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. On Tuesday morning, Avril Haines, nominee for the director of national intelligence, remarked that Biden said that the United States would re-enter the JCPOA “if Iran comes back into compliance,” but things are “a long ways from that.” She also told the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence...
(JTA) — Among the flurry of actions Joe Biden took on his very first day as president are several with special resonance for Jewish voters. Biden reportedly plans to issue several executive orders and multiple legislation proposals shortly after he is inaugurated on Wednesday. Many will reverse the policies of the Trump administration. Biden will reportedly seek to rejoin the Paris climate accord, enact new measures aimed at combating the coronavirus pandemic (including a mask mandate in federal government buildings) and extend pandemic limits...
(JNS) - Following a district-wide recount, Republican Iowa State Sen. Mariannette Miller-Meeks won one of the closest races for a federal office in American history, defeating fellow state Sen. Rita Hart, a Democrat, by just six votes in the state's 2nd Congressional District in the Nov. 3 election for the U.S. House of Representatives to succeed retiring Democratic Rep. Dave Loebsack. Miller-Meeks, 65, an ophthalmologist who won on her fourth try running for Congress, served as a nurse and...
(JTA) — 70 Faces Media, the publisher of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, has acquired the New York Jewish Week brand. In a deal completed late last month, the 45-year-old Jewish Week will join the growing stable of brands at 70 Faces Media, which also publishes Alma, Kveller, My Jewish Learning and JTA Hebrew. The Jewish Week will retain a focus on Jewish New York, while drawing on 70 Faces Media’s experience and resources as North America’s largest and most diverse Jewish media organ...
By Sean Savage (JNS) - Amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the fallout from the 2020 election, anti-Semitism continued to morph and grow during 2020. While the school year for many students consisted of online or hybrid learning, anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attacks on Jewish and pro-Israel students increased precisely because of more Internet usage, albeit in new forms. The switch to remote learning brought new challenges for individuals, social groups and organizations of all kinds as...
(JTA) — When someone threw rocks a couple months ago at the doors of a Chabad center in Atlanta, the glass didn’t shatter. That’s because earlier in the year, local Chabad leaders decided to reevaluate their security following an incident with a trespasser. Neil Rabinovitz, a former 22-year veteran of the FBI who now works as community security director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, visited the site and performed a security assessment. He determined that the building needed to add more security cameras, change its system for loc...
