Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said on Monday that she would not endorse the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden. In fact, it’s not clear that she will be endorsing any candidate at all. “Residents come up to me and say, ‘Rashida, I don’t know. I hear Joe Biden this, Joe Biden that.’ I say, ‘Listen, do we need another four years of Trump? No. Then what I need you to do is go out there and focus on that,’ ” the congresswoman told Newsweek. “If the ultimate goal is to get rid of [U.S. Pr...
(JNS) - Former NFL star running back Larry Johnson has posted a series of anti-Semitic tweets, one of which blamed "the Jewish cabal" for human trafficking, sex trafficking, pedophilia, ritualistic child torture, perversion [and] human sacrifice/murder." One tweet on Sunday responded to ESPN host Max Kellerman who, in response to anti-Semitic social-media posts last month by Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, said in the aftermath of the controversy that "Jews do not have a plan...
(JTA) - Mort Klein didn't know much about Ice Cube when he got on the phone with him on Monday afternoon, but by the end of their two-hour conversation, Klein said he was convinced the rapper was not anti-Semitic. In fact, the president of the right-wing Zionist Organization of America said, the rapper had invited Klein and his wife to dinner - once the pandemic is over. "He called me Mort," Klein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. "He told me to call him Cube." "Strange bedfellows" would be...
Prior to the pandemic, my family of five rarely attended Shabbat services at our Reform synagogue in Connecticut. There was always something else to do — sports practices and school dances, birthday parties and weekends away. Now, however, with our calendars cleared because of the coronavirus, we tried services on Zoom one Friday night when we were stuck at home. I found it a pleasant, meaningful way to mark the end of another confusing chaotic week in my new role as the kindergarten teacher known as Mrs. Mom. Plus, I reasoned, with no c...
(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) praised the support by at least 10 anti-Semitic groups for a letter issued by her and signed by other Democrats, The Washington Free Beacon recently reported, citing “an internal email circulated to House Democrats.” The “supporting organizations” listed on the letter include ones related to the anti-Israel BDS movement, including the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, American Muslims for Palestine, American Friends Service Committee, Churches for Middle East Peace and Defense for Children...
(JNS) — A group of 10 Jewish organizations has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a discrimination case from the 1970s that involved a Jewish employee who couldn’t work on Saturdays, which is the the Jewish Shabbat. The amicus curiae was filed by the National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs. It was joined by Orthodox Jews groups, including Agudath Israel of America, Agudas Harabbonim, the Coalition for Jewish Values, the National Council of Young Israel, the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce, the Rabbinical All...
(JNS) — The U.S. House of Representatives passed a $740.5 billion National Defense Authorization Act for 2021 on Tuesday that includes the continuation of American assistance to Israel for missile-defense programs and other initiatives. The Pentagon blueprint for the upcoming year allocates $500 million towards missile-defense systems in Israel such as the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow 3 in accordance with the 2016 Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, between the United States and Israel worth $38 billion over a decade. The NDAA would con...
(JTA) — Since retiring from his post as national director of the Anti-Defamation League in 2015, Abraham Foxman has had plenty of opportunities to take on other projects in the Jewish world. Until now, he’s almost always said no. But now the 80-year-old is coming out of retirement with an ambitious goal: to raise $28 million to feed Holocaust survivors during the pandemic. Foxman will lead the national initiative for the Met Council, a social service agency and the largest distributor of kosher food to New Yorkers living in poverty. Since ear...
(JNS) - Since taking office in 2019, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) has become one of the most outspoken critics of Israel in the U.S. Congress. She has become part of a growing cadre of young progressives within the Democratic Party whom critics fear will erode the long-heralded bipartisan support for Israel. Last month, this concern further grew when pro-Israel Democratic stalwart Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), who headed the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, lost in a primary to Jamaal...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — When John Lewis, the civil rights icon and congressman from Georgia, died at 80 over the weekend, Jews in America and abroad lost an ally of nearly six decades. Lewis never tired of telling folks to “get into good trouble,” to defy the authorities and the conventional wisdom. It was a creed that guided him as he helped organize the 1963 March on Washington; that led to police severely beating him in Selma, Alabama, in 1965; and that underscored his 33-year career in Congress. He also had a close relationship with the Jewis...
(JNS) - Israel and the Jewish people are always looking for friends, and they seemed to have found one in Holly Huffnagle. A Christian now employed to help tackle anti-Semitism in the United States, she has more than one thing in common with the Jewish and pro-Israel community of late. On July 12, Huffnagle was targeted by the anti-Israel group IfNotNow, which retweeted a post by the American Jewish Committee, where in April she was named its U.S. Director for Combating Antisemitism, claiming...
(JNS) — The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York sent a letter Monday notifying the Village of Airmont in Rockland County, N.Y., that they plan to file suit against the village on the grounds that are violating terms of the Federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. RLUIPA, as the law is commonly referred to, was created in part to ensure that municipalities did not create zoning or landmarking laws that would discriminate against religious institutions or “unreasonably” limit religio...
(JTA) - Bari Weiss, the Jewish opinion writer and editor who has been a lightning rod for left-wing critics, has resigned from The New York Times. The author of a much-discussed recent book on anti-Semitism, Weiss announced her resignation in a blistering letter to New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger posted to her website Tuesday morning. She wrote that the newspaper had become a place where "intellectual curiosity - let alone risk-taking - is now a liability" and said she had been subjecte...
(JNS) - The Fox TV network will retain Nick Cannon as host of "The Masked Singer" following his apology for making anti-Semitic remarks on a podcast that has since been deleted from YouTube for violating the website's terms of services. "First and foremost I extend my deepest and most sincere apologies to my Jewish sisters and brothers for the hurtful and divisive words that came out of my mouth during my interview with Richard Griffin," said Cannon in a statement released by Fox. "They...
(JTA) — In the wake of a string of high-profile controversies involving the likes of rapper Ice Cube and NFL player DeSean Jackson, two more prominent Black commentators have called out anti-Semitism in the Black community this week: NBA Hall of Famer-turned columnist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and sports journalist Jemele Hill. In his latest column for The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday, Abdul-Jabbar argues that there has been a “shocking lack of massive indignation” over recent statements on social media by various sports and entertainment figures th...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Centrists on the platform-writing committee of the Democratic National Committee overrode progressives who wanted the platform to condemn Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The 2020 platform only alludes to the occupation, preserves Israel’s defense aid and rejects the movement to boycott Israel. But it does warn against annexation, the move that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering for portions of the West Bank. The platform has not yet been released publicly, but the Jewish Telegraphic Agency obtai...
(JTA) — Just days after the expiration of a federal program meant to preserve jobs during the pandemic, one of the largest JCCs in the country has laid off or furloughed 35 percent of its employees. The Marlene Meyerson Jewish Community Center of Manhattan laid off 32 people and furloughed 40 last week as it faces decreased revenue as a result of the pandemic. The JCC, which operated on a budget of $34 million before the coronavirus hit, expects to cut that in half moving forward. Among the positions eliminated were most of the marketing d...
A college student from Houston, Texas, started a petition against the popular retailer SHEIN for selling what she believed was a Nazi swastika pendant. The Stop Anti-Semitism watchdog group also pressured SHEIN concerning the necklace. In response SHEIN removed the necklace from its website. This article was originally intended to bring attention to the offensive pendant and its removal from the retailer's website through the effective watchdog pressure and petition that shined a light on the...
(JNS) - Anti-Defamation League national director and CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has come under fire from Jewish groups for appearing on the MSNBC show "Politics Nation With Al Sharpton" on Sunday to promote the ADL's call for corporations to boycott Facebook in July over its unwillingness to ban hate speech on the social-media giant's platform. While the message seems on target with ADL's work, the idea of partnering with someone like Sharpton, who has a history of anti-Semitism and other bigotry,...
NEW YORK — Arthur Stark, chairman; William Daroff, CEO; and Malcolm Hoenlein, vice chair of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, issued the following statement: “We are outraged by recent instances of blatant anti-Semitism in America, many of which manifest in actions by anti-Israel individuals and organizations seeking to co-opt the national reckoning with racial inequity. By taking advantage of the increased media spotlight on social justice they seek to spread their bigoted messages of hatred toward the Jewish...
(JTA) — New England Patriots receiver Julian Edelman invited fellow NFL star DeSean Jackson to have “uncomfortable conversations” about anti-Semitism and hatred against Blacks. Edelman was responding to recent posts by Jackson attributed to Adolf Hitler, which Jackson later removed and apologized for, and the reaction to them, including calls for him to be cut by the Philadelphia Eagles. In an Instagram video, Edelman offered to accompany Jackson to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and then to join Jackson on a tour of the National Museu...
(JTA) - NFL wide receiver DeSean Jackson unleashed an uproar with his tweets over the weekend that featured quotes dubiously attributed to Adolf Hitler - including claims that "white Jews" will work to "blackmail" and "extort" America - and that the Nazi leader "was right." Now his most prominent defender - former NBA player-turned-podcaster and Black Lives Matter activist Stephen Jackson (no relation) - is facing his own wave of high-profile criticism. Stephen Jackson took center stage in the...
(JTA) — Zach Banner of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers wants the Black community to know: Jews “deal with the same amount of hate, similar hardships and hard times.” In a tweet accompanied by a video, Banner said he does not want to “harp” on the controversy surrounding the recent social media posts of fellow NFLer DeSean Jackson in which the Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver featured anti-Semitic statements attributed to Adolf Hitler. But, he said, the community can only “progress by educating ourselves. We can’t move forward while allowing...
What once started as an Instagram page, Project Proactive, co-founded by Shoshana Mehler and Rebecca Shapiro, is a recently formed not-for-profit organization that works toward destigmatizing mental health in the Jewish community through creative methods of education. Whether it’s through weekly live interviews with mental health professionals and advocates, frequently updated blog posts on their website, or educational information on a range of topics, Project Proactive has created a community and a network of Jewish people around the world s...
(JTA) – The front page of the June 26 issue of Der Yid, one of the most widely circulated Yiddish newspapers among New York's Hasidic Orthodox communities, made the point loud and clear. "And so it was after the plague." Those words, lifted from a verse in the Torah and printed alongside photos of large gatherings of unmasked Hasidic men, had a clear implication: After months of funerals and fear, the modern-day pandemic had passed and the time had come to gather again. That sentiment appears t...
