Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 823 - 847 of 1886
WASHINGTON (JTA) - There were rabbis, there were arguments, there was fretting over the future, there was mishpacha, but snacks you had to bring yourself. The first virtual convention, held by Democrats online because of the coronavirus pandemic, had many of the same Jewish moments as real-life conventions of the past. They included both rabbinic invocations from the main stage and side rooms with hobnobbing among Jews from across the country, even if those rooms lacked kosher nosh this time aro...
(JTA) — In early June, as anti-racism protests swept the country in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd, Beth Hillel Temple in Kenosha, Wisconsin, signed onto an interfaith letter supporting peaceful protest and condemning “a broken societal system which disproportionately affects communities of color.” This week, Kenosha became an epicenter of renewed protest after a police officer shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times in the back. And on Wednesday night, the 93-year-old synagogue’s driveway was graffitied with the words ...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Gabby Giffords, the Jewish former congresswoman who became a leader in the gun control movement after being shot by an assailant in the head in 2011, opened the third night of the Democratic convention with an appeal to elect Joe Biden president. "We can let the shooting continue or we can act," Giffords said in a recorded video that opened the proceedings Wednesday at the convention, held virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. "We can protect our families, our...
(JNS) - The Democratic National Convention hosted an imam from an Islamic extremist institution on Sunday. Noman Hussain, imam of ISM Brookfield in Wisconsin, was one of the religious leaders who took part in the convention's "Interfaith Welcome Service." Hussain is a scholar at the Texas-based Qalam Institute, whose officials have advocated "the use of female sex slaves, the killing of adulterers, and incite hatred against Jews and other non-Muslims," according to the Middle East Forum. One of...
SAN FRANCISCO (J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — When the evacuation orders came last night, Guerneville resident Sonia Tubridy and her daughter packed the car and left, joining a caravan of vehicles fleeing the North Bay area and the fires that threatened to engulf them. Tubridy, cultural director of the Russian River Jewish Community, was among the thousands of people ordered to evacuate from fires burning 46,000 acres across a vast area covering five counties and stretching from Vacaville north to Lake Berryessa and out t...
(JNS) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Monday to require an ethnic-studies course requirement for matriculation from California State University, starting with the 2021-22 school year. Spearheaded by the AMCHA Initiative, 90 education, civil-rights and religious groups had called on Newsom to veto the bill, AB-1460. The organizations noted an important distinction between the broad field of ethnic studies — with its goal of understanding and celebrating the contributions of the state and country’s diversity — and the...
(JNS) - Due to global coronavirus pandemic, this year's CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) student conference was held via Zoom, teaching students how to effectively combat anti-Israel and biased propaganda on college campuses and online. Unable to attend the typical five-day, in-person training session in Boston, more than 100 students from 66 universities in North America, the United Kingdom and Israel joined together virtually earlier this month,...
(JNS) - After denouncing racist, anti-Semitic fliers left around his community earlier this month and then being threatened by a neo-Nazi leader, Rabbi Shlomo Litvin of Lexington, Ky., aims to educate others on what Judaism and anti-Semitism are all about. The trouble began more than a week ago when people in suburban Lexington neighborhoods received fliers urging "Aryan men and women stand up" and said, in part, "Blood and Soil ... Jews will not replace us, Blacks will not replace us, Mexicans...
(JTA) - It's official: Kamala Harris is Joe Biden's choice for vice president. The California senator, who made history Tuesday as the first Black woman to join a major party presidential ticket, is still in her first term. But during several years in public office, the 55-year-old lawmaker's outspoken opinions on a range of issues and her presidential run have given Jewish voters plenty to scrutinize. She is also married to Jewish lawyer Douglas Emhoff, who would become the country's first...
(LOS ANGELES) - StandWithUs announces the launch of its new division, Rabbis United. Rabbis United will enable StandWithUs to connect more closely with rabbis and other Jewish community leaders and their congregations from a variety of denominations and backgrounds in cities around the world. The newest division of StandWithUs will ensure that rabbis and Jewish community leaders have access to community-building tools, including: • A multimedia library of educational materials, programs, s...
By(JTA) — The Reform movement has received a $600,000 multi-year grant to support racial equity, inclusion and diversity work. The Union for Reform Judaism said Wednesday that it had received funding from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to fight racism and back inclusion across its institutions. Reform is the largest Jewish denomination in the United States. The movement will work to recruit a more diverse staff and board with a focus on racial justice, a statement said, while also addressing discrimination against LGBTQ, disabled and l...
(JNS) - Jewish and Israel-related groups expressed mixed reactions to the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, picking Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate. Organizations from the Democratic Majority for Israel to J Street praised the selection of Harris, who would be the first African-American and South Asian to be picked as a running mate for a major-party candidate. She would also be the third woman tapped for the vice-presidenti...
(JTA) - Before the coronavirus pandemic hit New York City, Rabbi Avi Greenstein knew he needed to make a big push to have people in his neighborhood fill out the census. In Borough Park, where Greenstein serves as executive director of the Boro Park Jewish Community Council, only 49.2 percent of residents filled out the census in 2010, the last year it was conducted, compared to 61.9 percent across New York City. Thus the neighborhood, where many Orthodox Jews live, lost out on federal funding...
(JTA) — No matter what happens in Ilhan Omar’s primary today, one thing is clear: Some Jewish voters in Minnesota and across the country will be deeply disappointed. Omar has the support of some local and progressive Jews who are excited about supporting a member of “The Squad,” a quartet of prominent progressive freshmen congresswomen that also includes Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib. But Omar — who represents Minnesota’s 5th District, which includes Minneapolis — has repeatedly angered a large segment of th...
(LOS ANGELES, CA) - StandWithUs is disappointed to learn that a Jewish student at University of Southern California has stepped down from student government as a result of anti-Semitic harassment from her peers. USC student government Vice President Rose Ritch announced her resignation in a statement, writing that she has been "harassed for weeks ... because I openly identify as a Zionist, a supporter of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state." She stated that "an attack on my Zionist...
By Marcy Oster (JTA) — The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia said it will not work with the local chapter of the NAACP over “an alarming amount of bigoted and anti-Jewish sentiments” on his social media channels and the mosque he leads. Rodney Muhammad “still has yet to fully apologize for his most recent actions,” the federation said in a statement updated earlier this week. The statement also said that while the federation would continue to work with the national office of the NAACP and other local chapters, “our obligation to oppose...
Ronald Scheiman, who tracks the annual Chanukah stamp, stated that there would be a 2020 stamp, the date of issue has not been announced. “However, it should be sometime in October,” he said. The stamp was designed by art director Ethel Kessler with original art by Jing Jing Tsong. The USPS describes the stamp as follows: “The stamp art’s colorful illustration show the nine-branched Hanukkah menorah on the last evening of the holiday. All eight of the candles have been lit, and the child i...
(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...
