Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 796 - 820 of 1886
(JNS) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would make ethnic-studies courses a high school graduation requirement. Newsom, a Democrat, cited the ongoing pushback over the curriculum for why he vetoed the measure, AB-331. "I value the role ethnic studies plays in helping students think critically about our history and understand the experience of marginalized communities in our state," he wrote in his veto message. "This academic discipline will help prepare our young adults to...
(JTA) – One New York City private Jewish high school shut down Monday after two students in 11th grade and two students in 12th grade tested positive. Several students in the younger grades exhibited symptoms. In a boys’ yeshiva high school in New Jersey’s Bergen County, a suspected COVID case in an 11th grader sent the entire grade home for quarantine. In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people. “We spent a lot of time, energy...
(NY Jewish Week via JTA) — Students at Columbia University have passed a first-ever referendum to boycott and divest from companies that “profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians.” The news was released to the Columbia student body via email Tuesday morning, the day after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. According to the vote results shared with The Jewish Week, 61 percent of undergraduates who weighed in (1,081 votes) voted in favor of the referendum, 27 percent (485 votes) voted against it, and 11 percent...
(JTA) — The University of Illinois student government included a call for divestment from companies that do business with Israel as part of a resolution in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The university’s Office of Student Affairs condemned the nonbinding resolution, which passed last week in a 22-11 vote with seven abstentions. “It is unfortunate that a resolution before the group tonight was designed to force students who oppose efforts to divest from Israel to also vote against support for the Black Lives Matter movement,” the Of...
(JNS) — More than 160 U.S. House Democrats voted on Sept. 16 against an amendment to combat anti-Semitism. The Republican-offered measure was added to a Democrat-backed bill, the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, which would allow for the filing of private civil suits for breaches of federal rules that “prohibit discrimination on the ground of race, color or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.” The amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and would require that anti-...
(JNS) - Jewish groups expressed mixed reactions to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Sept. 26 that he has nominated U.S. Seventh Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 from "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," according to a statement from the...
(JTA) — Parents of students attending Jewish schools in New York City are being encouraged not to have their children tested for COVID-19 to prevent the schools from being shut down. On Thursday, this message made the rounds on WhatsApp, a popular messaging platform in Orthodox communities: a “DO NOT test your child for covid,” the message began. “The city has released new guidelines that mandate CLOSURE of an ENTIRE SCHOOL if there are two positive tests in the school.” It went on to encourage parents to obscure suspected COVID-19 infection...
(JTA) — An exchange Wednesday on a Fox News show struck many as remarkable: Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, blamed “George Soros’ money” for violence in American cities before being shut down by two other panelists on “Outnumbered.” The next day saw an apology — from the show for not letting Gingrich finish. Depicting Soros — the Jewish American Holocaust survivor, financier and liberal megadonor — as President Donald Trump’s chief opponent and the source of America’s ills has become increasingly common among Republicans. He...
(JNS) - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 at her home in Washington, D.C. Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died from "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," according to a statement from the Supreme Court shortly after her death. Her passing came on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year 5781, and just six...
(JTA) - Abraham Foxman, the former longtime leader of the Anti-Defamation League, has broken his tradition of not endorsing political candidates to back Joe Biden, arguing that President Donald Trump is a "demagogue" whose reelection would be a "body blow for our country and our community." Foxman laid out his thinking in an opinion piece for The Times of Israel in which he asserted that Trump's presidency has "given succor to bigots, supremacists, and those seeking to divide our society" and...
Washington, D.C. — More than 200 local, state and national organizations are calling on Congress to examine issues arising from the current spate of federal executions, and ultimately to abolish the federal death penalty. A growing number of Jewish organizations and clergy have joined the effort. “These executions are set to take place during a time when Jews are focused on repentance, forgiveness, mercy and charity,” said Cantor Mike Zoosman, a member of the Board of Advisors of Death Penalty Action. “I am one of those who used to support...
(JTA) — A survey of Jewish voters shows 67 percent plan to vote for Joe Biden in November and 30 percent plan to vote for Donald Trump. The numbers in the survey released Monday by the Jewish Electorate Institute broke the same way when voters were asked about President Trump’s performance: 67 percent said they disapprove and 30 percent said they approve. The survey suggested gains for Trump among Jewish voters since 2016, when Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the vote to Trump’s 24 percent. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2012, won 3...
(JTA) - From Hank Greenberg to Sandy Koufax to Alex Bregman, Jews and baseball go way back, to the 19th century. It's not just players and fans - the participation even extends to the role of official baseball historian of Major League Baseball. The first man to hold the title, the legendary Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, was Jewish, and an inductee to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Holtzman died in 2008, and in early 2011, the official baseball historian role went to John...
(JTA) — At a virtual fundraiser organized by J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump is bad for Israel because he runs a feckless foreign policy. “Trump’s put Israel in danger by tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and replaced it with nothing,” Biden said Thursday. “He’s allowed Israel’s foes to take residence in Syria, a dangerous power vacuum has formed. He’s undermined the stability of self-determination for the Palestinians, undercutting hope for a viable two-state solution any ch...
(JTA) — More than one in 10 American adults under 40 believes that Jews caused the Holocaust. That’s one finding from a survey published Wednesday trying to gauge Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z, a cohort ranging in age from 18 to 39. The survey found that most respondents had heard of the Holocaust and 37 percent knew that 6 million Jews died. Slightly more than half could name at least one concentration camp or ghetto. But 11 percent of the respondents believed the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, 15 per...
(JTA) - About one-third of American Jews live in just 20 of the country's congressional districts. Nearly half of those districts are in New York, and all but one of them is represented by a Democrat. Meanwhile, the district with the most Jews in the country is also the site of Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's Florida estate. Those are among the findings from a recent study analyzing Jewish voting patterns. Key findings from the study, which was conducted by the Jewish Electorate Institute...
(JNS) - Jessica Krug, a Jewish professor at George Washington University who falsely identified as a black person, has resigned, announced the Washington, D.C.-based university on Wednesday. The university tweeted that "Dr. Krug has resigned her position, effective immediately. Her classes for this semester will be taught by other faculty members, and students in those courses will receive additional information this week." Update regarding Jessica Krug: Dr. Krug has resigned her position, effec...
(JTA) - For many Jews, a high point of services on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur is the Unetaneh Tokef prayer, which wonders who will live and who will die in the year ahead. This year, that question will take on added resonance, as the High Holidays fall six months into a global pandemic that has reshaped lives, battered institutions and killed hundreds of thousands of people, including many in Jewish communities. At the same time, the prayer will be experienced in dramatically new ways: on the...
(JNS) — A bill to require high school students in California to take ethnic studies as a graduation requirement passed the state’s legislature on Monday. Ahead of the Aug. 31 deadline, AB-331 passed the State Senate 33-4 and the State Assembly 62-12. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law and must decide by Sept. 30 whether to do so. The measure would require a one-semester ethnic-studies course as a California high school graduation requirement, starting with the 2029-30 school year, based on the ethnic-studies mod...
(Washington Jewish Week via JTA) — Federal and international law enforcement agencies are investigating the theft of $7.5 million from the United Jewish Endowment Fund, an arm of The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, and diverted to international accounts. The theft was discovered on Aug. 4, but made known to the federation’s board on Wednesday after federal law enforcement lifted a blackout on the information, federation CEO Gil Preuss said. Preuss said the funds were taken from a single organization’s fund managed by the United Jewis...
(JNS) — Several left-wing Jewish groups have filed a petition to initiate the removal of the Zionist Organization of America from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston in the latest battle being waged between ZOA and liberal members of American Jewish community. The petition — filed by 21 JCRC Council members, including 11 representatives from the Workmen’s Circle, J Street, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, Jewish Labor Committee, Keshet, New Israel Fund and Women of Reform Judaism — claims that rhetoric used by ZOA...
(JTA) - Like many synagogues, Temple B'nai Hayim used to rely on the High Holiday season to survive financially. The small Conservative synagogue in Southern California would receive the lion's share of its revenue in the run-up to the holidays: Members sent in their annual dues, which included entry to High Holiday services, and non-members purchased tickets just for the High Holidays. But with the option of holding regular in-person High Holiday services off the table due to the coronavirus,...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — The Alliance for Academic Freedom, which describes itself as a group of more than 120 progressive and liberal academic scholars, have announced their support for Rose Ritch, who resigned from her position as USC student vice president earlier this month. In an Aug. 24 statement titled “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been a Zionist?” the AAF noted that then-student president Truman Fritz faced calls for impeachment in June over allegedly racially insensitive remarks; Ritch also faced calls for impeachment for being...
(JTA) — Kamala Harris, the California senator who is the Democratic vice presidential nominee, told Jewish supporters that Joe Biden, the presidential nominee, would not place any conditions on US aid to Israel. “Joe has made it clear he will not tie security assistance to any political decisions that Israel makes and I couldn’t agree more,” Harris said Wednesday in a call arranged by the Biden campaign for Jewish donors. “The Biden Harris administration will sustain our unbreakable commitment to Israel’s security, including the unprecedented m...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Nikki Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, highlighted President Donald Trump’s Israel policies to make the case he has advanced a robust foreign policy. Haley depicted Joe Biden, the former vice president, and President Barack Obama as practicing a foreign policy of “weakness,” including their administration’s dealings with Iran. “Obama and Biden let Iran get away with murder and literally sent them a plane full of cash,” Haley said. “President Trump did the right thing and ripped up the Iran nuclear deal...
