Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1126 - 1150 of 1886
(JNS)—A number of Massachusetts Jewish and pro-Israel groups are condemning several Democratic state lawmakers for participating in an Eid al-Fitr event at the Massachusetts State House that was co-hosted by the Massachusetts branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which has a long history of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiment. In response to an inquiry from JNS regarding the event, Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston executive director Jeremy Burton responded: “We welcome the efforts and intentions of our pol... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Everyone started by praising the American Jewish Committee, naturally enough. But in their video greetings to the group’s annual policy forum here, 13 Democratic candidates proceeded to demonstrate a party grappling with what story they should tell to one of its most important demographics: Jewish voters. Some candidates started by decrying anti-Semitism. Others started by holding up the U.S.-Israel relationship. A couple didn’t mention Israel at all. Some remarks lasted under... Full story
(JNS)—In a commencement speech on Thursday to Yeshiva University graduating students, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman slammed the Obama administration’s treatment of Israel compared to that of the current one. “Should Israel still negotiate with the Palestinians even though Israel did not steal their land? Of course, it should, precisely because we are not suggesting, as our predecessor did—that Israel return to the bargaining table as a thief returning to the scene of a crime,” he said. “Precisely for that reason, there is a basis for... Full story
(JNS)—An Illinois school district is under fire for a course offered to teachers titled “Teaching Palestine.” The Niles Township High School District 219 serves Lincolnwood and parts of Morton Grove, Niles and Skokie in Cook County, home to Chicago. There are an estimated 291,800 Jews in Illinois with most of them living in the Chicagoland area. The district consists of Niles North High School and Niles West High School. The lesson, according to the course description obtained by JNS, “brings together critical educators who want to teach about... Full story
CHICAGO (JTA)—A high school district with a large Jewish population has withdrawn its recommendation of an optional training opportunity for teachers called “Teaching Palestine” after local teachers, synagogues and national organizations protested. The training was one of several offered to high school teachers in a section of north suburban Chicago. One of the schools, Niles North High, is the primary high school serving Skokie, a local Jewish population center. “The course presented an extremely one-sided view of a very complex situati... Full story
(JNS)—Hanan Ashrawi, longtime aide to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, met on Monday with Matthew Duss, the foreign-policy adviser for the presidential campaign of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), according to a statement released by the Department of Public Diplomacy and Policy of the Palestine Liberation Organization. “The two parties discussed the Trump administration’s hostile approach in the region and its destructive policies that undermine the prospects of peace and the Palestinian people’s inalienable rights to freedom... Full story
(JTA)-Most of the year, Marty Rosenbluth lives alone in a small house in Lumpkin, a Georgia town with 2,000 residents and one restaurant. It's 500 miles away from his wife and community in North Carolina. Then he drives two miles down the road to a place even more isolated: the Stewart Detention Center, a private immigration detention facility surrounded by spools of barbed wire and housing nearly 2,000 undocumented immigrant men. Rosenbluth aims to reduce that number as much as possible. He's t... Full story
(JNS)-U.S. Ambassador to Israel David M. Friedman fired back at The New York Times on Wednesday over an article castigating him for claiming that Israel was "on the side of God" while speaking about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the upcoming U.S. peace proposal. Speaking to a group of evangelical faith leaders at the Aish Hatorah World Center, overlooking the Western Wall plaza and the Temple Mount, Friedman said that, "apparently, there was nothing more offensive I could have said to... Full story
(JNS)—A guest lecturer at the University of California, Los Angeles, last week labeled Zionists as white supremacists, reported Jewish Journal on Tuesday. A Jewish student in the class, Shayna Lavi, recalled to the Journal that San Francisco State University Arab and Muslim ethnicities’ professor Rabab Abdulhadi, told the some 100 students in the mandatory anthropology lecture on May 14 that U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) “was attacked by AIPAC and all these pro-Israel organization because [Omar is] Muslim,” and that America and Israel have “s... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)—A fire outside the suburban Boston home of a rabbi that serves as a Chabad center is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Police in Arlington, Massachusetts, have asked for the public’s help in identifying a person caught on a neighbor’s video camera walking away from the home Saturday night around the time of the fire. Firefighters put out the small fire that burned the shingles off one side of the Center for Jewish Life in Arlington-Belmont, home to Rabbi Avi Bukiet, his wife and their three children. Police and town... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-In the 1930s, Mortimer and Raymond Sackler both traveled to Scotland for medical school because, they said, American universities wouldn't admit them as Jews. Eighty years later, academic and cultural institutions the world over are deciding whether to reject the Sackler brothers' children-not because of their religion but because of their actions. Mortimer and Raymond Sackler are the late patriarchs of a family under fire now for its central role in the opioid addiction crisis, w... Full story
CLEVELAND (Cleveland Jewish News via JTA)-Eric Fingerhut is leaving his position as president and CEO of Hillel International to take the same posts at the Jewish Federations of North America. Fingerhut, who served one term in the U.S. House of Representatives representing Ohio in 1993 and 1994, will succeed Jerry Silverman. The Times of Israel reported in April 2018 that Silverman, who assumed the JFNA leadership in 2009, planned to step down at the end of his contract this September. Jared... Full story
(JNS)—Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) is standing by comments she made recently that include saying that Palestinians enabled a “safe haven” for Jews after the Holocaust, thereby reiterating her support for a one-state solution. “There’s always kind of a calming feeling I tell folks when I think of the Holocaust, and the tragedy of the Holocaust, and the fact that it was my ancestors—Palestinians—who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence in many ways, have been wiped out, and some peop... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts named the winner of a redesign competition for its Israeli Lounge, a tribute to the U.S.-Israel relationship that Israel contributed at the 1971 launch of Washington D.C.'s signature performing art space. A team of three women from EYP, an American design firm that focuses on institutions of "higher education, government, healthcare, and science and technology," will lead the redesign of the room, which is expected to be complet... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—An imam who has wished for the end of Zionism, called for a third Intifada and likened Israel to Nazi-era Germany, delivered the opening prayer for a session of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday. Omar Suleiman, the founder and president of the Dallas-based Yaqeen Institute, an organization that describes itself as a resource about Islam, referred to recent attacks on houses of worship—which has included synagogues in the United States—in his opening remarks. “Let us not be deterred by the hatred that has claimed... Full story
(JTA)—Children at a Muslim center in Philadelphia sing they will “chop off their heads”—an apparent reference to Jews—in a video uploaded by the center to Facebook. The Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations is investigating the April 17 program at the Muslim American Society’s chapter in the city, The Associated Press reported. The Middle East Media Research Institute posted a translation of the video on Friday. The children in the program, from young kids to early teens, are wearing Palestinian scarves. They sing in one of the lyrics,... Full story
POWAY, Calif. (JTA)-"Those who are standing can remain standing," Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein joked, a nod to the standing-room-only crowd that had packed Chabad of Poway for Friday night services. For many of those who filled the sanctuary, showing up was an act of faith, of solidarity, of defiance just six days after a gunman entered the synagogue, killing one and injuring three, including the rabbi. Goldstein dedicated this "Shabbat of healing" to Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, who was killed in the... Full story
(JNS)-The founding rabbi of Chabad of Poway in Southern California spoke at the White House on Thursday, less than a week after his synagogue was attacked, with one woman killed and three others injured. Chabad Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein talked about facing the shooter, 19-year-old John Earnest, even if he got killed. He said that the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Schneerson, taught to fight darkness with light. "It was that moment that I made a decision: No matter what happens to me, I'm... Full story
(JTA)—On the Shabbat morning of April 27, a 19-year-old with a gun killed Lori Gilbert-Kaye and injured several others at the Chabad of Poway outside of San Diego. But before the sun had set and observant Jews were able to see the news, another teenager decided to take action. The 15-year-old, who asked to be identified only by his first name, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that while he had “never been to Poway,” and doesn’t personally subscribe to the rules of Shabbat, he didn’t want to waste any time in helping raise money. “I though... Full story
(JTA)—The New York Times editorial board said in an editorial published Tuesday that the newspaper’s publishing of “an appalling political cartoon” is “evidence of a profound danger—not only of anti-Semitism but of numbness to its creep.” The newspaper also acknowledged its own historical contributions to the rise of anti-Semitism. “In the 1930s and the 1940s, The Times was largely silent as anti-Semitism rose up and bathed the world in blood,” it wrote. “That failure still haunts this newspaper.” The editorial said that “anti-Semitic imagery i... Full story
(JTA)—The head of the Anti-Defamation League said Saturday’s synagogue shooting should serve as a “wake-up call” for politicians and business executives to more seriously address anti-Semitism. Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO and national director of the ADL, spoke with reporters on a call from Poway, California, where a gunman entered the Chabad of Poway synagogue Saturday and killed one person, injuring three. Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60, was killed while shielding the rabbi from bullets. The rabbi, an eight-year-old girl and another adult were wo... Full story
(JTA)—Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein said his Chabad of Poway could not afford to hire an armed guard. Had it been able, or if the government had helped the synagogue bring in one, he believes the deadly attack there Saturday could have been averted. “If I had the funding, we may have been spared. How many more dead bodies will we have to see before we act?” he told The New York Times. But hiring a security guard should not be the only priority in terms of security, said Jason Friedman, the executive director of the Community Security Service, an or... Full story
(JNS)-Despite apologizing on Sunday for running an anti-Semitic cartoon that ran in its international edition on Thursday, The New York Times published another anti-Semitic cartoon in the same edition over the weekend. The weekend cartoon by Norwegian cartoonist Roar Hagen depicts Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with sinister eyes taking a picture of himself with a selfie-stick, carrying a tablet featuring the Israeli flag painted on it. The cartoon also resembles a different one from... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Israeli ambassador to the United States linked The New York Times to the “Jew-hatred of growing parts of the intellectual class.” Ron Dermer was speaking Monday in the U.S. Capitol at the annual Holocaust Days of Remembrance organized by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. It was an unusually political attack on a day and at an event organized by an institution that generally focuses on the historical meaning of the Holocaust. Dermer listed recent lethal attacks against Jews, including Saturday’s deadly shooting at the Cha... Full story
(JTA)-A shooting at a Chabad synagogue in Poway, near San Diego, California, has left one person dead and three injured, including a child. Police in Poway detained a white 19-year-old San Diego man in connection with the shooting on the last day of Passover, and hospitals said they were taking in the wounded people. The suspect left an "open letter" prior to the morning attack, law enforcement said. "A man has been detained for questioning in connection with a shooting incident at the Chabad... Full story
