Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1383 - 1407 of 1886
Chanukah USPS Forever First class postage stamps are available on Amazon. The stamp features an illustration of a menorah in the window of a home. Forever stamps will always be valid for first class mail postage even if rates change.... Full story
(JTA)-As hurricane Harvey swept over Houston, Chava Gal-Or counted herself lucky. The water rose up to her door and a little bit seeped in, but her home did not flood. However, many in the Reform synagogue where she works had it much worse: Twenty-nine families lost their homes-about 15 percent of the congregation's members. At first, Gal-Or despaired the extent of the damage and how little she could do to help. "I can't rebuild their houses," said Gal-Or, the director of congregational... Full story
(JNS.org)—A complaint filed by New Jersey’s Attorney General Christopher Porrino this week alleges that the New Jersey township of Mahwah has introduced laws that openly discriminate against Orthodox Jews, aimed at deterring them from moving into the area. A nine-count complaint filed on Tuesday accuses the town’s public officials of using methods implemented by “white flight” suburbanites in the 1950s “to keep African-Americans from moving into their neighborhoods.” The lawsuit centers on two laws, introduced in the town last summer, that... Full story
Washington, D.C.—The RJC released the following statement from Executive Director Matt Brooks: Today, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs took a big step to enhance the security of Americans and Israelis. Sponsored by Representatives Doug Lamborn and Lee Zeldin, the Taylor Force Act takes the steps necessary to cut off American taxpayer money from going to the Palestinian Authority while the PA continues to encourage and incentivize the murder and injury of Israelis and Americans. The passage of the Taylor Force Act by the House Foreign A... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist for President Donald Trump, called himself a "Christian Zionist" at the Zionist Organization of America's annual dinner. He also praised Republican Jewish megadonor Sheldon Adelson for his help in guiding Trump through a sexual assault scandal. Bannon, at what may have been his first speech at a Jewish event since becoming associated with Trump last year, received a standing ovation and loud applause throughout his speech on Sunday in Ne... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-On a typical Shabbat in Teaneck, New Jersey, streets are blocked off outside of major synagogues. Uniformed off-duty police officers, paid by the synagogues for the morning, stand near a cruiser parked nearby or direct traffic on the main street. Volunteers, walkie-talkie earpieces disappearing beneath their lapels, stand at strategic points outside the synagogues keeping an eye on foot traffic. A few may have swept through the synagogue before services checking for suspicious... Full story
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (JTA)-When Henry Rosovsky first arrived at Harvard University in 1949, a newly minted graduate of the College of William and Mary, the young Jewish refugee could hardly have imagined that a building associated with the Harvard Jewish community would be named in his honor more than four decades later. Born in 1927 in what is now Gdansk, Poland, Rosovsky had immigrated with his parents to the United States when he was 13. Harvard's quota capping the number of Jewish students was d... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The big post-Election Day headline is the stunning Democratic sweep in Virginia's gubernatorial and House elections, coupled with the predicted Democratic win of the governor's mansion in New Jersey. Republicans are wondering what this says about the train that was Trumpism. In Virginia, Ed Gillespie was an establishment Republican who ran a campaign modeled after President Donald Trump's shocking win a year ago. Gillespie focused on social hot-button issues like preserving... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-On May 2, Israel's Independence Day, Texas state Rep. Phil King stood smiling as Gov. Greg Abbott signed King's bill banning the state from doing business with boycotters of Israel. "Anti-Israel policies are anti-Texas policies, and we will not tolerate such actions against an important ally," Abbott said of the bill that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature. Less than six months later, King had to explain why his signature pro-Israel policy was not an anti-Texas policy. City... Full story
(JTA)—Gabe Kapler, a major league outfielder for 12 seasons and a coach for Team Israel in the World Baseball Classic, was named manager of the Philadelphia Phillies. Kapler, who played for seven teams, has been the head of player development for the Los Angeles Dodgers organization since 2014. “I’m equal parts honored, humbled and excited by the opportunity with the Phillies, an elite franchise in a city rich in history, tradition, sports excellence and with amazingly passionate fans,” Kapler said in a statement Monday. Kapler, 42, is Jewish... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Are Jewish millennials the most religious generation? And do one-fifth of them think Jesus was God in human form? Yes and yes, says a new survey of 599 Jews born from 1984 to 1999. The survey creates a contradictory portrait of Jewish millennials: These young adults describe themselves as religious, and practice Jewish ritual, but are unaffiliated. They value tradition and family, but don't plan on marrying only Jews. They are proud to be Jewish, but don't feel that contradicts... Full story
(JTA)—Kenneth L. Marcus, an attorney who has championed the use of the 1964 federal civil rights act to investigate allegations of anti-Semitism on campus, has been appointed assistant secretary for civil rights in the Department of Education. President Donald J. Trump announced the nomination Wednesday, Oct. 26. As president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, Marcus has deployed Title VI of the civil rights act in urging the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights to open investigations ove... Full story
(JTA)—The booking agent for white nationalist Richard Spencer has filed a federal lawsuit against The Ohio State University for refusing a request to rent space on campus for a speech by the controversial far-right figure. The lawsuit was filed Sunday, two days comes after the university informed Cameron Padgett, a graduate student at Georgia State University who handles Spencer’s speaking arrangements, that the request to rent space was denied due to the “substantial risk to public safety.” “The University values freedom of speech,... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-The Orthodox Union is founding its own division to advance women as congregational leaders, as well as to promote Jewish study and communal participation for women in Modern Orthodoxy. The announcement comes nearly nine months after the group, an umbrella association of centrist Orthodox synagogues, issued a ruling banning those synagogues from hiring women for clergy roles. The Department of Women's Initiatives, which will launch Nov. 1, aims to increase women's participation in... Full story
Richard Spencer is an alt right leader The 39-year-old Spencer has become the most recognizable public face of the alt right, a loose network of people who promote white identity and reject mainstream conservatism in favor of politics that embrace implicit or explicit racism, anti-Semitism and white supremacy. Spencer coined the term “alternative right” (from which “alt right” is derived) in 2008 in an article in Taki’s Magazine, a far-right publication. At the time, Spencer was using “alternative right” to refer to people on the right who dis... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer renewed his call for President Donald Trump to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem after the president said he wanted to wait to give his relaunched peace push a chance. "President Trump's recent comments suggest his indecisiveness on the embassy's relocation," Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday in an email to JTA. "As someone who strongly believes that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of Israel, I am calling for the U.S. Embassy in Israel to... Full story
(JTA)—Much of a Reform Jewish summer camp has been wiped out by forest fires sweeping across Northern California. The Union for Reform Judaism’s Camp Newman, an hour north of the San Francisco Bay, has been “mostly destroyed” by the fires burning in Sonoma and Napa counties, the camp posted on Facebook Tuesday evening. Camp staff have yet to be able to visit the area. Camp is not in session, and everyone living at the campsite—along with its Torah scrolls—were rescued before the fires reached the camp. At least 10 people have died in the forest... Full story
Two Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin last week introduced legislation to prohibit businesses from engaging in boycotts of Israel as a condition of any state contract. In recent years, more than 20 U.S. states have passed legislation condemning BDS or prohibiting government business with entities that boycott Israel, with additional states—including Wisconsin—expected to follow before the end of the year. Released by State Sen. Leah Vukmir and State Rep. Dale Kooyenga, the bill is currently being circulated among both chambers for co-... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—The Supreme Court is back in session with a full bench of nine justices, so expect more momentous decisions after nearly a year of caution. Now that the high court is back to its previous equilibrium—four solid liberals, four solid conservatives and one wavering conservative—expect all eyes to be focused on the waverer, Anthony Kennedy. And after a relatively quiet season, owing to the absence of a ninth justice following the death in February 2016 of Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon, Jewish groups are on alert as well.... Full story
(J. The Jewish News of Northern California via JTA)-A kosher winery in Northern California sustained widespread damage from a wildfire still raging along the southern part of the Silverado Trail in Napa County. Ernie Weir, owner of Hagafen Cellars, the North Bay's only kosher winery, said Wednesday that all employees are safe and the main winery building is intact, but that the fire destroyed fencing, all of the agricultural equipment, a guest house, nearly an acre of Cabernet Sauvignon vines an... Full story
BOSTON (JTA)-A 9-year-old school project to commemorate Holocaust victims surpassed its unlikely goal to collect 11 million stamps, representing the lives of 6 million Jews and 5 million other victims of intolerance who perished. On Friday, the eve of Yom Kippur, a community volunteer for the Holocaust Stamp Project at the Foxborough Regional Charter School delivered some 7,000 canceled stamps to the K-12 charter school, bringing the total of stamps collected to 11,011,979, according to Jamie... Full story
(JTA)-Days after joining a pro-Israel group, Melissa Landa knew something had gone wrong: She said her mentor stopped working with her, pulling out of a conference presentation just days in advance. Landa didn't know that her mentor, John O'Flahavan, would then stop taking her calls. Or that O'Flahavan would soon dismiss her from teaching the education course she designed. Or that one year later, she would be fired from the college where she had taught for more than a decade. But in the late... Full story
(JTA)-After he managed to bribe three van drivers to load their vehicles with aid supplies and drive him and his crew from the San Juan airport, Eli Rowe felt his humanitarian mission was off to a good start. Gas was scarce in Puerto Rico, but now all the food, medicine and hygienic supplies he had flown over from the mainland was making it into the Caribbean island's capital. Then he laid eyes on the city. It was devastated. "We saw sheer destruction everywhere," said Rowe, the CEO of Jet911,... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Mike Tolkin apologizes for checking his phone as he sits down at a café in this city's Flatiron district. The 32-year-old Democratic New York mayoral hopeful was waiting to hear Tuesday whether he would be allowed to participate in the final primary debate the following day, which would boost his exposure amid an otherwise quiet campaign. Tolkin, a technology entrepreneur and the youngest candidate on the party's ballot to challenge incumbent Bill de Blasio, had not met the... Full story
When researchers at the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America reported earlier this year that public school history textbooks and curricular materials were indoctrinating students against Israel, some high school officials were dismissive. Ruth Goldman, chair of the Newton, Mass. school committee, told the Washington Free Beacon that it is “an old subject” and “had all been taken care of.” She also said the problems cited by CAMERA “happened before my time on the committee.” However, it has since been revealed that she se... Full story
