Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1492 - 1516 of 1920
(JTA)—The Federal Communications Commission has granted Jewish Community Centers throughout the country a temporary waiver allowing them to receive caller information, in response to the recent series of bomb threats on the Jewish institutions. The waiver, approved on Friday, comes days after 29 JCCs and Jewish schools across the country received called-in bomb threats, the fifth such incident in less than two months. It was also approved the same day that a St. Louis man was charged for making at least eight bomb threats against Jewish C... Full story
(JTA)—At least 12 Jewish community centers and institutions across North America and four Anti-Defamation League offices have received threats of lethal attack, the sixth such wave since the beginning of the year. As of Tuesday afternoon, March 7, threats had been reported at Jewish institutions in Massachusetts, Illinois, Wisconsin, Maryland, Oregon, Florida, Alabama and at least two community centers in New York, according to Secure Community Network, the security arm of the Jewish Federations of North America. In addition, two threats w... Full story
(JTA)-A swastika was carved onto the doorframe of the Agudath B'nai Israel Synagogue in Lorain, Ohio, a suburb located on the west side of Cleveland. In addition to the swastika, the words "We will rise and gas you," followed by an expletive, also were found on the synagogue. The vandalism at the more than 100-year-old synagogue took place on March 1, though it was first reported on Saturday, March 4. "The act of ignorance, vandalism, and anti-Semitism does not reflect our neighbors in the City... Full story
Federal authorities arrested Juan M. Thompson, a 31-year-old former reporter from St. Louis, Friday in connection with eight bomb threats called into several Jewish institutions over the last month, including the Anti-Defamation (ADL) League, officials said. Thompson, who was fired as a reporter for The Intercept, allegedly made threats to exact revenge against a woman who had ended a romantic relationship with him, according to law enforcement officials. Thompson has also been charged with cybe... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Thanking the FBI and police for the arrest of Juan Thompson, who allegedly made eight bomb threats to Jewish institutions, the Anti-Defamation League called the current wave of anti-Semitic acts "unprecedented." "Law enforcement at all levels is a close friend to the Jewish people in America," Evan Bernstein, ADL's New York regional director, said at a news conference Friday. "Just because there's been an arrest today around our bomb threats does not mean that the threats have... Full story
Nashville, Tennessee—PJTN has launched a national campaign to define and outlaw anti-Semitism, in light of the recent wave of threats and attacks against American Jewish institutions. The “Anti-Semitism Awareness Act” will fortify the U.S. State Department’s definition of anti-Semitism into law, including the demonization, delegitimization and double standards applied to Israel, declaring them as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. This new legal campaign comes after PJTN watchmen nationwide encouraged the passing of state legisla... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-A Jewish cemetery in Rochester, New York, was vandalized, the third such incident in the United States in less than two weeks. Five headstones were found toppled Thursday morning at the Waad Hakolel Cemetery, also known as the Stone Road Cemetery, in the city in western New York, according to News 10 NBC WHEC. The president of the nonprofit managing the cemetery said he did not want to call the incident a hate crime or anti-Semitism. "I don't want to label it a hate crime. I... Full story
(JNS.org)—The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship) has launched an online campaign urging supporters to condemn the ongoing wave of anti-Semitism across the U.S. in recent weeks, while calling for unity between Christians and Jews in response to bomb threats at Jewish community centers and vandalism at Jewish cemeteries. “We have heard from so many of our Christian brothers and sisters expressing their profound dismay at the recent rise of anti-Semitic and hate crimes nationwide, and offering their love and sup... Full story
(JNS.org)—The U.S. House of Representatives announced its relaunch of a bipartisan taskforce for combating anti-Semitism in the wake of a recent wave of anti-Jewish incidents. Since January 2017, there have been 90 bomb threats called into Jewish organizations, including more than 60 to Jewish community centers, with the latest threats coming Feb. 27. Last week, an estimated 170 Jewish graves were found toppled at the Chesed Shel Emeth Society cemetery in University City, Mo., and on Sunday, Feb. 26, an estimated 100 headstones were toppled a... Full story
NEW YORK-The Blue Card, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing ongoing, direct aid to Holocaust survivors in the United States, has been selected to receive a grant of $120,000 from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). Overall, JFNA through its Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care will distribute $2.8 million in grants to 34 organizations in 18 states, which when combined with matching funds required by the grant, will result in over $4.6 million in funding f... Full story
WASHINGTON—American Jewish leaders are enthusiastically applauding President Donald Trump’s call on the Palestinian Authority to remove anti-Jewish hate material from its school books. At his press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Feb. 15, Trump said “the Palestinians have to get rid of” the anti-Israel and anti-Jewish material that appears in PA school texts. “They’re taught tremendous hate,” he said. “I’ve seen what they’re taught... it starts at a very young age and it starts in the school room.” Malcolm Hoenlein, ex... Full story
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Walt Disney Company severed ties with the world's biggest YouTube star Tuesday following a series of anti-Semitic videos. PewDiePie, whose real name is Felix Kjellberg, has 53 million fans worldwide, and his videos have amassed some 14.7 billion views. The 27-year-old Swede usually focuses on video games, and his huge fan base has allowed him to turn his YouTube channel into a lucrative business, earning more than $14 million a year from advertising, spons... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-One state. Flexibility. Two states. Hold back on settlements. Stop Iran. When President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu: What a press conference! But wait. In the Age of Trump, every post-event analysis requires a double take. Not so much "did he mean what he said?"-he appears to mean it, in real time-but "will he mean it next week? Tomorrow? In the wee hours, when he tweets?" This is a president who, after all, speaks of a "ban" on travelers from... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Evangelicals, who have been advocating for Israel for years, have historically let the Jews take the lead. Laurie Cardoza-Moore, for one, is excited that they are poised to take on a prominent role. An evangelical TV host and activist, Cardoza-Moore backs President Donald Trump's pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a supporter of the settlement movement who is deeply skeptical of the two-state solution. And she is confident Trump will make good on his promise to... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)-Over 100 years ago, Barnett Levine was greeted by the New York skyline and the Statue of Liberty as he arrived in the United States, having fled anti-Semitism and pogroms in his native Poland. On Sunday, his grandson saw those very same sights when he joined about 700 others in this city's Battery Park downtown at a rally protesting President Donald Trump's executive order banning all refugees from the country for 120 days. "I am the grandchild of four immigrants who came here... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-House Speaker Paul Ryan said it makes more sense to rigorously enforce the Iran nuclear deal than to dismantle it, signaling diminishing support for pulling the United States out of the deal. Ryan, R-Wis., speaking on "Meet the Press" in an interview to be broadcast in full on Sunday, said the removal of sanctions under the nuclear rollback for sanctions relief deal reached in 2015 between Iran and six major world powers meant it would be too hard to reconstitute the sanctions.... Full story
(JTA)-Betsy DeVos was confirmed as secretary of education, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaker in a historic 51-50 vote. DeVos, a Michigan billionaire whose advocacy for school choice has led to sweeping changes in the educational landscape in her home state, provoked divergent opinions in the Jewish community. Both the haredi Orthodox Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union issued congratulations within minutes of the vote. It marked the first time a vice president b... Full story
(JTA)—At least 11 Jewish community centers across the United States were targeted with bomb threats in the third wave of such mass disruption this month. David Posner, director of strategic performance at JCC Association of North America, whose role involves advising local JCCs on security policies and practices, issued the below statement: “Today, a third wave of bomb threats called in to Jewish community centers has caused 14 centers in 10 states plus one Canadian province, to quickly carry out practiced security protocols to ensure the safet... Full story
(JTA)-The White House statement for International Holocaust Remembrance Day that has generated controversy for omitting Jews reportedly was written by a Jewish aide to President Donald Trump. Boris Epshteyn, a special assistant to the president, crafted the statement, the political news website Politico reported Monday evening, citing an unnamed source "with knowledge of the situation." Epshteyn, a former Republican political strategist, immigrated to the United States from his native Moscow in... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA)—A person calls a Jewish institution, makes a bomb threat and hangs up. The call lasts no more than a minute, the caller’s voice is disguised and the call is made to look as if it came from inside the building. How do you catch the culprit? That’s the question the FBI is facing in investigating the 65 bomb threats that have hit JCCs and Jewish federations in three waves throughout January. The latest string of threats, targeting 17 JCCs across the country, occurred Tuesday. The first waves across the country came on Jan. 9 and 1... Full story
WASHINGTON, DC—U.S Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, made the following statement after introducing H.R. 762, the Holocaust Insurance Accountability Act of 2017, alongside Reps. Brad Sherman (D-CA) and John Garamendi (D-CA). Senators Bill Nelson (D-FL) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) introduced a companion bill in the Senate. Statement by Ros-Lehtinen: “Just days ago, on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the world commemorated the millions of Jews and other innocent victims who were sys... Full story
(JTA)—A year after they submitted their application for asylum in the United States, Shahi and his mother expected to be let in. As Iranian Jews who applied for asylum through a federally recognized agency for refugee status, their case was expected to be simple. Shahi (not his real name) is in his late 20s and already has two sisters waiting for him and their mother. As of now, mother and son are in a third transit country. But the lives of Shahi’s family were plunged into further uncertainty on Friday when President Donald Trump signed an... Full story
(JTA)—American Jews are watching the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency with both fear and hope. Many have expressed worries about some of his supporters’ ties to the so-called “alt-right” movement, whose followers traffic variously in white nationalism, anti-immigration sentiment, anti-Semitism and a disdain for “political correctness.” Those fears intensified when Trump named as his chief strategist Stephen Bannon, the former chairman of Breitbart News, a site Bannon once referred to as a “platform” of the alt-right. Trump’s strongly cons... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-"Cantor Kaufman!" Rabbi Jonah Pesner shouted across the intersection of 3rd and D in Washington's Northwest quadrant, packed sidewalk to sidewalk with women in pink pussycat hats and their male friends. "A song!" Jason Kaufman, the cantor at Beth El in Alexandria, Virginia, draped in a rainbow tallit and in the middle of telling a joke, cocked an eyebrow and pivoted gracefully from the guy hanging with his buddies at Saturday's Women's March on Washington to the religious... Full story
(JTA)-One Jewish group that joined the Women's March on Washington has seen its online donations double since the election of Donald Trump as president. Another has twice as many guests as usual attending its annual conference. A third has seen its social media engagement skyrocket. And after bringing thousands of Jews to the streets on Saturday, they're all asking the same question: What now? A range of liberal Jewish groups took part in the Women's March, which drew more than 3 million people... Full story
