Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) – The Harvard Crimson’s recent endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has attracted far more wide-ranging attention than a typical student paper’s editorial page, as faculty and alumni of the Ivy League institution have lined up to denounce the student paper’s op-ed and condemn the shift in Israel discussion on college campuses. In an open letter, more than 100 Harvard faculty members objected to the paper endorsing an academic and financial boycott of the state of Israel, including the school’s former president...
(JNS) — Two leading Jewish conservatives blasted New York City’s Museum of Jewish Heritage–A Living Memorial to the Holocaust in a Wall Street Journal op-ed on May 6, claiming that museum staff told them they could not hold an event there if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was invited to speak. The op-ed, titled “Persona Non Grata at a Holocaust Memorial,” was authored by former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams, along with Eric Cohen. They serve as the chairman and CEO, respectively, of the Tikvah Fund, a conservative Jewish think...
(JTA) — The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and our partner sites at 70 Faces Media have answered the question many times over the years, a testament to its persistence in political life and its significance to American Jews: What do Jews believe about abortion? After a new report that the Supreme Court reviewed a majority opinion in February that would overturn Roe v. Wade, the question is relevant yet again. Here’s what we know: American Jews favor abortion rights, more than any other religious group, according to public polling. And tra...
(JTA) — A historically Jewish fraternity at Rutgers University has been the target of multiple cases of antisemitic harassment this week, prompting the school to announce it would be increasing security on campus. Authorities said the university’s AEPi house was first targeted on Friday when protestors exiting a rally for Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian university activist group, went to the house and shouted antisemitic rhetoric and spat at the brothers. Rutgers Hillel Interim Executive Director Rabbi Esther Reed told loc...
(JTA) – The Harvard Crimson’s recent endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement has attracted far more wide-ranging attention than a typical student paper’s editorial page, as faculty and alumni of the Ivy League institution have lined up to denounce the student paper’s op-ed and condemn the shift in Israel discussion on college campuses. In an open letter, more than 100 Harvard faculty members objected to the paper endorsing an academic and financial boycott of the state of Israel, including the school’s former president...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden named as his next press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, a former official of the activist MoveOn group who endorsed its call on Democratic presidential candidates to boycott the annual AIPAC conference. Jean-Pierre will be the first Black woman in the job and succeeds Jen Psaki, who has reportedly accepted an offer from MSNBC as a commentator, as the lead voice for the Biden administration with the media. She has been principal deputy press secretary after starting in the Biden administration as a senior a...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Several dozen members of Congress joined Holocaust survivors to mark Yom Hashoah, the Holocaust remembrance day marked by Jewish communities worldwide, by reading out the names of the dead and hearing testimony in the Capitol building on Wednesday morning. Rep. Brad Schneider, a Jewish Illinois Democrat who spearheaded the event, said in remarks that the need to commemorate now was made more acute by the atrocities taking place in Russia’s war against Ukraine. “A million and a half children died in the Holocaust,” Schneid...
(JNS) — About 14,000 Birthright Israel participants from nearly 900 universities and colleges in North America are expected to land in Israel in the coming months as part of Birthright’s summer season. The flights, which begin on May 1, mark Birthright Israel’s long-awaited return after a series of suspensions since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The trips are an opportunity for North American students to have a life-changing experience in Israel with their college friends and meet new people from their campus. They are usually timed...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The good news for Joe Biden is that a majority of U.S. Jews approve of the job he is doing. The bad news is that the number in a new poll, 63 percent, is a sharp double-digit drop from where he was last year. A poll released Wednesday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats, showed Biden’s approval rating down from 80 percent in a poll by the same organization last July. His disapproval rating this year is at 37 percent, up from 20 percent last July. Both polls were carried out by GBA...
(JTA) - Wine from a West Bank settlement was on the menu at this year's White House Passover seder on Friday hosted by Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Dough Emhoff. But a spokesperson for Harris said the choice should not be construed as a political statement about Israeli settlement in the West Bank. "The wine served at the seder was in no way intended to be an expression of policy," Herbie Ziskind, an adviser to Harris, said in a tweet. The response from the Harris spokesman...
(JTA) - A new Boston-based foundation dedicated to Holocaust memory plans to build the city's first Holocaust museum. The Holocaust Legacy Foundation, which couple Jody Kipnis and Todd Ruderman founded after a 2018 March of the Living trip to Auschwitz, announced Thursday that it had purchased a 15,000-square-foot building near Boston Common, on the city's American Independence-themed series of historical markers known as the Freedom Trail. The couple intends to turn it into a museum devoted to...
(JTA) - The United States Postal Service released a new series of Forever stamps Friday in honor of Shel Silverstein, the Jewish author and illustrator who died in 1999. The stamps commemorate what is perhaps Silverstein's most famous book, "The Giving Tree," which tells the story of the relationship between a boy and a tree. The stamps feature an image of the boy from the story catching an apple with Silverstein's name written below. "The issuance honors the extraordinarily versatile Shel...
It has been 77 years since World War II ended, yet the world will never forget the six million Jews and countless other victims who were murdered during the Holocaust. While Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1945, is recognized by the United Nations as International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the people of Israel and Jewish individuals across the globe commemorate the victims annually on Yom HaShoah, the "Day of (Remembrance of) the Holocaust and...
(JTA) – With his livelihood on the line, Rob Lennick texted the wrong Deborah. The CEO of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico, Lennick sent a message asking for support of an extension to his contract. He was also asking for a $30,000 forgivable loan from the federation to pay for the repair of a home he was hoping to purchase. Lennick had meant to reach Deborah Boldt, who was serving on the federation’s board of directors — but he reached Deborah Albrycht, the federation’s human resources officer. What happened next set off a crisis in Jewish...
(New York Jewish Week) - In a rickety warehouse in Long Island City, reached only by a footbridge that crosses underneath the Long Island Expressway, some 80,000 Yiddish books are stacked on shelves in a large, sunlight-filled room that overlooks the Pulaski Bridge, Midtown Manhattan to the west, and Downtown Brooklyn in the distance. This is the CYCO Yiddish Book Center, whose roots date back to 1938, when it began as a space in Manhattan to give Yiddish writers and readers a safe haven just as...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The Senate in a voice vote unanimously confirmed Deborah Lipstadt, the Holocaust scholar who endured delays and a contentious hearing in her nomination to be antisemitism monitor. The vote late Wednesday took mere seconds. "The ayes appear to have it," Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the Wisconsin Democrat who was presiding over the session, said after calling for a vote. "The ayes do have it. The nomination is confirmed." There were no "Nos." It was not clear from the C-Span video,...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Joe Biden wants to increase federal funding for security for nonprofits from $250 million to $360 million, a key request advanced by Jewish organizations in the wake of attacks on Jewish institutions. Biden included the funding in the homeland security section of the $5.8 trillion federal budget he released Monday. Presidential budgets function as wish lists, and not every component will likely pass congressional muster, but including the request gives its chances of adoption a significant boost. “In prior years, be...
(JNS) - Colleyville. Pittsburgh. Poway. Too many Jewish institutions are wondering if they'll be next. Too many in Brooklyn, N.Y., and elsewhere already deal with the reality of antisemitic attacks that keep on coming. The federal government says it stands ready to help ahead of the holiday season. Marcus Coleman, director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, sat down one-on-one with JNS to explain what resources are available for...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Security officials are reporting a spate of bomb threats targeting Jewish institutions in a number of states. The threats came into Jewish community centers around the country in recent weeks, most recently in Pennsylvania and Missouri, according to Michael Masters, who directs the Secure Community Network, a consultancy that works with national Jewish groups. Other JCCs targeted have been in Oklahoma, Arizona and New Jersey. The threats come through online contact forms and have similar language. The two most recent t...
(JTA) — In 2016, Colorado’s state pension fund passed a law pledging economic loyalty to Israel. That law is now being invoked as the state becomes the seventh to punish ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s over the company’s 2021 pledge to stop selling ice cream in “occupied Palestinian territories.” The board of Colorado’s Public Employees’ Retirement Association voted unanimously Friday to begin a procedure to divest its holdings from Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, the Denver Post reported. The association drew upon the 2016 law, sig...
(JTA) — Barbara Goldberg Goldman, a lay leader in Democratic Party, resigned as deputy treasurer of the Maryland Democratic Party after questioning the viability of Black candidates for governor. Goldberg Goldman apologized for an email she sent in December, revealed over the weekend by Axios. “Consider this: Three African-American males have run statewide for governor and have lost,” she wrote to other party leaders in the email. “This is a fact we must not ignore.” Goldberg Goldman was strategizing over how best to defeat Kelly Schulz, t...
(JNS) - Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), visiting Israel for the first time last month, said the experience was not only "eye-opening," but helped solidify his support for the Jewish state and understand the danger faced by the Israeli people from the threats of terrorist organizations and states on their borders. The freshman congressman, who is seeking re-election to New York's 2nd Congressional District, was one of dozens of members of Congress from both parties to travel to Israel in late...
(New York Jewish Week) - The 87-year-old Broadway vocal coach who died Tuesday after being pushed to the ground by an unknown assailant over the weekend in Manhattan was mourned by cantorial students she had taught at various Jewish seminaries. Barbara Maier Gustern worked in musical theater for decades, most recently for the 2019 Broadway revival of the musical "Oklahoma!" She also coached Debbie Harry of Blondie, MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Taylor Mac, and many more singers. But Gustern...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) – The New York State Education Department released long-awaited guidelines Thursday on teaching secular subjects in parochial schools. They were met with immediate pushback from Orthodox Jewish leaders. The new proposals offer several options for schools to prove their instruction is “substantially equivalent” to public schools, and will take into account different religious and cultural methods for teaching. The proposal offers schools options if they do not want to be reviewed by their local public school author...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Jewish parents at P.S. 145, the only public school in Manhattan with a Russian dual-language program, are speaking out against the war in Ukraine. PTA co-president Sasha Stashwick said that it was important the school makes it clear that its families do not stand for this war. “We all stand together as a Russian-speaking community,” Stashwick told The New York Jewish Week. “What’s happening in Ukraine, it’s not acceptable.” She added that while Ukrainian people are the victims, it’s important to recognize that R...
