Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — All 25 Jewish Democrats in the House, a fractious caucus that rarely unanimously agrees on issues of Jewish interest, signed onto a statement slamming recent comments by Amnesty International’s U.S. director, who said he believes polls showing overwhelming U.S. Jewish support for Israel are inaccurate. “As Jewish Members of the House of Representatives, we represent diverse views on a number of issues relating to Israel. However, we are in full agreement that Mr. [Paul] O’Brien’s patronizing attempt to speak on behalf of...
Six teens traveled to New York for the 14th annual CTeen Shabbaton, an international gathering of close to 3,000 Jewish teens. Led by Rabbi Yanky Majesky of Chabad North Orlando and Mrs. Fraidy Dubov of Chabad of Greater Orlando, teens were treated to a thrilling, non-stop program with tours of Manhattan, inspiring Shabbat meals, talks by renowned speakers, and a highly-anticipated closing ceremony titled "Wherever Whenever". Last year, the pandemic forced CTeeners online for a virtual...
New York, NY - UJA-Federation of New York today announced a new round of emergency funding to address urgent humanitarian needs of people remaining in Ukraine as well as refugees who have been forced to flee to neighboring countries. Since Feb. 24, UJA has made $5 million in grants to help Ukrainians. "Last week I was in Poland near the border, and I will not soon forget the despair I saw on the faces of the refugees who are being helped by our partners. One man who had just fled Kyiv said to...
(JTA) — For many American Jews, there is an annual celebration near the beginning of spring that serves as a respite from the long winter months, and a symbol of hope and renewal: Opening Day. Not this year. Major League Baseball and its players association remain deadlocked in negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, leading to the disappointing news this week that the league officially canceled the first two series of the 2022 regular season, including Opening Day. American Jews have a long and rich love affair with b...
Hope Hospice is among a select number of organizations across the country that has earned accreditation from the National Institute for Jewish Hospice. Hope Hospice is one of 52,000 members of NIJH working together to provide enhanced care to address the diverse needs of Jewish families in a caring, dignified manner. “At Hope, we make every effort to serve each person, at every stage in their life’s journey, in a culturally sensitive way,” said Samira K. Beckwith, president and CEO of Hope Healthcare. “We seek programs and accredi...
(JNS) — The American Jewish Committee announced on Monday that U.S. Rep. Ted Deutch (D-Fla.) will succeed David Harris as the organization’s CEO. “I have worked closely with AJC throughout my tenure in Congress and I am deeply honored to have been chosen to serve as the organization’s next CEO,” Deutch said in a statement. “For 116 years, AJC has worked to protect global Jewry, strengthen Israel’s place in the community of nations, and advance democratic values around the world. I couldn’t be more excited to passionately lead AJC at this cri...
(JTA) — The University of Washington has put its five-year-old Israel Studies Program on hold after a major donor, angry about a professor’s criticism of Israel, took her money back. Becky Benaroya, a prominent Seattle philanthropist, gave $5 million in 2016 to create the program. But after a professor who held the Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Chair in Israel Studies was among hundreds of Jewish studies and Israel studies professors to sign a widely circulated statement criticizing Israel last year, Benaroya became concerned about wha...
(JNS) - The Ohio House Higher Education Committee heard testimony on Feb. 15 on a bill that would require colleges and universities in the state to provide accommodation for students when there are conflicts between class assignments, exams and religious observances. A number of Jewish organizations, including dozens of Hillels, Chabad Houses, historically Jewish fraternities, Jewish Federations and Jewish Community Relations Councils, are supporting the legislation. The bipartisan bill was...
(JTA) — It seemed a slam dunk: The popular conservative cause of banning “critical race theory” in schools, being taken up for a vote in one of the country’s most lopsidedly conservative legislatures. Then a Democrat, one of just seven in the 60-member Wyoming legislature, stood up Thursday and said he could not support the bill because he was Jewish. “In this bill, page 9, line 19 states, ‘The teaching of history must be neutral, without judgment,’” state Rep. Andy Schwartz said during debate. “Now, how can that be possible? If I were a Native...
(JNS) — Neo-Nazis in Florida. Synagogue desecration in Chicago. Regular assaults in Brooklyn, N.Y. When it comes to antisemitism in America, it’s time to start connecting the dots. “If we’re going to better understand the nature and scope of the threats, we need the FBI to lead, taking everyone out of their silo, getting all the information that they’re uniquely positioned to get, and then having a desk that’s going to review things and have access to other agencies — domestic and otherwise — in order for us to quantify and qualify what’s...
BOSTON (JTA) — For nearly a month, a small liberal arts college just miles outside of Boston has been roiled by a spate of hate incidents, including antisemitic graffiti and threatening racist language, prompting the school to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of anyone involved. The incidents at Curry College, located in Milton, a suburb south of Boston, began Jan. 27, when International Holocaust Remembrance Day is observed worldwide, with reports of drawings of swastikas and discriminatory and h...
(JNS) - A Jewish man from Ann Arbor, Mich., is hoping that the U.S. Supreme Court will consider whether anti-Jewish protesters outside a local synagogue on Shabbat morning violate his right to freely practice religion. "I think Jews have to stand up for themselves against people who are obviously Jew-haters," says Marvin Gerber. "People of Beth Israel have the right to be free from harassment." The case stems from weekly anti-Israel and anti-Jewish protests led by Henry Herskovitz in front of...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Julie Platt is a one-time banker who has become a leader in promoting Jewish education and helping to rescue Jewish camping from the ravages of the pandemic. Now, she's about to make history as the second woman to chair one of the largest Jewish fundraising powerhouses in the United States, the Jewish Federations of North America. She's also musical star Ben Platt's mom. The JFNA on Tuesday said that Platt would assume the leadership of the umbrella body for Jewish federations...
ANN ARBOR, Michigan (JTA) – In the latest twist in the long-running legal saga over a small group of protesters who have gathered weekly outside a Michigan synagogue for the past 18 years, a judge has ruled that Jewish worshippers who lost a lawsuit against the protesters must pay them more than $150,000 in legal fees. U.S. District Court Judge Victoria Roberts ruled on Jan. 25 that the two plaintiffs - including one who is a Holocaust survivor - and their lead attorney who had sued the group o...
(JTA) –When Rabbi Larry Sernovitz was asked to deliver the morning devotion to the Georgia state legislature, he came armed with an ancient alarm: A shofar, the ram’s horn blown in synagogues during the high holy days. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Sernovitz made history Tuesday when he blew a shofar in the legislature, a first for the state legislature — and, according to Howard Mortman, an author who has tracked rabbinical benedictions in legislatures, probably the first in any U.S. legislature. Sernovitz, the rabbi of Kol E...
(JNS) — In a video conversation with Jewish leaders and community members last week, White House liaison to the Jewish community Chanan Weissman spoke about the tense moments and actions he took last month when an armed assailant held four congregants hostage, including the rabbi, at Congregation Beth Israel synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, leading to a nearly 11-hour standoff with authorities. The moderator of the Feb. 7 event, Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, asked Weissman what i...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Less than a week after the Jewish Federations of North America removed hot button items such as addressing gun violence and defending LGBTQ rights from their annual priorities list, the umbrella group added them back into a subsequent and more detailed policy document. The JFNA’s Working Public Policy Agenda, released late Friday, includes more than a hundred words on gun violence prevention. It encourages Congress to double funding for research into the causes of gun violence and calls for increased funding for the enf...
