Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 761 - 785 of 1886
EAST POULTNEY, Vt. (Bennington Banner via JTA) - The autumn leaves crunched underfoot as Netanel Crispe walked uphill toward the northwest corner of the small cemetery. He stopped and examined a toppled headstone. "The last time I was here this was standing up," he said, regarding the weathered, gray stone. "At least it hasn't broken." Crispe brushed away the leaves to reveal a carving at the top of the stone: two raised hands, the gesture used in the delivery of the Birkat Kohanim, Judaism's... Full story
(Jewish Journal via JNS) - Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley called on the Trump administration to declassify a report detailing the current number of Palestinian refugees who are receiving aid from the U.N. Works and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees. "Very important that the Trump administration declassify the report that provides a current estimate of the number of Palestinian refugees who are receiving support. This goes to the heart of speaking hard truths in...
(JTA) — The Supreme Court blocked government restrictions on houses of worship imposed by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in a late-night ruling Wednesday. Deciding two cases at once — one brought by Agudath Israel, an umbrella organization representing haredi Orthodox Jews, and one brought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn — the court ruled that restrictions placed on New York’s “red zones” with high COVID test positivity rates unfairly discriminated against houses of worship. The decision, which split 5-4, was the first in which Justi...
(JTA) - In the more than 30 years that Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel has worked at Agudath Israel, an umbrella organization and advocacy group representing haredi Orthodox Jews, he can't remember a single year where as much of the group's work took place in court. There was the lawsuit challenging New York State for applying different standards on attendance at houses of worship than at businesses. Agudath Israel filed an amicus brief supporting the plaintiffs. There was the case in which Orthodox...
(JNS) A minor league baseball stadium in Lakewood, N.J., served as the outdoor meeting ground for some 500 participants in the JBiz 2020 COVID-19 Business Expo and Conference sponsored by the Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce. The event held on Nov. 16 was attended by both Jews and non-Jews, and featured a recorded message from New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and an address by Mark Zelden, director of the Center for Faith & Opportunity Initiatives, a division of the U.S. Department of Labor. Several local politicians were also in attendance inclu...
When the first wave of coronavirus infections reached the American South, Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, knew the religious school's classes at his synagogue would have to move online. But he also knew his institution was ill-equipped to make that change. "We are a small congregation – 170 households – and our religious school is generally run by volunteer teachers," Cytron-Walker said. "We don't have a paid religious school director. When COV...
The U.S. Parole Commission has issued a certificate terminating parole and lifting all parole restrictions on Jonathan J. Pollard, effective Nov. 21, 2020. According to the law firm Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP, Pollard is no longer subject to a curfew, is no longer prohibited from working for a company that does not have U.S. government monitoring software on its computer systems, is no longer required to wear a wrist monitor that tracks his whereabouts, and is free to travel anywhere, including Israel, for temporary or permanent...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Veteran CNN anchorwoman Christiane Amanpour apologized during her Monday show for having equated the events of Kristallnacht with U.S. President Donald Trump’s term in office. Her comments caused a storm of controversy, including a demand from Israel to issue a retraction. “I observed the 82nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, as I often do. It is the event that began the horrors of the Holocaust. I also noted President Trump’s attacks on history, facts, knowledge and truth,” Amanpour explained. However, she said, “I...
(JTA) — After several challenges to pandemic-induced restrictions on houses of worship citing religious liberty, an Orthodox Jewish advocacy group is taking its case to the U.S. Supreme Court in the hopes that the new conservative majority will rule in its favor. Agudath Israel, an umbrella organization representing haredi Orthodox Jews, is challenging New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s limitations on houses of worship in “red zones,” areas with especially high COVID test positivity rates. Agudath Israel claims that they were implemented in a way t...
(JTA) — Jewish schools and other private schools in New York City will remain open even as the city shutters its public school buildings starting Thursday amid a rise in new COVID-19 cases in the city. City officials decided this summer to shift all schools to virtual learning if the city’s seven-day test positivity rate reached 3 percent. That happened Thursday, according to the city’s data. But the rules do not affect the city’s private schools. That’s because every public school district and private school in New York state was required...
By Ben Sales (JTA) — Weeks after a federal complaint alleged an anti-Semitic climate at the University of Illinois, the university announced it would work with Jewish groups to improve conditions for Jews and pro-Israel students on campus. The campus in Champaign-Urbana, home to 34,000 undergraduates and some 3,000 Jewish undergraduate students, was recently the subject of a legal complaint asking the U.S. Education Department to investigate a “hostile environment of anti-Semitism.” The complaint cited multiple instances of swastika graff...
(J. the Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — The student government at San Francisco State University has approved a divestment resolution targeting Israel that would have the school pull out of investments in companies that do business in Israeli settlements. Following a lengthy and contentious public comment period, Associated Students passed the measure in a 17-1 vote with two abstentions. Nearly two dozen speakers had offered testimonies on both sides of the resolution. The passage of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions r...
(JNS) — Despite retaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Democrats saw a number of significant defeats in the Nov. 3 elections that will shrink their majority going into the 117th Congress. One of the biggest upsets was by Republican Nicole Malliotakis, who defeated incumbent—although newly elected himself two years ago—Democratic Rep. Max Rose in New York’s 11th Congressional District. Rose, 33, who was first elected to Congress in 2018, conceded to the New York State Assembly member on Nov. 12. Out of 717,708 people...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump pulled their children out of a Jewish day school in Washington, D.C., two weeks before Election Day and three weeks after an outbreak of COVID-19 cases in and around the White House. The couple’s children had attended the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital since moving to Washington in 2017 after Donald Trump, Ivanka’s father, became president. Their three kids started a different school, the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy in suburban Maryland, on Oct. 19. “They withdrew...
(JTA) - DOC NYC is one of the world's foremost documentary film festivals, and this year it's all online, just like most other arts festivals in this pandemic moment. Among its 200-plus films are six gems with powerful Jewish themes - from a look inside the powerful AIPAC pro-Israel lobby to the chronicling of Black-Jewish friendship forged in the process of taking a racist case to the Supreme Court. All the movies will be accessible for $12 each, or in special packages of 5 or 10; there are all...
(JTA) - The doctor burst into public view in the pandemic's early days, vaulting from behind the scenes to the front lines of a crisis bringing his community to its knees. Community members hung on his every word and changed their behavior because of him. Seven months later, he still has his adherents, but he also knows that weighing in about ways to curb the spread of COVID-19 comes with a cost - from being dismissed at best to facing violent threats from people who are tired of restrictions...
(JNS) -Jewish groups reacted immediately following the U.S. Senate confirmation on Monday of Amy Coney Barrett as the 115th U.S. Supreme Court justice a week before the Nov. 3 election. Barrett, previously a judge on the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court and a professor at Notre Dame Law School, her law school alma mater, was confirmed 52-48. All but one Republican, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), voted in favor of her nomination, while all Democrats voted against it. She succeeds the late Ruth Bader Gin...
(JTA) — Some Orthodox neighborhoods classified as “red zones” by the state of New York due to their high COVID-19 test positivity rates in recent weeks will soon be allowed to reopen schools and nonessential businesses. But the areas of Brooklyn where Orthodox Jews have staged protests against the restrictions imposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo still have so many new cases that that will remain red, Cuomo announced Wednesday. Cuomo instituted the color-coded zones earlier this month after he criticized New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to...
(JTA) — A virus forced the World Zionist Congress to go virtual for the first time since its founding in 1897. But that didn’t stop last week’s gathering, held once every five years, from being any less crucial — or less contentious — for the future of Israel and the Jewish people. Nor did it dampen enthusiasm for the event among the American delegation, which hailed from 28 states plus Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., after an election last winter that saw record voter participation. Of the 750 delegates to the 38th World Zionist Congress,...
(JNS) — Hate online, particularly anti-Semitism, is continuing to grow at alarming rates, and stopping it will require education, collaboration and a cohesive definition were the findings from the first-of-its-kind, two-day symposium sponsored by the U.S. State Department. “Nowadays, bigots everywhere can spread anti-Semitism online anonymously. In the first eight months of 2020, the Israel anti-Semitism monitoring system recorded 1.7 million anti-Semitic messages from more than 445,000 users on Twitter and YouTube; 37,000 of those mes...
(Israel21c via JNS) — Ten Israeli firefighters flew to California on Aug. 30. Over the course of 15 days of exhausting, dangerous work, they became a battalion of brothers with their California colleagues. “During the time we spent with these Israelis who came to help us, we became much more than coworkers. We bonded with them as part of our firefighting family,” said Chief Scott Lindgren of the Amador-El Dorado Unit of California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). “They b...
(JTA) — Four Jewish candidates are among those vying for 35 open Senate seats this year — and two of them are seen as contenders to convert Republican-held seats to Democratic. All of the Jewish Senate candidates are Democrats or supported by the Democratic Party. (Ten of the 43 Jews in the running for House of Representatives slots are Republicans.) They include a doctor who has killed a bear, a scientist who makes a mean matzoh ball soup, a son of a former vice presidential candidate and a star of the anti-Trump resistance on the cam...
(JTA) — Jewish voters are set to vote 75 percent to 22 percent for Joe Biden, according to a poll by the American Jewish Committee. The poll released Monday shows the Democratic nominee expanding his support among Jewish voters from a 67-30 split in a poll last month and it includes other signs that President Donald Trump is faring poorly among Jewish voters. Trump’s record on bigotry may be the animating factor in his poor performance: Asked which candidate in the Nov. 3 presidential election would better handle anti-Semitism, respondents prod...
By Ron Kampeas, Ben Sales WASHINGTON (JTA) — In an unusual move, the State Department is planning to formally identify three large international human rights organizations as anti-Semitic, citing disputed aspects of the groups’ agendas. Elan Carr, the department’s anti-Semitism monitor, is planning to release a statement calling on governments not to support Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam, congressional sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The planned statement was first reported by Politico on Wednesday, just as as...
The president, Morton Schapiro, said it could be. The activist group said it was not. The ensuing debate has divided Northwestern’s campus just north of Chicago this week, with the school’s Hillel offering students the opportunity to reflect on the incident virtually in small groups Wednesday. The activist group, called NU Community Not Cops, chanted “piggy Morty” outside Schapiro’s home over the weekend, according to an open letter Schapiro wrote on Monday. The group is calling for the abolition of the Northwestern University Police Departmen...
