Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) Arizona moved to divest from Unilever, the parent company of Ben & Jerry’s, over the ice-cream maker’s decision to stop selling its products in the West Bank and parts of Jerusalem, becoming the first state to take such action. Arizona State Treasurer Kimberly Yee announced last Tuesday that the state will pull some $143 million of investments from the multinational firm by Sept. 21. “As Arizona Treasurer, I’ve divested all state funds from Ben & Jerry’s for boycotting Israel,” Yee announced on Twitter. “Israel is and will continue to b...
(JTA) — The latest politician to compare government vaccination efforts to Nazi Germany is Josh Mandel, a Jewish Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Ohio. In a video last Thursday protesting President Joe Biden’s upcoming requirement that a large portion of private sector employees either get vaccinated against COVID or get tested weekly, Mandel instructed his social media viewers not to comply with the requirement. In doing so, he compared Biden to the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police force that played a major role in carrying out the Hol...
(JNS) - Acting Consul General of Israel in New York Israel Nitzan and the Port Authority Police Department gathered at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum in Lower Manhattan on Tuesday to mark the Jewish calendar's 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and its victims. "That tragic and devastating day was an attack on the free world, democracy and the values we all hold so dear," said Nitzan at the event. "As terror and suffering continue to grow in this world, Israel and...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In a Rosh Hashanah call last Thursday with a thousand rabbis across the denominational spectrum, President Joe Biden rededicated his presidency to combating hate and extremism and called on the Senate to swiftly confirm his nominee for antisemitism monitor, Deborah Lipstadt. In the afternoon webinar, Biden was asked how he intended to combat a spike in antisemitic incidents. He noted that the attorney general, Merrick Garland, was hiring staff to coordinate the prosecution of hate crimes and that his administration was t...
(JTA) — The FBI recorded the largest number of hate crimes last year since 2008, including spikes in the number of anti-Black and anti-Asian hate crimes. Anti-Jewish hate crimes dropped from 953 in 2019 to 676 last year, a decrease of 29 percent. Anti-Jewish crimes again made up the majority of hate crimes based on religion in the annual report, which scholars and officials have cautioned not to view as a comprehensive reflection of the state of hate crimes in America. In total, the FBI announced Monday that it recorded 7,759 hate crimes n...
(JTA) — On a night that brought weather of biblical proportions to the U.S. Open in New York City, Jewish tennis star Diego Schwartzman prevailed over his opponent Kevin Anderson. But that wasn’t the only highlight of his night. Schwartzman’s Round 2 match began on Louis Armstrong Stadium at 7 p.m. — against Anderson, who is about a foot taller than Schwartzman, at 6-foot-8 — but it did not finish until 1:02 am, at the larger Arthur Ashe Stadium. The roof on Armstrong was no match for the storm, an offshoot of Hurricane Ida, that passed through...
(JTA) — Six months after his internet posts attacking Jews came to light, a U.S. Foreign Service officer remains employed by the State Department while at least 70 of his co-workers sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken demanding his dismissal. The letter, sent July 28, argues that Fritz Berggren is a threat to Jewish employees at the State Department, and has violated department rules and ethical standards, Foreign Policy reported after obtaining a copy. “Not only is his propagation of antisemitic ideas highly disturbing and offen...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib called for Israel to return the body of a woman who was killed while she attempted to kill Israeli soldiers. In a Twitter thread on Saturday, Tlaib, one of Israel’s harshest critics in Congress, slammed Israel for its policy of holding onto the bodies of assailants who are killed during an attack. “Meet Mai Afana’s mother, Khuloud, who is fighting to be able to bury her daughter & begin her healing,” wrote Tlaib, a Palestinian American. “Mai was a mother, loving daughter & successful...
(JTA) — A woman is suing Bob Dylan for sexually abusing her when she was 12 under a New York law that temporarily lifted limitations on such lawsuits. The woman, identified in court documents as JC, says the Jewish rock star groomed and exploited her in his room at the Chelsea Hotel over six weeks in 1965, USA Today reported on Monday. She says she suffered physical and psychological harm. A lawyer for Dylan vigorously denied the charges, the newspaper reported. The Chelsea Hotel was at the time a hideout for bohemian artists and musicians. D...
(JTA) — Dozens of progressive Jewish leaders have signed a letter condemning the Israel lobby AIPAC for social media ads targeting Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other members of the group of progressive Congress members known as “the Squad.” J Street, a liberal Israel lobby and rival of AIPAC, spearheaded the letter. In its ad about Omar, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee said the Minnesota Democrat sees “no difference between America and the Taliban, between Israel and Hamas, between democracies and terrori...
NEW YORK — Avi and Becky Katz, long-time Jewish communal leaders, have established a multi-year, multi-million national initiative with NCSY,the flagship youth movement of the Orthodox Union, to support Jewish identity programs for public school teenagers. Their $3 million dollar gift will focus on the OU’s national Jewish Student Union program and will be called the Katz Family Initiative Driving Impact in JSU. JSU is NCSY’s network of extracurricular Jewish “clubs” that take place in public high schools across the USA and Canada. Through i...
(New York Jewish Week/JTA) - Kathy Hochul, who is set to succeed Andrew Cuomo as governor of New York, is no stranger to the New York Jewish community. Cuomo resigned Tuesday, a week after a state investigation concluded that he sexually harassed 11 women. He had faced intense pressure to step aside, including from President Joe Biden, or face impeachment. Cuomo enjoyed a warm working relationship with Jews across the denominational spectrum. As Cuomo's surrogate, Hochul has made it a point to...
(TCJewfolk via JTA) — A Jewish summer camp in Wisconsin sent its campers and staff home three days early following a COVID outbreak affecting nine cabins. Herzl Camp in Webster primarily serves Jews from the Twin Cities area and, as of 2019, had about 500 campers ranging from third to 11th grade. Its summer began in mid-June and was due to end on Aug. 4, but camp administrators made the decision to close early on Saturday night. “Out of an abundance of caution and with the health of your children our number one priority, our Medical Com...
(JNS) - A group of Senate Republicans led by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) introduced a bill on Thursday that would prevent the Biden administration's State Department or U.S. Customs and Border Protection from rescinding late 2020 federal guidelines that allow goods produced in Judea and Samaria to be labeled "Made in Israel." If passed, the bill titled the Anti-BDS Labeling Act, would require that current laws regarding the marking of products with "Made in Israel" codified by executive order on...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - President Joe Biden is set to nominate Deborah Lipstadt, the Emory University Holocaust historian, to be the State Department's antisemitism envoy. The White House alerted top Biden supporters of the pick, which has been expected for weeks, on Thursday night, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. Lipstadt is perhaps best known for defeating Holocaust denier David Irving after he sued her in a British court for defamation for calling him a Holocaust denier. Her 2005 book,...
(JTA) — Over the last year, Jewish college students took it upon themselves to combat antisemitism at their schools. Now, two major Jewish organizations are working together to play a stronger role in fighting antisemitism on campus. Some of the student activists documented incidences of antisemitism at colleges nationwide, often submitted anonymously, while others have taken a confrontational tone on social media. With some portraying themselves as the ideological successors to early Zionist activists, the students often argue that a...
(JNS) - Dozens of college students from the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and elsewhere gathered online for the annual CAMERA on Campus conference aimed at empowering young adults to be advocates for Israel in an increasingly hostile environment. As speaker, professor and author Gil Troy told the students, "When you stand up on campus and increasingly in the public square these days, and when you stand up with CAMERA, it takes a huge amount of courage ... All of you have tremendous...
(JNS) — A substantial number of professors from the City University of New York have resigned from their faculty union after it passed an anti-Israel resolution and said it would consider supporting the BDS movement. The Professional Staff Congress, the union that approved the resolution, told the New York Post that at least 50 educators have resigned or sent notice that they intend to do so. “With the PSC-CUNY resolution, you have chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (‘From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the Sta...
(JTA) - Public school unions in the U.S. are increasingly becoming a hotbed of Israel discourse, with the largest teachers' union becoming the latest organized body to deliberate measures that censure Israel and support the Palestinian cause. Members of the National Education Association at the group's annual meeting held over the weekend (with President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, a longtime educator, in attendance) planned to debate two items on Israel and the Palestinians among the...
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (JTA) - Rob Nipe and Nora Rubel hadn't anticipated selling out of pastrami on their opening day. But when you have a vegan butcher shop certified kosher and open up just a few blocks from an Orthodox synagogue, perhaps selling out of pastrami is par for the course. Butcher, of course, is a bit of a misnomer: Everything in Grass Fed - from the sliced "bacon" to the "butter chicken" to the "corned beef" - is made with plant-based ingredients and therefore fairly easy to certify as...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Ben & Jerry’s decision this week to pull out of an agreement that allowed its Israeli franchisee to sell its product in what the company terms “Occupied Palestinian Territory” has angered some Jewish-owned businesses. But the move also could have legal repercussions in the United States. As a result of a campaign since the mid-2010s led by center-right and Christian pro-Israel groups, 33 states have passed laws or issued executive orders targeting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, accordi...
New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio told a news briefing Tuesday that he would stop eating Ben & Jerry’s ice cream after the company announced that it was stopping its sales in Judea and Samaria as soon as the Israeli franchise’s license runs out in December 2022. “I can say I will not be eating any more Cherry Garcia for awhile,” de Blasio said in allusion to his favorite flavor, in a video shared on social media. He added that it was “sad to me” that the “good people” who founded the company, Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, were making the...
In light of Ben & Jerry’s recent announcement to stop selling their ice cream in Judea and Samaria because of pro-Palestinian pressure, Dov Hikind, founder of Americans Against Antisemitism, spoke with Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY- District 11) who encouraged her constituents to boycott the ice cream maker. Congresswoman Malliotakis stated, “It’s a shame that they’ve decided to target the Jewish people like this. And I think it’s really important that Americans here send a message to Ben and Jerry’s by not buying their ice cream, quite...
(JNS) - More than 3,000 people from across the country gathered near the U.S. Capitol on Sunday to stand in solidarity against the rising tide of antisemitism across the United States. "No Fear: A Rally in Solidarity With the Jewish People" was organized by more than 100 Jewish and interfaith organizations from across the political and religious spectrum, under the leadership of business executive Elisha Wiesel, son of Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. "Looking out at all of...
(JNS) — The antisemitism watchdog AMCHA Initiative is urging the California Senate Education Committee to vote against a bill that allows high school districts to adopt an antisemitic draft of an ethnic-studies curriculum. “Especially now, as violence in the Middle East is spilling over into vicious attacks on Jews all over the world, including in California, we believe AB 101 directly threatens the safety and well-being of Jewish students in our state, and we urge you to vote ‘no’ on this bill,” said AMCHA Initiative director Tammi Rossman-B...
