Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 671 - 695 of 1890
(Jewish News of Greater Phoenix via JTA) - Tucked between a dance school and a '60s retro lounge on a quiet street in Tucson, Arizona, sits a small Middle Eastern and African foods store. But the Al Basha Grocery isn't just a place to get kosher meats and hard-to-find ingredients. "It provides an opportunity for people to see each other as real people and have a normal interaction with people who ordinarily might not interact in their day-to-day lives," said Jesse Davis, a regular Al Basha...
(JTA) — The chancellor of New Jersey’s flagship public university condemned antisemitism and then, following protest from a pro-Palestinian student group, apologized for the condemnation. On Wednesday, the chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Christopher J. Molloy, released a statement condemning antisemitism, which spiked across the country during and after the recent fighting in Israel and Gaza. The statement also condemned “all forms of bigotry, prejudice, discrimination, xenophobia, and oppression, in whatever ways they may be ex...
SKOKIE, Ill. (JTA) — After a synagogue in this Chicago suburb was vandalized on May 16 in what police are calling a hate crime, local rabbis could not dwell on the damage: They had to prepare for Shavuot, the two-day Jewish holiday that began that evening. A week later, though, the rabbis were the engine behind a 500-person rally in this heavily Jewish town against antisemitism. Skokie perhaps is best known as the place town where, in 1977, free-speech advocates fought for neo-Nazis to be able to march, only to have the eventual rally be o...
(JTA) — The organization that advises U.S. Jewish communities on security matters said it recorded an 80 percent spike in antisemitic acts in the last month amid Israel’s 11-day war with Hamas. One of the causes, according to the Secure Community Network, was disinformation spread on social media during and since the exchange of rocket fire. “There may be foreign actors spreading information and disinformation, often tied to antisemitic tropes,” Michael Masters, its CEO, said Tuesday in an interview. “We’re seeing a clear rise in the calls f...
(JNS) — The city council of Cambridge, Mass., rejected a resolution supporting the BDS movement. The resolution, Policy Order #109, was voted down after nearly seven-and-a-half hours of public testimony by more than 300 people late Tuesday. The proposed resolution sought to direct the city manager to “review corporate contracts and identify any companies that are in violation of Cambridge’s policy on discrimination, including (but not limited to) Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard Incorporated over their role in abetting apart...
(JTA) — At least four cases of intimidation or assault against Jews have been reported in the United States since Thursday, in a continuation of what many fear is one of the country’s worst spate in years of antisemitic violence. On Saturday, six men assaulted and punched two Jewish teenagers in Brooklyn on 18th Avenue and Ocean Parkway, reported VINnews. The news site interviewed Mitchel Schwartz, the father of one of the teenagers. One of the men told the teenagers “free Palestine” and made additional references to Israel, the report said. Th...
(JNS) - Snir Dayan and Amit Skornik were hoping for a quiet bagel breakfast last week on a typical day in New York City. But instead, a group of pro-Palestinian protestors tried to punch some holes in them close to 52nd Street and Third Avenue in Manhattan in front of Ess-a-Bagel. It was one of several recent attacks against Jews in New York City by Palestinians or Palestinian supporters, but this time, it turned out a bit differently. Dayan, 27, and Skornik, 26, were trained in Krav Maga, and...
(JTA) — When Ricki moved into her new ground floor apartment in New York City less than a year ago, she felt perfectly comfortable placing a mezuzah on the front door for all who passed through the lobby to see. Today she feels less sanguine about that choice. Ricki hasn’t removed the mezuzah, but she has asked the building’s management to put bars on her windows. And she’s still considering taking down the Jewish symbol. “When I put it up I was really proud of it,” Ricki said, declining to use her last name due to privacy concerns. ...
(JNS) — Inna Vernikov remembers what life was like for families in the former Soviet Union when she was a child. “I remember standing in very long lines with my grandfather—he’d have a ticket so we could get one loaf of bread and one bottle of milk for the entire family,” said Vernikov, who was born in Czernovitz, Ukraine, and immigrated with her family to the United States at the age of 12. Memories like this, the desire to effect change on issues related to crime and New York’s economy, as well as her perception of a parallel between the...
(JNS) — The Anti-Defamation League is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of men who assaulted patrons at a Los Angeles restaurant on Tuesday night in what is being looked at as a hate crime. “We are outraged over reports of this anti-Semitic assault and thank the Los Angeles Police Department for investigating the incident as a potential hate crime,” said ADL Los Angeles regional director Jeffrey I. Abrams. “These acts of hate have no place in our community, and we hope this reward will bring about information that w...
(JTA) — Dozens of American rabbinical students have issued a public letter accusing Israel of apartheid and calling on American Jewish communities to hold Israel accountable for the “violent suppression of human rights.” The letter comes as Israel is engaged in an intense exchange of fire with Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, in which nine Israelis and more than 100 Palestinians have died. Israel is facing fierce criticism from progressive politicians and activists for its airstrikes on Gaza in response to Hamas rocke...
(JTA) — As the world’s attention has turned to the crisis engulfing Israel and the Palestinian territories, a leading media outlet posted a brand-new job opening. The New York Times announced Wednesday that it is looking to hire a reporter who will focus on covering Palestinian affairs. The posting went online just as countless people around the world are wanting to know more about places like the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Sheikh Jarrah, the site of protests and violence over the weekend, and the Gaza Strip, the home of the militant group Hamas, whi...
(JNS) - Across the country from the big cities to suburban towns, thousands of Jews gathered on Sunday to show their support for Israel and to take a stand against the rising number of anti-Semitic incidents. At a rally in New York, Sarri Singer, who survived a 2003 suicide bombing of an Israeli bus, said "whether it is in Paris, London, Brussels, Israel, New York City or anywhere else in the world, terrorism does not discriminate. It can happen anywhere and at any time. All of us have an obliga...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Thousands gathered on Sunday for a pro-Israel rally in New York in response to a series of antisemitic attacks on Israeli and Jewish American communities in the United States in the wake of Israel's "Operation Guardian of the Walls" in the Gaza Strip. The demonstration, "United Against Antisemitism. United Against Terror. United for Us," took place at Ground Zero and in 14 other cities across the United States, among them Miami, Los Angeles, Orlando, Austin, Denver,...
NEW YORK (JTA) — One person was burned when two fireworks were thrown from a car amid an altercation with anti-Zionist protesters in a heavily Jewish New York City business district, according to police. The fight on Thursday evening came on what appeared to be the final day of the conflict between Hamas and Israel prior to a ceasefire that took effect overnight. Additional videos circulating on social media appeared to show other physical altercations between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian demonstrators in New York City earlier in the day. A...
(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) rebuked U.S. President Joe Biden over his statement supporting Israel’s right to defend itself amid escalating violence with Hamas, accusing the president of “siding with occupation.” Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, letting him know that Israel has the “unwavering support” of the United States to defend itself. “I had a conversation with Bibi Netanyahu not too long ago,” said the president. “My expectation and hope is that this will be closing down soon...
(JTA) — On Tuesday, Israel found itself fighting what may be another war in Gaza. And American Jews are watching. Israel and Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, have already traded hundreds of airstrikes and missiles since Monday. Dozens of Palestinians and two Israelis have lost their lives — a number that is likely to rise. As the eyes of the world turn again to violence in Israel, Jews in the United States will be paying attention and speaking out. During past conflicts, American Jewish groups from across the pol...
(JNS) Young American Jews are moving in two very distinct directions—towards Orthodox or little Jewish engagement. That was one of the major findings from “Jewish Americans in 2020,” a new study by the Pew Research Center. This is the second Pew study of Jewish Americans. The first, released in 2013, sent shockwaves through the Jewish community as it found a community that was increasingly less connected and more assimilated than previous generations. The current survey of some 4,700 Jews nationwide shows a community that is increasingly multi...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Last year, when AIPAC wanted a Democrat to sponsor the pro-Israel lobby’s signature legislative effort, it turned to one of its most reliable partners in the Senate, Chris Coons of Delaware. Coons contributed to a result the group wanted: having the $3.8 billion in U.S. defense assistance Israel gets each year codified into law. Yet on Monday, as fighting between Israel and terrorist groups in Gaza escalated, Coons took to Twitter to commit what at an AIPAC conference would certainly elicit boos: He said in specific and har...
(JNS) — The Biden administration has come under withering criticism in the United States and Israel for its poor handling of the current situation in the Middle East. On Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price failed to mention Hamas or Islamic Jihad as terrorist organizations targeting Israeli civilians in his statement to the press. “Israel has the right to defend itself and to respond to rocket attacks,” Price said in his daily briefing. “The Palestinian people also have the right to safety and security just as Israeli...
(JTA) — Tensions among Jewish groups allied with the Biden administration blew into the open this week when a Democratic pro-Israel group briefly called a longtime Jewish leader an enabler of antisemitism — a sign of how potent a debate over a definition of antisemitism has become. Nancy Kaufman led Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council for 20 years, from 1990 to 2010. She has also led the National Council for Jewish Women. Many progressive Jewish leaders have said she would be a good choice for President Joe Biden’s antisemitism monitor...
By Emily Alhadeff (The Cholent via JTA) - Nearly 100 years after Seattle's first Jewish school opened, an effort is underway to restore its crumbling building - as a multi-faith center that can unite Jews and Muslims in the city. So far, the effort has netted more than $40,000 toward a new roof for the building that once housed Seattle Talmud Torah. But that's a drop in the bucket for what a growing collective of Seattleites are hoping to generate to turn the Cherry Street Collective into a...
(JNS) — The American Jewish Committee released on Tuesday an updated and expanded edition of Translate Hate, the group’s widely used glossary of common antisemitic terms and tropes. According to AJC, the date of the 2021 edition’s release commemorates the second anniversary of the fatal attack on Chabad of Poway, Calif., and includes more than 40 terms and expressions that are examples of antisemitism, explaining their nature when used in certain contexts and their origins. The illustrated glossary has been widely downloaded and disse...
(JTA) — Despite COVID-related restrictions that kept Americans inside for significant portions of last year, the number of reported antisemitic incidents barely decreased in the United States in 2020, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The number of antisemitic assaults fell sharply, however, and for the first time in three years, no one was killed in an antisemitic attack. The ADL’s annual audit, published Tuesday, tallied 2,024 incidents of antisemitism in the U.S. in 2020, a decline of only 4 Percent from the 2,107 recorded in 2019. Th...
(JNS) — Saying that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees has outlived its mandate, a group of Republican members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee sent a letter last week to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressing concern over the United States providing funding to the organization. The authors wrote that the original intent of UNRWA was to address the needs of Palestinian refugees in the aftermath of the 1948 Israeli-Arab conflict, but in the past 60 years, it has changed its definition of refugee away f...
