Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 786 - 810 of 1886
(JNS) - The American Jewish Congress announced on Tuesday that it has picked Joel Rubin, who served as the liaison to the Jewish community for the Democratic presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), as its next executive director. Rubin, 49, a co-founder of the American Jewish lobby group J Street, is AJCongress's first Washington-based director in a decade. Jack Rosen, president of the 102-year-old organization, said in a statement, "The Jewish community is facing significant risks...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two Orthodox umbrella groups and the Jewish Federations of North America joined a faith groups’ letter to congressional appropriators asking them to quadruple funds for security grants for vulnerable nonprofits, to $360 million. The letter, also signed by Christian, Sikh and Muslim groups, says the $90 million available has run out. “At a time of increasing extremism and antagonism towards different religious groups and religion in general, we believe significant increased funding for this important government program in fi...
(JNS) Supporters of a grassroots group seeking to end anti-Semitism held a rally outside of the New York Public Library last Thursday to express their dismay with recent comments and actions by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio that have been perceived as targeting the Jewish community. “Governor Cuomo and Mayor de Blasio’s continued attacks against the Jewish community are outrageous. Never in my life did I think I would see this type of blatant Jew-hatred from our public officials,” said Brooke Golds...
(JNS) — If the U.S. elections were held today — two weeks before the Nov. 3 election — 83 percent of Orthodox Jews would vote for U.S. President Donald Trump, according to a poll released on Wednesday. An Ami magazine poll of 1,000 Orthodox Jews in 22 states reported that only 13 percent of respondents would vote for former Vice President Joe Biden, while 4 percent said someone else or noted that they were undecided. In response to the question of how Trump “is covered by the mainstream media,” 76 percent said “mostly unfair,” 14 percent said...
(JTA) — Protests by Orthodox Jews against New York’s crackdown on gatherings in their neighborhoods turned tense and at times violent Tuesday night as throngs of young men demonstrated in the streets of Borough Park. The late-night protest in a heavily Orthodox area of Brooklyn took aim at new restrictions that would close schools, limit attendance at synagogues services and close nonessential businesses in areas with upticks in COVID-19. The protesters set fire to a pile of masks, at one point surrounded a city bus that was moving through the...
(JTA) – It won’t just be schools that close in areas of New York City with many COVID-19 cases. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has announced new restrictions on houses of worship, with services in some parts of the state capped at just 10 people. The new restrictions will go into effect by Friday, as Jewish communities begin celebrations of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, the last of the fall holidays, which are generally celebrated with large gatherings and dancing. The decision marks the first time in-person religious services, central to Ort...
(JNS) — Professing his “respect and love” for the Orthodox Jewish community, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced major restrictions and closures in parts of the state designated as “COVID clusters,” areas that have an overwhelmingly large Orthodox community. “I understand the imposition this will place on them,” the governor said on Tuesday afternoon after a morning meeting with leaders in the Jewish community. “I said I need their cooperation; I need their assistance. I asked them to work with me to follow these guidelines, and that was po...
(JTA) — The county health commissioner in upstate New York’s Orange County issued an order Monday closing schools serving students from Kiryas Joel, a community made up of mostly Satmar Hasidic Jews. The village has the highest COVID positivity rate of any town or village in the county, according to the commissioner’s order, with 27.6 percent of COVID tests confirming a positive result in a three-day average. Schools for whom a majority of students come from Kiryas Joel and Palm Tree, a town that overlaps with Kiryas Joel and which is also...
“Blindsided.” That’s how Melissa Engelberg felt after being laid off in April due to COVID-19 cutbacks. “I was shocked, I was sad and I was worried,” said Engelberg, who lost her job as director of grants and programs at the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County. “I understood the reason — the times are just so unprecedented — but this was my dream job and I had never lost a job before.” Engelberg let colleagues and friends know she was seeking a new position. Soon afterward, two people alerted her to Rise, a new initiative to help the r...
(JTA) — A new report from the Department of Homeland Security names white supremacists as the biggest domestic terror threat in the United States. The Homeland Threat Assessment, released on Tuesday, details an array of violent domestic threats in the United States. It also notes that, among other qualities, white supremacists are characterized by their hate of Jews, or by “their perception that the government is controlled by Jewish persons.” It comes a week after President Donald Trump declined to denounce white supremacists from the presi...
(JNS) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would make ethnic-studies courses a high school graduation requirement. Newsom, a Democrat, cited the ongoing pushback over the curriculum for why he vetoed the measure, AB-331. "I value the role ethnic studies plays in helping students think critically about our history and understand the experience of marginalized communities in our state," he wrote in his veto message. "This academic discipline will help prepare our young adults to...
(JTA) – One New York City private Jewish high school shut down Monday after two students in 11th grade and two students in 12th grade tested positive. Several students in the younger grades exhibited symptoms. In a boys’ yeshiva high school in New Jersey’s Bergen County, a suspected COVID case in an 11th grader sent the entire grade home for quarantine. In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people. “We spent a lot of time, energy...
(NY Jewish Week via JTA) — Students at Columbia University have passed a first-ever referendum to boycott and divest from companies that “profit from or engage in the State of Israel’s acts towards Palestinians.” The news was released to the Columbia student body via email Tuesday morning, the day after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. According to the vote results shared with The Jewish Week, 61 percent of undergraduates who weighed in (1,081 votes) voted in favor of the referendum, 27 percent (485 votes) voted against it, and 11 percent...
(JTA) — The University of Illinois student government included a call for divestment from companies that do business with Israel as part of a resolution in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. The university’s Office of Student Affairs condemned the nonbinding resolution, which passed last week in a 22-11 vote with seven abstentions. “It is unfortunate that a resolution before the group tonight was designed to force students who oppose efforts to divest from Israel to also vote against support for the Black Lives Matter movement,” the Of...
(JNS) — More than 160 U.S. House Democrats voted on Sept. 16 against an amendment to combat anti-Semitism. The Republican-offered measure was added to a Democrat-backed bill, the Equity and Inclusion Enforcement Act, which would allow for the filing of private civil suits for breaches of federal rules that “prohibit discrimination on the ground of race, color or national origin in programs or activities receiving federal financial assistance.” The amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) and would require that anti-...
(JNS) - Jewish groups expressed mixed reactions to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement on Sept. 26 that he has nominated U.S. Seventh Circuit Court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court. Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 from "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," according to a statement from the...
(JTA) — Parents of students attending Jewish schools in New York City are being encouraged not to have their children tested for COVID-19 to prevent the schools from being shut down. On Thursday, this message made the rounds on WhatsApp, a popular messaging platform in Orthodox communities: a “DO NOT test your child for covid,” the message began. “The city has released new guidelines that mandate CLOSURE of an ENTIRE SCHOOL if there are two positive tests in the school.” It went on to encourage parents to obscure suspected COVID-19 infection...
(JTA) — An exchange Wednesday on a Fox News show struck many as remarkable: Newt Gingrich, the former Republican House speaker, blamed “George Soros’ money” for violence in American cities before being shut down by two other panelists on “Outnumbered.” The next day saw an apology — from the show for not letting Gingrich finish. Depicting Soros — the Jewish American Holocaust survivor, financier and liberal megadonor — as President Donald Trump’s chief opponent and the source of America’s ills has become increasingly common among Republicans. He...
(JNS) - Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the first Jewish woman to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 87 at her home in Washington, D.C. Ginsburg, a heralded liberal judicial, feminist and Jewish icon who was the second woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died from "complications of metastatic pancreas cancer," according to a statement from the Supreme Court shortly after her death. Her passing came on the eve of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year 5781, and just six...
(JTA) - Abraham Foxman, the former longtime leader of the Anti-Defamation League, has broken his tradition of not endorsing political candidates to back Joe Biden, arguing that President Donald Trump is a "demagogue" whose reelection would be a "body blow for our country and our community." Foxman laid out his thinking in an opinion piece for The Times of Israel in which he asserted that Trump's presidency has "given succor to bigots, supremacists, and those seeking to divide our society" and...
Washington, D.C. — More than 200 local, state and national organizations are calling on Congress to examine issues arising from the current spate of federal executions, and ultimately to abolish the federal death penalty. A growing number of Jewish organizations and clergy have joined the effort. “These executions are set to take place during a time when Jews are focused on repentance, forgiveness, mercy and charity,” said Cantor Mike Zoosman, a member of the Board of Advisors of Death Penalty Action. “I am one of those who used to support...
(JTA) — A survey of Jewish voters shows 67 percent plan to vote for Joe Biden in November and 30 percent plan to vote for Donald Trump. The numbers in the survey released Monday by the Jewish Electorate Institute broke the same way when voters were asked about President Trump’s performance: 67 percent said they disapprove and 30 percent said they approve. The survey suggested gains for Trump among Jewish voters since 2016, when Hillary Clinton won 71 percent of the vote to Trump’s 24 percent. Mitt Romney, the Republican candidate in 2012, won 3...
(JTA) - From Hank Greenberg to Sandy Koufax to Alex Bregman, Jews and baseball go way back, to the 19th century. It's not just players and fans - the participation even extends to the role of official baseball historian of Major League Baseball. The first man to hold the title, the legendary Chicago sportswriter Jerome Holtzman, was Jewish, and an inductee to the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Holtzman died in 2008, and in early 2011, the official baseball historian role went to John...
(JTA) — At a virtual fundraiser organized by J Street, the liberal Jewish Middle East policy group, Joe Biden said that President Donald Trump is bad for Israel because he runs a feckless foreign policy. “Trump’s put Israel in danger by tearing up the Iran nuclear deal and replaced it with nothing,” Biden said Thursday. “He’s allowed Israel’s foes to take residence in Syria, a dangerous power vacuum has formed. He’s undermined the stability of self-determination for the Palestinians, undercutting hope for a viable two-state solution any ch...
(JTA) — More than one in 10 American adults under 40 believes that Jews caused the Holocaust. That’s one finding from a survey published Wednesday trying to gauge Holocaust knowledge among millennials and Generation Z, a cohort ranging in age from 18 to 39. The survey found that most respondents had heard of the Holocaust and 37 percent knew that 6 million Jews died. Slightly more than half could name at least one concentration camp or ghetto. But 11 percent of the respondents believed the Jews were responsible for the Holocaust, 15 per...
