Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 887 - 911 of 1890
(JNS) — A federal judge has denied Bernie Madoff’s request for compassionate release from prison in which the disgraced financier claimed to be terminally ill and likely to die in the next 18 months. Madoff, 82, has served 10 years of a 150-year sentence for running a Ponzi scheme worth almost $65 billion — the largest in history and one that inflicted heavy financial loss upon Jewish investors. Following his request in February to be released early, 520 of his victims wrote to the court with 96 percent of them objecting to such a move. “When...
(JTA) — More than 800 rabbis and cantors, including the leaders of three major denominations, signed a statement in support of peaceful protest against racism and in memory of George Floyd. The statement invoked Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, an iconic Jewish civil rights activist who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It was written and distributed by the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, a political advocacy organization that has a long history of civil rights activism. “Mr. Floyd was a victim of the nation’s long history...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - As many Jewish organizations across the United States sent out statements decrying racism over the past week, the head of the Zionist Organization of America took a different approach. Black Lives Matter "is a Jew hating, White hating, Israel hating, conservative-Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous Soros-funded extremist group of haters," ZOA President Mort Klein tweeted on Saturday. That tweet, expressing anger as others sought to show solidarity with nationwide...
The Katz School of Science and Health at Yeshiva University has created the Bright Futures Scholarship Initiative for students seeking master’s degrees in science and technology in industries that are redefining the modern economy and high technology in New York and around the world. For a flat rate tuition of $25,000, students admitted for the 2020-2021 academic year can now complete master’s degrees in artificial intelligence, biotechnology management and entrepreneurship, cybersecurity, data analytics and visualization, digital mar...
(JNS) - Amid the rise in anti-Semitism in the United States and abroad, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Never Again Education Act into law as part of Jewish American Heritage Month, one month after the 75th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany. The story behind the passage of this landmark legislation is one that transcended the usual partisan politics of Washington, D.C., bringing together Jewish and Christian groups, and liberal and conservative lawmakers in a rare display of bipar...
(JNS) — The annual AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C., has been canceled for 2021 due to issues concerning the coronavirus, announced the pro-Israel lobby’s president, Betsy Berns Korn, in a mass email on Sunday. “On behalf of the AIPAC Board of Directors, I’m writing to let you know that given the continued uncertainties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, and without a predictable avenue to safely bring together thousands of pro-Israel Americans, we have been forced to cancel the 2021 AIPAC Policy Conference,” she wrote. “While we...
ORLANDO, FL — As Jewish National Fund-USA continues to support Israel’s immediate needs in response to the global health pandemic, the organization is preparing to phone thousands of supporters in Northern Florida as part of its June 14 Spectacular Sunday telethon. In addition to a world-class line up of online entertainment, the day of giving will also feature a $1 million match enabling donors to double the value of their gift for the land and people of Israel. “I have always admired the Jewish National Fund for its unwavering commi...
(JNS) — Jewish and pro-Israel organizations have expressed outrage over the death of African-American George Floyd, 46, who died on May 25 in the custody of Minneapolis police. Police officer Derek Chauvin put his left knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes on May 25, according to the criminal complaint against the officer, causing Floyd physical distress to the point where he lost consciousness and needed medical attention. Three other police officers were also on site. The incident, filmed on civilian phones, went viral. Floyd was acc...
(JTA) — Right-wing conspiracy theorists are increasingly claiming that George Soros is funding recent protests and riots across the United States in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing. According to the Anti-Defamation League, “aggressive language towards Soros has exploded on social media” this week. Negative tweets about the billionaire Jewish philanthropist rose from 20,000 per day on May 26 to 500,000 per day on May 30. The posts, according to the ADL, mostly allege (without evidence) that Soros is funding riots across the country, an...
(JTA) - Dr. Vivian Fischer spent five hours Saturday walking toward Minneapolis's devastation from her home in a suburb immediately outside the city. The family physician put on gray scrubs, her stethoscope, a mask and gloves, filled a backpack with whatever she had at home - extra masks, medical gloves, asthma inhalers, bandages, tweezers to pick glass out of cuts and water, and went to see where she could help. She found countless people sweeping up the glass on the streets from storefront...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Never Again Education Act, which seeks to expand Holocaust education in the United States, into law on Thursday. The U.S. House of Representatives passed the legislation in January, while the U.S. Senate did so on May 13. The new law expands the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s education programming to teachers nationwide, requiring the museum to develop and disseminate resources to improve awareness and understanding of the Holocaust and its lessons. A total of $2 million will be allocated ann...
(JTA) — Many New York City restaurants are closing for good as their owners are unable to pay rent during the state’s shutdown, which has now gone on for more than eight weeks. In addition to the city’s high rents, eateries catering to observant Jews have to shoulder additional costs. Kosher products, especially meat, is pricier than nonkosher counterparts. Kosher certification can cost more than $1,000 a month and many eateries hire full-time kosher supervisors. Most kosher restaurants are also closed on Shabbat, which means they lose a cruci...
(JTA) — His rise was meteoric and his fall just as sudden. Dr. Vladimir Zelenko, an Orthodox Jewish doctor who rose to fame in March while promoting a cocktail of drugs he claimed had successfully treated coronavirus — including one that President Donald Trump said Monday he is taking himself, despite the drug’s potentially dangerous side effects — has announced that he is leaving the Jewish community where he has practiced medicine for decades. In a video shared by the Orthodox news site Yeshiva World News, Zelenko announced he would leave Kir...
By Ben Sales (JTA) - Here's a story that would have been unremarkable until just a few months ago: A Jewish camp is planning to open this summer. Camp Modin in Maine has announced that it will open July 9 - two weeks later than originally planned - despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. And it has set out a detailed plan to make it happen. "COVID is something that's going to be with us for the foreseeable future," said Howard Salzberg, the camp's co-director with his wife, Lisa Wulkan Salzberg....
(JTA)—At the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, and as recently as a couple weeks ago, some Jewish camps had hoped they could run for part of the summer. For a growing number of camps, that hope now appears to be vanishing. Two Conservative Ramah camps look increasingly likely to cancel their sessions this year. And two state governments—Georgia and Connecticut—have, for now, prohibited overnight camps from running in their states. Each of the states is home to several Jewish camps. While neither of the Ramah camps—in Wisconsin and California...
(JTA)—The Senate has introduced legislation to enhance partnerships between American and Israeli companies on COVID-19 projects, thus lessening U.S. dependence on China for life-saving medications and treatments. The bipartisan legislation was introduced on Wednesday as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, on a whirlwind eight-hour visit to Israel, criticized China while praising Israel. “You’re a great partner,” Pompeo said in an appearance with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before their meeting in Jerusalem. “You share your informati...
(JTA)—The network of 10 Conservative Jewish Ramah camps in North America will lose approximately half of their collective annual revenue if they all need to cancel camp and refund tuition—a total shortfall of $27 million. But Ramah leadership is confident that even without the 2020 season, the camps will be around for 2021. “If we don’t run our camps, we’re going to mitigate about half of our expenses, but that leaves a lot of money to be raised,” said Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, the director of...
(JTA)—The Conservative Jewish youth group United Synagogue Youth is canceling its summer travel programs for teens, the latest in a string of canceled Jewish summer programs. The announcement comes as several Conservative Ramah summer camps are set to announce that they are canceling their sessions amid the coronavirus pandemic. Some two-dozen camps, including those run by the Union for Reform Judaism, already have announced that they will cancel this summer. “It is with a heavy heart that we share this news with you, that due to the cur...
(JTA)-Nearly all Reform Jewish summer camps, and at least one Conservative camp, will remain closed for the 2020 summer due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned. The landmark decision, made Thursday afternoon, will affect 15 Reform overnight camps across the country, which collectively served some 10,000 campers in 2019. The Reform movement, the largest in the United States, is the first to suspend its official summer camp network. It's the first time... Full story
(JTA)-After Marilee Shapiro Asher was admitted to the hospital in mid-April sick with COVID-19, her daughter got a call from the doctor telling her she ought to get down there right away. Her mother likely had only 12 hours to live. "Well, he doesn't know my mother, does he?" Joan Shapiro said. What the doctor didn't know was that Asher, a 107-year-old working artist, had already survived one global pandemic. And she was about to survive another. In 1918, then about 6 years old, Asher contracted... Full story
(JTA)—The nonprofit organization leading an emergency coalition to coordinate the Jewish response to the pandemic-induced financial crisis has itself slashed its staff. Jewish Federations of North America, an umbrella group of communal fundraising and programming organizations across the country, announced layoffs and executive salary cuts in a message to board members and federation executives Wednesday. “We need to redirect resources,” CEO Eric Fingerhut and chair Mark Wilf said in the message. “Accordingly, we have today implemented a plan...
(JTA)-Every summer, JCC Ranch Camp in Colorado gives hundreds of kids an outdoorsy Jewish experience. There's hiking, mountain biking, ropes courses and horseback riding, along with the traditional camp staples of team sports, arts and crafts, meals in a communal dining hall and hours of hanging out on acres upon acres of green space. Crucially, the kids enjoy independence from their parents-and the same for parents from their kids. Not this year. Like a growing group of Jewish camps across the...
(JTA)-Andrew Parver's phone hasn't stopped ringing since Sunday. That's when Parver, the director of operations at the Hebrew Free Burial Association in New York City, put out a call for donations of prayer shawls for traditional Jewish burials. Less than 48 hours later, he had collected 150 himself and pledges of hundreds more to come from as far away as South Florida and Pittsburgh. "My phone yesterday was nonstop-phone calls, emails, WhatsApps," Parver told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Tu... Full story
(JNS)—Amid an uproar from conservative members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations over the nomination of Dianne Lob from HIAS as its next chair, the Jewish umbrella organization announced that its current chair, Arthur Stark, will serve for another year, with Lob serving as chair-elect. In an email to members on Sunday, the Conference said that it has approved the creation a chair-elect position as a way to “forge greater unity in the Conference.” It said “we believe it is in the best interest of the forward... Full story
(JTA)—With many of its normal activities interrupted because of the coronavirus pandemic, Hillel International, the umbrella organization for centers for Jewish student life on college campuses around the world, has laid off or furloughed 30 positions at its Washington, D.C., headquarters—over 20 percent of its workforce. The cuts were made last week, according to an email announcement sent Friday to Hillel staffers across the country. There are approximately 1,000 employees at Hillels around the world, most of which operate as independent org... Full story
