Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Many American Jews assume that it's easy to be Jewish in Israel given the ubiquity of Hebrew and history in the Jewish state, where one needn't pay tens of thousands of dollars annually for day school or thousands for synagogue membership to raise children who are knowledgeable about Judaism. But senior Israeli educators told JNS that is not the case. Several Israeli education officials, who spent a week visiting New York schools and synagogues, told JNS that Israeli students aren't...
(JNS) — Community leaders, scholars and Jewish advocacy groups largely welcomed New York City’s announcement of a planned Holocaust memorial to be constructed at Queens Borough Hall. But some cautioned that remembrance alone is insufficient to confront contemporary Jew-hatred. Edward Rothstein, critic-at-large at the Wall Street Journal, told JNS that he doesn’t have specific knowledge of the particular memorial, which Mayor Eric Adams and Donovan Richards, the Queens Borough president, announced last month, but there “is no question that es...
(JNS) — Yeshiva University’s latest IRS Form 990 shows that the school ended fiscal year 2023 deeper in the red than the prior year, as spending again exceeded reported revenue. The filing, which the Commentator, a student paper, reported, lists $394 million in total revenue and $427 million in total expenses, producing a $33 million net loss. The shortfall widened substantially from 2022, when it reported an $8 million loss. Major spending categories included more than $130 million in salaries and wages, more than $116 million in grants and...
(JNS) — Eric Adams, the outgoing New York City mayor, was asked on Friday during an ABC interview at Gracie Mansion what advice he has for Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect. “You’re the mayor now, and it can’t be merely listening to the extremism of his party, like the Democratic Socialists of America, who never governed anything,” Adams told Bill Ritter, of the network. “You are now the mayor. You have to make tough decisions, and if you believe that you could just push those decisions to the side, it’s not going to happen.” The mayor told ABC...
(JNS) — Dora Pekec, press secretary for Zohran Mamdani, told Jewish Insider on Thursday that the New York City mayor-elect “has discouraged” the language that protesters used outside Park East Synagogue in Manhattan the prior night “and will continue to do so.” She added that her boss “believes every New Yorker should be free to enter a house of worship without intimidation, and that these sacred spaces should not be used to promote activities in violation of international law.” The 200 protesters who reportedly shouted calls for violence agai...
New York Rep. Elise Stefanik announced a run for governor Friday, as the Republican seeks to leverage her elevated profile as a vocal supporter of the Jewish community to a role in higher office. She aims to challenge the Democratic incumbent Kathy Hochul, who angered many Jews in New York with her endorsement of New York City's mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani, despite his track record of Israel criticism. In an announcement video for Stefanik's gubernatorial run, a narrator notes that she "fought...
A coalition of progressive Jewish organizations is condemning the Anti-Defamation League for what it calls “Islamophobic and racist” attacks on New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. In a statement released Tuesday, the groups criticized the ADL’s creation of a “Mamdani Monitor” to track policies and personnel appointments that the ADL views as threatening Jewish security. The signatories — including New York Jewish Agenda, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, IfNotNow, J Street NYC, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call...
(JNS) — Hours after Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Israel, self-identified socialist, was elected mayor of New York City, the Anti-Defamation League said that it is launching a tip line for city residents to reported Jew-hatred and a “Mamdani monitor.” The latter will be a “public-facing tracker monitoring policies, appointments and actions by the Mamdani administration that impact Jewish community safety and security.” “Drawing from tipline reports as well as enhanced ADL research capabilities, this Mamdani Monitor will provide transparenc...
(JNS) — A poll in the New York City mayoral race released on Monday shows state representative Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, with a double-digit lead in a three-way race against independent, former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo and the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. The AARP/Gotham poll of 1,040 likely voters shows Mamdani leading with 43.2% of the vote against Cuomo’s 28.9 percent and Sliwa’s 19.4 percent. But those margins would tighten considerably if either of the trailing candidates were to drop out of the race. “In a head-...
(JNS) — The New York City mayoral race has narrowed to three candidates following incumbent Eric Adams’s decision to drop out on Sunday, but polling suggests that that will do little to increase the odds for former governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa to defeat the Democratic frontrunner, state representative Zohran Mamdani, in the general election in November. Experts told JNS that the political defeat of one of the most philosemitic and pro-Israel mayors in the city’s history at the hands of a self-described socia...
(JNS) — Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Sunday expressed his gratitude to New York Mayor Eric Adams, after the latter announced he was bowing out of the city’s mayoral race. “Eric Adams chose NYC over his ego, trying to save it from the crazy communist,” Ohana said on X, referring to front runner and anti-Zionist Zohran Mamdani. Adams was polling fourth after Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, according to the New York Post. Thus his exit from the race improves the chances of Cuomo and Sliwa, conside...
(JNS) — Oziel Vatik, the mayor of the Samaria village of Kedumim, was subjected to harassment and threats in New York while visiting the city as part of an official Yesha Council delegation on Sunday, he told JNS. Vatik told JNS he was holding security consultations by phone following the deadly terrorist attack near Kedumim on Sunday when a woman came up to him and started shouting. “She shouted at me: ‘You’re Israeli, you piece of…’ and other curses in English,” he said, adding: “Out of respect for you, I won’t repeat them.” “Just as i...
Adams is out — but who will get his votes? Mayor Eric Adams quit his reelection bid on Sunday, ending an unpopular, scandal-ridden administration and a longshot campaign to hold onto Grace Mansion. Adams was consistently polling fourth, behind Democratic nominee and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. But Jews made up an important part of his base. According to a Quinnipiac poll released earlier this month, of the 12 percent of voters who favored Adams, 42 percent said they were Jewish. A...
(JNS) — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, wrote in The New York Times on Sunday that she is endorsing Zohran Mamdani, a state representative with a long history of denouncing Israel, for New York City mayor, giving the Democratic socialist his most high-profile backing to date. “I didn’t leave my conversations with Mr. Mamdani aligned with him on every issue,” she wrote. “But I am confident that he has the courage, urgency and optimism New York City needs to lead it through the challenges of this moment.” Mamdani beat Andrew Cuomo, a fo...
(JNS)— It’s literally a rite of passage, or at least, a rite. For the past five years, Chabad of Bedford in Bedford Corners, N.Y., has held Tashlich in Leonard Park in the nearby village of Mount Kisco, N.Y. This year, however, the Jewish center, which has been directed by Rabbi Arik and Sara Wolf for 22 years—they arrived in 2003—has been denied a permit to use the public property for the Rosh Hashanah tradition, scheduled for Sept. 23. The Tashlich ceremony is one where Jews gather to “cast off” their sins, typically throwing pieces of b...
(JNS) — Unidentified individuals spray-painted “NYT Lies, Gaza Dies” on The New York Times building in Manhattan on Wednesday, with sections of the structure’s doors and windows also daubed with red paint. The incident follows heightened criticism of the newspaper’s coverage of the Gaza conflict. The perpetrators remain unknown. The graffiti appeared hours after The New York Times issued an editor’s note amending its July 24 article, “Gazans are dying of starvation.” Five days after publication, the Times acknowledged that its story reference...
An Orthodox Jewish music festival will take place in Bethel, New York on Aug. 7 - at the very same location where the iconic Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August 1969. Called Yamim Ba'im, or "The Coming Days," the four-act, family-friendly outdoor concert will occur at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Thursday, August 7. The venue, whose Pavilion Amphitheater and lawn seats 16,000, will host some of the biggest names in Jewish music, with Orthodox Israeli superstar Ishay Ribo...
Eric S. Goldstein, who has served as CEO of UJA-Federation of New York for 11 years, will step down next summer as the head of North America’s largest and most influential Jewish federation. In a statement Tuesday announcing his departure, Goldstein reflected on a tenure marked by several communal crises, bracketed by two wars in Gaza and including the COVID pandemic. “I remember well my plans for that first summer of 2014. I expected to learn the ropes and ease into the job. History, tragically, had other plans. On June 30, 2014, the bod...
Though he was elected to represent Astoria, Queens in New York’s State Assembly, Zohran Mamdani — who last week pulled off a stunning upset in New York City’s mayoral primary — has called the Palestinian cause “central to my identity,” both in and out of politics. Mamdani consistently and proudly associates with the pro-Palestinian movement in high-profile settings across New York City. Take Saturday night, for instance, when he took the stage with Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian protest leader who was detained by the Trump administrat...
Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael, the Jewish National Fund, will be allocating $100,000 to support New York City's Israel parade for the first time. The annual parade, known as Israel Day on Fifth, took place on Sunday, May 18, with the theme "Hatikvah," the name of Israel's national anthem, which means "the hope." KKL-JNF billed it as the "largest global gathering in support of Israel." The allocation by KKL-JNF underscores an effort to strengthen bonds between Israeli and American Jews, the group...
(JNS) — After a seven-year hiatus, Israel’s Consulate General in New York revived its official Israeli Independence Day celebration with an event in Midtown Manhattan on Sunday night that blended solemn speeches with Israeli folk dancing, themed cocktails and reflections on the country’s resilience in the wake of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. As many as 800 guests attended, including the mayor of New York City, Eric Adams; Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.); and Ofir Akunis, the Israeli consul general in New York,...
Crown Heights, Brooklyn. That was the destination for a recent memorable, uplifting Shabbaton sponsored by JLI, the educational arm of Chabad Lubavitch. More than 25 people who represented the Chabad of North Orlando thought they were leaving home in Orlando for a weekend away. What most people said after the weekend was that they felt like they had arrived at home in Crown Heights. Here's how some of the participants described their two-and-a-half days in one of the world's premier bastions of...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump was right to seek the removal of Harvard University’s tax-exempt status, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), chairwoman of House Republican Leadership and a Harvard alumna, told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News. “One hundred percent, President Trump did the right thing. This is an issue that I have been the leader on in the house, and it takes a strong president to deliver zero tolerance when it comes to antisemitism,” Stefanik told Fox News. “The reality is, if you look at the report that Harvard released from its task...
(JTA) — Days after Yeshiva University announced that it would recognize a club supporting LGBTQ students, its president said the values espoused by a typical “Pride” club are “antithetical” to the school. Rabbi Ari Berman also claimed that the Modern Orthodox school’s decision to allow an LGBTQ club, after years of fighting in court not to recognize one, did not represent a reversal. He apologized for how the school had initially communicated the announcement. “I deeply apologize to the members of our community — our students and parents, al...
(JTA) — Immigration authorities have arrested a second Palestinian involved in protests at Columbia University, the Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday. A third person who was involved in pro-Palestinian protests at the school, a current graduate student, “self-deported” earlier this week after having her visa revoked, according to the department. The announcement comes as Columbia reels from both the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian protest leader with a green card, and the loss of $400 million in federal funding as re...
