Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Amid the rise in anti-Semitism on college campuses, Hillel International announced on Monday that it is launching a new initiative to ensure that university administrators and staff are trained to recognize and confront Jew-hatred. The Campus Climate Initiative will work with administrators to provide measurement tools, best practices, education and training designed to empower university leadership to understand the threats of anti-Semitism, take proactive steps to minimize them and directly address them when they occur. The new i...
(JNS) - A massive fire, followed by an enormous explosion, rocked Beirut on Tuesday, causing a mushroom-cloud-shaped shockwave damaging nearby buildings, including the official residence of the Lebanese president, Michel Aoun. It shattered windows, overturned cars and caused debris to fly across the Lebanese capital. It's unclear what caused the explosion, which occurred between the Port of Beirut and the city's central district. It was initially blamed on a major fire at a warehouse for...
(JNS) - A day after two blasts - one of them an enormous - ripped through Beirut, causing untold destruction, it's still not possible to grasp the true scope of the calamity, a former Israeli Military Intelligence chief has said. Speaking by video conference to journalists, Maj. Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, who served as former deputy commander of the Israeli Air Force and is now executive director of the Institute for National Security Studies, noted that Israel has offered medical assistance to...
(JNS) - Raytheon Missiles & Defense and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. announced on Monday that they have agreed to establish a joint venture to produce Iron Dome weapon systems in the United States. Under the name Raytheon Rafael Area Protection Systems, the partnership will produce both the Iron Dome weapon system, which consists of the Tamir interceptor and launcher, and the SkyHunter missile, a U.S. derivative of the Tamir. The two firms expect to agree on a site location by the end...
(BESA Center via JNS) - In recent years, the People's Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of Iran have expressed a common desire to formalize their comprehensive strategic partnership (which has not yet entered into force) by cooperating in such areas as trade, energy and production capacity. Their willingness to work together arises from historical ties tracing back to the ancient Silk Road, as well as from complementary economic and political interests. A strategic partnership between...
‘Harry Potter’ star Jason Isaacs opens up about his struggle with addiction By Emily Burack (JTA) — British Jewish actor Jason Isaacs opened up about his longtime struggle with drug addiction to the British magazine The Big Issue on Monday, saying he first got drunk at age 12 and “by the age of 16 I’d already passed through drink and was getting started on a decades long love affair with drugs.” “Every action was filtered through a burning need I had for being as far from a conscious, thinking, feeling person as possible. No message would...
(JTA) — After their vocal calls for Twitter to take down rapper Wiley’s spree of anti-Semitic tweets went unanswered, Jews in the United Kingdom are taking another approach: silence. British Jewish activists and their allies — including high-profile celebrities, both Jewish and non-Jewish — are staging a 48-hour boycott of Twitter to protest the platform’s handling of anti-Semitic posts. Among the people and organizations going silent until Wednesday are British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his predecessor Jonathan Sacks, members of Parlia...
(JNS) — In a move that bodes well for Israel, the Democratic National Committee’s platform committee voted on Monday to reject additional language that would make the party’s stance on the Jewish state more critical. The committee voted 117-34 to reject adding the word “occupation” and a condition of U.S. assistance to Israel on the Jewish state not going ahead with its plans to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank, also known as Judea and Samaria. The platform includes language that expresses support for the U.S.-Israel relations...
BERLIN (JTA) — Joining a growing chorus of critical voices, Holocaust survivors have launched an international online campaign criticizing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg that is aimed at countering Holocaust denial on his social media platform. Starting Wednesday, a campaign sponsored by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany called “There’s No Denying It #NoDenyingIt” will upload video testimony daily from survivors across the globe to social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram (owned by Facebook) and Twitter...
(JNS) — The Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center has reached out to the Ontario Minister of Education in search of answers after an anti-Israel video was found to be part of the curriculum of a Grade 10 online civics course, announced the organization in a mass email on Monday. FSWC spoke last week with a parent whose son was required to watch a short video about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of his online summer course taken through the York Region District School Board. According to the video, “The current occupation of the Pal...
(JNS) - Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's release of the "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan earlier this year to help resolved issues associated with the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it remains clear that no negotiations between the two parties are on the horizon amid a Palestinian boycott of the Trump administration. Given this and the ongoing discussion of Israel's imminent move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, questions are being raised over the via...
Remains of 286 Jewish Holocaust victims uncovered in 2 basements in Ukraine By Marcy Oster (JTA) — The remains of 286 Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust were found in two basements in a town in southwest Ukraine. The remains, mostly women and children, will be buried in a mass grave in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Sataniv, Ynet reported. The town had an organized Jewish community for about 500 years before the Nazis captured it in 1941 and began systematically killing its Jews, according to the Yad Vashem website. On May 15, 1942, N...
Trump names former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka to defense education body By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump named Sebastian Gorka to a committee that promotes national security through the education system. A onetime White House staffer, Gorka had come under fire for his associations with the Hungarian far right. On Tuesday, Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board, which oversees the National Security Education Program, a congressionally mandated program that dispenses grants and scholarships t...
(JNS) - Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and increasing tensions between the United States and China, Israeli companies continue to view China as a major market for growth and development. Executives from two such companies have told JNS in recent weeks about their ongoing operations in China. The PTL Group is an Israeli-owned Chinese company that provides support to multiple international companies taking their first steps in the Chinese market. Its chairman, Zvi Shalgo, said in a...
(JNS) - A French appeals court ruled against an American couple that sought to get back the 1887 painting called "La Cueillette des Pois" ("Picking Peas") by Camille Pissarro that was looted from a Jewish collector during World War II and the Holocaust. The court upheld an earlier ruling that the painting should be returned to the family of the collector, Jewish businessman Simon Bauer, according to the text seen by AFP on Wednesday. Purchasers Bruce and Robbi Toll of the Philadelphia area, who...
Aaron Keyak, longtime Jewish political organizer, to head Biden’s Jewish outreach By Philissa Cramer (JTA) — With four months to Election Day, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign now boasts a staffer dedicated to mobilizing Jewish voters. Aaron Keyak, who has already been working on Biden’s campaign, is filling the role, first advertised late last month. Jewish Insider was the first to report Keyak’s appointment on Friday. Keyak is a longtime Democratic political strategist whose work has included leading a Jewish outreach effort for Barack Ob...
BERLIN (JTA) - There were approximately 30,000 Jews in the city of Frankfurt before World War II, making it the largest community in Germany. By the time the U.S. military occupied the city in 1945, there were only about 100 left. "Jewish life was destroyed," said Tobias Freimuller, author of the recently published "Frankfurt and the Jews," a history of the community from 1945-1990. Flash forward to 2020 and the Jewish community of Frankfurt is once again a powerful force in the city, one of...
(JNS) — Israel’s outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reflected on his last five years in office and plans for the future during his final press briefing on Tuesday. Danon’s first move upon returning to Israel will be to visit his mother, who he has not seen in almost a year, he said. Regarding the next step in his career, he shared advice that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave him, which is to take “time before making any commitments.” So, he said, “I’m going to go back to Israel and enjoy it. Rel...
Survey finds Israelis split on annexing West Bank territory By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli public opinion is split on whether the government should annex parts of the West Bank and which territory should be included, a survey found. The Israeli Voice Index for June 2020, a monthly survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, found that 24.5 percent of Israelis support applying sovereignty to all of the West Bank; 14 percent support applying sovereignty to the West Bank settlement blocs; 8 percent support applying sovereignty t...
(JNS) — France, Germany, Egypt and Jordan declared that they would not recognize any moves on Israel’s part to extend sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria. In a statement released on Tuesday by the German Foreign Ministry following a joint video conference on the issue, the foreign ministers of the four countries stated: “We exchanged views on the current state of the Middle East Peace Process and its regional implications. We concur that any annexation of Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 would be a viola...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, members of the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate conveyed their unequivocal support for the U.S.-Israel relationship at day three of Christians United for IsraeI’s 15th Annual Summit. CUFI’s Summit, being conducted virtually this year, featured numerous legislators from both chambers of Congress reassuring their strong commitments to stand with Israel to CUFI members across the country. Speaking to thousands of dedicated CUFI members, some of Israel’s strongest congressional allies delivered impactful message...
BERLIN (JTA) - They date back to the late Middle Ages and irritate to this day: The Judensau (literally "Jewish sow") is a Christian folk image that depicts Jews sucking on the teats or peering into the anus of a pig. Mostly found in the form of reliefs or gargoyles on the exterior of German churches, some of them major historical landmarks, the images have been the subject of increasing public debate in recent years. And now Germany's highest court will weigh in on the matter when it hears the...
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Under normal circumstances, the queue to enter the Anne Frank House stretches far along this capital city’s Prinsengracht canal. Tourists who had booked their visit at least two months in advance – the only way to guarantee entry — line up at assigned time slots to see the former hiding place of the world’s most famous Holocaust victim. They wait for 15 minutes and, barring delays, enter in one large group the cramped space where Frank penned the diaries that years after her de...
GOD-TV, an evangelical Christian cable channel, loses its right to broadcast in Israel By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA) — GOD-TV, an evangelical Christian cable television channel, has lost its license to air in Israel, two months after launching to a chorus of concern about its mission. Israel’s Council for Cable and Satellite Broadcasting announced Sunday that the channel would be taken off the air because it did not disclose when applying for a broadcast license that it was planning to proselytize to Jews. The Hebrew-language channel has bee...
(JTA) — Aristides de Sousa Mendes, a Portuguese diplomat who saved thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, will be recognized with a monument at a site in Lisbon that recognizes the country’s greatest figures. The parliament decreed the honor unanimously earlier this month at the National Assembly in Portugal’s capital. The monument will go in the National Pantheon, a former church. “Aristides Sousa Mendes, as a heroic historical figure, is part of Portugal’s national patrimony,” the resolution reads. “A moral legacy for all, his heritage is f...
