Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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LONDON (JTA)—Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has defeated Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party by a large margin in Britain’s general elections on Thursday, exit polls indicate. The Conservatives received 368 seats out of 650 according to the polls by BBC, ITV and Sky News, with Labour lagging far behind with 191. Actual results from voting stations are expected to begin trickling in at about 2 a.m. local time on Friday. Many British Jews have said the elections are particu...
(JNS)-In a scathing speech last week about corruption in the United Nations, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Canada of making a "deal with the devil" and called again for the removal of Venezuela from the United Nations Human Rights Council. "If we are serious about being advocates for human rights, Venezuela's membership on the Human Rights Council cannot stand," Haley said on Thursday night at the inaugural gala of the UN Watch NGO in New York City, where she...
Columbia and Tel Aviv U will offer a dual degree program By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—Columbia University in New York and Tel Aviv University in Israel will offer a dual degree program. Columbia made the announcement last week. Students will spend their first two years at Tel Aviv University and their third and fourth year attending Columbia’s School of General Studies. Upon completion of the four-year program, graduates earn two bachelor’s degrees, one from each institution. Columbia has dual degree and joint degree programs at Scien...
(JTA)-The U.N.'s leading cultural body was scheduled to vote this month on whether to remove a Belgian carnival that had hosted a float seen as mocking Jews from its list of important human cultural expressions. But the carnival's organizers decided they wouldn't wait for a possible censure and instead gave up the designation on its own. On Sunday, the city of Aalst said it wanted to withdraw the Aalst Carnival from the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It...
By David Lazarus MONTREAL (JTA)—A Jewish student leader at McGill University in Montreal was fighting efforts to oust her from the student union for accepting a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Jordyn Wright, a member of the Student Society of McGill University’s legislative council and board of directors, said she is “outraged and disgusted” by the student society’s call on Thursday for her to resign for agreeing to the trip sponsored by Hillel. She is refusing to resign or quit the trip, despite the threat of impeachme...
(JTA)—The U.N.’s leading cultural body was scheduled to vote this month on whether to remove a Belgian carnival that had hosted a float seen as mocking Jews from its list of important human cultural expressions. But the carnival’s organizers decided they wouldn’t wait for a possible censure and instead gave up the designation on its own. On Sunday, the city of Aalst said it wanted to withdraw the Aalst Carnival from the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It would be the first time an item had been removed...
Washington’s Sixth & I synagogue vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti By Josefin Dolsten (JTA)—The Sixth & I synagogue in downtown Washington, D.C., was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. Michelle Eider, the synagogue’s communications manager, said the vandalism contained swastikas and anti-Semitic language and was discovered on Monday morning. In an email to congregants, the synagogue’s three rabbis said the damage was minimal and would be quickly fixed. “In these moments, it’s important to remember that it is not a shame but an honor to...
With anti-Semitism skyrocketing, many Jews are finding themselves under attack. At times it can feel that few non-Jews want to stand up in defense of Jewish communities in their midst. Yet three recent events in Europe have given Jews some hope, as unexpected heroes stepped up to say enough is enough. Standing up against hatred on British train Asma Shuweikh, a 36-year-old Muslim mother from the British city of Birmingham, was travelling on the underground tube in London on Nov. 22, 2019, when she witnessed a Jewish family with young children...
(JTA)-The day after he turned 100, Jozef Walaszczyk prepared to attend yet another Holocaust commemoration ceremony in his native Warsaw. Walaszczyk is Poland's oldest living Righteous Among the Nations – a title given by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust – and he attends several such events each year. But he was in for a different experience when a Ferrari pulled up to his apartment building Thursday to take him to the eve...
Muslim woman deflects anti-Semitic tirade against man and young sons in London By Marcy Oster (JTA)—A Muslim woman wearing a hijab confronted a man on an Underground train in London who was verbally attacking a man and his sons, who were wearing kippahs. The man, in a tirade caught on video, told the family during the Friday ride that they are members of “the Church of Satan,” and said that Jews were behind the slave trade and the 9-11 attacks. The Jewish father remained calm and ignored the man, though at least one of his young sons looke...
California Democrats vote down ‘highly flawed anti-Israel’ amendment to party platform By Marcy Oster (JTA)—California Democrats voted down an amendment to their party platform that called for the right of return for Palestinians and eliminated references to the two-state solution. The amendment presented Sunday at the state party’s fall convention also advocated for the return of the descendants of Jewish refugees in Israel to the countries from which they fled. The Democrats for Israel Los Angeles chapter said in a statement that it coordin...
GENEVA, Nov. 15, 2019—A United Nations General Assembly committee today adopted eight resolutions that single out or condemn Israel, and zero on the entire rest of the world. The texts condemn Israel for “repressive measures” against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, renew the mandate of the corrupt UN Relief and Works Agency, and renew the mandate of the UN’s “special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.” All 193 UN member states belo...
(JTA)—Jordan reclaimed two pieces of land leased by Israel as part of a 1994 peace agreement. King Abdullah II announced Sunday that Jordan would “impose our full sovereignty on every inch” of the properties known in Jordan as Ghumar and Al-Baqoura, and in Israel as Tzofar and Naharaim, also known as the Isle of Peace. Thousands of Israelis visited Naharaim and its peace park on Saturday for a final look before Israeli troops closed off the territory. Reports said that Jordan would allow farmers to harvest what they planted in Tzofar befor...
(JTA)-Ukraine is in the news now for its ties to the Trump impeachment scandal, but this year also marks the fifth anniversary of a turbulent revolution that roiled the country and ousted its then-president. In 2014, anti-government demonstrations became violent, and clashes with police led to the deaths of dozens of protesters. Ukraine's parliament voted to oust President Viktor Yanyukovych, and voters elected Petro Poroshenko-who was replaced earlier this year by Zolodymyr Zelensky, the...
ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA)—Alina Feoktistova always knew she was Jewish, but the first time she sought contact with the community was to see if it could pay her tuition. Feoktistova’s family couldn’t afford to send her to college, but the local Jewish community provides an alternative in the form of the Jewish University of Odessa, an accredited institution that offers tuition and room and board at no charge. Founded in 2003, the university features five-year programs in a number of fields, including foreign language, early childhood educa...
Virginia House will have its first female and first Jewish speaker By Marcy Oster (JTA)—The Virginia House of Delegates will have its first female and first Jewish speaker. The current minority leader, Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn, 55, of Fairfax County, Virginia, was chosen as speaker by the House’s incoming Democrats on Saturday. She has served in the state General Assembly since 2010. Filler-Corn said in a statement that she is “humbled and honored” to have been chosen speaker by her colleagues. “The firsts are not lost one me—the fi...
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)—Several Brazilian Jewish groups are condemning a magazine news article that likened a local Jewish senior politician to Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Istoe magazine published on Friday an article titled “Goebbels of the Planalto”—a reference to Brazil’s presidential palace—that highlights the fact that Brazil’s Secretary of Communications Fabio Wajngarten is Jewish and suggests a Jewish conspiracy to back recent advertising budget cuts to media outlets that are not allied with the government. Est...
Hasidic Jews chased and punched in series of attacks in Brooklyn’s Borough Park By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Several identifiably Jewish men and boys were attacked in a string of assaults in the Borough Park community of Brooklyn on the same night. Three of the attacks late Friday night involved the same passenger car over five blocks, the Yeshiva World News reported. Surveillance cameras captured each incident, in which several men jump out of the car and chase Hasidic men and boys. In one incident, the passengers punched a Hasidic man after their veh...
(JTA)-In August, Liad Goldberg visited her sister in a Russian jail. It had been four months since Naama Issachar had been arrested at a Moscow airport while on a layover and accused of drug smuggling, and Goldberg was seeing her sister for the first time since the arrest. The sisters spoke through a glass partition that prevented them from touching. Later, Goldberg watched as Issachar was led into a courtroom for a hearing. "They had her in handcuffs," Goldberg recalled. "It's really sad." Iass...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli embassies around the world have increased security and awareness over fears that Iran will attack Israel by targeting a diplomatic mission on foreign soil. The diplomatic missions have been put on high alert and ordered to take certain security measures, according to reports. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both have warned in recent days that Iran has become more aggressive and apt to respond to Israeli attacks on Iranian targets in Syria and Leb...
(JTA)—The recently elected Oslo City Council is getting right to work: The Norwegian lawmakers are banning the purchase of goods and services from Israeli Jewish settlements by municipal departments and other local authorities. It is the sixth Norwegian municipality to ban settlement goods and services, as well as one county council, according to the statement. The Oslo an is part of the platform for 2019-23 adopted recently by the City Council, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel announced in a statement on its w...
(JTA)—Jared Kushner, the point man on the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, appeared to endorse a unity government between Israel’s two largest parties. In a rare interview Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law also shot back at Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for saying Kushner was ill equipped to be negotiating Mideast peace. Regarding the unity government, Kushner was asked if he had called on the party leaders—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Gen. Benny Gantz—to find a way...
US marks 25 years of peace treaty between Jordan and Israel By Marcy Oster (JTA)—The United States marked the 25th anniversary of the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. “Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, an agreement that began a tradition of peaceful and respectful cooperation that continues today,” read the statement signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and dated Saturday. “We take this opportunity to praise the endurin...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earned cheers at J Street’s annual conference when he said some of the money Israel receives from the United States for defense assistance should go to humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip. The liberal Jewish Middle East policy group as one of its conference themes this year wants to press the Democratic candidates on whether they would demand from Israel an end to settlement expansion as a condition of receiving U.S. aid. Among the five candidates to speak in person at the con...
(JTA)-As the old saying goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan-including that the Taliban once imprisoned him for arguing with a fellow Jew, then kicked him out because the constant bickering became too annoying. There is a good amount of information available alre...
