Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1503 - 1527 of 2213
ISTANBUL (JTA)-In the backyard of the Etz Ahayim synagogue in Turkey's largest city, congregant Yusuf Arslan hollers pleasantries as he mingles with other members of the small congregation. He needs to shout to be heard over the deafening sound of a sudden downpour hitting the blast-proof glass ceiling that stretches over the synagogue's spacious yard. Installed after Istanbul's deadly 2003 synagogue bombings, the shield is meant to prevent grenades from exploding in the complex should anyone hu...
Latin gospel singer Ingrid Rosario, accompanied by a four-piece band, belts out impassioned ballads before a captive audience, hands clasped or in the air, eyes transfixed on the stage or closed in a meditative state. Is this scene from church? A Christian rock concert? Hardly. It's a prayer session at a staunchly pro-Israel event. The Jewish state was front and center at the April 28-30 annual convention of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC)/CONEL in Houston. On the...
Burial set for elderly Jewish couple who died in Houston flooding (JTA)—Funeral services were set for an elderly Jewish couple who drowned in the floods that swept through Houston last week. Shirley and Jack Alter, who died when their rescue boat capsized in the rushing floodwaters, were scheduled to be buried Sunday at the Congregation Beth Yeshurun Cemetery in Houston. The boat suffered engine failure before capsizing on May 26, the Houston-based Jewish Herald-Voice reported. The couple—Shirley Alter was 85 and Jack Alter was 87—were weari...
As Islamic terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East sink to new levels of brutality, the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis and launched thousands of rockets at the Jewish state, finds itself facing a threat to its rule in Gaza. Over the last month, Islamic State-inspired jihadist groups in Gaza, who ironically argue that Hamas has been too lenient toward Israel and has failed to implement Islamic Sharia Law, have launched a campaign entailing both pr...
Controversy is swirling over conflicting reports as to whether or not the Pope Francis called Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas an "angel of peace" during a meeting at the Vatican. Pope Francis, who canonized two 19th-century nuns from what was then Ottoman-ruled Palestine, met with Abbas at the Vatican's Apostolic Palace, where he presented the PA leader with a bronze medallion and explained that it represented the "angel of peace destroying the bad spirit of war," purportedly...
Whooping cough warning issued in Brooklyn’s Orthodox communities NEW YORK (JTA)—The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has issued a warning about an increase in cases of pertussis, or the “whooping cough,” in the Orthodox communities of Williamsburg and Borough Park, Brooklyn. The city’s department of health issued a statement on Friday, May 22 about 21 confirmed cases of pertussis – 18 children and three adults – in those communities between October 2014 and April 2015. Of the 10 afflicted children who were under 10 mont...
(JNS.org) Palestinian Authority security forces have rounded up more than two-dozen Hamas supporters on West Bank college campuses for interrogation in recent weeks. A Hamas-aligned student group won an April 22 student council election at Birzeit University, which is located near the PA’s de facto capital of Ramallah. “Everyone knew that this was going to happen,” Nagham Yassin, a Palestinian student at Birzeit, told Al Jazeera. “It happened last time the Islamic bloc won in 2007. Everyone assumed it would happen this time. Anyone who goes in...
TEL AVIV (JTA) – Seven weeks after he won reelection, Benjamin Netanyahu finally secured a fourth term as prime minister. With 90 minutes to go until a Wednesday night deadline to form a governing coalition, Netanyahu concluded an agreement with the religious, pro-settler Jewish Home party that gives him the narrowest of parliamentary majorities – 61 of the Knesset's 120 seats. Along with three other right-wing and religious factions - United Torah Judaism, Kulanu and Shas - the five-party Lik...
BERLIN (JTA)-This month marks 50 years since Israel and West Germany established diplomatic ties. It has been an understandably complex relationship, launched two decades after the Holocaust ended and 14 years after West Germany committed to reparations "both moral and material" for the genocide committed by the Nazis. (The decision to accept German money and goods was contentious among Israelis, some of whom referred to the payouts as "blood money.") Normalized relations between Israel and...
(JTA)-Ayelet Shaked (pronounced ShahKED), Israel's newly appointed justice minister and a member of the right-wing Jewish Home party, has quickly risen to prominence having served just two years in the Knesset. Here's what you need to know about the 39-year-old political celebrity. She's seen as a poster child for Jewish Home's efforts to reach beyond its Orthodox base. A secular Jew from north Tel Aviv, Shaked is often described as a symbol of the Jewish Home and larger settler movement's...
(JNS.org) The White House issued a congratulatory statement on Thursday in response to the last-minute agreement in Israel between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud party and the Jewish Home party, which will join Kulanu, Shas, and United Torah Judaism in a new governing coalition. "President [Barack] Obama congratulates the Israeli people, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and the new governing coalition on the formation of Israel's new government," White House Press Secretary Josh...
(JNS.org) A search team discovered the body of 22-year-old Israeli trekker Or Asraf, who was the last Israeli citizen unaccounted for in Nepal following the devastating earthquake there. The IsraeLife Joint Disaster Response Team-compromised of volunteers from United Hatzalah, Zaka, and F.I.R.S.T-found and identified Asraf. "We are very sad that our mission has ended in this way," said Eli Beer, president of United Hatzalah. "Throughout all the days of the search, we remained hopeful that we...
By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA)-On April 19, Keren Zachmi's daughter returned from her kindergarten near Tel Aviv wearing a yellow patch emblazoned with the word "Jude." A teacher had put the yellow star on 17 kindergarteners so they would feel like Holocaust victims during Yom Hashoah, Israel's national Holocaust commemoration day. Appalled, Zachmi took a picture of her 3-year-old with the patch and posted it to her municipality's Facebook page with a complaint. "I am utterly shocked and worried about...
Anti-Semitic, right-wing attacks rise in Germany BERLIN (JTA)—A major increase in anti-Semitic and right-wing violent attacks in Germany is “extremely worrying,” according to the country’s interior minister. The number of right-wing extremist violent crimes in 2014 was 22.9 percent higher than in 2013, according to the annual report of the Ministry of the Interior released this month. Anti-Semitic crimes rose 25.2 percent to 1,596 in 2014 after declining in 2013. In releasing the statistics, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere describ...
LOHHEIDE, Germany-In a keynote address at the 70th anniversary ceremony for the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder condemned world silence during the Holocaust and warned that history appears to be repeating itself. "Seventy years ago, the world was silent and now we are standing on one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world," said Lauder. "We appear to be descending into the same hell today. Anti-Semitism is rising in Europe, neo-Nazi...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-When the ground began to shake, Inbar Irron was among a dozen Israelis in Nepal who ran outside the building where they had been sitting-and straight into a cloud of dust. When their vision cleared, they saw a devastating scene: Much of the village of Manegau, where they had come to volunteer for four months, had crumbled to the ground. Miraculously, none of the villagers was hurt. But many of their homes had been reduced to rubble. Irron's group-sent by the Israeli NGO Tevel...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-While Israel mobilizes to aid victims of Nepal's earthquake and locate missing citizens, the Jewish state is paying special attention to the safety of 26 Israeli babies born of surrogate mothers in Nepal. Hundreds of Israeli couples choose surrogate pregnancy-where a couple's embryo is implanted in another woman, who carries the pregnancy to term. Here's why Israelis opt for surrogate pregnancies, and why so many choose surrogate mothers in places like Nepal. Why do Israelis choos...
Former FEGS chief suing bankrupt agency for $1.2 million NEW YORK (JTA)—The former chief executive of FEGS is suing the bankrupt Jewish social service agency for $1.2 million in deferred compensation. Gail Magaliff retired in late 2014, shortly before FEGS Health and Human Services—one of the largest social service providers in the United States—discovered a $19.4 million shortfall. Soon after, in late January, the 81-year-old agency, which served a majority non-Jewish clientele, announced it would close. In March FEGS filed for bankr...
(JTA)—After Russia invaded Ukraine in March 2014, Israel resisted pressure to join the United States and its European allies in condemning the move—citing in particular its concern not to antagonize Russia for fear it could provide Syria with a powerful anti-aircraft missile called the S-300. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman was eager to mollify the Obama administration’s anger over Israel’s refusal to endorse sanctions on Russia or support a U.N. General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s annexation of Crimea, according to an Op-Ed pub...
The 35th IAJGS International Conference is just around the corner. For a significant discount (and a chance to win great prizes in the drawing), register now. “Early Bird Special” ends on May 6. Visit www.iajgs2015.org to register. There will be a pre-Conference Shabbaton on the Friday-Saturday, July 3-4 weekend preceding the conference. Enjoy an adventure in exploring the sights and sounds of Jerusalem via three tour opportunities. “Exploration Sunday” on July 5 offers the options of either visiting extraordinary research archives or taking...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Now that the outline for an Iran nuclear agreement has been released—or, more precisely, two outlines, one by Iran, the other by the Obama administration—major gaps have emerged that will need to be resolved ahead of a June 30 deadline for a final deal, including when sanctions on Iran are lifted. President Barack Obama and Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, issued conflicting statements in the past week on the sanctions issue, with Obama suggesting sanctions would be relaxed only once Iran begins to implement its obligations...
Kitchen employee stabbed by former co-worker at Philly-area day school (JTA)—A former employee at the Barrack Hebrew Academy stabbed a worker and threw bleach in his face at the suburban Philadelphia day school. The incident in the kitchen at the nondenominational Jewish high school in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, occurred Monday just before 10 a.m., Philly.com reported, citing the Radnor Township Police. The victim, who was stabbed in the head and neck, is being treated for non-life-threatening injuries and identified the alleged assailant, a 3...
By Sean Savage JNS.org After a devastating earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit the impoverished mountainous country of Nepal over the weekend, killing more than 4,000 people, Israeli and Jewish humanitarian and governmental organizations have assumed their traditional role on the frontline of relief efforts for a natural disaster. The 260-member Israeli government mission to Nepal includes an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) field hospital, a trained rescue team, and a security team, with the objectives of assisting the Nepalese...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—In the wake of the drowning death of hundreds of migrants from Libya trying to reach Italy, an Israeli government minister justified his country’s building of a fence to keep out migrants. Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz in a post Monday on his Facebook page, called the deaths a “tragedy that shocks all humanity,” then added, “Look how right was the government’s policy to build a fence on the border with Gaza that blocks the way of migrant workers from Africa from entering Israel.” Israel in 2012 built a fence on its...
Witnesses attacked as neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party trial opens (JTA)—Witnesses in the trial of Golden Dawn party leaders reportedly were attacked outside the courthouse by supporters of the Greek neo-Nazi party. The trial convened Monday in the high-security Korydallos prison outside Athens, where the party leaders are being held, but was adjourned until May 7 amid reports of the attacks, the Kathimerini newspaper reported. Sixty-nine leaders and activists, including Golden Dawn head Nikolaos Michaloliakos and several lawmakers, are charged with...
