Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last Sunday that former Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Jacob Frenkel, who headed the central bank between 1991 and 2000, will replace outgoing Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, whose term ended this week. The new governor’s nomination is pending the approval of the Public Service Nominations Committee, headed by Judge (ret.) Jacob Turkel, as well as a cabinet vote. The nomination faces a legislative hurdle, as the Bank of Israel Law of 1... Full story
PARIS (JTA)—With scooter helmets in hand, a man called Yohan and six buddies stroll around Paris’ 20th arrondissement. The seven look much like a typical group of French students—until they locate a group of Arab men they suspect of perpetrating an anti-Semitic attack the previous day. Using their helmets as bludgeons, members of France’s Jewish Defense League, or LDJ, set upon the Arabs and beat them. Several of the Arabs attempt to escape in a blue sedan, but the LDJ members pursue the veh... Full story
By Ben Sales SDEROT, Israel (JTA)—A thick concrete bomb shelter sits by the side of a central street in this embattled southern Israeli town, but Naomi Moravia can’t get inside. Shelters like this one are crucial in Sderot, which is about a mile from the Gaza Strip and is the frequent target of cross-border missile attacks that send residents running for cover. But Moravia can’t run. She can’t even get up on the sidewalk. Pushing a lever on her wheelchair, she rolls down the street looking... Full story
David Baker doesn’t exactly agree that he has the toughest job in Israel, but he doesn’t deny it either. As the media front man for the Prime Minister’s Office, that kind of ducking and weaving comes with the territory, but Baker—a New Yorker by birth and rearing—can take it. “I’m from the boroughs—I’m a cool New Yorker,” he said, half-kidding, on a recent phone interview from Jerusalem, a few days before heading to the United States for one of his frequent visits. Baker, the senior foreign... Full story
Some agunot, observant Jewish women trapped in unwanted marriages, wait many years for a Jewish divorce. Meanwhile, a number of activists after having devoted decades to the cause, have begun to wonder whether a solution to the agunah crisis is possible. Rivka Haut, for one, who 30 years ago helped found Agunah Inc., admitted that when Blu Greenberg—a magical name in Orthodox feminism since the 1960s—telephoned recently, suggesting an international agunah summit, “I was not so eager to come… Blu knows that. I said to her, ‘Why? We’ve had... Full story
JERUSALEM—Israeli President Shimon Peres confessed to Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel that during Peres’ first visit to the Windy City, he felt profound jealousy when he saw the outstanding beauty and size of Lake Michigan and Chicago’s abundant water resources. Which is one of the reasons why the Land of Milk and Honey and the City by the Lake have joined forces to work to make fresh drinking water more plentiful and less expensive by the year 2020. In a ceremony at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Israeli... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—As the budding protest movement in Turkey against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan struggles to gain a foothold, Israel is watching the developments with some measure of ambivalence. On the one hand, Erdogan has led Turkey away from a close alliance with Israel, using his perch to castigate Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians and curtailing once-cozy military ties with the Israel Defense Forces. A popular uprising that leaves Erdogan politically wounded could be w... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Rabbi Shmuel Pappenheim of the haredi Orthodox organization Eda Haharedit shares little common ground with Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, a religious pluralism activist. But when news broke last week that Israel’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, Yona Metzger, was arrested on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, Pappenheim and Regev had the same reaction: Who cares? For Pappenheim, the chief rabbi is a political figure who has scant influence as a religious leader. And to Regev, he rep... Full story
BRUSSELS (JTA)—Bulgaria claims it has previously undisclosed evidence that further implicates Hezbollah in a deadly terrorist attack last year on Bulgarian soil, JTA has learned. A Bulgarian representative to the European Union said Wednesday that investigators have discovered that a Hezbollah operative was the owner of a printer used to produce fake documents that facilitated the July 19 bombing of a bus filled with Israeli tourists in Burgas. Five Israelis and their Bulgarian driver were killed in the attack. The disclosure was made at a m... Full story
A new law being proposed by an Israeli parliamentarian would give preferential treatment in housing, employment and higher education to anyone who served in the army or did alternative national civilian service. The bill, which has been approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, has sparked controversy over whether it discriminates against groups such as Arab citizens of Israel and ultra-Orthodox Jews, neither of whom do military service. “This important bill gives those who serve the appreciation they deserve,” coalition cha... Full story
BRUSSELS (JTA)—When guards dragged Shin Dong-hyuk from his North Korean cell in 1995, he was pretty sure the end was near. Dong-hyuk, then just 13, was born in the prison known as Camp 14, not far from Pyongyang. Camp 14 is part of a network of political prisons believed to be the largest in the world, where an estimated 150,000 dissidents and their families live in conditions reminiscent of Holocaust-era concentration camps. As he was brought to the camp’s execution field, Dong-hyuk rea... Full story
PHILADELPHIA—The fireworks over the July 4 Alicia Keys concert in Tel Aviv continue to go off. The latest development: Israeli consulates across the United States are encouraging the singer-songwriter’s fans—and fans of Israel in general—to post to her Facebook page and tweet support for her decision to stand up to the efforts to get her to cancel her appearance. Keys, who has been one of the most popular recording artists in the world ever since the release of “Songs in A Minor” in 2001, has sold over 35 million albums and is currently t... Full story
Israeli Cabinet OKs exporting 40 percent of newly found natural gas JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Cabinet approved a decision to export about 40 percent of its recently discovered reserves of natural gas while keeping a 25-year supply for the country’s consumption. The Cabinet on Sunday agreed to retain 540 billion cubic meters for Israeli consumption, which should last for about 25 years. Revenue from the exported gas is expected to be about $60 billion. “We will lower the cost of living in the electricity sector via the gas that will flow into th... Full story
AMMAN—A Jordanian firm specializing in cyber-security has developed “Iris”—security technology that uses the iris of the computer owner’s eye in the manner of a fingerprint in order to prevent identity theft. The new technology comes amid an increase of reported hacker attacks throughout the kingdom. Jordan prides itself of being a center for excellence in matters related to the cyber world, including software development. Recently, the Internet giant Yahoo bought a local email provider and made the kingdom its center of Middle Eastern o... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Former national security adviser, former nuclear negotiator, a decades-old friendship with the supreme leader—Hassan Rohani is as Iranian establishment as it gets. Which is why, some Iran watchers say, he may be an invaluable asset in the quest to reduce tensions between the Islamic Republic and the United States. In his first remarks following his election to the Iranian presidency last week, Rohani sustained the moderate image that helped sweep him into office with more tha... Full story
NEW YORK (Corriere della Sera Online)—His Wikipedia page remembers him, in at least 10 languages, as “the Italian police commissioner who saved thousands of Jews from being deported to Nazi extermination camps during the Second World War and for this was deported to the Dachau Concentration Camp, where he died.” “For his actions,” according to the free encyclopedia, “Giovanni Palatucci was decorated with the ‘Medaglia d’oro’ award for civil merit, and honored as one of the ‘Righteous Among the N... Full story
The remaining members of the Ethiopian Jewish community will make aliyah by the end of this summer, and the Jewish Agency educational compound in the northern part of the country that has prepared them for their new lives in Israel will be turned over this month to the Ethiopian government. The compound in Gondar, which earlier was under the auspices of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry, “will not be needed beyond July,” said Misha Galperin, who heads the Jewish Agency’s department of international development. “That’s it. There... Full story
Uri Geller was CIA spy, documentary claims JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Israeli magician and psychic Uri Geller worked as a CIA spy, according to a new documentary. “The Secret Life of Uri Geller-Psychic Spy,” by Vikram Jayanti, says Geller used his powers against Russia, including erasing Soviet floppy discs and changing the mind of an unnamed Russian leader in order to convince him to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty, The Independent reported. Geller admits in the film that his CIA handlers asked... Full story
RISHON LETZION, Israel—Strange things are happening at the Volcani Center in this Tel Aviv suburb. Potatoes sprayed with spearmint oil are not sprouting for months, Granny Smith apples deprived of oxygen stay fresh for more than a year and cows are eating less grain and producing more milk. These are just a few projects at the Agricultural Research Organization, the research arm of Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture that’s composed of six separate research institutes. “We don’t have a lot of la... Full story
In a move likely to give the fledgling Jewish educational technology field a much-needed shot of capital and know-how, an Israeli nonprofit and an American publishing company best known for its Hebrew school textbooks are teaming up to create the first incubator focused on developing Jewish educational games, apps, software and other high-tech resources. Israel’s Center for Educational Technology (CET) and the Springfield, N.J.-based Behrman House announced the joint project June 4—the news was closely guarded until then—at CET’s annual... Full story
While the U.S. administration has officially adopted the position that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons and has declared publicly that it will provide the rebels with military aid, it appears that behind-the-scenes preparations are still being made for a much larger move. Israel, Jordan, and the U.S. are jointly planning an attack aimed at destroying the unconventional weapons stockpiles in Syria, Time magazine reported over last weekend. According to the report, which was based on interviews with senior Israeli military and... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Israel’s settlement building is increasingly isolating the country in Europe, leading to European Union policies that could reinforce Israel’s delegitimization, according to the top EU representative to the peace process. Andreas Reinicke, the EU’s special envoy for the Middle East peace process, said increasing frustration with the settlement movement is leading Europe to adopt policies that single out Israel for punitive measures. In an interview June 5 at the EU’s Washington... Full story
There is a “real possibility” that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “could survive Syria’s civil war and even prevail in it” against the rebels trying to topple him, Israeli International Relations and Strategic Affairs Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz told a group of foreign journalists in Jerusalem on Monday. Steinitz’s comments reflect the recent turnaround in Assad’s fortunes, with success on the battlefield thanks to immense military aid from Hezbollah, financial aid by Iran, and diplomatic cover by Russia. The assessment also underscores t... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israel’s plans to move ahead with the funding of non-Orthodox rabbis appeared to be a landmark achievement for Reform and Conservative leaders, who have long chafed at their second-class treatment by the Israeli government. But even as they welcomed last week’s news that the Ministry of Religious Services was revamping its policies to permit non-Orthodox rabbis to receive government-funded salaries, Reform and Conservative leaders were cautious in their optimism—and perhaps... Full story
Small haredi protest, no Torah allowed at Women of the Wall service JERUSALEM (JTA)—Hundreds of protesting haredi Orthodox youth did not prevent or significantly disturb the Women of the Wall’s monthly service at the Western Wall. The women were not, however, able to read from a Torah scroll during the service as planned. Sunday’s service, which according to Women of the Wall attracted 300 women, was conducted under heavy police protection. The women prayed in a corner of the women’s section... Full story
