Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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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...
BERLIN (JTA) - In May, a demolition crew tore down a building in the western German city of Gelsenkirchen. As the walls fell, a 110-year-old advertising mural on the adjacent brick wall was exposed. It read: "For suits and overcoats with a perfect fit, shop at Alexander." The large Alexander family was Jewish and had moved to Gelsenkirchen around the 1910s from another German city. The Nazis eventually expropriated their businesses and property. Some family members fled to Brazil. Others made...
(JTA) — The Chabad-Lubavitch movement estimates that 100,000 people on 45,000 devices gathered in an online Zoom event to honor the late Chabad rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. Schneerson, who died in 1994, led the movement’s transition from a small and insular Hasidic sect to an outward-facing global force. Tens of thousands visit his grave in Queens, New York, every year on the anniversary of his death. Things were different this year in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. “Our focus is always to strengthen people’s connect...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Three of Israel's most stalwart boosters among Democrats in Congress are warning the country against annexing parts of the West Bank. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, and Sens. Ben Cardin of Maryland and Robert Menendez of New Jersey released a statement Friday saying they were "compelled to express opposition to the proposed unilateral annexation of territory in the West Bank." The three senators are only the latest Democrats in Congress to warn Israel...
(JNS) — The anti-Israel movement in Ireland has suffered a major defeat. Earlier this month, the political parties working on forming the next government in Ireland eliminated a key bill that would have placed a boycott on products produced in Israeli settlements. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, told JNS that the bill was “carefully drafted so as to pretend to be about ‘occupied’ territories generally, but in fact would apply to just one disputed territory in the world, which happens to be the heart of the ancient...
After 3 months and 5 days, the synagogue at Chabad headquarters reopens to unmasked crowds By Shira Hanau (JTA) — It closed with dancing and it reopened with dancing. The main Chabad synagogue at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn reopened to a large crowd Monday, more than three months after it shut down amid mounting restrictions meant to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The raucous service was documented in a video posted to Instagram by COLlive, a local Orthodox news site in Crown Heights. No one in the video, which shows dozens of men s...
(JNS) - Israel's ambassador to the United Kingdom Mark Regev discussed Israel's relations with Britain and its neighbors during a webinar on Thursday, his last livestreamed event before ending his five-year term as ambassador. Regev, who has served in the Israeli foreign ministry for more than three decades, began the online discussion, hosted by the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs, by voicing support for Israel's move to apply sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria. "All Israeli...
Israeli government to bail out El Al, could gain full control (JNS) — Israel’s Finance Ministry on Sunday proposed to loan $250 million to El Al airlines, far short of the $400 million the struggling airline had requested. However, the government could end up nationalizing the airline, as it committed to purchasing any shares not bought by the public in an offering meant to raise the remaining $150 million, Israeli business daily Globes reported. The Borovitz family currently has a majority stake in the airline and is probably not going to tak...
(JTA) — The Palestinian Authority has submitted a proposal for an independent demilitarized Palestinian state in Gaza, the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said Tuesday that the P.A. had submitted a proposal to the so-called Quartet of international mediators — comprising the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — in response to the Trump administration’s release of its own Middle East peace plan in January. Shtayyeh said the proposal calls for a “sovereign Palestinian state, in...
Once, I was down to the last bite of a really good blueberry pie. My wife moved in with her fork to have some and I (playfully) stabbed her in the hand with my fork. Suffice it to say, I didn’t end up with the last bite of pie, and my stabbing her and not her taking my pie is what’s remembered. While it’s not a perfect analogy to describe the Middle East in terms of a pie, it’s a funny story and relevant metaphor. Israel shares a small hotly contested piece of land with Arabs who do not share Israel’s national or religious ideals. The pie a...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - The leading pro-Israel lobby in the United States is telling lawmakers that they are free to criticize Israel's looming annexation plans - just as long as the criticism stops there. Two sources - a congressional aide and a donor - say the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is delivering that guidance in Zoom meetings and phone calls with lawmakers. The message is unusual because the group assiduously discourages public criticism of Israel. But these are...
(JTA) — The World Council of Churches is asking European diplomats to punish Israel with sanctions if it annexes West Bank lands. The request has triggered a heated debate in Christian circles. The call to punish Israel came last month in a letter to EU foreign ministers from the Geneva headquarters of the council, an umbrella body established in 1948 that now has 350 member churches with about 500,000 followers among them. The Catholic Church is not a member. If Israel annexes land, the letter said, “the EU must surely suspend the EU-...
Suspect arrested for attack on Temple Mount activist Yehuda Glick (JNS) — A suspect was arrested on Friday in connection with the assault on former Likud Knesset member Yehuda Glick a day earlier, at the mourning tent of an autistic Arab man shot by Jerusalem police on May 30. The suspect, who is in his 20s, is from the Wadi-al-Joz neighborhood north of the Old City of Jerusalem, denied any involvement and was released to house arrest. Glick was assaulted and thrown down a flight of stairs while trying to pay condolences in eastern Jerusalem t...
WASHINGTON (JTA) - Israel's announcement last week that an Israeli consortium would build Sorek 2, the world's largest desalination plant, surprised many who had been watching the deal: The contract had been expected to go to a Hong Kong-based company. But that was before the Trump administration ramped up pressure on Israel to diminish its ties to China. For years, Israel has been working to dramatically expand trade with China, one of the world's largest markets. That push is suddenly running...
Oklahoma’s governor signs anti-Israel boycott legislation By Marcy Oster (JTA) — Oklahoma can no longer contract with companies that boycott Israel. On Tuesday, Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, signed a bill that would apply to state contracts over $100,000, unless the company is officially exempted by the Oklahoma secretary of state. The measure says that Oklahoma may not enter into contracts with companies that advocate boycotts, divestment or sanctions against Israel, a reference to the BDS movement against Israel. In March, attorneys wit...
Israeli Ambassador to Washington Ron Dermer leveled scathing criticism at The New York Times on Friday over an article pointing out that the Israel Defense Forces’ research and development efforts, which have proven crucial in Israel’s battle against the coronavirus, are predominately dedicated to devising ways to counter the Jewish state’s enemies. The article, “Israeli Army’s Idea Lab Aims at a New Target: Saving Lives,” which was published on Thursday, states that “The Israeli Defense Ministry’s research-and-development arm is best known f...
(Israel21c via JNS) — About 120 research groups from various countries are racing to develop vaccines for the SARS-CoV-2 virus (COVID-19). Several formulations have already advanced to human safety trials. Although the frontrunners in this race are American, British, Chinese, Japanese and German, Israel also has a few contenders. However, vaccine development, like drug development, is a long and complicated process. And it doesn’t always succeed, explains industry expert Ron Ellis, editor in chief of “Human Vaccines & Immuno...
(JNS) - Despite facing one of the world's worst coronavirus outbreaks, Iran appears to be continuing its pursuit of nuclear weapons, as well as its aggressive regional behavior. Iran has already acknowledged that it has increased its uranium stockpile, which now stands at more than 1,000 kilograms, and is also using a greater number of advanced centrifuges for enrichment. Based on these developments, experts believe that Iran's breakout time to produce a nuclear weapon may have now been reduced...
Hasidic school in upstate New York found operating with ‘hundreds of students inside’ By Marcy Oster (JTA) — A school in the Hasidic village of Kiryas Joel in New York was ordered to close after it was found operating with hundreds of students in its building. Orange County said in a statement that officials visiting the school last week “found what appeared to be hundreds of students inside, not wearing personal protective equipment, not social distancing, and plainly in violation of the Governor’s Executive Orders,” the Times Herald-Reco...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas declared an end to all agreements with Israel, including security cooperation, effectively turning over to Israel’s government the running of the entire West Bank. “The Palestine Liberation Organization and the State of Palestine are absolved, as of today, of all the agreements and understandings with the American and Israeli governments and of all the commitments based on these understandings and agreements, including the security ones,” Abbas said in a speech in Ramalla...
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Palestinian Authority rejected a humanitarian shipment of medical supplies sent by the United Arab Emirates because it coordinated the shipment with Israel. The Etihad Airways flight that landed Tuesday night in Israel carrying 14 tons of medical aid to deal with the coronavirus was reported to be the first publicly acknowledged direct flight from Abu Dhabi to Israel. Israel and the UAE do not have diplomatic relations and there is no air travel between the two countries. “The UAE authorities did not coordinate with the...
