Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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California wildfires damage synagogues, camps and day school (JTA)—The fires racing through Southern California have led to the evacuation of more than 260,000 people, burned over 83,000 acres and destroyed more than 170 homes, as well as damaged several Jewish institutions. The Jewish institutions, including several synagogues, turned to their social media pages to distribute information and offer support. Many held Havdalah services on Saturday night at other nearby sites, most livestreamed on their social media pages, in order to provide sup...
Last week, the 10 rabbis of the seven metro Orlando Chabad centers joined 5,600 rabbis and communal leaders from all 50 U.S. states and more than 100 countries, hailing from as far away as Laos and Angola, Ghana and Uzbekistan, at the International Conference of Chabad-Lubavitch Emissaries (Kinus Hashluchim) in Brooklyn, N.Y. The annual event, the largest Jewish gathering in North America, came just days after the horrific anti-Semitic shooting in Pittsburgh that left 11 dead and as the...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The deadly shooting at a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh has underlined tensions in Israel over the haredi Orthodox rabbinic establishment's disenfranchisement of the Diaspora's non-Orthodox Jewish streams. Following Saturday's rampage by a gunman that left 11 worshippers dead, an Israeli government minister and the country's opposition leader both called on Israel to recognize the liberal streams of Judaism. Others criticized the haredi Orthodox media in Israel for not call...
(The Tower via JNS)-Oman publicly called for regional recognition of Israel a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a historic visit to the Sultanate on Friday, The Jerusalem Post reported. Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman's Minister for Foreign Affairs, told a security forum in Bahrain that "Israel is a state present in the region, and we all understand this. The world is also aware of this, and maybe it is time for Israel to be treated the same [as other states] and to...
BRUSSELS (JTA)-Will security at American Jewish institutions now mirror that of Europe, with its police protection, armed guards, panic rooms and sterile zones at synagogues? It's a possibility that is being debated more seriously than ever before following the Tree of Life Congregation shooting Saturday in Pittsburgh in which a gunman killed 11 people. Rabbi Jack Moline, president of the Interfaith Alliance, told The Washington Post that posting armed guards outside synagogues in some places wo...
Jewish gun store owner in Colorado offers rabbis free rifles (JTA)—The Jewish owner of a gun shop in Colorado has offered to give rabbis semi-automatic rifles for free following the murder of 11 worshippers at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Mel Bernstein, who owns Dragon Arms near Colorado Springs, made the offer in an item aired Wednesday on KOAA-TV’s News5. “Lets say there’s a fire in a synagogue. What do you grab? You grab a fire extinguisher right?” Bernstein, who goes by the name Dragonman, said on the NBC affiliate...
(JNS)-Chess warrior. Former political prisoner. Longtime Israeli minister and head of the Jewish Agency for Israel. Always a Jewish inspiration. Natan Sharansky has checked many boxes throughout his life, eight years of which were spent in a gulag in the former Soviet Union. One of the most well-known refuseniks and a leader of the fight to release Soviet Jewry, he pushed relentlessly for freedom, supported by his wife, Avital, and Jews and non-Jews around the world. He was eventually released i...
(JTA)-The shooting in a Pittsburgh synagogue that has left 11 people dead has been described as "horrific," "heinous" and "devastating" by Jewish leaders, politicians and Israeli leaders. "Our hearts are broken," the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh posted on Facebook, saying it was making an exception and using social media on Shabbat. The federation's president, Jeff Finkelstein, in an interview on CNN praised the quick reaction of the police and local government and said of the...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israeli President Reuven Rivlin has called for a “reverse Birthright” that would take Israelis to see the American Jewish community firsthand. Rivlin made his remarks Monday at the opening of the General Assembly, the annual conference of the Jewish Federations of North America, in Tel Aviv. Titled “We Need to Talk,” the three-day conference is focusing on the divisions between Israeli and Diaspora Jews. More than 3,000 participants are on hand for the event. The Jewish Federations of North America is the umbrella body for nearly...
(JNS)-A medium-range grad rocket fired by terrorists in the Gaza Strip destroyed a home in Beersheva, Israel's third-largest city, deep inside Israeli territory. The Red Alert warning system was activated at 3:39 a.m. in Beersheva and the surrounding Negev communities, with residents throughout the area scrambling for shelter. A 39-year-old mother and her three children-ages 9, 10 and 12-were treated for shock after the rocket scored a direct hit on their family home. After hearing the warning...
(JNS)-Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on Tuesday that he would consider moving the country's embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which would mark a major shift in policy in support of the Jewish state by a world power following the U.S. decision to recognize Jerusalem as its capital by the Trump administration in December. The Australian leader also announced that his country will vote against recognizing the Palestinian Authority as the chair of the G77 bloc in the...
The Palestinians and several Muslim countries expressed indignation after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced he was considering recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the country’s embassy to the city. Morrison revealed the possibility in a telephone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday. “I’m very thankful to him for this. We will continue to strengthen ties between Israel and Australia,” Netanyahu tweeted that day. Morrison, Australia’s new prime minister, said on Tuesday he was “open...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel Post and the U.S. Postal Service have issued a joint stamp for Chanukah. The stamp also is meant to celebrate 70 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United States, Israel Post said in a statement. The new stamp design was launched simultaneously in the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, the oldest synagogue in the United States, and at the American Center in Jerusalem. “Today’s joint stamp issue is a symbol of the shared values and the cultural affinity between the Unite...
(BBC Watch via JNS)-The Israel Security Agency's report on terror attacks (Hebrew) during September 2018 shows that throughout the month a total of 204 incidents took place: 70 in Judea and Samaria, 10 in Jerusalem and 124 in the Gaza Strip. In Judea and Samaria, and in Jerusalem, the agency recorded 61 attacks with petrol bombs, eight attacks using improvised explosive devices (IEDs), seven arson attacks, one shooting attack and three stabbings. Incidents recorded in Gaza included 66 attacks...
(JNS)-Since March, the Gazan border has played host to a series of violent demonstrations. Thousands of rioters, some of whom are armed with hand grenades, Molotov cocktails and slingshots, regularly amass along the border. As a whole, major media outlets have failed to accurately and objectively cover the events of the so-called "March of Return," and as a result, the truth surrounding the events of the last several months has been largely obfuscated. Enter Joseph Truzman, known on Twitter simp...
Video of Louis Farrakhan comparing Jews to termites removed from Facebook (JTA)—A video posted to the Facebook account of Louis Farrakhan in which the Nation of Islam leader compares Jews to termites was removed for violating the social media platforms hate speech policies. It remains posted on Twitter, which said last week that it does not violate company policies. The video represents a Tier 1 violation for Facebook, The Wrap first reported. A Tier 1 violation includes attacks comparing a person or group of people to “animals that are cul...
(JNS)-U.S. President Donald Trump vowed in May to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal and signed an executive order in August to re-impose sanctions, which go into full effect on Nov. 4. The European Union, however, appears determined to ignore and circumvent U.S. efforts to force Iran into compliance on its nuclear program, and for the Islamic regime to cease and desist global terror activity. It appears that Trump's foreign policy on Iran has raised European ire and some of those countries do no...
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has complexly failed in its mission to financially harm the Jewish state and has no impact whatsoever on its economy. Israel’s Globes financial news reported last week that a study of the impact of BDS on the Israeli economy estimates the damage at 0.004 percent, while some companies even benefit from the boycott. Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs launched the study in 2010, and based on queries to hundreds of senior executives of large Israeli companies from every economic sec...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Two Israelis were killed and another injured in a terror attack in a West Bank industrial area that employs thousands of Palestinian and Jewish workers. The attack in the Barkan Industrial Park factory took place shortly before 8 a.m. Sunday, at the beginning of the work week. The gunman, a 23-year-old Palestinian who remains at large, had been employed at the factory for several months and reportedly knew the two dead victims-a man and a woman from central Israel. Both had been...
Israeli police were alerted to a house in Givat Ze’ev, a Jerusalem neighborhood, late Sunday night after a Molotov cocktail was found tied to a balloon was found in the backyard. Police sappers examined the balloon and transferred the findings for further investigation, officers said. The police called on the public to exercise extreme caution with regards to suspicious objects such as kites and balloons, which may contain explosives or flammable materials. Givat Ze’ev is situated adjacent to several Arab neighborhoods. This concerning inc...
(JNS)—The city of Jerusalem will evict the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) in light of the organization’s illegal activities and incitement of Palestinians against Israel, according to Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday. In a statement, Barkat said the new U.S. policy cutting $300 million to the controversial organization inspired the move, which will see unlicensed UNRWA-run schools, medical centers and sports facilities transferred to Israeli authorities. According to Barkat, who is stepping down from his position after municipal ele...
(JNS)—New details of the fatal terror attack against three Israelis at the Barkan Industrial Park on Sunday morning are coming to light as parents of the deceased call for vengeance. “Every terrorist should know he would be executed, and that his family will suffer for his crimes,” the father of murdered Alon Group employee Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, Rafael, said at her funeral. “These people spit into the well they drink from, so maybe they don’t deserve to drink.” Levengrond Yehezkel, a 29-year-old mother of an 18-month-old son who worked as a...
(JTA)-On Sept. 13, 1993, exactly 25 years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat were captured shaking hands in a historic ceremony in Washington, D.C., hosted by President Bill Clinton. The leaders agreed to set up a framework, now known as Oslo Accord I, that would lead to the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But that photograph was just the culmination of a series of secret negotiations held in Norway over several months. And...
(JTA)—Moshe Aryeh Friedman may be mild-mannered, but the Antwerp rabbi certainly has a knack for publicity. An anti-Zionist activist from New York, Friedman, 47, has been accused—falsely, he has said—of denying the Holocaust during a 2006 conference organized by then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Tehran. He has since repeatedly riled the Jewish community of the Belgian city where he has lived with his family since 2011. In 2013, Friedman got a judge to force a Jewish school for girls to admit two of his boys—a blow directed at a co...
Association for Israel Studies backs American student detained at Israeli airport (JTA)—The international association of Israel studies scholars is calling on Israel to allow Lara Alqasem, the American student detained at Ben Gurion Airport, to enter the country. Alqasem has been denied entry to Israel due to her alleged support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel. An Israeli law passed last year allows the country to ban BDS supporters from entering. Alqasem, who arrived in Israel on Oct. 2, has been detained a...
