Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Thousands mourn Ari Fuld, prominent Israel activist stabbed to death by Palestinian JERUSALEM (JTA)—For more than four hours, thousands mourned at a West Bank cemetery for Ari Fuld, the victim of a terrorist stabbing who is being called a hero and “a lion of Israel,” a play on his name, which means lion. Many waved Israeli flags during and after the funeral for the U.S.-born Israel activist killed outside a shopping mall near Efrat, the Etzion bloc town where he lived. The funeral for Fuld, a 45-year-old father of four, began close to midni...
(JNS)-For five months now, since March 2018, Israeli communities bordering Gaza have sustained ongoing terrorism and arson from hundreds of rockets and incendiary devices, causing constant stress and chaos for the 50,000 people who call this region home. Residential and commercial damage, along with some 10,000 acres of land, including forests and agricultural plots, have been destroyed. Just as the worst seemed to be over, this month more than 200 rockets struck the Eshkol and Sha'ar HaNegev Re...
Recently, JTA reported that a Reform congregation won a legal battle to build a synagogue building in the central Israeli city of Hod Hasharon, a wealthy city located several miles north of Tel Aviv. Former Orlando resident Lori Stein Erlich and her Israeli husband, Moshe Erlich, are members of this congregation. Back in 2014, the Erlichs visited the Heritage office to share their vision of having a building for their Reform/Conservative congregation, Kehilat Yonatan (see the article titled "The...
On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump told Jewish leaders that the Palestinians would not receive any more aid from the U.S., unless they made a deal with Israel. Trump made the remarks during a conference call placed in anticipation of the Jewish New Year in which the president communicated with a number of American Jewish leaders. Trump’s remarks arrive on the heels of his administration’s decision to cut funds both to the Palestinians’ dedicated UN agency, UNRWA, and direct aid to the Palestinians. To that end, Trump noted during the c...
Israel’s Channel 10 News published a report on Tuesday based on comments from a senior Fatah official demonstrating Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ intense hostility toward any potential deal between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip. According to the report, the Fatah official told Channel 10 that Abbas was furious with the Egyptians for mediating the agreement, which the PA chief referred to as “treachery and defiance against the leadership.” The official also claimed that Abbas acknowledged that the suppose...
(JTA)—J.K. Rowling went head to head with a fellow British writer on Twitter over his criticism of Jewish complaints about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Simon Maginn, who has written five thrillers under his own name and satirical comedies under the name Simon Nolan, on Sunday in a tweet called Jewish outrage over Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s 2013 comments indicating that “Zionists” do not understand British culture “patently synthetic outrage,” and called on a Jewish tweeter to “Explain your deep and wounding sense of injury.” Rowl...
Trump said Jared Kushner should not serve in White House (JTA)—President Donald Trump last year agreed with a former aide that Jared Kushner should not serve in the White House due to potential complications involving Kushner’s business dealings, the new book by journalist Bob Woodward claims. According to a story in Newsweek, “Fear: Trump in the White House” says that Trump contemplated the liability posed to him by Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser, following reports that Kushner’s business interests were being looked into by U.S sp...
It all started with 50 faxes. Yes, faxes. In 1992, after moving to South Florida, Rabbi Kalman Packouz was fascinated with the latest technology, a fax modem. So he found a way to put it to good use, by sending out a one-page "dot-matrix" fax about the weekly Torah portion to 50 people. Today, it's still sent out by fax to tens of thousands and has grown to become one of the world's most popular Jewish emails as well with hundreds of thousands of readers worldwide. The goal of the Shabbat...
(JTA)-A former guard at a Nazi concentration camp was deported to Germany overnight from the United States, where he had lived for decades. Jakiw Palij, 95, had lived in Queens, New York. He served as a guard at the Trawniki concentration camp near Lublin, Poland, during World War II, and may face prosecution in Germany for his actions. Members of New York's congressional delegation last year urged the Trump administration to deport Palij, whose citizenship was revoked in 2003 based on his...
(JTA)—A senior clergywoman in the Episcopal Church of Massachusetts has apologized for comments accusing Israel of fabricated atrocities. During a speech last month to the church’s General Convention, Bishop Suffragen Gayle Harris claimed that she had witnessed Israeli security forces arrest a 3-year-old on the Temple Mount and shoot a 15-year-old in the back 10 times after making a comment to a group of soldiers. Harris, the second-highest ranking Episcopal official in the state, later clarified that she had heard the stories from a third par...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—PepsiCo will acquire the Israeli home soda maker manufacturer SodaStream for $3.2 billion, the soft drink giant said Monday. PepsiCo plans to maintain the Israeli company’s current base of operations in the Negev. SodaStream will continue to operate as an independent subsidiary. The American multinational agreed to acquire all of the outstanding shares of SodaStream International Ltd. for $144 per share. “PepsiCo and SodaStream are an inspired match,” PepsiCo Chairman and CEO Indra Nooyi said in a statement. SodaStream CEO Danie...
(JNS)—An Israeli report has revealed that the son of Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas told a top Trump administration official that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is unrealistic. According to Israel’s Channel 10, Tarek Abbas told White House special envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt last September on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York that he does not think a two-state solution is possible, and that the solution is one state with equal rights for all citizens. Mahmoud Abb...
MOSCOW (JTA)—Israel’s passage of the nation-state law brought another round of barrages across the Atlantic underlining the growing alienation of the world’s two largest Jewish communities. The issues are increasingly familiar: American pluralism versus Jewish exceptionalism, Orthodox versus Liberal, nationalism versus enlightenment. Yes, we have a problem. Israel and American Jewry are growing apart from one other. It would be wrong to put the responsibility of this growing schism only on the Israeli government, or Israeli civil society, since...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Israel's new "nation-state" law, which is widely viewed here as clumsy, unnecessary and unwise, must be amended. That's why I was proud to join tens of thousands of Israelis on Saturday night in a peaceful, unifying protest led by the Druze community. I came to this city's Rabin Square to stand with the Druze, with whom I fought to protect the State of Israel. But I also came to celebrate Israeli democracy; the public's commitment to equality and democratic values; our independent...
By Ben Sales (JTA)-The statement, issued the day Israel passed a controversial bill defining itself as a Jewish nation-state, could have come from any number of liberal American Jewish groups. "We condemn this despicable law, as well as the anti-gay surrogacy law the Knesset recently enacted, and the detainment of Rabbi Dov Haiyun for conducting a non-Orthodox marriage," the July 19 statement said. "These anti-democratic and nativist actions make it more imperative to support the progressive...
Israeli equestrian rider withdraws from world championships due to conflict with Yom Kippur JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli equestrian rider has withdrawn from next month’s world championships because the competition will take place on Yom Kippur. The International Equestrian Federation event, which will take place this year in North Carolina, is a prelude to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, where Israel’s equestrian federation hopes to compete for the first time. Israeli rider Dan Kramer sent a letter earlier this month to the international feder...
(JNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday the founding of the Iran Action Group, which will “be responsible for directing, reviewing and coordinating all aspects of the State Department’s Iran-related activity.” “For nearly 40 years, the regime in Tehran has been responsible for a torrent of violent and destabilizing behavior against the United States, our allies, our partners, and indeed, the Iranian people themselves,” said Pompeo. “Our hope is that one day soon we can reach a new agreement with Iran. But we must see m...
A hostel in Jerusalem’s Old City has published a list of “haters of Israel” who have been banned “because of crimes committed against the Jewish people,” drawing derision and ridicule from those blacklisted. The Jerusalem Heritage House describes itself as an institution that provides “warm and comfortable accommodations for Jewish travelers in the heart of the Old City for a nominal fee.” It boasts of having hosted more than 60,000 guests since 1985. Posted on Twitter by journalist Jacob Kornbluh, the list includes figures such as comedian Jon...
and United with Israel US President Donald Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act on Monday, which includes $550 million in assistance to Israel and temporarily halts the sale of F-35 fighter jets to Turkey. This comes amid tensions between Washington and Ankara, which is currently holding an American pastor hostage, among other political moves. The $717 billion Act includes a bipartisan measure honoring a decade-long Memorandum of Understanding between America and Israel, with the US giving $3.8 billion annually to the Jewish stat...
The first mention in JTA of the Hebrew word “hasbarah” was in 1988, at the height of the first intifada. The article focused on Israelis and American Jews and their deep concern that the media were distorting the unrest and showing the Israeli military in a bad light. The answer, interviewees agreed, was better “hasbarah”—a Hebrew word, explained the author (OK, it was me), “whose meaning falls somewhere between information and propaganda.” “Israel has never actually looked at hasbarah as an integral part of policymaking,” said Dan Pattir,...
(JTA)-It's gotta hurt when the guy who used to fund your political career writes two op-eds criticizing you in The New York Times. Benjamin Netanyahu would know-that's what's happening to him right now. On Monday, Netanyahu was the target of a scathing column by Ronald Lauder, the cosmetics heir who heads the World Jewish Congress. Lauder lamented Israel's recent nation-state law, which Netanyahu defends as a safeguard of Israel's Jewish character but critics see as a slap in the face to the...
(JNS)-The future of prayer at the Western Wall has become one of the most contentious issues among Diaspora Jewry in the past year, mainly as a result of the Israeli government's June 2017, suspension of a plan, which would have changed the status quo at one of Judaism's holiest site. Leaders of Diaspora Jewry from the non-Orthodox streams, along with the Women of the Wall organization, a group that holds monthly controversial prayer services at the Western Wall, were enraged by the last-minute...
Trump says Israel will have a prime minister named Mohammed if there is a one-state solution JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israelis eventually will have a prime minister named Mohammed if there is a one-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, President Donald Trump reportedly told King Abdullah of Jordan. According to Axios, Abdullah informed French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian of Trump’s remarks during a meeting in Amman earlier this month, recalling how he told his American counterpart that “many young Palestinians don’t want the two...
As of early Thursday morning, Hamas has fired about 150 rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip, the IDF stated. The IDF retaliated by targeting a number of sites used by the Hamas and other terror organizations operating in Gaza. Since Wednesday evening, the Iron Dome has intercepted 25 rockets. The Eshkol Regional Council said early Thursday morning that a 30-year-old woman was seriously injured when a rocket hit a greenhouse where she was working. Prof. Yochanan Pfizer, deputy director of Sorok...
(JNS)-The security escalation in southern Israel and the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours shows that Hamas is prepared to take the region to the brink of war, and that it believes it can force new rules of conduct on Israel while paying a minimal price for its aggression. Its actions have placed the region in danger of a major new conflict. Hamas's leadership is dangling the option of a long-term truce before Israel with one hand and firing barrages of rockets at southern Israel with the...
