Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS)-The wave of Iranian ballistic missiles that struck two military bases in Iraq early on Wednesday that house U.S. personnel was a clear Iranian attempt to conclude the current phase of escalation with Washington. The missiles failed, intentionally or not, to cause any casualties, after days of warnings by Iranian officials saying that U.S. military targets would be hit-possibly an early warning designed to decrease the chance of victims when the strikes actually came. Still, they were an ex...
(JNS)-Faculty who support the academic boycott of Israel are actively promoting BDS directly to students in their classrooms, according to a report released on Wednesday by the campus watchdog AMCHA Initiative, providing the first empirical evidence of such activity. The study, which examined 50 syllabi at 40 public and private colleges and universities over an 11-year period, revealed that academic BDS-supporting instructors had an average of 78 percent of their course readings authored by BDS...
US embassy in Jerusalem issues security alert following Soleimani killing By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—The United States Embassy in Jerusalem issued a security alert on Monday for U.S. citizens in Israel after the assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani prompted Iran to promise “harsh revenge.” “Out of an abundance of caution, the Embassy strongly encourages U.S. citizens to remain vigilant and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness, as security incidents, including rocket fire, often take place without...
(JTA)—Iran will no longer honor the nuclear deal it signed with world powers. The announcement came Sunday following a meeting of the Islamic Republic’s National Security Council to discuss the country’s nuclear policy following the assassination on Friday of Qassem Soleimani by the United States, The New York Times reported. Soleimani was the head of the Iranian Quds Force, which operates a number of regional militias and is allied with terrorist groups targeting Israel, including Hezbollah and Hamas. “The Islamic Republic of Iran will en...
By Jackson Richman (JNS)-The head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2020, announced the U.S. Department of Defense. "At the direction of the president, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization," the Pent...
(JNS)—The American airstrike assassination of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force commander, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad early on Friday follows a major miscalculation on the part of Tehran in the decision to up the ante against the United States. While the extent of Iran’s response is not yet clear, military planners in the region, including in Israel, will need to prepare for the most severe scenarios. Even though Iran may seek to launch a calculated retaliation, which would exact a price without going to war, no...
(JNS)—For the most part, Jewish and pro-Israel groups reacted positively to the U.S. elimination of the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Maj. Gen, Qassem Soleimani, in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq on Thursday. B’nai B’rith International CEO and executive vice president Dan Mariaschin told JNS, “The American strike today was a major step in the war against terror. Soleimani was the chief agent for Iran’s export of terror throughout the region and beyond. Hopefully, this will serve as a strong deterrent to those who wou...
(JTA)-Pianist Igor Levit says he has received death threats and is warning about an increase in hate crimes in Germany. The Russian-born musician, 32, whose family immigrated to Germany in 1995, said he received an email in mid-November threatening an assassination attempt against him at a concert in southern Germany. His spokeswoman told the German media that Levit informed the police and then played the concert under tight security. In an essay for the Sunday edition of the Tagesspiegel newspa...
(JNS)—The year 2019 consisted of ups and downs for the Jewish and pro-Israel community. Below is a listing of the top six events or themes that shaped news coverage throughout the year (in no particular order). Anti-Semitic attacks From Southern California to Jersey City, Jews were under attack as, in the former, one woman was killed and three people injured during Shabbat-morning services at Chabad of Poway on the last day of Passover on April 27. In the latter, two Chassidic Jews, a store employee and a police officer were shot and killed a...
Graffiti featuring Star of David and ‘9 11’ painted on buildings in North London By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Graffiti featuring a Star of David and “9 11” was painted on buildings on several streets in North London. The graffiti, discovered on a synagogue and store windows in Hampstead and Belsize Park on Sunday morning, seems to refer to a conspiracy theory that Jewish people were responsible for the attack on the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York in 2001. The neighborhoods in which the graffiti was painted are home to large Jewish po...
(JNS)—Part of the $1.37 trillion spending bill that U.S. President Donald Trump signed on Friday included $150 million split evenly between assistance for security services, and humanitarian and civilian purposes for the Palestinians. The legislation included a bipartisan agreement on the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act that will allow the U.S. Agency for International Development to resume its operations in the West Bank and Gaza. USAID ceased projects in those areas earlier this year in accordance with ATCA, which provides protections for A...
(JNS)-On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, Manger Square in Bethlehem was filled with people, but local Christians were few and far between. The majority of those milling around in the sunshine appeared to be local Muslims, along with a smattering of tourists. In previous years, visitors waiting to step into the tiny opening of the Church of the Nativity could expect to stand in line for up to an hour. This year, despite the completion of a four-year, $18 million restoration project at the...
Yeshiva University dorm set on fire by man using matches meant for Chanukah candles By Marcy Oster (JTA)—A man broke into a Yeshiva University dormitory and set three separate fires using matches intended to light Chanukah candles. Students were asleep in the building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side when the incident occurred after 3 a.m. Friday, New York City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro announced on Friday. Peter Weyand, 33, who works as a software engineer, was arrested the same day for breaking into the university’s Schottenstein Resid...
(JTA)—A major German industry family will donate tens of millions of dollars to support Holocaust survivors and former forced laborers in the Nazi era. In addition to one-time donations to the Claims Conference and individual laborers, the Reimann family’s JAB firm has created a foundation designed to distribute 25 million euros ($27.8 million) annually to programs teaching about the Holocaust and democratic values. The announcement comes months after the Reimann family, which is worth at least 20 billion euros (about $22.27 billion), said his...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Turkish government has allowed Hamas members to use the country as a safe haven from which to plan attacks against Israelis. The Daily Telegraph cited transcripts of Israeli interrogations of suspected Palestinian terrorists in its report Tuesday. Not only do Hamas members have free rein to travel around the territory of the NATO member and ostensible U.S. ally, the British newspaper said, but that they are in regular contact with representatives of the Turkish intelligence community. According to the report, Ankara has a...
‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ renewed for 4th season By Ron Kampeas (JTA)—“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” the Emmy Award-winning series about a 1950s protofeminist Jewish stand-up comic, will return for a fourth season, its creators said just after the third season started streaming on Amazon. “We were thrilled to hear that for the fourth time, we do not have to pack up and vacate the premises,” Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino said Thursday, according to Deadline Hollywood. “We’d like to thank Amazon for all their faith and support, thei...
LONDON (JTA)—Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has defeated Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party by a large margin in Britain’s general elections on Thursday, exit polls indicate. The Conservatives received 368 seats out of 650 according to the polls by BBC, ITV and Sky News, with Labour lagging far behind with 191. Actual results from voting stations are expected to begin trickling in at about 2 a.m. local time on Friday. Many British Jews have said the elections are particu...
(JNS)-In a scathing speech last week about corruption in the United Nations, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Canada of making a "deal with the devil" and called again for the removal of Venezuela from the United Nations Human Rights Council. "If we are serious about being advocates for human rights, Venezuela's membership on the Human Rights Council cannot stand," Haley said on Thursday night at the inaugural gala of the UN Watch NGO in New York City, where she...
Columbia and Tel Aviv U will offer a dual degree program By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—Columbia University in New York and Tel Aviv University in Israel will offer a dual degree program. Columbia made the announcement last week. Students will spend their first two years at Tel Aviv University and their third and fourth year attending Columbia’s School of General Studies. Upon completion of the four-year program, graduates earn two bachelor’s degrees, one from each institution. Columbia has dual degree and joint degree programs at Scien...
(JTA)-The U.N.'s leading cultural body was scheduled to vote this month on whether to remove a Belgian carnival that had hosted a float seen as mocking Jews from its list of important human cultural expressions. But the carnival's organizers decided they wouldn't wait for a possible censure and instead gave up the designation on its own. On Sunday, the city of Aalst said it wanted to withdraw the Aalst Carnival from the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It...
By David Lazarus MONTREAL (JTA)—A Jewish student leader at McGill University in Montreal was fighting efforts to oust her from the student union for accepting a trip to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Jordyn Wright, a member of the Student Society of McGill University’s legislative council and board of directors, said she is “outraged and disgusted” by the student society’s call on Thursday for her to resign for agreeing to the trip sponsored by Hillel. She is refusing to resign or quit the trip, despite the threat of impeachme...
(JTA)—The U.N.’s leading cultural body was scheduled to vote this month on whether to remove a Belgian carnival that had hosted a float seen as mocking Jews from its list of important human cultural expressions. But the carnival’s organizers decided they wouldn’t wait for a possible censure and instead gave up the designation on its own. On Sunday, the city of Aalst said it wanted to withdraw the Aalst Carnival from the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It would be the first time an item had been removed...
Washington’s Sixth & I synagogue vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti By Josefin Dolsten (JTA)—The Sixth & I synagogue in downtown Washington, D.C., was vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti. Michelle Eider, the synagogue’s communications manager, said the vandalism contained swastikas and anti-Semitic language and was discovered on Monday morning. In an email to congregants, the synagogue’s three rabbis said the damage was minimal and would be quickly fixed. “In these moments, it’s important to remember that it is not a shame but an honor to...
With anti-Semitism skyrocketing, many Jews are finding themselves under attack. At times it can feel that few non-Jews want to stand up in defense of Jewish communities in their midst. Yet three recent events in Europe have given Jews some hope, as unexpected heroes stepped up to say enough is enough. Standing up against hatred on British train Asma Shuweikh, a 36-year-old Muslim mother from the British city of Birmingham, was travelling on the underground tube in London on Nov. 22, 2019, when she witnessed a Jewish family with young children...
(JTA)-The day after he turned 100, Jozef Walaszczyk prepared to attend yet another Holocaust commemoration ceremony in his native Warsaw. Walaszczyk is Poland's oldest living Righteous Among the Nations – a title given by Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust museum to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust – and he attends several such events each year. But he was in for a different experience when a Ferrari pulled up to his apartment building Thursday to take him to the eve...
