Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Despite U.S. President Donald Trump's release of the "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan earlier this year to help resolved issues associated with the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it remains clear that no negotiations between the two parties are on the horizon amid a Palestinian boycott of the Trump administration. Given this and the ongoing discussion of Israel's imminent move to apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, questions are being raised over the via...
Remains of 286 Jewish Holocaust victims uncovered in 2 basements in Ukraine By Marcy Oster (JTA) — The remains of 286 Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust were found in two basements in a town in southwest Ukraine. The remains, mostly women and children, will be buried in a mass grave in the ancient Jewish cemetery in Sataniv, Ynet reported. The town had an organized Jewish community for about 500 years before the Nazis captured it in 1941 and began systematically killing its Jews, according to the Yad Vashem website. On May 15, 1942, N...
Trump names former White House staffer Sebastian Gorka to defense education body By Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Donald Trump named Sebastian Gorka to a committee that promotes national security through the education system. A onetime White House staffer, Gorka had come under fire for his associations with the Hungarian far right. On Tuesday, Trump named Gorka to the National Security Education Board, which oversees the National Security Education Program, a congressionally mandated program that dispenses grants and scholarships t...
(JNS) - Despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and increasing tensions between the United States and China, Israeli companies continue to view China as a major market for growth and development. Executives from two such companies have told JNS in recent weeks about their ongoing operations in China. The PTL Group is an Israeli-owned Chinese company that provides support to multiple international companies taking their first steps in the Chinese market. Its chairman, Zvi Shalgo, said in a...
(JNS) - A French appeals court ruled against an American couple that sought to get back the 1887 painting called "La Cueillette des Pois" ("Picking Peas") by Camille Pissarro that was looted from a Jewish collector during World War II and the Holocaust. The court upheld an earlier ruling that the painting should be returned to the family of the collector, Jewish businessman Simon Bauer, according to the text seen by AFP on Wednesday. Purchasers Bruce and Robbi Toll of the Philadelphia area, who...
Aaron Keyak, longtime Jewish political organizer, to head Biden’s Jewish outreach By Philissa Cramer (JTA) — With four months to Election Day, Joe Biden’s presidential campaign now boasts a staffer dedicated to mobilizing Jewish voters. Aaron Keyak, who has already been working on Biden’s campaign, is filling the role, first advertised late last month. Jewish Insider was the first to report Keyak’s appointment on Friday. Keyak is a longtime Democratic political strategist whose work has included leading a Jewish outreach effort for Barack Ob...
BERLIN (JTA) - There were approximately 30,000 Jews in the city of Frankfurt before World War II, making it the largest community in Germany. By the time the U.S. military occupied the city in 1945, there were only about 100 left. "Jewish life was destroyed," said Tobias Freimuller, author of the recently published "Frankfurt and the Jews," a history of the community from 1945-1990. Flash forward to 2020 and the Jewish community of Frankfurt is once again a powerful force in the city, one of...
(JNS) — Israel’s outgoing Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon reflected on his last five years in office and plans for the future during his final press briefing on Tuesday. Danon’s first move upon returning to Israel will be to visit his mother, who he has not seen in almost a year, he said. Regarding the next step in his career, he shared advice that former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley gave him, which is to take “time before making any commitments.” So, he said, “I’m going to go back to Israel and enjoy it. Rel...
Survey finds Israelis split on annexing West Bank territory By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli public opinion is split on whether the government should annex parts of the West Bank and which territory should be included, a survey found. The Israeli Voice Index for June 2020, a monthly survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, found that 24.5 percent of Israelis support applying sovereignty to all of the West Bank; 14 percent support applying sovereignty to the West Bank settlement blocs; 8 percent support applying sovereignty t...
(JNS) — France, Germany, Egypt and Jordan declared that they would not recognize any moves on Israel’s part to extend sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and parts of Judea and Samaria. In a statement released on Tuesday by the German Foreign Ministry following a joint video conference on the issue, the foreign ministers of the four countries stated: “We exchanged views on the current state of the Middle East Peace Process and its regional implications. We concur that any annexation of Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 would be a viola...
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...
