Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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An Israeli partnership announced that an oil field they have been surveying north of the Dead Sea is estimated to hold seven million barrels of oil, worth NIS 1.2 billion ($321 million). The reservoir, known as Hatrurim, is estimated to contain 7 million barrels of oil, while the high estimate is 11 million barrels. The estimates are given with 100 percent geological certainty of oil being found, since oil has already been produced from the reservoir, in the Halamish drilling, a report published by the companies holding the drilling license...
Anne Frank’s copy of ‘Grimm’s Fairy Tales’ sells for $50,000 (JTA)—A Boston museum has acquired Anne Frank’s personal copy of “Grimm’s Fairy Tales” for $50,000 at auction. The Museum of World War II was the highest bidder last Friday for the 1925 German edition of the book, which features the names of Anne and her sister, Margot, on the title page. The book, which sold at Swann Auction Galleries in New York City, is accompanied by a 1977 letter from the girls’ father, Otto, giving it provenance. It marked the first time in more than 20 years...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The Israeli Supreme Court decision on Jewish conversion changes almost nothing. But down the line, it could change a lot. Under the March 31 ruling, the state of Israel must recognize Jewish conversions performed in private Orthodox conversion courts not run by its Chief Rabbinate. A network of such courts, called Giyur Kahalacha, or "conversion by Jewish law," began operating last year. The ruling concerned whether three people who had converted in non-Rabbinate courts could...
(JTA)-A British Parliament member who in a 2014 Facebook post called for relocating the entire State of Israel to the United States has been suspended from the Labour Party. Naz Shah, who is Muslim, was suspended Wednesday by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn a day after she resigned from her post as private secretary to the Parliament's shadow chancellor. Pending an investigation, Shah is "unable to take part in any party activity," a Labour spokesman was quoted as saying in the Jewish News. Shah...
Trump says he will try to broker Israeli-Palestinian peace deal (JTA)—Saying he’d “never met a person from Israel that didn’t want to make that deal,” Donald Trump said if elected president he plans to try to broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty. “I am going to try and make that deal just because—man, would that be a beauty—if you like deals. I like deals,” the Republican presidential front-runner said at a rally Sunday in Terre Haute ahead of the Indiana primary on Tuesday, according to Jewish Insider. “A lot of my Jewish friends say,...
The U.N. has passed yet another anti-Israel resolution denying historical and archaeological evidence proving a long-existing Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. In blatant disregard of history, archaeology and plain common sense, the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a resolution on Friday that ignores Jewish historical ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem. With 33 votes in favor, six against, and 17...
By Caleb R. Newton Families from the Druze community of Israel came to the Jewish Academy of Orlando late after Shabbat on April 16, to share their stories of loved ones who died while serving in the Israel Defense Force throughout the past decades in several different conflicts. The families wanted to share their experiences with Central Florida to help build bridges between our communities and to recognize the bridges that are already present. "This...demonstrates the high level of...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-At least 21 people were injured in a bus bombing in Jerusalem, police said, in the first such attack in Israel in years. A city bus exploded and went up in flames Monday evening, April 18, on a major thoroughfare in the southern end of the capital. The blast set a second bus and a car nearby on fire. Two people were seriously injured in the attack, with seven moderately injured and 12 lightly injured. An explosive device was planted in the rear half of the bus, which was stopped...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-During the five-plus years of Syria's civil war, Israel has striven to stay neutral-supporting neither the government of President Bashar Assad nor the rebels, and certainly not the Islamic State. But on one issue, senior Israeli politicians have gladly taken sides: Israel keeping the Golan Heights. Facing reports of an international call for Israel to leave the territory as part of a settlement of the Syrian crisis, the Israeli Cabinet met Sunday on the Golan. The unprecedented...
KFAR SABA, Israel (JTA)-One family lost their son in late July 2014. The other lost theirs on the first of August in the same year. One family has lobbied the United Nations and crossed an ocean in hopes of bringing their son's remains back. The other mostly stays home. One family is sure their son is dead. The other is plagued by uncertainty. But one thing unites the Goldin and Shaul families: Of the 67 sets of Israeli parents who lost sons in the Gaza War two years ago, only theirs have not...
7 members of alleged Jewish terror cell indicted in Israel JERUSALEM (JTA)—Seven members of an alleged Jewish terror cell were indicted Monday in an Israeli court. An Israeli soldier and two minors were among those charged in Petach Tikvah District Court with setting Palestinian vehicles on fire, throwing firebombs at Palestinian homes and assaulting Palestinians in the West Bank, near Ramallah. The cell members also are accused of belonging to an illegal organization and causing grave bodily harm. The accused terrorists were arrested e...
At a special concert fundraiser for Israel's largest volunteer EMS service held at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, United Hatzalah was honored by Jay Leno, who performed a long comedy set and offered on the spot to donate a $36,000 fully equipped ambucycle for the EMS organization to use to save lives in Israel. The former Tonight Show host called Eli Beer, founder and president of United Hatzalah, to the stage after his act to tell him "What you guys are doing is so special I am so...
ISRAEL21c-In the wake of deadly terrorist attacks at Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station in Brussels yesterday that killed 34 people and injured about 200 others, law-enforcement agencies in Europe's major cities are scrambling to beef up security at airports and transport hubs. This latest horrific incident-and the revelation that the Islamist suicide bombers were known to police and yet still managed to access the airport's departure hall-has intensified speculation that European...
Netanyahu vows to keep Golan Heights forever JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel will never give up the Golan Heights, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly Cabinet meeting on Sunday, a day after the Israeli leader said he delivered the same message to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. The meeting was held for the first time on the land captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War. “I chose to hold this festive Cabinet meeting on the Golan Heights in order to deliver a clear message: The Golan Heights will forever remain in Isr...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The top Democrat handling foreign relations in the Senate says he will endeavor to get Congress to reauthorize Iran sanctions before year's end, a key goal of pro-Israel activists. "There's general agreement we have to extend the sanctions against Iran, and we need to do it before they expire at the end of this year, " Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told JTA on Thursday. Last month Cardin toured Israel, Saudi Arabia...
SAINT-DENIS, France (JTA)-After three firebombs hit the synagogue of this poor and heavily Muslim suburb of Paris, municipal authorities advised the local Jewish community to lower its profile. Like dozens of attacks on French synagogues since 2000, the January 2009 incident at the Chabad House of Saint-Denis, which did not result in any injuries, was believed to have been Islamist extremists' retaliation for Israel's actions-that year against Hamas in Gaza. "We were told by the mayor from the...
Bernie Sanders wins Wyoming, reiterates Israel’s ‘disproportionate’ response in Gaza war (JTA)—The day after his victory in the Wyoming Democratic caucus, Bernie Sanders doubled down on his assertion that Israel’s response in the 2014 Gaza war was “disproportionate.” “Was Israel’s response disproportionate? I think it was,” Sanders, an Independent senator from Vermont, told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that aired Sunday on “State of the Union.” The Democratic presidential candidate complained that public figures were focusing on his init...
(JTA)-In the wake of last week's terror attack in Brussels, Belgians transformed a central square in the capital into an impromptu memorial for the victims. Thirty-five people died Tuesday in a series of suicide bombings at the city's main airport and a subway station. Starting the next day, people gathered in Place de La Bourse and lit candles amid spontaneous singing and guitar playing of French-language songs about peace, along with some Beatles hits for good measure. Locals and foreigners...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-It began as an all-too-common story: A Palestinian assailant in the contested West Bank city of Hebron stabs and wounds an Israeli soldier. Israeli forces shoot him dead. But hours after the incident Thursday, a political and moral firestorm engulfed Israel. A video showed a soldier executing the already incapacitated attacker. One day later, after condemnation from the highest reaches of Israel's government, a second video appeared to show that the attacker might have still...
"Every week there is an attack at the U.N. against Israel," Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told me at the recent American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. In the week that followed our interview, the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC) appointed a Canadian legal expert who has expressed anti-Israel views to the post of special rapporteur on Palestinian human rights. The UNHRC also adopted a measure that calls for the creation of a database-or what Danon...
NEW YORK—Known as the most coveted season in Israel, spring boasts cool breezes, wild flowers blooming and savings on EL AL Israel Airlines nonstop flights from all USA gateway cities. The special roundtrip airfare is $899 on nonstop flights from New York (JFK/Newark) and Boston for departures from May 11 through June 15, 2016. From Los Angeles, the roundtrip fare is $1,069 and is available for travel May 8-June 7, 2016. (Prices include all taxes & carrier imposed surcharges.) For Matmid as well as Executive and Premium Tier Frequent Flyer C...
UN censors exhibit on Israel set for NY headquarters (JTA)—The United Nations has censored an exhibition about Israel set to go on display at the organization’s headquarters in New York. Three of the 13 panels in the exhibition “Israel Matters,” which is set to open Monday, will be deleted, the U.N. decided over the weekend. The censored panels deemed “inappropriate” are on the subjects of Zionism, Jerusalem and Arab-Israelis. The exhibit was created by Israel’s permanent mission to the United Nations with the organization StandWithUs....
From 1947 to September 1950, 48,818 Yemenite Jews-almost the entire Jewish population in Yemen-flew to freedom in Israel through Operation On Wings of Eagles, better known as Operation Magic Carpet airlift. (See the full story of the airlift in the Feb. 12 issue of the Heritage.) Approximately 14,000 Yemenite Jews remained behind, and then were trapped in Yemen in 1962 after civil war broke out, making it almost impossible to reach the small population. However, over the years, The Jewish...
ANTWERP (JTA)—The hundreds of rifle-toting police and soldiers who patrol Isaac Michaeli’s neighborhood have done little to improve his sense of safety. “When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing, the soldiers might as well be cardboard cutouts,” he said. A jeweler in his 40s, Michaeli lives with his family in Antwerp’s Jewish quarter, a small neighborhood of 12,000 that is one of the largest haredi communities in Europe. The troops have been assigned to protect the neighborhood, with its 98 Jewish institutions, since May 2...
Political leaders around the globe, including United States presidential candidates from both major parties and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, all had words to say as to what they perceived as the best response to the suicide bombings carried out by Islamic State operatives at a metro station and airport that killed at least 34 people in Brussels, Belgium, on March 22. Netanyahu’s remarks were delivered for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s 2016 Policy Conference on March 22. After “sending his condolences” to the vic...
