Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Muslim woman deflects anti-Semitic tirade against man and young sons in London By Marcy Oster (JTA)—A Muslim woman wearing a hijab confronted a man on an Underground train in London who was verbally attacking a man and his sons, who were wearing kippahs. The man, in a tirade caught on video, told the family during the Friday ride that they are members of “the Church of Satan,” and said that Jews were behind the slave trade and the 9-11 attacks. The Jewish father remained calm and ignored the man, though at least one of his young sons looke...
California Democrats vote down ‘highly flawed anti-Israel’ amendment to party platform By Marcy Oster (JTA)—California Democrats voted down an amendment to their party platform that called for the right of return for Palestinians and eliminated references to the two-state solution. The amendment presented Sunday at the state party’s fall convention also advocated for the return of the descendants of Jewish refugees in Israel to the countries from which they fled. The Democrats for Israel Los Angeles chapter said in a statement that it coordin...
GENEVA, Nov. 15, 2019—A United Nations General Assembly committee today adopted eight resolutions that single out or condemn Israel, and zero on the entire rest of the world. The texts condemn Israel for “repressive measures” against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, renew the mandate of the corrupt UN Relief and Works Agency, and renew the mandate of the UN’s “special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.” All 193 UN member states belo...
(JTA)—Jordan reclaimed two pieces of land leased by Israel as part of a 1994 peace agreement. King Abdullah II announced Sunday that Jordan would “impose our full sovereignty on every inch” of the properties known in Jordan as Ghumar and Al-Baqoura, and in Israel as Tzofar and Naharaim, also known as the Isle of Peace. Thousands of Israelis visited Naharaim and its peace park on Saturday for a final look before Israeli troops closed off the territory. Reports said that Jordan would allow farmers to harvest what they planted in Tzofar befor...
(JTA)-Ukraine is in the news now for its ties to the Trump impeachment scandal, but this year also marks the fifth anniversary of a turbulent revolution that roiled the country and ousted its then-president. In 2014, anti-government demonstrations became violent, and clashes with police led to the deaths of dozens of protesters. Ukraine's parliament voted to oust President Viktor Yanyukovych, and voters elected Petro Poroshenko-who was replaced earlier this year by Zolodymyr Zelensky, the...
ODESSA, Ukraine (JTA)—Alina Feoktistova always knew she was Jewish, but the first time she sought contact with the community was to see if it could pay her tuition. Feoktistova’s family couldn’t afford to send her to college, but the local Jewish community provides an alternative in the form of the Jewish University of Odessa, an accredited institution that offers tuition and room and board at no charge. Founded in 2003, the university features five-year programs in a number of fields, including foreign language, early childhood educa...
Virginia House will have its first female and first Jewish speaker By Marcy Oster (JTA)—The Virginia House of Delegates will have its first female and first Jewish speaker. The current minority leader, Democrat Eileen Filler-Corn, 55, of Fairfax County, Virginia, was chosen as speaker by the House’s incoming Democrats on Saturday. She has served in the state General Assembly since 2010. Filler-Corn said in a statement that she is “humbled and honored” to have been chosen speaker by her colleagues. “The firsts are not lost one me—the fi...
RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA)—Several Brazilian Jewish groups are condemning a magazine news article that likened a local Jewish senior politician to Nazi Germany’s propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Istoe magazine published on Friday an article titled “Goebbels of the Planalto”—a reference to Brazil’s presidential palace—that highlights the fact that Brazil’s Secretary of Communications Fabio Wajngarten is Jewish and suggests a Jewish conspiracy to back recent advertising budget cuts to media outlets that are not allied with the government. Est...
Hasidic Jews chased and punched in series of attacks in Brooklyn’s Borough Park By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Several identifiably Jewish men and boys were attacked in a string of assaults in the Borough Park community of Brooklyn on the same night. Three of the attacks late Friday night involved the same passenger car over five blocks, the Yeshiva World News reported. Surveillance cameras captured each incident, in which several men jump out of the car and chase Hasidic men and boys. In one incident, the passengers punched a Hasidic man after their veh...
(JTA)-In August, Liad Goldberg visited her sister in a Russian jail. It had been four months since Naama Issachar had been arrested at a Moscow airport while on a layover and accused of drug smuggling, and Goldberg was seeing her sister for the first time since the arrest. The sisters spoke through a glass partition that prevented them from touching. Later, Goldberg watched as Issachar was led into a courtroom for a hearing. "They had her in handcuffs," Goldberg recalled. "It's really sad." Iass...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israeli embassies around the world have increased security and awareness over fears that Iran will attack Israel by targeting a diplomatic mission on foreign soil. The diplomatic missions have been put on high alert and ordered to take certain security measures, according to reports. The Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu both have warned in recent days that Iran has become more aggressive and apt to respond to Israeli attacks on Iranian targets in Syria and Leb...
(JTA)—The recently elected Oslo City Council is getting right to work: The Norwegian lawmakers are banning the purchase of goods and services from Israeli Jewish settlements by municipal departments and other local authorities. It is the sixth Norwegian municipality to ban settlement goods and services, as well as one county council, according to the statement. The Oslo an is part of the platform for 2019-23 adopted recently by the City Council, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement targeting Israel announced in a statement on its w...
(JTA)—Jared Kushner, the point man on the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, appeared to endorse a unity government between Israel’s two largest parties. In a rare interview Tuesday, President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law also shot back at Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden for saying Kushner was ill equipped to be negotiating Mideast peace. Regarding the unity government, Kushner was asked if he had called on the party leaders—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Gen. Benny Gantz—to find a way...
US marks 25 years of peace treaty between Jordan and Israel By Marcy Oster (JTA)—The United States marked the 25th anniversary of the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan. “Today marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Peace between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the State of Israel, an agreement that began a tradition of peaceful and respectful cooperation that continues today,” read the statement signed by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and dated Saturday. “We take this opportunity to praise the endurin...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders earned cheers at J Street’s annual conference when he said some of the money Israel receives from the United States for defense assistance should go to humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip. The liberal Jewish Middle East policy group as one of its conference themes this year wants to press the Democratic candidates on whether they would demand from Israel an end to settlement expansion as a condition of receiving U.S. aid. Among the five candidates to speak in person at the con...
(JTA)-As the old saying goes, two Jews, three opinions. Add one headache for the Taliban. Meet Zabulon Simentov, 66, who is believed to be the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan. Emran Feroz recently profiled Simentov for Foreign Policy and uncovered some incredible stories about the feisty Afghan-including that the Taliban once imprisoned him for arguing with a fellow Jew, then kicked him out because the constant bickering became too annoying. There is a good amount of information available alre...
MEXICO CITY (JTA)-More than 10 years ago, Ilan Stavans scandalized language purists of the Spanish-speaking world by translating a chapter of "Don Quixote"-into Spanglish. Since then, the so-called czar of Latino culture has become one of the most important interlocutors for Hispanics in the United States. In his latest book, "The Seventh Heaven," published earlier this month, the Mexico-born Stavans shares a travelogue of a trip through Jewish Latin America, a topic on which he has emerged as a...
(JTA)—A teenage boy in Victoria, Australia that allegedly sent threatening messages to a Jewish boy who had been forced to kiss the shoe of a Muslim student and to his mother has been charged for the threats. The boy, 16, was arrested by Victoria police and charged with stalking, harassing and threatening to kill the Jewish boy and his mother, The Age reported. The teen, who reportedly was arrested earlier this month will appear next month in Children’s Court, the newspaper said. The threats were sent after photos of the incident in which a 1...
Israeli soldier injured by rock during clashes with residents of Yitzhar settlement By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli soldier was hit and injured with a rock during clashes with residents of the northern West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. The settlers also punctured the tires of several military vehicles, the IDF said. The IDF said it used riot dispersal methods, including shooting in the air, to stop the clashes. “It is inconceivable that IDF soldiers, who spend their days in defense of the settlers, would be attacked by those pro...
(JNS)—Israel has been closely monitoring Turkey’s brutal offensive against the Kurds in northeast Syria in recent days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the Turkish invasion on Oct. 10, stating that Israel “warns against the ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by Turkey and its proxies,” and that “Israel is prepared to extend humanitarian assistance to the gallant Kurdish people.” However, Israel’s concerns with regard to the Turkish operation extend beyond Ankara’s conflict with the Kurds. Israel Defense Forces Brig. Gen. (res...
(JTA)—More than 10,000 people marched in Berlin against anti-Semitism and in a show of support for the victims of anti-Semitic violence in the city of Halle. The march on Sunday left from Bebelplatz, significant as a site of Nazi book-burning, to the New Synagogue in central Berlin. Several thousand others marched on Saturday in the streets of other German cities including Hamburg and Marburg. The march comes days after a German man with anti-Semitic and white supremacist motives in a livestreamed attack tried and failed to enter the s...
(JTA)-A Muslim man from Albania who saved Jews during the Holocaust will attend an event in Poland honoring rescuers from across Europe. Xhemal Veseli, 93, who is among a handful of Muslim rescuers alive today, will travel to Warsaw with Albania's foreign minister, Edmond Panariti, whose family also saved Jews from the Holocaust. They will attend in Warsaw an event titled "An Evening for the Righteous" on Nov. 14. "In the remarkably fragmented and aggressive world we live in today, religion...
TEL AVIV—About 2.1 million women worldwide developed breast cancer in 2018, according to the World Health Organization. Last year also saw some 627,000 fatalities due to breast cancer—nearly all because their cancer had spread to distant organs. Israeli researcher Neta Erez is trying to find out how the cancer spreads in a bid to stop it. “Most studies are still done on the primary tumor, but that’s not what kills the patient,” Erez said. “If we can intervene at an early stage, we may be able to prevent metastasis.” If successful, t...
Fliers with anti-Jewish and anti-Israel messages left on cars in New Jersey township By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Fliers with what police described as anti-Israel and anti-Jewish messages were left on cars parked near a restaurant and movie theater in Evesham Township, New Jersey. One of the fliers tied Jewish Hollywood producers to pedophilia and child rape, the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia reported. The township is considered a suburb of Philadelphia. Police told the news outlet that a second flier made racist statements about Israel and a third i...
(JNS)-The decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull back troops from northern Syria in the face of a likely Turkish offensive against Kurdish forces is a blow to American deterrent power in the Middle East. It is also a move that looks set to hasten the creation of a power vacuum, which a variety of Islamists will look forward to filling. While it's too soon to know the full impact the move will have, it raises several potential scenarios, some of which would be deeply destructive for...
