Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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TEL AVIV (JTA)-Professional lacrosse player Chase Clark was told that there are three keys to survival in Israel: Realize that everyone else thinks their time is more important than yours, avoid the crazy drivers while crossing the road and enjoy yourself as much as possible. Before this week, Clark had never been to the Jewish state. But on Monday, the Grand Junction, Colorado, resident moved there-with big plans to play for the country's national indoor lacrosse team. "I found out later in...
WJC president urges Krakow museum to pull offensive video exhibition World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder today criticized the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow (MOCAK), Poland for reinstating an art installation that features a video of naked men and women playing tag in a gas chamber. Lauder said: “Despite the protestations of Shoah survivors and many others, Jews and non-Jews alike, the museum continues to show an exhibit that hurts many people’s feelings. We urge the MOCAK to immediately remove this exhibit.” He went...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Israel's religious services minister said in a radio interview that Reform Jews cannot be considered Jews. "A Reform Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew," David Azoulay, of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party, said Tuesday morning, July 7, on Army Radio. "These are Jews that have lost their way, and we must ensure that every Jew returns to the fold of Judaism, and accept everyone with love and joy." Azoulay spoke with...
NEW YORK—July 09, 2015—Rabbi Steve A. Fox, Chief Executive of The Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR), the official rabbinic leadership organization of the Reform Judaism Movement, released the following statement in response to the recent disparaging remarks about Reform Jews by Israel’s Religious Services Minister David Azoulay: “Minister Azoulay must apologize for his comments, which are offensive to millions of American Jews. Reform Judaism is deeply rooted in Jewish history, tracing its origins to more than 200 years ago, beginni...
Mikvah-peeping rabbi appeals prison sentence (JTA)—Rabbi Barry Freundel is appealing the length of his prison sentence for filming women nude at a ritual bath. Freundel, who was sentenced in May to 6 1/2 years for videotaping dozens of women at a Washington, D.C., mikvah, is arguing that he should have been sentenced to no more than one year in prison, the Washington Post reported last Friday. A hearing on the appeal will be held in Washington Superior Court on July 31. Freundel, 63, was given 45 days for each of the 52 counts of misdemeanor v...
ATHENS, Greece (JTA)-For 55 needy Jewish families, a cash welfare payment is the only thing that gets them through the month. But when they came to the Athens Jewish Community last week for their July assistance, they were given only a portion of the payment in cash-the rest was in supermarket food coupons. "We just don't have cash and we can't get anymore, the banks are closed," said Taly Mair, the community director who oversees the welfare program. "We hope to make the rest up to them...
(JTA)-Israeli consumers are no strangers to high prices. Basic household goods like food and toiletries cost more in Israel than in all but two countries in Europe, a recent Nielsen research study found. Israeli real estate prices are up nearly 60 percent since 2008. Tel Aviv is the world's third-most expensive city in which to buy beer, and furniture prices at IKEA Israel are more than double those at IKEA Norway, recent surveys have shown. Now Israeli consumers are worried about high natural...
PARIS (JTA) – Elsewhere in the world, unveiling plans for a new Jewish cultural center might merit little more than a cocktail reception. But in this city, where Jews have been the target of rising anti-Semitic violence, the event was significantly more elaborate, with French Jewish leaders touting the blueprints as proof of the community's viability and the government's support for its survival. The $11 million center, which is slated to open in 2017, will house a large synagogue, two e...
NEW YORK-Jewish National Fund (JNF) announced that it has created the new $100 million JNF Boruchin Israel Education Advocacy Center to focus on Israel and Zionist educational programming, designed to be one of the most powerful new initiatives in the Jewish world. The JNF Boruchin Israel Education Advocacy Center will concentrate its resources on advocating for Israel, Israel education in the Diaspora, and countering the BDS movement, all with the goal of strengthening the connection of all Ame...
For the past three years Rabbi Noach Majesky, brother of Rabbi Yanky Majesky, has been the cantor at Chabad of North Orlando during the High Holidays. This year and for many years hereafter, Rabbi Noach will lead the High Holiday as well as all the services in Accra, Ghana. He and his wife, Alti and three children will be moving this summer from Crown Heights, N.Y., to establish a new Chabad Center to serve the needs of the local Jewish community and tourists. The establishment of Chabad in...
(JTA)-This time, Israel and its supporters came prepared. Anticipating what they believed would be an unfair U.N. report on last summer's Gaza War, the Israeli government and friendly groups in the United States were ready with at least three reports they say better reflects the reality of the five-week engagement between Israel and Hamas. The U.N. report, released last week, said Israel's military and Palestinian armed groups committed "serious violations" of international human rights law duri...
By Abigail Klein Leichman ISRAEL21c-Ingesting an indigenous Israeli aromatic shrub called Chiliadenus iphionoides (more commonly, "sharp varthemia" or "Goldilocks") could improve insulin secretion and glucose absorption in people with diabetes, according to plant biologist Jonathan Gorelick, scientific director of the Judea Regional Research and Development Center in Israel. The center's efforts to isolate the plant's active compounds-and to assure these compounds are present when the plant is...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-For months, France has considered taking a more active role in advancing Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Israel wants no part of it. The French peace proposal reportedly would have three components: a return to direct Israeli-Palestinian talks, a committee of representatives from world and regional powers to facilitate the negotiations, and a United Nations Security Council resolution that would set a timetable for the process. "We don't want to replace the role of the sides,"...
UMM EL-KHEIR, West Bank (JTA)-They dig their fingers into the dirt, their knees bearing into the ground as they embed sprigs of thyme in identical rows. The sun beats down on the small plot, and the work can be tedious, but these volunteers-most of them American, most of them Jewish-plant with a purpose. They had met early Friday morning in Jerusalem and set off on an hour long bus ride through the terraced, rocky hills south of the city. Upon arriving at their destination, a Palestinian...
UMM EL-KHEIR, West Bank (JTA)-They dig their fingers into the dirt, their knees bearing into the ground as they embed sprigs of thyme in identical rows. The sun beats down on the small plot, and the work can be tedious, but these volunteers-most of them American, most of them Jewish-plant with a purpose. They had met early Friday morning in Jerusalem and set off on an hour long bus ride through the terraced, rocky hills south of the city. Upon arriving at their destination, a Palestinian...
Israel intercepts flotilla vessel attempting to break blockade of Gaza JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Israeli Navy intercepted an activist ship in the waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip. Commandos from the Shayetet 13 naval special forces unit boarded the Marianne of Gothenburg early Monday morning and began sailing the ship, which was trying to breach Israel’s maritime blockade of Gaza, to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The takeover of the vessel and its approximately 20 passengers was short and there were no casualties, the Israel Defense Forces sai...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Israel's former ambassador to Washington, Michael Oren, caused a stir this week by publicly accusing President Barack Obama of abandoning the two core principles that undergird the U.S.-Israel relationship: no public disagreements and no surprises. But should there be no public disagreements-"no daylight," in diplomatic parlance-between the United States and Israel, and is that kind of shoulder-to-shoulder closeness even possible between allies? Oren, the American-born diplomat...
Hate crimes charge added in case of Barclays Center assault (JTA)—A New York man charged with assaulting the head of the Brooklyn Jewish Y at a borough arena has been hit with a hate crimes charge. The new charge against Shawn Schraeder, 25, of Queens, on June 18 followed eight months of investigation by a grand jury, CBS New York reported. Schraeder had been charged with assault following the incident at the Barclays Center amid sparring between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel fans. He is accused of punching Leonard Petlakh, the executive d...
The battle for control of Ammunition Hill was one of the most decisive of the Six-Day War. After fierce and bloody fighting against Jordanian forces in the early morning hours of June 6, 1967, Israeli victory there led directly to the capture of the Old City and the reunification of Jerusalem after almost 2,000 years. A national memorial to the battle that took place there, Ammunition Hill is located in the present-day neighborhood of Ma'alot Dafna, just feet from the 1948 border with Jordan...
Although Israel has been providing free medical treatment to Syrian refugees as well as Palestinians from the disputed territories and even from Gaza, the U.N. World Health Organization singled out Israel as the one country in the world to be condemned for violating human health rights. Saudi Arabia, which sits as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council, sponsored the exercise in the absurd. If hypocrisy needed a poster child, the despotic and brutal regime of Saudi Arabia, which is currently...
HERZLIYA, Israel (JTA)-When Israel's coalition government formed last month, its constituent parties all but ruled out establishing a Palestinian state in the near future. But that doesn't mean they can agree on what to do instead. Speaking at the Herzliya Conference this week, Israel's premier diplomatic and security policy gathering, senior Israeli government officials struck different and sometimes conflicting tones on what Israel's policy should be toward the Palestinians. Even within the...
As the Middle East grapples with the fallout of the so-called “Arab Spring” revolutions and the rise of terror groups like Islamic State, Arab states have sought increased cooperation with Israel in areas such as military and intelligence in order to confront ongoing threats. But will this cooperation, particularly when it comes to Egypt, lead to deeper Arab normalization of bilateral relations with the Jewish state? On May 28, prominent Egyptian historian Maged Farag drew headlines when he called for his country to normalize relations wit...
U. of Illinois censured for canceling prof’s job over anti-Israel tweets (JTA)—A national professors’ organization voted to censure the University of Illinois for rescinding a job offer to a professor over his anti-Israel tweets. The vote by the American Association of University Professors took place on Saturday at its annual meeting in Washington, D.C. In April, the association released a report that found the university violated the principles of academic freedom and tenure in the case of Steven Salaita. Also in Saturday’s voting, Yeshiva...
This piece was written by Iris and Ori Ifrach, Rachelli and Avi Fraenkel, and Bat-Galim and Ofer Shaer, the parents of Eyal Ifrach, Gil-ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel. (JTA)-One year ago, our families were thrust into a nightmare beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Our sons, Eyal Ifrach, Gil-ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel, had been kidnapped while making their way home from school. For 18 (chai) days, we hovered somewhere between despair and hope while we prayed for their safe return...
(ISRAEL21c)-Nepalese villagers now faced with massive rebuilding projects following the April 25 earthquake could benefit from the lessons learned by eco-minded builders in Israel's Arava desert. In preparation for future anticipated tremors, the Israelis are taking a unique approach to safe and environmentally sound construction rather than the more common, but expensive and less effective, reinforced concrete method often relied on to withstand earthquakes. Sitting a top the seismically...
