Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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TEL AVIV (JTA)-It was 2 a.m. when Illana Attali's friend's screams woke her. Her friend had just heard about the series of coordinated terror attacks on Paris-a wave of violence that would kill at least 129 people on Friday. A Paris native who moved to Tel Aviv five years ago, Attali, 31, had been on a desert hike with two friends and had turned off her phone. When she first heard about the attacks, she thought it was just a bad dream. All three friends began sobbing and decided to head back to...
JNS.org—Ezra Schwartz, an 18-year-old American yeshiva student from Massachusetts, was among the three people killed in a Palestinian terror attack in Gush Etzion on Thursday, Nov. 19. Schwartz was riding in a van with five of his friends from Yeshivat Ashreinu in Beit Shemesh when a Palestinian terrorist driving in the opposite direction opened fire on the van and other cars stuck in traffic. The students were heading back to the yeshiva after handing out food to IDF soldiers. “Ezra wanted nothing more than to help feed another person, to stu...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The series of terrorist attacks that killed at least 129 in Paris pose a couple of major challenges for the United States, Jewish officials and security experts said. The challenges: security threats from the the 200 or so Islamic State fighters who have returned to the United States, and moral questions surrounding America's absorption of Syrian war refugees. The key takeaway from Friday's attacks, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, is that the plotters managed to...
British born Muslim Kasim Hafeez made the remarkable journey from an adherent of Islamic extremist ideology to a proud Zionist, and finally, to Room 116 of the University of Central Florida's College of Business Administration on the night of Nov. 18. While there, Ben Suster and the UCF Knights for Israel student group hosted Hafeez for a talk before a standing-room-only audience titled "The Day I Stopped Hating Israel," discussing his journey from British Muslim to Muslim extremist to Israeli...
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel is the sixth-healthiest country in the world and is the only Middle Eastern country in the top 10, according to recent world health rankings compiled by media outlet Bloomberg and reported in the British newspaper The Independent. The rankings, compiled data from the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization, placed Singapore in first place among 145 countries, with a “health grade” of 89.45 percent. Italy came in second, followed by Australia, Switzerland, and Japan. After Isr...
Israeli woman, 20, killed in stabbing at West Bank site of recurring attacks JERUSALEM (JTA)—A 20-year-old Israeli woman was killed in a stabbing attack—the fourth attack in the West Bank in less than 24 hours. Hadar Bucharis of Safed, a city in northern Israel, was stabbed on Sunday afternoon at the Gush Etzion Junction, near the West Bank settlement of Alon Shvut. She was declared dead at a Jerusalem hospital. The assailant, identified by the Shin Bet security service as Wissam Tawabte, 34, was shot and killed by troops at the scene. Taw...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Think unity. On the heels of this year's rancorous and polarizing debate over the Iran nuclear deal, organizers of this week's General Assembly of Jewish federations wanted their annual conference to be an opportunity for reconciliation and healing in the Jewish community. At their conference in Washington, they talked about civility, touted the strength of the Israel-America relationship, and managed to secure the participation of Israel's prime minister-who a day before his...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-It took agreeing to set aside differences on Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process for President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to get down to business on other issues afflicting the region, including the threat of Islamist extremism and the rise of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Appearing pleased and relaxed-if hoarse-after meeting with Obama for more than two hours on Monday, Netanyahu told reporters that the two had a pragmatic discussion...
Despite their disagreement over the Iran nuclear deal, the U.S. and Israel "can and should work together now" to ensure that Iran complies with the agreement and to curb Iranian aggression throughout the Middle East, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday at the General Assembly of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) in Washington, DC. A day after meeting with President Barack Obama at the White House, Netanyahu told the JFNA delegates, "You work tirelessly to...
(JTA)—One of the suspected terrorists in the Paris attacks entered Europe with a flood of Syrian refugees, according to reports. On Sunday, the death toll in the attacks on the French capital rose to 132 as some of the wounded succumbed to their injuries in the hospital. Also Sunday, French Police issued an arrest warrant for a Belgian man, Abdeslam Salah, who is believed to be the brother of a terrorist who died in the attacks. Another brother was arrested in Belgium, according to reports. “This individual is dangerous, do not interact wit...
2 gather at Paris synagogue, under tight security, to pray for terror victims PARIS (JTA)—Some 200 people gathered under heavy guard at a Paris synagogue to remember the victims of the terrorist attacks in the French capital on Friday night. Led by the chief rabbi of France, Haim Korsia, leaders of French Jewry and Israel’s ambassador to France were among those who assembled at the Synagogue de la Victoire on Sunday evening. “Our people, which has been tested more than others, knows the healing power of solidarity and unity in the face of th...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Some 100,000 people joined together in central Tel Aviv on Saturday to pay tribute to slain Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, but they were divided over what exactly they were rallying for. The demonstration, which marked the 20th anniversary of Rabin's assassination by a Jewish extremist incensed by his government's efforts to reach a peace accord with the Palestinians, was called "Remembering the murder, fighting for democracy"-a nod to the slaying's universal lesson of respecting...
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org)-In a vote of 51-17, the Israeli Knesset on Monday approved a bill designed to toughen penalties for rock-throwing. The bill, designed as a temporary provision in its current format, passed its second and third reading on Monday, finalizing it into law. Its temporary nature, however, will require Knesset members to vote on it again in three years in order to decide whether to renew it. The new law, part of efforts to quell a recent wave of Palestinian...
Israel-based Edu-Consulting International LTD, a leading global provider of interactive educational technology, will launch its latest new products, EduQuest and MultiMind at the 2015 National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) Annual Conference & Expo-Nov. 18-21 in Orlando. Edu-Consulting has been developing educational technology since 1995. The company's unique educational systems have been successfully integrated into countless classrooms around the world. "We started...
Report: Israeli intelligence provided ISIS intercepts in Russian plane crash case JERUSALEM (JTA)—Some of the intelligence intercepts being used to assess what happened to a Russian airplane that crashed over the Sinai Peninsula came from Israel. Israeli officials would not comment on the claims by an unnamed U.S. official and a diplomatic source, CNN reported Sunday. The communications between ISIS affiliates in Sinai were captured by Israeli intelligence focused there and passed along to the United States and Britain, the sources said, CNN r...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-The assassin's bullet that killed former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin 20 years ago on Nov. 4 also stunted the center-left party that championed peace: Rabin's once-mighty Labor. In the two decades since Rabin's slaying at the hands of a Jewish extremist, Yigal Amir-the killer opposed a peace deal with the Palestinians-Labor has fallen from being Israel's founding party and moderate-left flagship to competing among a handful of opposition factions, a perennial loser in...
Will Recant pulls both heartstrings and purse strings for a living. As the head of the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief, a consortium of 49 national Jewish organizations, he has been at the center of the American Jewish reaction to 20 global crises in the last 20 years. Of late, his focus has been on Syria. Last month, Jewish organizations across the country and denominational spectrum revved up their response to the refugee crisis plunging millions into desperate need and stumping world leaders, led by Recant in his role as an assistant...
1,000 gather at Rabin memorial to hear Bill Clinton, Obama TEL AVIV (JTA)—An estimated 100,000 people remembered Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin at a Tel Aviv rally marking the 20th anniversary of his assassination that featured speeches by President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton. On Saturday night at the plaza bearing Rabin’s name, Clinton praised Rabin’s willingness to take risks for peace and exhorted the crowd to finish his work. Clinton guided Israeli-Palestinian negotiations when Rabin was prime minister that led to the O...
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution last Wednesday, Oct. 21, listing Ma’arat HaMachpelah, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron—the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people and Kever Rachel, Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem—Judaism’s third holiest site—as Muslim sites. These sites are part and parcel of the Jewish tradition and history and present a direct connection between the Jewish People and their ancient homeland. Buried in the Cave of the P...
Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid addressed the nature of Palestinian society and conflict at the Oct. 19 event titled "Life Under the Palestinian Authority: A Palestinian Speaks Out," held at the University of Central Florida (UCF). Born in the Jordanian occupied Old City in East Jerusalem in 1958, he spent the first 33 years of his life in the Shuafat refugee camp and was a prominent figure of the First Intifada. He was arrested in 1995 by the Palestinian Presidential Guard for...
After he personally consulted with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power, whom President Barack Obama pulled away from attending Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent address to the U.N. General Assembly, prominent Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein shed light on the controversy in an interview with the Nachum Segal Network radio station on Friday. Hoenlein-executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, an umbrella body...
A bipartisan group of five U.S. congressmen spent the last week touring Israel, despite the daily terrorist attacks and deteriorating security situation. Rep. Alan Lowenthal D-CA, Rep. Jim Jordan R-OH, Rep. Scott Garrett R-NJ, Rep. Raoul Labrador R-ID and Rep. Mark Meadows R-NC traveled across the country to learn the facts behind the headlines and pledge their support to the Jewish state in these challenging times. The educational trip was sponsored by Proclaiming Justice to the Nations and hosted by Yes! Israel. Highlights of the jam-packed...
TORONTO (JTA)-The election of Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau as prime minister represents the first change in Canadian government since Stephen Harper and his Conservatives assumed power in 2006. What is unlikely to change, however, is Ottawa's robust support for Israel-a policy cemented under Harper, whose forceful backing of the Jewish state earned him a reputation as one of world's most pro-Israel political leaders. When it comes to core Jewish issues, Trudeau has said all the right...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-In assigning blame for the recent wave of violence in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has turned to the usual suspects-Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. But he has also accused a lesser-known group that operates within Israel's borders: the Islamic Movement, a religious political group and social service organization. Netanyahu has seized on the inflammatory rhetoric of the movement's northern branch, which claims the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem is "in danger" and...
‘Subway Guy’ Jared Fogle pays $1 million to victims (JTA)—Jared Fogle, the former Subway pitchman, has paid $1 million in restitution to his victims. Fogle, 38, who became known as “the Subway Guy,” pleaded guilty in August to charges of distributing and receiving pornography, and having sex with minors. Also as part of his plea deal, Fogle, who is Jewish, will serve five to 12 1/2 years in federal prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven DeBrota announced on Oct. 22 in Indianapolis that Fogle had paid restitution of $100,000 each to 10 of his...
