Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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TEL AVIV—Miriam and Emmanuel Riva were “the cream of the crop,” grieving family and friends said of the 50-year-old couple, slain in May 24’s shooting attack at the Jewish Museum in Brussels, Belgium. Two employees of the center were also killed, Israel Radio said. The couple, who lived in Tel Aviv and leave behind a 15- and a 17-year-old daughter, were Israeli Foreign Ministry employees for the last four years, and were due to return to Israel on May 29, friends said. “Up until two years ago, Emmanuel was the vice-consul in Berlin; they were...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—One small step by Israelis could become a giant leap for the State of Israel. At a Tel Aviv University laboratory, a team of 20 Israelis is building a spacecraft they believe will make Israel only the fourth country—after the United States, Russia and China—to touch down on the moon. The project, known as SpaceIL, looks like a long shot. The three-legged hexagonal craft appears too puny for interstellar travel, measuring just 3 feet tall and 2 feet wide. Of the initiative’s three founders, only one holds an academic degree...
After 52 years, the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band” tuned up for a fervently anticipated June 4 gig in Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park. And the impetus for the Rolling Stones’ historic arrival during their 14 On Fire European tour came from none other than Bob Dylan, according to Israel’s Channel 2 news. “Bob Dylan was coming off stage,” guitarist Ronnie Wood replied in a video interview to reporters’ questions, “and I asked him, ‘where you going?’ and he said, ‘Israel! We’re going to Tel Aviv!’ “He had a big smile on his face, because he l...
KIEV, Ukraine (JTA)—At an empty Chabad school near the banks of the Dnieper River here in Ukraine’s capital city, six uniformed Jews with handguns and bulletproof vests are practicing urban warfare. Leading the training last week is a brawny man who at irregular intervals barks Hebrew-language commands at the men to test their drilled responses to different scenarios, including “ma’atzor” (firearm malfunction) and “mekhabel” (terrorist). The men, who belong to Kiev’s newly formed Jewish Self-Defense Force, all have some combat skills from the...
Washington Jewish Week The killing of a major pro-Israel bill in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week has ignited another round of finger pointing between Democratic and Republican legislators, with both sides accusing the other of playing politics. Committee Chairman Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) pulled the U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act of 2013 (S. 462) from the committee's agenda May 19, after ranking member Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) proposed an amendment requiring the...
Israel’s Security Cabinet: No negotiations with gov’t that includes Hamas JERUSALEM (JTA)—Israel’s Security Cabinet unanimously decided not to negotiate with a Palestinian government that includes the terrorist organization Hamas. The Security Cabinet met Monday following the swearing-in of the Palestinian unity government. “Today, Abu Mazen said yes to terrorism and no to peace,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “This is the direct continuation of Abu Maz...
JERUSALEM -A group of six olim (immigrants) from the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine landed in Israel Tuesday, May 27, following a fast-paced operation put into action by The Jewish Agency for Israel due to the battles surrounding the city's airport. Battles between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian rebels in and around the civilian airport of Donetsk broke out Monday, May 26, following the country's presidential election. Due to the escalation, the airport was shut down, all outgoing and...
BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY, SAMARIA—Aya Al Hindy’s red veil matches perfectly with her long red dress. A third-year student majoring in ethics and nutrition, she says women on campus feel more and more at home. “When you look at the past and where we are today, we have grown. But we are still in the growth stage,” Al Hindy told The Media Line. “We have not yet achieved our goals—that is, we have yet to be like developed states.” Birzeit University is just a 10-minute drive from Ramallah, the Palestinians’ financial and political capital. Some 70 percen...
BRUSSELS (JTA)-Hunched over a small island of memorial candles for the victims of the attack on the Jewish Museum of Belgium, Paul Ambach is lost in thought. "Once again, Jewish blood in Belgium, which is no longer Belgium," said Ambach, a well-known Jewish musician from Antwerp, as he stared at the candles Sunday from a vigil for the four people killed by the unidentified gunman who opened fire at the museum the previous day. Ambach said he was also thinking about past attacks on Belgian Jews,...
An Israeli news station has reported on a poll conducted by Professor Sammy Smooha of Haifa University showing that the acceptance of Israel by Israeli Arabs increased markedly between 2012 and 2013. Channel 10/Nana reported that the poll’s surprising results bucked conventional wisdom: The research shows that between 2012 and 2013 there was an increase in the percentage of Israeli Arabs recognizing Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, and Israel’s right to maintain a Jewish majority. Similarly, the percentage of Arabs...
(JNS.org) A group of Israeli runners taking part in a "peace run" was forced to drop out after Palestinian objections. The six Israelis were asked to drop out of Australian ultra-marathon runner Pat Farmer's 900-mile "peace run" from Lebanon to Jerusalem during a stretch through Judea and Samaria due to objections by the Palestinian Olympic Committee. Farmer said he was "not happy" about the move because it went against the spirit of the run. The Israeli runners, whose participation was...
ROME (JTA)-With a rabbi and a Muslim sheik as his travel companions, Pope Francis headed to the Middle East with what he hoped to be a powerful message of interfaith respect. It was the first time that leaders of other faiths were part of an official papal delegation. The aim was to send "an extremely strong and explicit signal" about interfaith dialogue and the "normality" of having friends of other religions, chief Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters. Starting last...
Far-right parties gain in European elections (JTA)—Far-right parties across Europe won an increased share of the vote in elections for the European Parliament. Centrist, pro-European Union parties won a majority of Sunday’s vote led by the conservative European People’s Party. Far-right parties made significant gains, however, in France, the United Kingdom and Greece, among other nations. In Greece, the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party finished third despite a government crackdown on its leadership and will send three representatives to the Europ...
(Israel Today)-Israeli security forces have arrived in Nigeria to aid in the search for up to 200 young Christian girls recently abducted by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram. On Monday, May 12, international media was abuzz after the publication of a video showing many of the captive girls dressed in Muslim garb and reciting passages from the Koran. In the video, Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau says the girls will be held and continued to be forcibly converted to Islam until jailed...
By Deputy Knesset Chairman MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) outlined his national plan while in Toronto for Israeli Independence Day, speaking at an event sponsored by the Jewish Defense League and Toronto Zionist Council. Feiglin called for reconnecting the young generation with the knowledge that it is part of a long historical chain from the days of the Patriarch Abraham, and that it is a “light unto the nations” not just in the field of hi-tech, but rather in terms of the values and spiritual message it has for humanity, reports Shalom Tor...
(JNS.org) A new national poll reveals that two-thirds of Americans side with the Israeli perspective over the Palestinian perspective in assessing blame for the recent collapse of the U.S.-brokered peace talks. In a poll of 1,595 likely voters that was commissioned by The Israel Project, when presented with a statement that each side in the peace talks blamed the other for the negotiations’ failure, 67 percent of respondents said they agreed more with Israel’s point of view and 33 percent sided with the Palestinian Authority (PA). Reg...
NEW YORK (JTA)-A lot of people around the world hate the Jews. That's the main finding of the Anti-Defamation League's largest-ever worldwide survey of anti-Semitic attitudes. The survey, released Tuesday, found that 26 percent of those polled-representing approximately 1.1 billion adults worldwide-harbor deeply anti-Semitic views. More than 53,000 people were surveyed in 102 countries and territories covering approximately 86 percent of the world's population. "Our findings are sobering but,...
Two U.S. congressmen participated in a fact-finding mission of the Temple Mount last week. Congressmen Andrew Harris (R- Maryland) and Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) and their wives witnessed firsthand how non-Muslims are discriminated against at the holy site. Rabbi Chaim Richman, international director of the Temple Institute led the group, pointing out religious and historical landmarks along the way. The group witnessed how outwardly looking Jewish groups are singled out and accompanied by both Jo...
Maccabi Tev Aviv upsets its way to Euroleague basketball crown ROME (JTA)—Maccabi Tel Aviv upset favored Real Madrid to win the Euroleague basketball championship. Maccabi defeated the Spanish squad, 98-86, in overtime on Sunday night in Milan in the title game. Tyrese Rice led the Israeli club with 26 points, including 14 in overtime. The game was tied at 73 following regulation. A huge contingent of Israelis traveled to Italy for the game—some estimates said at least 10,000. Many of the Maccabi fans dressed in the team’s yellow and waved...
(ByALGEMEINER)—Al-Quds University Professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, who was maligned for bringing Palestinian Arab students to visit the Auschwitz concentration camp, was expelled from the school’s teacher’s union last week, according to a copy of the letter posted to the Facebook page of a colleague. Rima Najjar, an assistant professor of English Literature at Al Quds, headlined her Facebook post: “Dr. Mohammad Dajani’s union membership at Al-Quds University has been suspended because of his visit to Auschwitz.” She wrote, “The attach...
TEL AVIV (JTA)-When Moshe Friedman turned 31, he made what was for him a radical decision: He left school and launched a start-up. Plenty of Israelis jump from graduate school to the high-tech sector, but for Friedman the leap was longer. A descendant of rabbis, he had studied at leading haredi Orthodox schools where many of his peers would spend decades, never intending to work. Friedman soon found himself caught between two worlds. Largely secular venture capitalists were reluctant to fund...
Hadassah hospital recovery plan calls for cuts, bailout TEL AVIV (JTA)—A recovery plan for Jerusalem’s bankrupt Hadassah Medical Organization calls for an additional $869 million in funding and cuts to the hospital’s services. The plan, submitted Sunday by the court-appointed trustees managing the recovery, would draw funding equally from the Israeli government and the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization of America, which owns the hospital. Under the plan, Hadassah would lay off 30 doctors and researchers, as well as hundreds of employe...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The best move for the Obama administration on the Middle East peace front may be to take a few steps back. That's what some observers are advising in the wake of the collapse of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The Palestinian unity talks mean that President Obama and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have little choice but to take a wait-and-see approach, according to the Israeli and American experts interviewed by JTA. "The time has to be taken to see if the Fatah and Hamas...
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Nine months of negotiations were supposed to propel Israelis and Palestinians into a future of peace. Instead, the collapse of talks is threatening to make the future look much like the past. Israel's decision last week to suspend negotiations - a day after the signing of a reconciliation between the Fatah faction of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas - has prompted both sides to resort to their old ways. For the Palestinians, that means focusing on...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A pox on both your houses, but when you want a cure, we’re still here. That’s the message the Obama administration is sending Israel and the Palestinians amid the deepening crisis in peace efforts. “What we haven’t seen is, frankly, the kind of political will to actually make tough decisions. And that’s been true on both sides,” Obama said Friday from South Korea. The president’s remarks followed Israel’s suspension of talks last week in response to a governance deal between the Palestine Liberation Organization and...
