Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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JERUSALEM (JTA)—A new Jewish community in the Golan Heights to honor President Donald Trump will be called Ramat Trump, translated as Trump Heights. A sign was unveiled Sunday during the weekly Cabinet meeting held in the Golan Heights at the site of the new community. The sign says Ramat Trump in Hebrew and Trump Heights in English under graphics of an Israeli flag and a U.S flag and surrounded by a gold border. A cornerstone-laying ceremony also was held. The name is listed in a bill to establish the community that has been submitted for a...
(JNS)—The ongoing tensions between America and Iran seemed to reach a tipping point late last week when the United States blamed Iran for being behind the attack on two ships in the Gulf of Oman. On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that “of course” the United States could take military action. “The United States is considering a full range of options. We have briefed the president a couple of times, [and] we’ll continue to keep him updated. We are confident that we can take a set of actions that can restore deterrenc...
Palestinian village council head fired after Jews attend son’s wedding By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—The council head of a West Bank Palestinian village was removed from his office after video from his son’s wedding showed that four Jews participated in the party. Radi Nasser, head of the Deir Qadis Village Council was dismissed from the Fatah Party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Haaretz reported. Nasser also was fired from his position in the Palestinian Education Ministry. The four Jewish men reportedly arrived with invit...
(JNS)-Two tankers, one carrying oil and the other transferring a freight of methanol, in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz were attacked on Thursday, less than a month after Iran was blamed for attacking four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates. Norwegian-owned tanker Front Altair and a Japanese-owned ship Kokuka Courageous were hit in the attack. The Norwegian Martime Agency said that three explosions were reported onboard the tanker. U.S. Secretary of State...
(JNS)-The campaigns for Israel's second elections in 2019 are underway and, after reviewing the first polls, many Israelis are asking if they may end up with a stalemate and no government following the second go-around. Initial polling results indicate that the Israeli right will once again be the closest to form a coalition. However, the numbers also reveal that following the Sept. 17 elections, Israel may very well end up again in a situation in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The last living survivor of the Nazi death camp Sobibor has died. Semion Rosenfeld died on Monday at a hospital in central Israel at the age of 96. He moved to Israel from the Ukraine in 1990, according to the Jerusalem Post. Sobibor was built and operated by the SS during World War II near the railway station of Sobibor in Poland. At least 200,000 Jews were murdered in the gas chambers at Sobibor though some have put the number as high as 350,000. The camp was destroyed by the Germans at the end of 1943. Rosenfeld, who was b...
(JNS)—Iran has increased its uranium enrichment since U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in May 2018, warned the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday. However, while IAEA chief Yukiya Amano informed reporters about this development, he noted, “I did not say Iran is implementing [the JCPOA], but I did not say Iran is not implementing either.” Newsweek reported that “Amano specifically said that the country had increased its production of low-enriched uranium, the type of uranium that is used for produci...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—A rocket fired from Gaza hit a school building in the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Thursday evening. The building, identified as a Jewish religious school, was damaged but no injuries were reported. It was reported to be empty at the time of impact and was fortified against rockets. No one has taken responsibility for firing the rocket, but the Israeli military typically blames Hamas, the terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip. A Code Red rocket alert was sounded in the area and one rocket was identified as being f...
(JNS)—Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $42 million contract by Israel’s Defense Ministry to conduct “expansive maintenance services to the State of Israel,” as well as to operate and maintain an F-35 training center southeast of Beersheva over the next decade, announced the ministry. Additionally, the U.S. defense contractor will hire about 25 new workers from Israel’s southern area. Israel will cover half of the cost over the next five years, with the remainder conditional on a five-year extension. “This project is of great strategic i...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—David Friedman, U.S. ambassador to Israel, said Israel “has the right to retain” some of the West Bank. Palestinians fumed, Jewish settlers rejoiced, and the punditocracy predicted gloom and doom. What was it exactly that Friedman said in a New York Times interview. And what happens next? War, war crimes trial, one state, two states? What Netanyahu said Before we get to what the ambassador said, we first have to deal with what prompted his comment. The Times asked Friedman to speak on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan...
(MEMRI via JNS)-A Palestinian sheikh said during an address at the Al-Aqsa mosque uploaded to the internet in June that Jerusalem is the "heartland" where the banners of the caliphate will flutter, where military convoys and brigades will assemble, and where policies will be designed to herald the "dawn of justice" and the birth of the Islamic Caliphate. Sheikh Abu Hanifa Awda said that the "army of Islam" would set forth from Jerusalem to conquer to world. Sheikh Abu Hanifa Awda: "Indeed, oh...
(JNS)—Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Ind., and candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, criticized U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday for withdrawing from the 2015 Iran deal in May 2018, saying that it was “close to a true ‘art of the deal,’ ” a reference to one of the president’s books. “Preventing the spread of nuclear weapons should remain a core tenet of our global leadership,” said Buttigieg, 37, in a speech focused on foreign policy and national security at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. “F...
(JNS)-The city council in Krakow, Poland, has announced that a municipal street will be named next month after Rabbi David Alter Kurzmann, a caretaker of the Krakow ghetto orphanage. During the liquidation of the orphanage by the Nazis, Kurzmann was offered to abandon the children and live or join them in their deaths. Some 77 years after Kurzmann chose the latter, Walkative! tour guides collected hundreds of signatures to support their cause of honoring Kurzmann for his dedication, as well as...
(JNS)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged on Wednesday that the Jewish state was carrying out preemptive attacks against enemy targets, such as Iran and Hezbollah, in Syria. “The chain of tests that we are dealing with is unending. We respond vigorously and with force to all attacks against us; however, we do not take action only after the fact. We deny the enemy’s capabilities before the fact. We are acting methodically and consistently to prevent our enemies from establishing offensive bases against us in our vicin...
(Shaare Zedek Medical Center)-During his first trip abroad, Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, came to Israel where he participated in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding formalizing a trauma medicine education and training partnership between the University of Miami, Jackson Memorial Hospital, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Shaare Zedek Medical Center. The MOU was signed by Professor Ofer Merin, the director general of Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Dr. Enrique Ginzburg, M.D.,...
PARIS (JTA)-As a French celebrity philosopher, Alain Finkielkraut belongs to a tiny group of VIPs who get to lead normal, paparazzi-free lives despite having film star-like recognizability here. Unlike most countries, France makes celebrities out of intellectual heroes. They're revered, quoted and featured regularly on primetime television and even in film. But unlike many celebrities, intellectual stars are spared the spying and harassment from the media and over-eager fans. French VIP...
Jewish directors dominate at Tony Awards By Marcy Oster (JTA)—“Hadestown,” a musical about the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and the underworld, won best new musical at the Tony Awards, and a coveted prize for its Jewish director. Rachel Chavkin won the Tony Award for best director of a musical for “Hadestown,” the tenth woman ever to win best director for a Broadway play or musical, during the award ceremony on Sunday night. Sam Mendes, the Jewish director of the “The Ferryman,” also won for best director of a play. “The Ferryman” also ea...
(JNS)-In the midst of his whirlwind week-long Florida governor's business development mission to Israel with more than 100 delegation participants, Gov. Ron DeSantis visited the Gush Etzion region, just south of Jerusalem and over the Green Line. His purpose was to meet with community leaders and small-business owners who are on the front lines as targets of the anti-Israel BDS movement. During a press briefing on Wednesday hosted at the Hub Etzion business center, DeSantis said, "Here is the th...
Most people at least recognize the name of Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. But few outside Israel know the name of Israel's president, or that Israel even has one. In Israel, the prime minister is the head of the government and the president is the head of State. Israel's current and 10th president is Reuven (Ruby) Rivlin. He was elected to a seven-year term five years ago this week. He has a long and remarkable family life and political career in Jerusalem. This week his wife,...
(JNS)—The United States has sent 900 new troops to Saudi Arabia and Qatar amid the threat from Iran, announced U.S. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday, May 29. “I don’t see a change in any behavior,” he told reporters on his way to Indonesia. “The situation still remains tense. It is a high-threat environment.” Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States will send 1,500 troops to the Middle East to serve in a “mostly protective role” in response to the Iranian threat. An estimated 600 were already there, re...
(JNS)—Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed eight historic memorandum of understandings (MOUs) between Florida institutions of higher learning and Tel Aviv University on Monday as part of a four-day trade mission to Israel to boost Florida’s economy. It is his first official visit abroad since taking office in January. DeSantis announced two research collaborations between TAU and Florida International University, and one each between TAU and Florida Atlantic University, University of Central Florida, Miami Dade College, Florida Institute of Tec...
Israel needs your prayers, and help. Almost overnight, wildfires broke out, scorching acres, burning dozens of houses including entirely destroying a whole community. Over 3500 people have been evacuated as Israel braces for more. So far. Israel is considering declaring a national emergency due to fear of the spreading of existing and igniting of new fires. Temperatures are expected to reach a sweltering 110º F in areas between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The Dead Sea and Jordan Valley are expected to see even higher temperatures, as much as...
Hundreds of thousands attend New York’s Celebrate Israel Parade By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Some 40,000 marchers participated in the Celebrate Israel Parade up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, New York. Hundreds of thousands of onlookers lined the parade route on late Sunday afternoon, many waving Israeli flags. The theme of this year’s parade was Only In Israel. The annual event, a 55-year-old tradition which formerly was called the Salute to Israel parade, has been organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York since 2011. Busin...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-An array of pro-Israel groups are backing a bipartisan bill that would seed investment in the Palestinian areas and restore funding to peace dialogue programming that the Trump administration removed as a punitive measure against the Palestinians. The bill reads in part as a rebuke to the administration for ending funding for dialogue groups last year. It also reinforces backing for a two-state solution at a time when the Trump administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The blame game started shortly after midnight Thursday morning. The Knesset's vote to dissolve itself and hold a second national election in five months had hardly been posted on the chyrons of news networks in Israel and around the world when the major players in the drama that is coalition government-forming took to microphones throughout the Knesset. It goes something like this: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blamed Yisrael Beiteinu head Avigdor Liberman. Liberman blamed th...
