Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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...
(JTA)-Theresa May, who announced her resignation on Friday as the prime minister of the United Kingdom, will be remembered as one of her country's shortest-serving and least popular leaders. Blamed by supporters of Britain's departure from the European Union for delivering what they consider half measures, she was loathed also by opponents of that plan for her efforts to push it forward. Ultimately, her desperate balancing act came to an end following the umpteenth failure in Parliament of one...
(JNS)-Professor Melvin L. Oliver, president of Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., who defied pressure to boycott Israeli academia by vetoing the vote by a Pitzer governance body to suspend the college's study-abroad exchange with University of Haifa, gave the keynote lecture at University of Haifa's 47th annual board of governors meeting on May 28. The two academic institutions have been at the center of a highly publicized Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement debate in recent months....
(JNS)-The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has mobilized to raise more than 1 million shekels (about $275,000) in emergency assistance for residents of moshav Mevo Modi'im, a small agricultural community west of Jerusalem near the city of Modi'in. The moshav sustained a massive fire on May 23 that destroyed at least 40 out of the community's 50 homes. From that, the Fellowship will be providing up to $5,000 in assistance for each family in Mevo Modi'im. The fire, one of many...
(JNS)-Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Tuesday a $5.2 million National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grant to fund a collaboration between researchers at Florida International University and Tel Aviv University to test a novel treatment for child social-anxiety disorder that could open new therapies to help children with this condition. "This trip to Israel headed by Governor Ron DeSantis is key in helping us at FIU create and deepen important partnerships in a number of strategic...
(JNS)-Geneva-based non-governmental organization United Nations Watch has announced that Sarah Idan, who as Miss Iraq in 2017 faced death threats for posting a photo of herself with Miss Israel, will receive the Swiss organization's Ambassador for Peace Award. In recognition of her courageous and extraordinary actions to promote tolerance, build bridges for peace and spread a message of hope and unity, the prize will be presented to Idan at a Geneva ceremony attended by senior diplomats of the...
LOS ANGELES-RVW Wealth LLC has announced the launch of The Jerusalem PortfolioTM, a new investment vehicle that will empower individuals, foundations and institutions to carve out a portion of their portfolios to reflect their values by owning a stake in Israeli-focused companies. RVW Wealth-which has a multi-decade track record of delivering the highest quality investment management and related services-is channeling its deep passion for supporting Israel into this new venture. "The Jerusalem...
(JNS)-The Israeli satellite imagery company, ImageSat International (ISI), released photographs in recent days showing what it described as "Iran's land bridge from Tehran to the Mediterranean." The images show Iranian construction work on a new crossing on the Syrian-Iraqi border, which, according to ISI, would allow Iran to transfer weapons, armed personnel and oil into Syria. The images are from an area that has been in the headlines in the past. An older border crossing in the same area, kno...
Boy learns to shoot at Jews in PA TV Ramadan special By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik (PMW via JNS)—During the month of Ramadan, official Palestinian Authority TV is broadcasting a series called “Children of the Village Chief. The series portrays Arab life around the time of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and afterwards in a village in what was until the 1967 Six-Day War the “West Bank” of the Kingdom of Jordan. The first episode starts with the so-called Palestinian nakba—the “catastrophe” of the establishment...
FOXBOROUGH, Mass.-When the New England Revolution and England's Chelsea Football Club took the field on a chilly evening in mid-May at Gillette Stadium, home of the NFL's Super Bowl champion Patriots, they weren't playing just an ordinary soccer game. The match, which drew 27,000 fans, was part of a unique partnership between the team owners. Called "Final Whistle On Hate," their collaboration is aimed at promoting tolerance and fighting anti-Semitism. Between proceeds from ticket sales and a...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The Netherlands won the Eurovision song contest 2019 and earned the right to host the international event next year. Duncan Laurence sat behind his keyboard and sang his ballad "Arcade," which had been considered a favorite, and gave the Netherlands its first victory since 1975. Italy finished in second, Russia in third, followed by Switzerland and Norway. Israel's Kobi Marimi finished in 23rd place out of the 26 countries in the finals with his ballad "Home." Marimi burst into t...
On May 15, as social media was weighing in on the first round of Eurovision finals and readying for the second round, a series of posts started to appear around 8 p.m. “Did anyone feel an earthquake?”; “Earthquake in Israel—who felt it?”; “Earthquake?”; “That jiggle was an earthquake”; and so on. Measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale, the tremor’s epicenter was about 200 kilometers (125 miles) off the coast between Haifa and Hadera. No injuries or damage were reported, and all was forgotten by the following night. The reason for all this seismi...
