Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA)-Polish President Andrzej Duda signed and finalized a law limiting rhetoric about the Holocaust, leading to a rebuke from U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. The United States is "disappointed," Tillerson said Tuesday, following Duda's final approval of a law introduced on Jan 26 in the Polish parliament. It prescribes up to six years in prison to anyone who blames the Polish state or nation for crimes the law says were perpetrated exclusively by Nazi Germany during World War II. The...
WARSAW, Poland (JTA)-Debate over a Polish law that proposes to outlaw rhetoric blaming Poland for Nazi crimes has prompted a wave of anti-Semitic comments in the Polish media. RMF, one of the largest Polish commercial radio stations, suspended a journalist who wrote about the "war with the Jews." Poland's state-owned television station apologized to the Israeli ambassador for a tweet alleging that the Jewish opposition to the law was part of an attempt to seize Polish property. Also, a former...
(JTA)—The American-Israeli man charged with making hundreds of bomb threats to Jewish community centers in the United States, including The Roth Family JCC in Maitland, and elsewhere briefly escaped from police custody in Israel. The computer hacker, 19, from Ashkelon in southern Israel, attended a hearing in Jerusalem District Court on Monday. Following the hearing, Michael Kadar was taken to an interrogation and detention center in Jerusalem before being transferred to the Nitzan Prison and Detention Center in Ramla, where he is being h...
(JNS)-The Irish and Jewish people share a common history of suffering cruel persecution and achieving national redemption against immeasurable odds. But today, modern Ireland is one of Europe's fiercest critics of Israel. This tension was on display last week as the Irish Senate was considering legislation aimed at criminalizing trade with Israeli settlements. The legislation, titled "Control of Economic Activity (Occupied Territories) Bill 2018," calls to "prohibit the import and sale of...
NEW YORK (JTA)-Nearly 80 years after being persecuted by the Nazi-allied Vichy French government, some 25,000 elderly Algerian Jews are being recognized for the first time as Holocaust survivors by the German government. Algerian Jews had their French citizenship stripped in 1940 by the Vichy government, which then ruled the area. Nuremberg-like laws banned Jews from working as doctors, lawyers, teachers and in government. Children were kicked out of French schools. On Tuesday, 78 years after th...
(JTA)-In a deeply divided nation that is still reeling from a toxic presidential election last spring, as well as jihadist and racist attacks, Mennel Ibtissem's performances offered a rare vision of hope. The blue-eyed Muslim woman sang Arabic and French-language renditions of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" on national television in France while wearing a head cover. She was a favorite on the French edition of "The Voice" talent and reality show, seeming to embody the values of coexistence and...
Republican Jewish Coalition chairman says its members are ‘thrilled’ with Trump (JTA)—The chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition said its members are “thrilled” about the performance of President Donald Trump, especially with his approach to the Middle East. “I think they’re feeling thrilled,” said former Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman in an interview with McClatchy at the weekend’s annual RJC leadership conference in Las Vegas. “If you look at the change of what has happened with Israel, in terms of moving the capital to Jerusalem, the toug...
(JTA)-In 2015, Ukraine's president signed a law whose critics say stifles debate on the historical record of World War II and whitewashes local perpetrators of the Holocaust. Law 2538-1 criminalized any rhetoric insulting to the memory of anti-communist partisans. And it celebrates the legacy of such combatants-ostensibly including the ones who murdered countless Jewish and Polish citizens while collaborating with Nazi Germany. The law generated some backlash, including an open letter by more...
A Knesset delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe was successful in softening the language of a resolution denouncing the US’ recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Israeli construction in the “occupied territories,” while successfully pushing it to call on the Palestinians to cease their practice of financially incentivizing Palestinian terrorists. The final resolution, submitted to PACE’s Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy at the initiative of Palestinian delegates, states that “the role of the...
WARSAW, Poland (JTA)-The Polish Senate passed legislation that criminalizes accusing the Polish state of the crimes committed by the Germans during World War II. The amendment to the Act on the Institute of National Remembrance was adopted early Thursday morning by a vote of 57-23, with two abstentions. The legislation, designed to make it clear that Nazi Germany is responsible for the crimes against humanity that took place in the camps, was approved last week by the lower house of the Polish...
WASHINGTON (JTA)—President Donald Trump called on Congress to pass a law that would extend foreign assistance only to “friendly” nations, a dig at the countries that voted in the United Nations to censure the United States for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “Last month, I also took an action endorsed unanimously by the Senate just months before: I recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” Trump said Tuesday in his State of the Union address to Congress to a standing ovation from Republicans, as well as his Jewish daughter, I...
(JTA)—The U.S. Embassy in Poland said it was “concerned about the repercussions” for bilateral relations after the Polish Senate passed legislation that criminalizes accusing the Polish state of the crimes committed by the Germans during World War II. The bill passed Wednesday in the upper house of the Polish parliament days after passing in the lower one, the Sejm. To become law, the president must sign the measure, which prescribes up to three years in prison for “whoever claims, publicly and contrary to the facts that the Polish Nation...
(JTA)—The Louvre Museum in Paris has put 31 Nazi-looted paintings on permanent display in an attempt to find their rightful owners. The works were installed in two showrooms last month, The Associated Press reported. Some 296 Nazi-looted paintings are stored at the Louvre and remain unclaimed. Sebastien Allard, the head of the paintings department at the Louvre, told AP on Tuesday that most of the artworks were stolen from Jewish families during World War II. “Beneficiaries can see these artworks, declare that these artworks belong to them and...
WARSAW, Poland (JTA)—The debate over a Polish law that would criminalize the use of the term “Polish death camps” in referring to Auschwitz and other sites took a nasty turn when a television host joked that they should be called “Jewish camps.” The comment comes amid tensions between Poland and Israel over the legislation, which is meant to assign sole responsibility for atrocities on Polish soil to the German Nazis who occupied the country. Author Rafal Aleksander Ziemkiewicz, during the TVP2 show TVP Info, mocked critics of the legislati...
Republican Party in Illinois rejects Holocaust denier nominee for Congress (JTA)—A Holocaust denier, anti-Semite and white supremacist is about to become the Republican nominee for an Illinois congressional seat. Arthur Jones, a perennial candidate since the 1990s for the 3rd Congressional District representing parts of Chicago and its southwestern suburbs, in a political fluke is the only Republican candidate on the ballot, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Sunday. The primary will be held on March 20. Jones, 70, is a retired insurance s...
(JTA)-The world is about to revolve around PyeongChang, a mountainous county in the northern half of South Korea, for the upcoming Winter Olympics. Jewish fans won't have quite as many standout athletes to cheer for this year as they did in 2016, when multiple American members of the tribe won medals at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. But there are several compelling Jewish stories to catch up on before the action starts. Israel is sending its largest team ever. Before this year, the largest...
(JNS)-Vice President Mike Pence concluded his trip to Israel on Tuesday with a private visit to the Western Wall, one of the holiest sites in Judaism. Pence arrived at the holy site with a black yarmulke on his head flanked by the Chief Rabbi of the Western Wall Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz and Director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation Mordechai "Soli" Eliav. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and the Trump administration's international negotiations representative, Jason Greenblatt,...
Vice President Mike Pence on Monday addressed the Knesset, Israel's parliament, affirming the US' support for the Jewish state, for Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and for Israel's security. The following are excerpts from his speech: ...I am here to convey a simple message from the heart of the American people: America stands with Israel. We stand with Israel because your cause is our cause, your values are our values, and your fight is our fight. We stand with Israel because we believe in...
WASHINGTON (JTA)-When Mike Pence moved to Washington earlier this year, he and his wife took with them a framed phrase they had for years hung over their fireplace in their Indiana home, and then over the fireplace in the governor's mansion in that state. Now it hangs over the mantle at the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C. The words, from the Book of Jeremiah, read: "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you, and not to harm you, plans to...
Israel’s leadership took Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to task on Monday over his hate-filled speech in which he denied Israel’s right to exist and wished President Donald Trump that his “house should be destroyed.” Abbas on Sunday rejected Israel as a Western “colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism.” “Colonialism created Israel to perform a certain function. It is a colonial project that has nothing to do with Judaism, but rather used the Jews as a tool under the slogan of the Promised Land,” said Abbas. Providing a war...
VIENNA (JTA)-If Stephan Templ's trial and imprisonment in Austria were meant to silence his criticism of the country's Holocaust restitution system, then his prosecution was clearly a failure. Templ is an Austrian-Jewish historian of the Holocaust who has written critically about his country since 1995. In 2015, he was sent to jail for nearly a year on controversial fraud charges tied to his family's own claim for compensation-and spent his time in prison diving even deeper into his area of...
Western Wall rabbi apologizes to female reporter for discriminatory treatment during Pence visit JERUSALEM (JTA)—The rabbi of the Western Wall sent a letter of apology to the editor of the Israeli business daily Globes for the discriminatory treatment of one of its reporters during Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the site last week. Rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich, writing to Globes editor-in-chief Naama Sikuler, said “I want to express my regret for the anguish suffered by your newspaper’s diplomatic correspondent,” Tal Schneider. He also said...
Leaders of several major American Jewish organizations have told JNS that they are supporting the Israeli government's decision to prevent the entry of foreign citizens who promote boycotts of Israel. Israel's Ministry of Strategic Affairs on Jan. 7 released a preliminary list of 20 foreign organizations whose "central figures" will not be permitted to enter Israel because they have undertaken "significant, ongoing and consistent harm to Israel through advocating boycotts." There are six...
The Palestinians have announced an escalation of their diplomatic actions against Israel through the annulment of the Oslo peace accords and withdrawal of their recognition of Israel. The Palestinian Central Council on Monday declared that the transitional period stipulated in the peace agreements signed in 1993 in Oslo, Cairo and Washington, and its obligations "no longer stand." The PCC held a two-day conference this week to discuss the ramifications of the US recognition of Jerusalem as...
In a letter, the State Department notified the U.N. Relief and Works Agency that the U.S. is withholding $65 million of a planned $125 million funding installment to the body. The letter also makes clear that additional U.S. donations will be contingent on major changes by UNRWA, which has been heavily criticized by Israel. “We would like to see some reforms be made,” said State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert, adding that changes are needed both to the way the agency operates and is funded. “This is not aimed at punishing anyon...
