Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 85 - 109 of 2213
The first ‘Harry Potter’ book is now available in Yiddish By Gabe Friedman (JTA)—As of today, the first book in the Harry Potter series is available in Yiddish. “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone”—or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” as it is known in the United States—was released in Yiddish by the Swedish publisher Olniansky Tekst Farlag on Friday. (Yiddish is an official language in Sweden.) It was translated by Arun Viswanath, 29, the son of an Indian-American father and Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, author of the “Comprehensive...
NEW YORK (JTA)—A delegation of members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations visited Saudi Arabia last week, a first for the umbrella body for U.S. Jews, and a move believed to be the first official visit to the kingdom by an American Jewish organization since 1993. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has learned that the visit from Monday to Thursday included meetings with senior Saudi officials as well as with Mohammed al-Issa, the secretary-general of the Muslim World League who recently led a delegation to A...
The Jewish Braille Institute Library provides individuals who are blind, visually impaired, physically handicapped or reading disabled with books, magazines and special publications of Jewish and general interest in audio, large print and Braille formats. The unique services provided by JBI, all of which are free of charge, enable over 35,000 children, adults and seniors from New York to New Zealand to participate fully in the life of their communities. To receive a free large print Haggadah by mail, call 800-999-6476 before March 27, 2020, or...
(ISRAEL21c)-A device developed in Israel that might significantly ease the treatment of coronavirus victims suffering from pneumonia and also reduce the danger of contagion to health care providers could reach the market in China within the next few months. The CoughSync, which was originally developed at Alyn Hospital, a Jerusalem pediatric and adolescent rehabilitation facility, to help children unable to cough for themselves, is now awaiting approval from the National Medical Products...
AMHERST, MA—The Yiddish Book Center announced that it has been shortlisted for The London Book Fair International Excellence Awards 2020 for The Literary Translation Initiative Award. The awards, held in partnership with the UK Publishers Association, celebrate publishing success in 16 categories, representing the best publishing ambassadors, innovative publishing, and ground-breaking initiatives in the industry. In each award category, the judging panel was comprised of experts in that sector. “We are thrilled to receive the news that the Yid...
Hundreds of Israeli soldiers taken in by Hamas social media scheme featuring fake young women By Marcy Oster JERUSALEM (JTA)—The cellphones of hundreds of Israeli soldiers have been compromised in a Hamas intelligence-gathering scheme that featured fake women on social media networks. The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday in a statement that its Operation Rebound foiled the Hamas honeypot operation, its third since 2017. Hamas created six female characters to lure soldiers, presenting them as new immigrants to Israel to account for their someti...
The United Nations Human Rights Council has released a list of more than 100 companies it says are operating in Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria. In a report issued on Wednesday, the council said that the activities of these companies “raised particular human rights concerns.” The list is dominated by Israeli companies, including banks and construction firms. However, it also lists a number of international firms, including travel companies Airbnb, Expedia, and TripAdvisor, tech giant Motorola, and construction and infrastructure compan...
(JNS)—The first full review of the Saudi curriculum in more than a decade shows that while improvements have been made, extremist content still exists. For example, Jews are blamed as assassins, described as monkeys, and will be fought and killed in the day of resurrection, according to a new report by IMPACT-se, a research institute that analyzes schoolbooks and curricula in accordance with UNESCO-defined standards on peace and tolerance. Additionally, martyrdom for the sake of Allah remains a “godly gift,” and Christians and Jews are still ca...
Independent Jewish day school in Connecticut to close, cites finances and enrollment By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Carmel Academy, an independent Jewish day school in Greenwich, Connecticut, will close at the end of this school term, citing the “current realities of finances and enrollment.” The school announced on Tuesday that it would join the Leffell School, a Jewish independent school serving about 740 students on two campuses in Westchester County, New York, at the start of the next academic year, according to a Carmel statement. Carmel was found...
(JNS)-The last several months have not been good for Lebanon, as it's been wracked by economic and political instability. Protesters upset over years of government mismanagement, sectarianism and deep-rooted corruption forced the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri in October, which led to more political paralysis and put the country on the verge of a financial collapse. Seeking to address these imminent concerns, the country formed a new government in January under Prime...
(JNS)-A shipment of medical supplies from Magen David Adom in Israel were delivered on Monday morning to Chabad in China to help prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. At the request of Chabad, Magen David Adom sent in 2,000 face masks and 200 full-body protection kits. The latter includes special suits and masks, along with covers for shoes, hats and glasses in the event of contact with a person who may be sick. "Magen David Adom, as Israel's national EMS organization and the country's l...
(JNS)-Some 30 campus Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries concluded an eight-day training program at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, learning cutting-edge, relevant and effective tools that will allow them to teach about the Holocaust and the growing problem of Holocaust denial. Equally important was guidance on how to grapple with and counter increasing instances of anti-Semitism on college campuses. The emissaries hailed from campuses in North America, Australia and Austria, including Dartmouth College in...
Yad Vashem apologizes for ‘unfortunate errors’ in films screened at Auschwitz commemoration By Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA)—Yad Vashem apologized for what it said were inaccuracies in some Holocaust films shown at a ceremony it hosted last month. The apology, sent Monday by email to several prominent Holocaust scholars, noted “a number of inaccuracies that resulted in a partial and unbalanced presentation of the historical facts.” Specifically, the statement noted the films did not mention the 1939 division of Poland between Nazi Germany and the Sovie...
(JNS)-Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday to pardon Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American woman imprisoned in Russia for possessing and smuggling a small amount of cannabis. "The release was a gesture by President Putin to the prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu]," a senior Israeli source told The Jerusalem Post ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Moscow after visiting Washington, where the new U.S. Mideast peace plan was released on Tuesday....
(JNS)-The words were barely out of U.S. President Donald Trump's mouth-and the much-anticipated peace plan to resolve the century-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict for good was barely uploaded to the White House's website-when the doomsayers and naysayers launched their attacks, mocking nearly every aspect of the proposal and condemning it to failure. But the three Muslim ambassadors in the East Room-from the nations of Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates-stood quietly, their silence...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The Trump administration’s peace plan is an attempt to destroy the Palestinian cause and could lead to violence on the part of the Palestinian public, Palestinian Authority officials warned. In addition, a senior aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Ynet that the decision to release the plan now is a result of “internal Israeli political self-interests.” “It is obvious to us that the presentation of the peace deal is meant to help Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with his elections. We know when personal...
Top Jewish children’s books include stories about a Yiddish culture rescuer and the Holocaust By Penny Schwartz (JTA)—A picture book about the founder of the National Yiddish Book Center and a debut graphic novel of a gripping Holocaust story are among the gold medal winners of this year’s Sydney Taylor Book Awards for Jewish children’s books. Leslea Newman, the author of 70 books, including many Jewish titles, was recognized with the body of work award. The top awards handed out by the Association of Jewish Libraries were announced Monday...
(JNS)-Barbara Birch, 45, of New York was tapped last month as the new president and chief executive officer of ORT America. She most recently served as vice president of development at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, managing strategic planning, fundraising and business development. Her work focused on managing relationships with lay leadership and connecting constituents to the organization's mission to create a culture of giving. Previously, she held leadership roles in...
(JNS)-Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday assured the mother of Naama Issachar, an Israeli-American woman imprisoned in Russia whose family has been anxious to secure her release, that "everything will be fine." At a press conference in Jerusalem shortly after a meeting at the Prime Minister's Residence with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to which Naama's mother Yaffa Issachar was also invited, Putin said, "I have met Naama's mother. It's clear to me that she is from a very...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Russian President Vladimir Putin's prime speaking slot at a Holocaust commemoration event here was generating controversy even before the longtime leader took the podium. His remarks Thursday at the event commemorating the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army has done little to quell it. Speaking at the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, Putin claimed that 40 percent of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were citizens of the Soviet Union. Historians called...
(Jewish Journal via JNS)-Under the banner "Israel in Focus," this year's StandWithUs International Conference focused on educating students about anti-Semitism and how to fight it. The pro-Israel educational organization's conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Los Angeles International Airport hotel over the weekend, and was sponsored by the Adam and Gila Milstein Foundation. Addressing the 550 college and high school students and community members in attendance, Israeli-American real estate...
(JTA)—One week before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, dozens of European officials arrived in Poland for a large commemoration event at Auschwitz. The delegation from the Brussels-based European Jewish Association visited the former Nazi death camp, located about 20 miles from Krakow, on Tuesday. Few of the officials, however, took time from their busy agendas to meet with elderly Holocaust witnesses, whose numbers decrease every year. One exception was Jan Jambon, the prime minister of the Flemish state in Belgium. On Monday, J...
Orthodox-run soup kitchen brings together Jewish and black leaders for MLK Day By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA)—An Orthodox-run soup kitchen brought together a diverse group of local leaders to stock shelves for charity on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event, run by Masbia, a soup kitchen network based in the largely Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhood of Borough Park, was meant as a display of solidarity following a rash of attacks on Jews in Brooklyn and other Hasidic areas near New York City. Masbia also announced a drive to donate goods via Amazon...
Russian veterans and survivors of infamous Nazi concentration camp will attend a historic event at U.N. headquarters in New York (Israel Hayom via JNS)—In recent months, Israel and Russia have been forging a unique partnership at the United Nations. Amid the backdrop of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and his Russian counterpart, Vasily Nebenzya, decided to join forces and convene a historic event to mark the liberation of the notorious Nazi death camp, to be held next we...
Israeli intelligence helped US assassinate top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani By Marcy Oster (JTA)—Israeli intelligence reportedly helped the United States assassinate top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani. NBC News reported Friday that Israeli intelligence helped the U.S. confirm a tip about when Soleimani’s plane from Damascus to Baghdad took off. Soleimani was killed by a U.S. drone airstrikes on Jan. 2 while he was riding in a vehicle near Baghdad International Airport. “Intelligence from Israel helped confirm the details,” NBC reporte...
