During Hurricane Irma, Temple Shalom served as a sanctuary of a different kind. When the storm changed course at the last minute, the Naples synagogue suddenly became an emergency shelter. As power stayed off for days, the Reform temple, which had only minimal damage, was a place for neighbors to escape the heat and have a free meal.
A Tampa man, fighting a protracted legal battle with family over his dead mother’s estate, is suing one of the judges in the case claiming he was falsely blamed for making anti-Semitic comments. Those fabricated statements led the judge to retaliate by ruling against him on several motions. Darryl Martin Schneider, 55, was in a contested legal battle with his sister, Cyrie Schneider, among others for the estate of their mother Gloria C. Schneider, who died in 2012. in 2014, Darryl filed…
John Kasich has taken heat for a web ad that subtly compares Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler. Narrated by a former Vietnam POW, retired Air Force Col. Tom Moe, it paraphrases German pastor Martin Niemoller’s famous statement of regret that he did not speak up for the tyrant’s victims until he became one “and there was no one left to speak for me.” Hitler analogies should be rare and expressed carefully lest comparisons to lesser evils trivialize his monstrosities. Too…
Ben Carson suggested last week the Holocaust wouldn’t have happened if Jews in Europe were better armed. He argued that gun control is a bigger tragedy than a bullet-riddled body. He said the best way to confront a mass shooter is to rush the gunman. The statements, after the mass shooting in Oregon that killed nine college students, have drawn no shortage of criticism, including from public-safety experts and the FBI. Carson’s commentary on gun policy is emblematic of his…
In May 1957, people across the nation were anxious over a decision that Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins was about to make in a legal controversy unlike any other. It concerned an extradition request for a fugitive couple from Massachusetts, but one that was far from routine. The charge was kidnapping, but the real issue, as Collins came to see it, was whether a child has “the right to be loved.” Nearly 58 years later, the same question underlies an emotional…
Charlie Crist believes in the power of prayer. He recently told a group of real estate agents Friday that Florida has been hurricane free thanks to prayer notes he placed on the Western Wall in Jerusalem. He said each year he has placed them there or has asked someone to place them. The notes, he said, say this: “Dear God, please protect our Florida from storms and other difficulties. Charlie.” He said he left the first note in 2007 during…
