Week of November 14, 2025
Week of November 14, 2025
(JNS) — Israeli security forces on Tuesday enlisted the help of ZAKA’s Diving Unit in the ongoing search for the cellular phone of Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, Israel’s former military advocate general, now behind bars. ZAKA, an emergency response nonprofit, sent personnel to Tel Aviv’s Cliff Beach in a large-scale effort to locate the phone. They are covering an area up to 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) from where Tomer-Yerushalmi was eventually located. Even if the phone is never found, cyber experts say some of the material, such as...
(JNS) — Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said on Monday that it has “recovered the names of 5 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.” “Behind each name is a life that mattered,” stated Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem. “A child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever.” The memorial stated that many of the remaining names of Jewish victims, estimated to be about a million, will likely remain unknown forever. It added that researchers are analyzing...
(JNS) — Archaeologists in Israel’s Jezreel Valley have discovered the country’s oldest known winepress and other Canaanite items in Tel Meggido, where groundwork on a new road unearthed the artifacts, the Israel Antiquities Authority said on Wednesday. The winepress, which is 5,000 years old, and other items found “instruct us about everyday domestic Canaanite worship taking place outside Tel Megiddo,” said the IAA. The finds will be displayed at the Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein National Campus for the Archaeology of the Land of...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department announced on Monday that it is providing aid to minority communities in southern Syria. “As part of efforts to restore stability to southern Syria, the United States is providing humanitarian assistance to Suwayda, where Druze, Christian and Bedouin communities have faced violence, the destruction of their homes and have lost their livelihoods,” the department stated. “This assistance will support life-saving needs of approximately 60,000 people through targeted provision of food, water, and hygiene...
(JNS) - Steven Meiner didn't wait long after he was reelected mayor of Miami Beach, Fla., to invite New Yorkers, who had just elected anti-Israel socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor, to move south. "To our friends up in New York. If you crave a law and order city, sunshine, ocean breezes, where economic growth is on the rise, Miami Beach is ready," wrote Meiner, an Orthodox Jew. "No state income tax, year-round warmth, world-class culture and neighborhoods that feel like home." Meiner, who...
(JNS) — Hundreds of Jewish community leaders from across the globe will gather in Jerusalem next week for a meeting of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Board of Governors, focusing on reconstruction and rehabilitation plans for northern and southern Israel in the wake of the country’s multi-front war over the past two years. The meeting, held on Nov. 2-4, discussed programs to encourage Jews to immigrate to Israel and to combat growing antisemitism worldwide, the Jewish Agency said in a statement on Thursday. J.A. Executive Chairman Maj....
(JNS) - Jared Kushner, son-in-law of President Donald Trump and adviser in his first administration, held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Monday afternoon. A picture distributed by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office showed that Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer joined for the Israeli side, while Kushner was accompanied by Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to Trump's special Mideast envoy, Steve Witkoff. Kushner touched down in Tel Aviv on Sunday...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces is preparing plans for “a renewed occupation of Gaza and the dismantling of Hamas,” Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a member of Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet, told JNS on Monday. “We will be ready,” Smotrich said, speaking with JNS following a faction meeting of his Religious Zionism Party at the Knesset. “Now we have no hostages there and there are far fewer restrictions: fast, sharp, resolute,” he said. President Donald Trump “often used the word ‘violent,’ so I like that...
(JNS) — Hours after Zohran Mamdani, an anti-Israel, self-identified socialist, was elected mayor of New York City, the Anti-Defamation League said that it is launching a tip line for city residents to reported Jew-hatred and a “Mamdani monitor.” The latter will be a “public-facing tracker monitoring policies, appointments and actions by the Mamdani administration that impact Jewish community safety and security.” “Drawing from tipline reports as well as enhanced ADL research capabilities, this Mamdani Monitor will provide...
(JNS) — Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) lashed out at conservative firebrand and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson Saturday, calling him “the most dangerous antisemite in America.” Fine didn’t mince words on the third day of the four-day Republican Jewish Coalition annual legislative conference, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas. “Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous antisemite in America,” Fine told the 1,000 participants, making this year’s conference one of the more well-attended. “He has chosen to take on the mantle of...
(JNS) - Gal Pauker, 25, grew up around wine. His grandfather, Gideon Pauker, and three of Gideon's buddies-Gadi Mozes, Haim Perry and Yoram Metzger-started a winery on Kibbutz Nir Oz in southern Israel, where they filled about 1,300 bottles a year with fine wine. It was a joint effort: Gideon planted the vineyard that supplied the grapes, and the friends would harvest together, choose the blend together, and enjoy the wine together. Then Hamas terrorists attacked the kibbutz on Oct. 7, 2023. Of...
(JNS) - Thousands of Israelis paid their last respects to Israel Defense Forces Col. Asaf Hamami on Tuesday at the Kiryat Shaul Military Cemetery in Tel Aviv, two days after his body was released from Gaza by Hamas. Hamami, who commanded the Southern Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces' Gaza Division, was killed defending Kibbutz Nirim from the Hamas-led terrorist invasion on Oct. 7, 2023. He became the most senior officer to have been taken hostage during the massacre. His remains were held...
(JNS) — Former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said on Monday that Israel should demand policy concessions from Western countries in exchange for the life-saving intelligence it provides them. Cohen spoke at the second Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center conference in New York, marking the first time a senior Israeli official has proposed adopting such a policy. At the conference, Cohen revealed cases during his tenure when the Mossad shared life-saving intelligence, including with Australia. “We gave the Australians probably one of the most...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar reiterated on Monday that Jerusalem will not accept the inclusion of Turkish armed forces in President Donald Trump’s International Stabilization Force for the Gaza Strip. “Countries that want or are ready to send armed forces should be at least fair to Israel,” Sa’ar declared at a news conference in Budapest, speaking alongside his Hungarian counterpart, according to Reuters. “Turkey, led by [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan, led a hostile approach against Israel,” the top diplomat...
(JNS) — As Israel continues to seek renewal and unity more than two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks, a growing number of Jewish Israelis are turning to Shabbat as a source of strength and spiritual connection, according to South Africa’s Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein. “There’s a spiritual revolution happening in Israel, an outpouring of people wanting a deeper connection to Shabbat, and we’re feeling it on the ground with this year’s record participation in the Shabbat Project across the country,” Goldstein told JNS. The...
MAITLAND - The spirit of generosity filled Congregation Ohev Shalom this past week as hundreds of community members gathered for the ninth annual Men's Night Out, a fundraiser benefiting Jewish youth across Central Florida. The event, hosted jointly by the area's major synagogues, raised money to support children's programs, scholarships, and opportunities for local kids to attend Jewish camps like Camp Ramah or study abroad in Israel. Elliot Davis, one of the program's organizers, shared the...
The Rosen JCC will host its inaugural performing arts event with the acclaimed Orlando Ballet School on Nov. 23 at 2 p.m. at the Pargh Event Center. Following the performance, guests are invited to stay for an exclusive “talkback” session with the dancers. Because it is the first performance in the Pargh Event enter, the event is specially priced at $10 per adult/seniors and $5 per student/child. Donations are encouraged to help the Rosen JCC continue building a vibrant new home for the Arts at the J. Purchase tickets at...
(JNS) — An Israeli medical delegation is heading to Jamaica to provide humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean island nation in the aftermath of last week’s Hurricane Melissa, Jerusalem’s health and foreign ministries announced on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is directing the team to help the local population recover from the devastating Atlantic Ocean storm, which according to Reuters took the lives of 32 people in Jamaica and 43 in Haiti as of Wednesday, with billions in economic damage. The team, led by...
Community gathers in celebration at Jewish Pavilion's Harvest and Post-Sukkot Festival The spirit of Sukkot lingered joyfully on Nov. 6 as more than 100 guests came together at Watercrest Winter Park for the Jewish Pavilion's Harvest and Post-Sukkot Networking Festival. The evening radiated warmth, gratitude, and community connection - hallmarks of the Sukkot season. Attendees were treated to a festive atmosphere filled with lively music, delicious cuisine, and beautifully crafted harvest...
New York gets $14.3 million more to protect nonprofits New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said on Monday that she secured $14.3 million in supplemental Nonprofit Security Grant Program funding for the state on top of the $44.8 million that it received last year out of $274.5 million in funds for the program nationally. “Keeping New Yorkers safe is my top priority,” the Democrat stated. She added that the federal program provides “essential funding to help thwart domestic terrorism.” “This grant program will enable nonprofit organizations in...
(JNS) — This series has explored the many fronts on which Israel has struggled since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023; however, Israel has scored one clear and decisive victory—in Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank. This success is not the product of a single battle, but of Hamas’s failure, Israel’s foresight and the Israel Defense Forces’ quiet exploitation of an opportunity while the world’s attention was elsewhere—fixed on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. In the shadows of those wars, Israel...
(JNS) — In 1918, V.I. Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party the Russian Communist Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying communism and the threat it posed to free nations. In 1920, the German Workers’ Party adopted a new name: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying Nazism and the threat it posed to free nations. In 1928, Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Western scholars and policymakers were...
(JNS) — Anyone who has watched the news, scrolled through social media or spent time on an American college campus since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, knows the chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” To the Western ear, the English slogan is lyrical and emotive. But the version chanted in Arabic is a far different sentence with a far different intent. In Arabic, the line is closer to “Palestine will be Arab.” The two chants are not synonymous. Palestine will be Arab does not...
Just five days before the 87th anniversary of the two-day pogrom on German and Austrian Jews and Jewish communities, known as Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10, 1938), an eerily familiar feeling is being felt by the American Jewish consciousness following the disturbing election of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor-elect of New York City. This sentiment begs the question: What’s going to be with the Jews? The answer in 1938 was that the very people who had contributed for so many years to the advancement of Europe’s most enlightened...
Twenty-five months have passed since the barbaric Palestinian terrorist invasion from Gaza into Israel. These Hamas monsters and their popular supporters in an unprovoked attack brutally massacred 1,200 men, women, children and babies, with another 3,500 wounded. If that wasn’t evil enough, Hamas also took 251 hostages, both living and dead, to later ransom them for convicted Arab murderers who had been afforded due process under Israeli law and found guilty for their criminal acts. The Jewish people were among the first among civilizations...
(JNS) — Former Fox News host and current political commentator Tucker Carlson recently said he “dislikes” Christian Zionists “more than anybody,” deeming their views un-Christian and inconsistent with Western civilization. He singled out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as adherents to this “dangerous heresy,” but he might have added President Abraham Lincoln, who saw the restoration of Jews to their national home in Palestine as “a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.” After the...
(JNS) SYDNEY, Australia - When Sharon Stoliar saw the images of masked terrorists rampaging through southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, she immediately was taken back to her childhood nearly four decades ago in Sri Lanka. The academic researcher and former midwife, who came to Australia as a girl of five, vividly recalled how her father, a pastor with the Wesleyan Methodist Church, was held at gunpoint by rebels in Sri Lanka. "It brought up all those memories," she recounted in an interview with...
(JNS) - Freed Israeli-Russian hostage Elizabeth Tsurkov said on Wednesday that Jerusalem's assassination campaign targeting top Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian terrorists contributed to hear release from captivity. Tsurkov, who was held for two and a half years by Iran-backed Kata'ib Hezbollah in Iraq, told The New York Times in an interview published Wednesday that she believes the IDF military campaign "rattled" the terrorist leaders, leading them to view their captive as a liability. The...
Last week, the Orlando Jewish Chamber of Commerce hosted a standout Lunch and Learn event featuring guest speaker Amy Schwartz Kimlat, a marketing and advertising professional and Head of Growth & Brand Experience for See Magic Live. The presentation, titled "Working With AI," drew a much larger crowd than expected, filling the Roth Family JCC where it was hosted by Shalom Orlando. Kimlat delivered an engaging and practical talk on harnessing artificial intelligence in the workplace. She...
I’m late for work! What? Wait a minute. What day is this? Friday? No; I didn’t put out the trash can for collection. Let’s see, what did I do last night? Oh, yes, I recall. We watched Antiques Roadshow. So, it must be Tuesday. And I don’t have to go to work; I retired many years ago. Such confusion. It only happens once in a while. But thanks to the resetting of clocks back to standard time my brain is malfunctioning. It used to be that I was only affected every spring when the clocks...
(JNS) - Documenting Jewish cemeteries and synagogues over a decade for what became his book "The Posthumous Landscape: Remnants of Jewish Life in Eastern Europe," Jewish photojournalist David Kaufman found helpers and those who got in his way. "Every place we went, there was someone who knew where the former cemetery or synagogue was. Those people were invariably happy to help us find our way and did this graciously, often out of a commitment to preserve Jewish material culture," the...
(Braden Hamelin/The Jewish Exponent via JNS) - Israeli dancer Yuval Cohen's performance in a featured role of "Carmen" with the Philadelphia Ballet on Oct. 9 was a full-circle moment for the artist still in his 20s. Cohen performed the same ballet in his first featured role with the company almost exactly two years earlier, shortly after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. This year's performance was a much happier occasion for Cohen, as news of the Israel-Hamas...
This is a great do ahead meal to serve the next day, but in an instant pot it takes only 45 minutes to cook. Directions for Instant pot 1 1/2 T. avocado oil or neutral oil in bottom of instant pot. Set pot on sauté and with the cover off and press start. Brown 1-2 lbs. lamb shoulder or necks or 1 1/2 lb. beef chuck pieces on all sides, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile prepare vegetables. Peel and chop 1 large onion, (about 2 cups). Peel and cut 2 large carrots, (about 1 cup), and cut in large...
If you have hired an aide from a home health care agency, you can expect a lot of support in easing your anxieties. It is the agency’s job to answer your questions in advance and resolve any issues that arise. The key to facilitating your satisfaction and comfort is good communication with the agency management and with your aide. Here are a few tips for establishing positive relationships with your home health care professionals: • Be completely honest about your needs: Overcome any embarrassment or guilt associated with describing why...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of Orlando — Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Temple Israel — Sunday,...
