Week of October 18, 2024
Week of October 18, 2024
(JNS) — The Biden administration plans to send $157 million in new funding to “populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region,” drawing criticism, including from members of Congress, that the the monies are being misdirected. “The United States will provide nearly $157 million in new U.S. humanitarian assistance to support populations affected by conflict in Lebanon and the region,” stated U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday. “This funding will address new and existing needs of internally displaced persons...
Jewish leaders in Virginia oppose Kaine’s call to stop weapon transfers to Israel (JNS) — Concern expressed by Tim Kaine (D-Va.) that certain U.S.-supplied arms sent to Israel could kill Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, and Judea and Samaria, prompted pushback from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Kaine released a statement last week about his intent to stop five out of 100 weapon transfers to Israel. “Since February, I have called on the Biden administration to support Israel through the provision of...
(JTA) - You could say he said sorry with a little help from his friends. Paul McCartney, the former Beatle, attended Yom Kippur services on Saturday with his Jewish wife in Santiago, Chile. He had performed a solo concert there on Friday night, the beginning of the Jewish holiday of atonement. Ariela Agosin, president of Chile Jewish Community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that McCartney had arranged his attendance at the Círculo Israelita Synagogue through a friend but that very few in...
(JNS) — The Biden administration has offered Israel a “compensation package” if it refrains from striking certain targets in Iran as part of its retaliation for Tehran’s Oct. 1 attack, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster reported on Sunday. U.S. officials offered their Israeli counterparts “extensive diplomatic backing and additional military aid” if certain targets inside Iranian territory were spared, according to the report. An Israeli official told Kan, “We consider the United States to be our ally and are always ready to...
(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant following the “outrageous act of aggression by Iran,” reaffirming that the United States is ready to aid its friends and partners in the region. America is “well-postured to defend U.S. personnel, allies, and partners in the face of threats from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist organizations and is determined to prevent any actor from exploiting tensions or expanding the conflict in the region,” said Austin, according to the U.S. Defense...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The last time President Joe Biden helped Israel repel an Iranian missile onslaught, he advised Benjamin Netanyahu against retaliation, telling the prime minister to “take the win.” Now, after another barrage of missiles from Iran, things have changed: He’s giving Israel a green light — albeit with qualifications — to strike back. Last week, the United States assisted Israel in repelling nearly 200 ballistic missiles Iran launched at the country, similar to what had occurred in April. The attack came after...
(JNS) - Israel Defense Forces soldiers have erected a sukkah in the Netzarim Corridor dividing northern and southern Gaaza ahead of Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, which starts on Wednesday, Hebrew media reported. It is the first time a sukkah has been built in Gaza since Israel disengaged from the enclave in 2005, forcibly removing some 8,000 Jews from their homes. During the weeklong Sukkot holiday, which this year started at sundown on Oct. 16 and runs through Oct. 23, Jews erect festive...
(JNS) - "Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization. We are fighting in Gaza against Hamas, the savages who murdered, raped, beheaded and burned our people on October 7th. We are fighting in Lebanon against Hezbollah, the most heavily armed terror organization in the world, which was planning an even greater massacre than October 7th on our northern border, and that has rocketed Israeli towns and cities for nearly a year. We are fighting against the...
(JTA) — American troops will be stationed in Israel for the first time since Oct. 7, 2023, as the country prepares for ongoing conflict with Iran. The announcement that U.S. personnel would arrive came on the same day that a Hezbollah drone strike on a military base in Israel killed four soldiers and injured nearly 60. Sunday’s developments signal that the war that began more than a year ago with Hamas’ invasion of Israel may expand across the region. Since last Oct. 7, the U.S. has moved aircraft carriers to the region, devoted...
(JNS) — In a preview that it released of its interview with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, which aired on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack, 60 Minutes asked if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a close U.S. ally. The Democratic nominee for president opted instead to critique the CBS News program’s question. Bill Whitaker asked Harris, “Do we have a real close ally in Prime Minister Netanyahu?” “I think, with all due respect, the better question is do we have an important alliance between the...
(JNS) — The Jewish state has been fighting for its existence for the past 365 days, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, proposing to change the name of the Israel Defense Forces’ multi-front campaign to the “Revival War. “One year ago, at 6:29 a.m., Hamas terrorists launched a murderous surprise attack on the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said at a Cabinet meeting marking one year since the Oct. 7 massacre. “Since that dark day, we have been fighting,” the premier continued. “Since that dark day, we have been under...
(JNS) — In a statement marking the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, referred to the terror group’s “abhorrent” acts and said that the ensuing war “continues to shatter lives and inflict profound human suffering for Palestinians in Gaza, and now the people of Lebanon.” “The Oct. 7 attack scarred souls, and on this day we remember all those who were brutally killed and suffered unspeakable violence, including sexual violence, as they...
(JNS) — After a decade of slavery, a Yazidi woman ISIS terrorists kidnapped in Iraq and trafficked to a terrorist in the Gaza Strip was rescued in an operation spearheaded by the Israel Defense Forces. Fawzi Amin Sido, taken captive in 2014 at the age of 11, was freed this week and returned to her family in Iraq. The Palestinian terrorist who had been holding her was recently killed, allowing her to flee and eventually be rescued, the IDF said. “The young girl was extracted from the Gaza Strip in recent days in a secret operation through...
(JNS) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Friday described Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre of some 1,200 people in Israel as “logical and legal,” and vowed that the Jewish state “will not last long.” During a rare Friday sermon, Khamenei also defended the Islamic Republic’s massive ballistic missile assault on Israel on Tuesday, saying it “was the minimum punishment for the crimes of the usurping Zionist regime,” and claiming it accorded with international law, as well as Islamic beliefs. “The resistance in the region will...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday called Iran the “empire of evil” and warned of its efforts to destabilize the Middle East. In an interview with Saudi state TV station Al Arabiya, Herzog said, “Iran is the only country in the world who calls for the eradication of another U.N. member state. Iran offers destruction. We are offering hope.” He called on the peoples of the region to take action. “I call upon the people of Lebanon, the people of Iran, the people of all of the oppressed nations in the region, to rise up...
Jewish Pavilion Senior Services is excited to host a festive pre-Chanukah Breakfast for the Maitland Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, Nov. 14 at 8:30 a.m. The breakfast will take place at New Hope for Kids, located at 544 Mayo Avenue in Maitland, and is expected to welcome over 50 attendees. For many of the participants, this will be their first experience learning about the holiday of Chanukah, making it a special opportunity for cultural exchange and community building. While not everyone attending is Jewish, all will be treated to an...
(JNS) — On his nightly program recently, long-running HBO news pundit Bill Maher, in reference to one of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s dire misassessments of Hamas’s nefarious intent, demanded that she just “shut up” already. Coming from a lifelong liberal, Maher’s acerbic reprimand should cause pondering Jews to sit up and take note. Maher’s negative assessment of Harris’s grasp on the true nature of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is further reinforced by the vice president’s completely out-of-touch cheerleading...
(JNS) — On Oct. 7, Hamas carried out the most heinous attacks on Jews since the Holocaust. While Diaspora Jews watched in horror and disbelief at events taking place in Israel, few could have imagined the impact on their own lives, especially the outburst of antisemitism to ensue in their communities. Nowhere has this been more acute than at America’s finest universities. Over the past year, Jewish organizations have fought tirelessly to counter this torrent of antisemitism, battling a brand of hatred we thought died generations ago. As...
(Gatestone Institute via JNS) — The hatred of extreme left-wing agitators and parts of the left-liberal elite in politics and the media against our Jewish compatriots and the State of Israel since the barbaric massacre of innocent civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, has directly fueled antisemitism and hatred of Jews. It started immediately after Oct. 7 with inflammatory demonstrations of millions of people with false flags and slogans in many European capitals, including many non-Western immigrants, who thereby demonstrated that they do not share...
(JNS) — Tuesday evening. The conductor of the train from Jerusalem to Herzliya apologizes to passengers ahead of the first stop in Tel Aviv after Ben-Gurion Airport. “Sorry, but we can’t go any farther,” he announces over the loudspeaker. “The security situation doesn’t allow for it.” Irritated sighs could be heard from rush-hour commuters, tired mothers with cranky children and travelers with suitcases in tow. Sketchy internet connections disrupted the updated emergency alert instructing the entire country to shelter until...
“The Emperor’s New Clothes,” by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, was published in 1837. It has been adapted in many forms. Today, “the emperor has no clothes,” is a metaphor for people living or perpetrating a lie or are too stupid to admit that. In the original story, an emperor with an obsession for fancy clothes hires conmen posing as weavers to make him magnificent clothes that are so unique, they are invisible to those who are incompetent or stupid. One day, the “weavers” report that the emperor’s new clothes are...
(JNS) - The Museum of the Bible on Tuesday unveiled what it says is the oldest Hebrew book ever discovered, dating to the 8th century and originating with Jews living in a Buddhist civilization in modern-day Afghanistan. Located in Washington, D.C., just two blocks south of the National Mall, the institution opened the exhibit, titled "Sacred Words: Revealing the Earliest Hebrew Book." It runs through Jan. 12, 2025. It will also make a stop in New York at the library of the Jewish Theological...
(JTA) - As a gender historian and scholar of intermarriage, I binge-watched the new Netflix series "Nobody Wants This" with a combination of foreboding and optimism. Depictions of romances between Jewish men and Christian women have been ubiquitous in popular culture since "The Jazz Singer" in 1927 as Jewish men in Hollywood depicted their own lived experiences. Having analyzed popular culture over a century, I was concerned that I would see familiar tropes, but I also hoped that there would be...
(JTA) - The latest Israeli film on Netflix has a setting and theme that, one year after Oct. 7, could not be more current: It centers on soldiers ending their service by volunteering at a kibbutz on the Gaza border. "Kissufim" paints a portrait of Israeli life as it oscillates through phases of trauma and hope - including a near-death scene as someone dances. It was filmed in August 2021, more than two years before Hamas unleashed an attack on southern Israeli communities, including the...
(JTA) - When basketball superstar Stephen Curry sunk a series of three-point shots to help Team USA clinch the Olympic gold medal in Paris this summer, it's unlikely the four-time NBA champion was thinking about Abe Saperstein. But as a new biography of the trailblazing Jewish basketball executive suggests, Curry had plenty of reasons to be grateful to Saperstein, who is best known as the founder and longtime head coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein, who at 5-foot-3 is the shortest...
(JTA) - "Nobody Wants This," a rom-com Netflix series starring Adam Brody as a charming Los Angeles rabbi who falls for a blond, agnostic sex and dating podcaster played by Kristen Bell, is based on a true story - kind of. Erin Foster, the creator of the show, is a blond Los Angeles native who found her match in a Jew, albeit not a rabbi - her husband is record-label owner Simon Tikhman - and converted for him. Like her protagonist Joanne (Bell), she also "got the ick" when her Jewish...
(JNS) - "We are Zionists and pro-Israel. We want to turn the Negev green and this looks like a way to do so," Avi Leitner, the president of the Blue Agave Israel Group, told JNS on Monday. Leitner and his partner Avi Rosenfeld went to Mexico together years ago and discovered the secret behind producing high-end tequila-the blue agave plant. The two visited areas in Mexico where farmers grow agave and identified similarities in weather conditions there and in the Negev Desert. Six years ago,...
Scammers are always looking for new ways to target seniors. Here are six of the most common scams to watch out for: 1. Check Tampering: Scammers intercept paper checks from mailboxes, erase the ink, and rewrite the amount and payee information. They also digitally alter stolen checks to appear genuine, often using voice recordings to authenticate phone transactions. 2. Voice Printing: Fraudsters record seniors’ voices and use software to create convincing imitations, enabling them to impersonate victims and access sensitive accounts like...
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,...
