Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Part I (JNS) - In a pre-New Year's meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated that when it comes to U.S.-Israel relations, there is little daylight and total admiration between the two allies. This holds particularly true regarding the nations' policies toward Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, in particular. Key differences remain. The meeting could not have come at a more important juncture for Israel. Phase 1 of a three-month-old ceas...
After his visit with President Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with approximately 30 Christian leaders in Orlando on Dec. 31 and followed with a visit to Jewish leaders in Miami. His visit with Christians was formal, almost like a board meeting - men in suits seated at tables. His later visit with the Jewish community was much more informal, like a family-gathering setting. Netanyahu's talk with Christians was warm and inspiring. "You are representatives of the...
(JNS) — At U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted what seemed to be an impossible mission. The international stage has shifted: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has exited the spotlight, while Netanyahu was invited to take part in the grand design of world peace envisioned by the American leader—a vision not without complications. From Israel’s point of view, Trump’s statement that he would “absolutely” support additional Israeli strikes on Iranian missile and nuclear facil...
(JNS) — Most foreign governments have allowed an unrestrained surge of overt antisemitism to fester in the public sphere, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Sunday. He called on world Jewry to move to Israel. “Jews have a right to live safely everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening and we have a certain historical experience,” Sa’ar said during a Chanukah candle-lighting event in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion. “Today, Jews are being hunted across the world.” He specifically called out the Jews of Engla...
Drive down Sand Lake Hills today and you can feel it almost immediately: something has shifted. What was once a quiet pocket of Southwest Orlando has become a hub of Jewish life, activity, and — perhaps most visibly — food. Over the past year, a new kosher marketplace opened just minutes from Orlando Torah Academy, joined by a rotating Chinese kosher pop-up and the continued success of Kosho Sushi, which has become a go-to destination not only for observant families but for kosher-curious diners across the city. On the surface, these are foo...
On Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026, Congregation Ohev Shalom will host Boaz Dvir, Israeli author and filmmaker. The event will feature discussion by the author of the book “Saving Israel” and viewing of the film “Interceptor.” The evening includes book signing and a dessert reception, and runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Boaz Dvir is an Israeli-American journalist, a documentary filmmaker, an associate professor of journalism at Penn State University, and the founding director of the Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Education Initiative. As an award-w...
Come create something beautiful and spend time connecting with friends — old and new! Join Chabad’s Women’s Circle for a special Jewelry Making Night, a relaxed and inspiring evening of friendship, creativity, and meaningful Torah perspective. Hosted by Heather Polonsky, the event will be held Monday, Jan. 12, 7:30 p.m. The cost is $35 per person RSVP: JewishOrlando.com/womensnight....
The Holocaust Center is opening its new permanent exhibit on Jan. 18, 2026, titled Hope & Humanity. Visitors to the Center will explore the stories of those who stood against injustice through acts of courage, dignity and resilience. Also, hear the lived experiences of local Jewish survivors, remembered not as numbers, but as individuals with families, dreams and hopes. The exhibit is free to the public. This is a timed entry event and reservations are required. Go to hmrec.org/tickets to make reservations....
(JNS) — More than 4,100 immigrants from North America made aliyah to Israel in 2025 with the support of Nefesh B’Nefesh, marking the highest annual figure in the past four years, the organization announced in a press release on Monday. According to the data, 4,150 North American Jews immigrated to Israel this year in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Jewish National Fund–USA. The figure represents an increase of more than 12 percent compared to 2024, when 3,... Full story
(JNS) — Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the establishment and legalization of 19 Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich noted on X. Among the 19 towns are Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria. They were evacuated and destroyed by the Israeli government during the 2005 disengagement. In total, 11 new towns will be established, and eight existing neighborhoods will be officially recognized by the state. “We continue to make history in settling [the land] and in the State of Israel,” Smotric...
Israel’s Christian population is about 185,000, accounting for just under 2 percent of the country’s total population, according to data published Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics on the eve of Christmas 2025. Nearly 80 percent of the Christians in Israel are Arab, comprising 6.8 percent of the nation’s overall Arab population. Most Arab Christians reside in the Northern District (68.3 percent) and Haifa District (14.7 percent). Non-Arab Christians are more concentrated in the Tel Aviv and Central Districts (42 percent) with 34 pe...
(JNS) — Ariel, Hebrew for “lion of God”, retained its title as the most popular name given to Jewish boys in Israel in 2025, the country’s Population and Immigration Authority announced on Tuesday. It was followed by Lavie, meaning “lion” in Hebrew, with the biblical figure David rounding out the top three. Muhammad, Yosef and Adam were the three most popular boys’ names among the general population. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s population of roughly 10 million. Among girls, Avigail, who according to the Bible married the fut...
Preaching at AmFest, Tucker Carlson displayed his lack of integrity, fueling speculations of being bought and paid for by Islamists in Qatar, and brandishing the crown with which he has been coronated as a dangerous antisemite. His voice rising like a pre-pubescent child, he attacked the invisible boogeyman, but everyone knew who and what he meant. “Attacking millions of Americans because they’re Muslims—it’s DISGUSTING. And I’m a Christian, I’m not a Muslim,” he shrieked in a room so silent that you could have heard a pin drop. Trying to rec...
(JNS) — New York woke up in November to a political earthquake. Zohran Mamdani is now mayor-elect. For years, he tested how far he could push extremist rhetoric into the mainstream. And this week, some told him he could go all the way. No one smoothed that path more than comptroller Brad Lander. Lander has perfected a certain New York political aesthetic: soft-spoken, earnest, quietly dangerous. In his eagerness to win favor with the loudest ideological blocs, he embraced Mamdani’s worldview long before New Yorkers realized just how truly rad...
(JNS) — I once heard a particular story from a colleague in Johannesburg, who, like me, grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. He said that his grandfather was once the victim of an attempted mugging on Shabbat. Calmly, he told his attackers that it was his Sabbath and that he had no money for them. “Come back on Sunday,” he said. They left him in peace. It seems a generation ago, even the muggers had some respect. How times have changed. And with it, our values. Today, Israel may boast the most successful and courageous defense force in the world; never...
As anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attacks skyrocket in the United States, their targets are increasingly synagogues. It should come as no surprise that nearly all high-profile attacks on shuls reported by mainstream media since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, were orchestrated by so-called “Free Palestine” mobs. Such attacks, often disruptive and violent—and sometimes even deadly—dispel any excuse that protesters “do not hate Jews,” but only want to “free Palestine.” Let’s be clear: They have nothing to do with formin...
(JNS) — I land at Ben-Gurion International Airport after a week in New York that feels like a lifetime. The wheels hit the tarmac with a dull thud that spurs customary applause from passengers. They’re either relieved after the long journey or clapping for arriving in the Jewish state. Before passengers are permitted to unbuckle, the pilot takes to the loudspeaker. “Welcome home,” he says in Hebrew, proceeding to highlight the bravery of the Israel Defense Forces and express hope for the swift return of the body of Ran Gvili, the last remaini...
Dear Editor: Growing up in Australia was so secure and pleasant. “G’day mate, how’re you going?” was the cheerful greeting of people as they passed each other in the street. We didn’t lock the doors and the windows were always kept open. How did this “pleasant, friendly society turn into one filled with so much hatred? On Oct. 9, 2023, before we even understood what had happened in Israel, before we had started to defend our country, before we retaliated against the murderous attack on the kibbutzim and the border villages, Australians...
(JNS) — For decades, particularly since the war began on Oct. 7, political campaigns have organized in the United States to delegitimize the rule of Netanyahu and try to push him out of office. They came consistently from presidents Clinton, Obama and Biden. More recently, efforts have been rumbling from the MAGA camp of the Republican Party. Much of the campaign centers around anonymously sourced reports from so-called senior officials who claim that America’s president is getting fed up with Netanyahu. These reports are continuously pro...
It has been a year of both devastation and distinction for Yifat Merbl, a professor in the Department of Systems Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. Merbl was recently named one of Nature magazine's "Ten people who shaped science in 2025," a prestigious honor recognizing her groundbreaking work on the human immune system. "It's an amazing recognition in what we do and provides an amazing boost, also to my incredible team, to keep pushing the boundaries of science," Merbl...
(JNS) - A Jewish ritual bath, or mikveh, dating back to the final days of the Second Temple period has been unearthed near the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The bath, which still bears ash remains that testify to the destruction of the Temple, was discovered recently beneath the Western Wall Plaza, the state-run archaeological body said. Hewn into the bedrock, the mikveh, which is rectangular in shape, measuring 3.05 meters in length, 1.35 meters in width...
A Jewish American fighter pilot shot down over China in World War II was finally laid to rest on American soil last week, with dirt from Israel placed over his coffin. Lt. Morton Sher, who flew with the famed Flying Tigers, was buried on Sunday in a cemetery in Greenville, S.C., where his headstone and an empty grave have awaited him for 80 years. The oldest son of David and Anna Sher, he was born in Baltimore before his family moved to the South. Active at Congregation Beth Israel in...
Choosing a skilled nursing facility for your loved one is one of the most important decisions you will make. At Jewish Pavilion Senior Services, we understand how overwhelming this process can be. That’s why we offer the Orlando Senior Help Desk, a free resource designed to guide families through senior care decisions with compassion and clarity. While no facility is perfect, there are key indicators to help you determine whether a facility will provide the level of care and dignity your loved one deserves: 1. Go beyond the surface A b...
While many Americans spend Dec. 25 gathered around Christmas trees and festive dinners, another longstanding tradition was celebrated at Temple Israel this year: enjoying Chinese food on Christmas Day. What began in the early 20th century as a matter of practicality has become a cherished cultural ritual for many Jewish families across the United States. During a time when most restaurants closed for Christmas, Chinese eateries, often run by immigrants who didn't celebrate the holiday, remained...
As Team Israel prepares to take on the world in the next World Baseball Classic, scheduled for March, it does so against the background of a worldwide spike in Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Israel's war against Hamas. The players are ready for that challenge. Two veterans of the 2023 team, which did well enough to secure an automatic bid for the 2026 event, told JNS that they are prouder than ever to wear the blue and white. "That means everything to me, and it gives me even more of a reason...
