Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 9 of 9
(JNS) — Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the last few weeks have been some of the most difficult since the trauma of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. For a split second, it seemed like the anti-Israel news cycle might calm down — and it felt like we were finally going to get a bit of a breather. But then the hostage swaps began. These exchanges shifted in nature when the terrorists could no longer parade our kidnapped civilians around, draped in green fatigues, as if they were captured soldiers. Muc...
(JNS) — Or ben Sima Geula. I’ve said that name every time I prayed, three times a day, for the last six months. At some point during Or Levy’s 491-day captivity, my son’s school — in an attempt to personalize the names of the unfathomable 250 hostages—gave each child a person to pray for. Our youngest returned from school with a passport-sized image of Or that has lived in our home since. “Aba, will you pray for him?” my son asked me. Of course, I agreed. In the latest hostage-prisoner exchange, Or and two others came home—well, what...
(JNS) —There was a pogrom in Amsterdam—and no, it’s not 1938. Ten Israelis were injured and hundreds were attacked as they left the Maccabi Tel Aviv/Ajax soccer match on the evening of Nov. 7, just hours before the 62nd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “Night of Broken Glass,” in Germany and Austria. The scene was apparently complete chaos. The video footage on social media has been harrowing; Israelis screaming things like, “Not Jewish” and “Free Palestine” to avoid the mob’s wrath. But the attacks didn’t end there. In truth, the onslaught...
(JNS) — I’m a fan of the Free Press podcast “Honestly.” It’s one of my regular sources of media. The even-handed coverage given to all topics is invigorating. But as someone who lives in Judea and Samaria, the episode titled “The Palestinian ‘Traitor’ Risking Everything to Speak Out” lacks some necessary context. For those who haven’t listened to the episode, I highly recommend it. The interviewee has both an unbelievable story and a fascinating philosophy on life. Since speaking out against the atrocities of Oct. 7, he’s been labeled a traitor...
(JTA) — “What are these for?” the security guard at the Dubai airport asked as three others inspected my bris kit — the bag of supplies I carry when I perform circumcisions on Jewish baby boys. Whenever I travel for work and I’m away from Israel for only a short time, I never check a bag, so this can make for interesting encounters at the X-ray machines. There are times I’ve lied and said I make jewelry, but since circumcision is a cultural norm in the United Arab Emirates and other Muslim countries, I decided to come clean. “I perform circu...
(JNS) — Growing up, I was not one of the cool kids and was bullied a fair amount of the time. In middle school, one such bully used to incessantly pick on me. He was the weakest of the tough kids, so he had to make an example out of someone, so he chose the 60-pound sack of skin and bones that I happened to be in those days. “You better stop it, Jeff,” I warned him one day, as he kicked me. “Oh yeah, what are you going to do about it, wimp?” Something inside me snapped. I hauled off and punched him in the face. I remember the line of blood dri...
(JNS) — Can you see the hypocrisy? I see it all day, every day. It’s hard to live in Israel, no matter how you feel about the war, and not see it. When you live in this region, it’s like the rest of the world is upside down. It’s like you’re looking at a bizarro universe that exists on a different plane—a universe so devoid of logic and morality that it no longer feels like your own. The Israel Defense Forces made a monumental mistake. It was an error almost no one wanted. The accidental drone strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen hum...
(JNS) — I have a secret that I’ve never told anyone before. For more than 20 years, it’s been too embarrassing and traumatic to revisit. But the time has come to share the story. Believe it or not, the whole situation arose because I was completing a college assignment. I studied at the University of Rhode Island and, for the most part, loved every minute of it. The education was classically liberal, although it seemed that the student body was not as politically motivated as, say, the Ivy League schools. In my senior year, I took a commu...
(JNS) — A few days ago, I was finally able to speak to my friend Akiva. Like so many other reservists, he was called into active duty on Simchat Torah when the war broke out. “I need the things in my car,” he told me. Prior to our conversation, his battalion was transferred from Netanya to outside of Beersheva. Due to the rush, he was unable to collect his belongings before they left. “I’ll get it for you,” I replied, unsure how it would become a reality. In addition to the contents of his car, Akiva sent me a list of things his platoon nee...
