Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 86 - 110 of 177
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old ring set has been discovered in Jerusalem's ancient City of David. It is the second such find at the same site within the last year, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The small size of the ring, gold and set with a red gemstone, indicates that it belonged to a youngster living in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period more than two millennia ago, the state-run archaeological body said. The member of the excavation team who found the previous...
(JNS) - The Auschwitz Memorial, together with the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation and leading figures from the European film industry, announced at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 the launch of a 1:1 digital replica of the German concentration and extermination camp available for filmmakers. The Auschwitz-Birkenau Virtual Film Location harnesses 3D-scanning technologies to preserve and protect the site's historical integrity, while offering filmmakers a revolutionary tool rooted in accuracy...
(JNS) — Yarden Bibas, who was a Hamas hostage for 484 days and whose wife and children were murdered by the terror group in captivity, spoke with Israeli media about his best friend, David Cunio, who remains in captivity. Yarden, who didn’t want to speak about himself, told Israel’s Channel 12 News in the interview that he and David had been friends since first grade. “When they were introducing the students, something about his name, about his appearance, caught my eye,” he said. “During the first break I went and actually offered him friends...
(JNS) — The family of Tzeela Gez, 30, who was killed in a Palestinian terrorist attack in Samaria while on her way to deliver her baby on May 14, has decided to donate her organs. Gez’s corneas will be transplanted, one for a youngster at Schneider Children’s Medical Center in Petach Tikvah, and one for a patient at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in the same city, Arutz 7 reported. Her husband, Hananel Gez, who sustained light wounds in the shooting attack outside the couple’s community of Bruchin, said: “Tzeela always brought lig...
(JNS) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the chances of a breakthrough in negotiations with the United States over Iran’s nuclear program are slim, accusing the U.S. administration of making “nonsense statements.” “The Islamic Republic does not believe that the current negotiations with America will yield positive results, and no one knows what will follow,” he said at a ceremony commemorating former Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who both died in a helicopter crash in Ma...
(JNS) — Five tiny figurines — including black wood-carved heads depicting African figures — have been uncovered in Israel’s Negev Desert, offering rare insight into unexpected cultural connections in the region some 1,500 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced. The statuettes were discovered in 2017 during an excavation at Tel Malhata in the Arad Valley, in graves belonging to women and children. The findings date to the Byzantine period and suggest trade or cultural ties that extended far beyond the immediate region. The res...
(JNS)- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a phone conversation on Tuesday with Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old Israel Defense Forces soldier and dual U.S-Israeli citizen released from captivity in Gaza the previous day. Alexander, who had been held by the Hamas terrorist organization for over 580 days, is currently receiving medical care in an Israeli hospital, as confirmed by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office. According to Israeli media reports, Alexander's medical condition has rul...
By (JNS) — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Israel to destroy Iran’s oil facilities and continue to hit the Houthi rebels in Yemen. On May 5, Israeli fighter jets conducted a wave of airstrikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah Port, a day after the Houthis, an Iran-backed group, launched a ballistic missile that struck near Israel’s main international airport, wounding six. “To my friends in Israel, do what you have to do to protect your airspace and your people. It is long past time to consider hitting Iran hard. It wouldn’t take much to put Iran out of...
(JNS) — As Israel geared up to celebrate its 77th Independence Day, data released by the country’s Central Bureau of Statistics on Monday revealed that the country’s population has reached 10.094 million. This marks a growth of 135,000 people (1.4 percent) since last year’s holiday. Of the total population, 7.73 million (77.6 percent) are Jews or classified as “others,” including non-Arab Christians and individuals without religious classification. Arab citizens account for 2.11 million (20.9 percent), while foreign workers make up 248,000 (2....
(JNS) — In a ceremony underscoring the enduring friendship and growing cooperation between Israel and Germany, Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Ron Huldai and Governing Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner signed a new Twin Cities agreement on Monday. The deal marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations and took place in the presence of Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor. Speaking at the ceremony, Mayor Huldai emphasized the symbolic and practical significance of the renewed partnership between the two cities. “Here today in...
(JNS) - Nefesh B'Nefesh, Friends of the IDF and Jewish National Fund-USA have announced the resumption of "Operation Hug," an initiative that will enable hundreds more families to reunite with lone soldiers serving in the Israel Defense Forces. Amid Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in Gaza, thousands of young men and women who made aliyah and are serving in active combat units remain separated from their families abroad. These lone soldiers face unique emotional and logistical challenges,...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday requiring colleges and universities to better disclose their funding from foreign sources or risk losing federal funding. The Higher Education Act of 1965 in part “requires institutions of higher education to report significant sources of foreign funding,” but since the relevant section “has not been robustly enforced, the true amounts, sources and purposes of foreign money flowing to American campuses are unknown,” Trump stated. “From 2010 to 2016, according t...
(JNS) — The war against Hamas “will not end with hostages in Gaza, period,” Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the inaugural JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on April 27. “We haven’t finished the job,” declared Danon, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party. The Israeli diplomat addressed the JNS summit just hours after touring the sites of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre with a group of approximately 30 fellow U.N. ambassadors, he revealed. “Once people ar...
(JNS) — Israeli authorities were working on Sunday afternoon (April 27) to rescue around 100 teenagers who were trapped in the Ein Prat Nature Reserve in the Judean Desert after a fire broke out on a popular hiking trail. “Firefighters from the Binyamin Regional Station are currently working on a fire in Nahal Prat,” the Israel Fire and Rescue Services said in a statement. “According to reports, many hikers remain in the stream, and it is difficult to rescue them. In addition, there is a topographical challenge, making it difficult to reach the...
(JNS)- Massive wildfires sweeping through central Israel have triggered widespread evacuations, road closures, and a full-scale emergency response as flames threaten residential areas near Jerusalem. The evacuated communities include three moshavs: Eshtaol, Mesilat Zion and Beit Meir and initial estimates speak of at least 3,500 evacuees. The Fire and Rescue Authority has declared a general mobilization across six districts, deploying more than 110 teams, eight firefighting planes and a...
(JNS) — Renowned filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and his spouse, Israeli singer Daniella Pick, recently bought property in Tel Aviv for an estimated 50 million shekels (~$13.8 million), Hebrew media reported on April 27. The nearly half an acre of land currently has two old buildings on it, according to Israeli business daily Globes. The couple plans to demolish the two adjacent houses and erect one large home instead, according to the report. The property is situated in the northern Tel Aviv neighborhood of Tel Baruch, at the corner of Yaakov a...
(JNS) — Tal Shoham, who was freed from Gaza as part of the hostage deal with Hamas on Feb. 22, revealed that the terrorists had called his wife, freed during previous ceasefire, and threatened to kill him if she talked about her own experiences in captivity. Adi Shoham was taken hostage during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre alongside her two young children. They were released after 50 days in captivity as part of the first ceasefire agreement with the terrorist group. Tal Shoham, a 40-year-old Israeli with dual Austrian citizenship, was abducted f...
(JNS) — Some 130 Palestinians left the Gaza Strip through Ramon Airport in southern Israel. Around 110 Gazans flew to France, while the remainder will settle in Bosnia and Chile, according to Channel 12 News, which cited Israeli officials. On April 1, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel visited Ramon Airport to inspect “the voluntary departure process” of Palestinians from Gaza. “Dozens of Gazans were flown to Leipzig, Germany, on a designated flight accompanied by German diplomats today,” said the Population and Immigration Authority, part of t...
(JNS) — Yarden Bibas, whose wife and children were murdered by Hamas terrorists, discussed for the first time the horrors of captivity in Gaza, speaking to CBS‘s “60 Minutes” along with former hostages Keith Siegel and Tal Shoham. Bibas said he chose an American news outlet for his first interview because he wanted the White House and U.S. President Donald Trump to hear his plea to bring a stop to the fighting in the Gaza Strip. Israel resumed airstrikes on March 18 after a two-month ceasefire. “Please stop this war and help bring all the h...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said that he couldn’t understand why Israel ever gave up the Gaza Strip. During a press conference in the Oval Office on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the president said, “They took oceanfront property and they gave it to people for peace. How did that work out? Not good.” Netanyahu traveled from Hungary to Washington, D.C., on Sunday for an unplanned visit to resolve a tariff dispute. Referring to Netanyahu, Trump said he knew that “this man” would never have done it. “He w...
(JNS) — Below is the full text of the statement delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on April 7, 2025: Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Donald. I want to first thank you for inviting me again to the White House. You’ve been a remarkable friend of the State of Israel. You stand by us, you’re standing with us, you’re a great, great champion of our alliance and you actually do things that you say you do. And I think people respect that enormously. I certainly do, and th...
(JNS) — In early March, during a family trip to Tel Azekah near Beit Shemesh, three-and-a-half-year-old Ziv Nitzan from Moshav Ramot Meir stumbled upon an extraordinary piece of history — an ancient scarab amulet dating back approximately 3,800 years. The young girl’s discovery was purely accidental, according to her sister, Omer Nitzan. “We were walking along the path when Ziv bent down and picked up a particular stone,” she said, according to a press release published by the Israel Antiquities Authority. “After rubbing off the sand, we sa...
(JNS) — A 2,200-year-old pyramid-shaped structure from the days of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid rulers is being unearthed in the Judean Desert in one of the richest and most intriguing archaeological excavations in the area, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. The mammoth structure discovered just north of Nahal Zohar near the Dead Sea is made of hand-hewn stones, each one weighing hundreds of kilograms, the state-run archaeological body said. Two millennia old historical documents written in Greek on papyrus, bronze coins, w...
(JNS) — The family of freed hostage Yarden Bibas has raised more than $1.7 million via a public fundraising campaign since its launch on Saturday night, exceeding its initial $1,371,086 goal within 24 hours. The campaign, which was launched via the Lehosheet Yad (Lend a Hand) foundation, aims to help Yarden Bibas’s recovery and establish a memorial for his wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were murdered in captivity in the Gaza Strip. As of Monday morning, 30,979 people from all over the world had donated to the cam...
(JNS) — The Tikva Forum of Hostages’ Families on Tuesday called for “all or hell”—meaning the return of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas at once, or the resumption of “massive” Israel Defense Forces pressure on the terrorist group. “The past weeks have proven what we have been saying all along—Hamas will never return all the hostages willingly,” the group said, referring to the terror group’s refusal to agree to a U.S. proposal to extend the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover. “Only massive militar...
