Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 210
(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...
(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,...
(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...
(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...
(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...
(JNS) — Former Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker and his girlfriend, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, have become engaged. Zangauker’s mother, Einav Zangauker, who was one of the most vocal voices among the families of the hostages held in Gaza, posted a photo on Sunday night of Matan, 26, and Ilana, 32, drinking champagne in front of a “Will you marry me” sign inside a flower-bedecked wreath in the form of a heart. “My picture of victory,” Einav wrote. “Ilana & Matan.” A large guitar-shaped building in the background placed the photo at the Se...
(JNS) - Researchers at Israel's Hebrew University have identified the world's earliest systematic botanical art, dating back more than 8,000 years, that demonstrates sophisticated mathematical reasoning. Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich analyzed pottery from the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (circa 6200-5500 BCE) across 29 archaeological sites. Their study, published in the Journal of World Prehistory, found that flowers, shrubs and trees painted on vessels displayed precise numerical patterns-particularly petal counts...
(JNS) — Israel arrested a Russian citizen working in the country who allegedly photographed infrastructure and ships at ports under the direction of Iranian intelligence, security officials said on Friday Vitaly Zvyagnitsev, 30, was detained in early December after allegedly carrying out surveillance tasks for an Iranian handler who identified himself as “Roman,” said the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Erez Unit of the Defense Ministry’s security directorate, known by its Hebrew acronym MALMAB. The suspect continued the mission...
(JNS) — Police opened an investigation on Friday after security camera footage showed a woman in Muslim religious garb blowing out Chanukah menorah candles at a Tel Aviv shopping mall. If the woman is identified, police are expected to charge her under Article 170 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes the desecration or damage of places of worship or sacred objects with the intent or awareness. The offense carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. In video taken at the Weizmann City Mall, an indoor mall located next to Tel Aviv S...
(JNS) - Former U.S. senator Ben Sasse, who was president of University of Florida and of Midland University in Fremont, Neb., said on Tuesday that he has stage-four pancreatic cancer and is going to die. "Advanced pancreatic is nasty stuff. It's a death sentence. But I already had a death sentence before last week too-we all do," he said in a lengthy statement. "I'm blessed with amazing siblings and half-a-dozen buddies that are genuinely brothers. As one of them put it, 'Sure, you're on the...
(JNS) - An Israeli was found dead with signs of hypothermia, and two children sustained minor injuries from a falling tree, on Thursday, the second day of winter storm Byron. Emergency teams were also called to flooding incidents in the Judean Foothills (the Shfela), the Magen David Adom medical response group said. MDA says its first responders were deployed to several sites where cars became trapped in rising waters and were working alongside rescue teams, with medics on standby amid fears of...
(JNS) - Surgeons in Israel successfully removed a 2.3-inch tumor protruding from the upper jaw of a baby girl immediately after her birth, a Rabin Medical Center spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. The tumor was the largest of its kind and location ever described in the medical literature, nearly matching the size of the newborn's head. "It is a miracle. We told our baby she has used up all her drama for a lifetime," her family was quoted as saying by the hospital in Petach Tikvah. The...
(JNS) — A 1,300-year-old lead pendant decorated with a menorah was uncovered during an archaeological excavation beneath the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, north of the City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Monday. Only one other ancient lead pendant bearing the menorah symbol is known in the world, the government agency added. The personal necklace dates to the 6th to early 7th centuries in the Late Byzantine period and was recently discovered in a large-scale archaeological excavation in the D...
(JNS) — If Hamas does not follow through with U.S. President Donald Trump’s peace plan that involves the terrorist group laying down arms, Israel “will have to deal with the problem,” Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said in an interview with the Saudi state-owned channel Al Arabiya English on Wednesday. Israel’s top diplomat said he hopes the Islamist organization adheres to the plan, which both Israel and Hamas’s leadership agreed to, but that “unfortunately,” senior Hamas officials have issued public declarations saying that they have n...
(JNS) — New South Wales Police identified 50-year-old Adam Smyth as the 14th victim of the Dec. 14 terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15 people during a Chanukah celebration. Smyth and his wife, Katrina, were walking near the beach when two gunmen opened fire on more than a thousand people gathered for the event, according to family statements released by police. He was not Jewish and was not attending the celebration. We mourn the loss of Adam Smyth who was walking with his wife Katrina along the Bondi Beach, a passerby to the C...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog thanked Mike Waltz, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Wednesday for his role in advancing the recent U.N. Security Council resolution that codified U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan. “I want to thank you for supporting Israel at the United Nations with clear moral clarity,” Herzog told Waltz during their meeting in Jerusalem, according to a statement from the president’s office. Herzog emphasized the need to secure the release of the last hostage, Staff Sgt. Ran Gvili. “F...
(JNS) - The dozens of posters of hostages that once greeted arrivals and departures at Ben-Gurion International Airport have disappeared except for one of the last hostages whose body remains in Gaza, Israel Police officer Ran Gvili. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum on Tuesday shared a photo of Gvili's younger sister Shira, who stopped by the lone picture of the fallen hostage at the airport. "Until about two months ago, there were dozens of pictures of hostages there, and today a single...
(JNS) - The National Library of Israel is displaying a rare 14th-century manuscript of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah for the first time as part of its permanent exhibition. The illuminated volume, copied in Provence between 1300 and 1350 C.E., represents one of Judaism's most significant legal texts. Italian artist Matteo di Ser Cambio later enhanced the manuscript in Spain with vivid illustrations, gold ornamentation and decorative motifs featuring figures, animals and plants. The manuscript shows...
(JNS) — Israel placed third in The Economist’s ranking of the world’s strongest economies in 2025. The London-based magazine has conducted its search for the “economy of the year” for five years now. “Israel has continued its strong recovery from the chaos of 2023, and Ireland only just misses out on top spot,” The Economist reported. “Although Czech and South Korean firms have done well this year, nowhere has done better (in local-currency terms) than Israel. In the past year the share price of the country’s most valuable listed company, B...
(JNS) — The Israel’s Cabinet is set to approve next week a $31.8 million budget to strengthen the eastern Negev cities of Arad, Dimona, Yeruham and Mitzpe Ramon, the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry announced in a joint statement on Thursday. The decision is to be green-lit in a special session in Dimona on Dec. 14, as part of a national plan to encourage demographic growth and sustainable economic development in Israel’s south, the statement read. The budget planned for 2026 involves investment in infrastructure, personal security,...
(JNS) - An ancient archaeological site containing Hasmonean-era palace ruins will open to Israeli visitors this weekend, after vandals defaced the location and destroyed artifacts, local officials announced. Graffiti was sprayed on a 2,000-year-old ritual bath at the Hasmonean Palaces site, and looters crushed a skull believed to belong to a noble from the Hasmonean dynasty, according to the Binyamin Regional Council, which manages the area. The Hasmonean kings ruled Judea from roughly 140...
(JNS)— A gunman opened fire during a final exam review for the economics class of a Brown University professor, who also teaches Jewish studies courses, in Providence, R.I., on Saturday afternoon, killing two and wounding nine, according to law enforcement, officials and media reports. On Monday morning, law enforcement said a person of interest was in custody. Rachel Friedberg, teaching professor of economics and faculty associate of the Judaic studies program and of the population studies and training center at Brown, reportedly said that the...
(JNS) — The Redlands, Calif., Police Department, located some 60 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino Valley, said that it is investigating both what it called an incident targeting a Jewish family and a “potential hate crime.” A Jewish family in Redlands had just returned home on Friday evening when “a vehicle drove past the victims’ residence, yelled an antisemitic slur and fired several shots,” the department stated at about 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. The department said that there were no injuries nor damage, and officers di...
(JNS) — A small group of Israeli civilians entered the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday evening, calling on the government to establish a permanent Israeli presence there. The group, according to Channel 12 News numbering between seven and nine people, was “under constant monitoring” and was returned to Israeli territory shortly after crossing the border, according to the Israel Defense Forces. “The IDF emphasizes that any entrance to a combat zone is forbidden, endangers the civilians and disturbs IDF operations in the area. The civilia...
(JNS) - A traditional eight-branched candelabrum was installed at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday ahead of the Chanukah festival, which begins on the evening of Dec. 14, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said. The bronze menorah, or chanukiyah, which measures some 6.5 by 6.5 feet, will be lit every evening during the eight-day holiday, which runs until Dec. 22, the foundation said in a statement. This year, the Chanukah festivities at Judaism's second-holiest site will be...
