Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 8 - 32 of 150
(JNS) — Israel’s Ministry of Religious Services is prepared to receive the remains of “between one and 28” slain hostages as part of the agreement with Hamas in Gaza, director-general Yehudah Avidan said on Sunday. Despite expectations, no one yet knows how many hostages’ bodies will be handed over by the terrorist group before the deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, Avidan told Kan Reshet Bet radio. A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross will carry out an initial identification process after receiving the bodies, according...
(JNS) — World leaders from across the globe on Thursday welcomed Israel and Hamas’s agreement to the first phase of Trump’s ceasefire deal, reflecting both intense global relief that the end to the two-year-old war may be in sight and respect for the American president. Among those praising the move were countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Canada and Australia, who defied the American administration by recognizing a Palestinian state just last month. United Kingdom “I welcome the news that a deal has been reached on the first stage o...
(JNS) - Michelle Rukovicin, the most severely wounded survivor of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacres, married her partner on Tuesday night in a ceremony celebrated as a symbol of resilience. The IDF intelligence systems technician, who was critically injured defending Kissufim base from Hamas terrorists and spent three months in a coma, wed her boyfriend of five years, Rinat Kasimov, the partner who remained at her side throughout her grueling recovery. She was struck by seven bullets, wounde...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a peace plan for Gaza and the Middle East to leaders of several Muslim-majority countries during a meeting at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday. “We had a very productive session. We presented what we call the Trump 21-point plan for peace in the Mideast and Gaza. I think it addresses Israeli concerns and, as well, the concerns of all the neighbors in the region,” Reuters quoted U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff as saying at the 15th annual Concordia globa...
(JNS) — The U.S. Justice Department announced on Monday that it filed a civil complaint against those who “engaged in a coordinated effort to intimidate and disrupt Jewish worshipers” on Nov. 13, 2024. The department filed the suit under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act, which former President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1994 to protect those seeking abortions and attending religious services and abortion clinics and houses of worship. The federal complaint alleges that the defendants—including Party for Sociali...
(JNS)— More than one million scans of the QR code worn by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during his speech at the U.N. General Assembly annual general debate in New York have been recorded in the last 24 hours—with about 30 percent of them from Iran and Gaza, the prime minister’s spokesperson said on Saturday. The QR code leads to a website documenting the Hamas-led atrocities of Oct. 7, 2023, in Israel’s northwestern Negev. In addition, the Prime Minister’s Office released Netanyahu’s U.N. address with Arabic overdubbing...
(JNS) — Israeli Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana on Sunday expressed his gratitude to New York Mayor Eric Adams, after the latter announced he was bowing out of the city’s mayoral race. “Eric Adams chose NYC over his ego, trying to save it from the crazy communist,” Ohana said on X, referring to front runner and anti-Zionist Zohran Mamdani. Adams was polling fourth after Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa, according to the New York Post. Thus his exit from the race improves the chances of Cuomo and Sliwa, conside...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that he was working with U.S. officials on a 21-point Gaza peace plan put forth by Washington and hopes to finalize it in coordination with U.S. President Donald Trump. In an interview on Fox News ahead of his White House meeting on Monday, Netanyahu said the proposal is not yet complete, expressing “hope we can make it a go, because we want to free the hostages, we want to get rid of Hamas rule and have them disarmed, Gaza demilitarized and a new future set up for Gazans and Isr...
(JNS) - The first trailer for "Red Alert," a four-part series depicting the harrowing events during the Hamas-led invasion and massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, was released on Thursday. The mini-series, in Hebrew Or Rishon ("First Light"), will premiere globally on Oct. 7, 2025, on the second anniversary of the atrocities that led to Israel's almost two-year war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It will air in the United States on Paramount+ and in Israel on Channel 12. Another...
(JNS) - Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 15 reopened the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem, a first-century route linking the City of David to the Temple Mount. The Pilgrimage Road, a broad stone route used during the Second Temple period, connected the Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims purified themselves in ritual baths, to Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. Jerusalem "is forever our city," Netanyahu declared at the ceremony in the City of Da...
(JNS)— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday invoked the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States as he defended Israel’s strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. “We remember September 11. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery on American soil since the founding of the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We also have a September 11. We remember October 7. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the...
(JNS) - The Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters on Wednesday highlighted three birthdays of Israelis still being held captive in Gaza after being abducted during the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Twin brothers Gali and Ziv Berman, kidnapped from Kibbutz Kfar Aza, marked their 28th birthday. Their family lamented a "second birthday in hell" in a message shared by the Forum. "Our beloved Gali and Ziv, how we feared this day would come-a second birthday in...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed to Jerusalem what his office described as the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit the Jewish state. “We value and cherish your support,” Netanyahu told the delegation of some 250 U.S. state legislators gathered at the Foreign Ministry, noting that there was an “active effort” ongoing to erode the ties between the two countries. These efforts are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheadi...
(JNS) — Ahead of the High Holidays, which start with the Jewish New Year at sundown on Sept. 22, Israel’s National Security Council issued a travel warning to the public on Sunday about possible threats so that it could take preventive measures. The warning, issued through the Prime Minister’s Office, was not a new travel alert but an up-to-date review of the main trends in terrorist activity around the world, the NSC said. “The recent period has been characterized by continued efforts to carry out terrorist attacks against Israeli and Jewish...
(JNS) — Elizabeth Tsurkov landed in Israel Wednesday, a day after the Israeli-born graduate student was released from two years of captivity in Iraq. “The head of the Mossad thanks his Cypriot counterpart for the assistance in facilitating Elizabeth’s humanitarian transfer through Cyprus to Israel. The cooperation between the two countries once again proves itself,” read a joint statement from the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Tsurkov, 38, an Isra...
(JNS) — After last year’s public service was canceled over fear of altercations, gender-separated Yom Kippur prayers will be held in a Tel Aviv public space in October. The Tel Aviv Municipality on Thursday issued the Rosh Yehudi NGO a permit to hold prayers in Meir Park, located in the center of the metropolis, Ynet reported on Thursday. Rosh Yehudi (“Jewish Head” in Hebrew) tries to spread Orthodox Judaism in Tel Aviv, an attempt that has been met in the past with antagonism in the predominantly secular city. Prayers in Meir Park will be...
(JNS) — The Trump administration has issued broad additional restrictions on visa applications by holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents, The New York Times reported on Sunday, citing four American officials. The measures, said to have been announced in an Aug. 18 cable sent to all U.S. diplomatic missions, would prevent Palestinians from Samaria and Judea from entering America, including for medical treatment, university studies, visits to friends or relatives and business travel. The new policy reportedly goes beyond the s...
(JNS) - The Palestinian Authority on Monday condemned attempts by Jewish activist groups to sound the shofar on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, calling the ram's horn a "dangerous tool" used by Israel to assert sovereignty. The P.A.'s Jerusalem Governorate warned in a statement that the Jewish tradition of sounding the shofar throughout the Hebrew month of Elul is "no longer a passing religious ritual but has become one of the most dangerous tools of the occupation to impose its alleged sovereignty."...
(JNS) - The largest dam in ancient Israel, uncovered just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem, has been dated back to the time of the biblical kings, some 2,800 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The monumental dam, which runs about 12 meters high, more than 8 meters wide and 21 meters long, was excavated over the last two years in the history-rich ancient City of David. A new study carried out jointly with the Weizmann Institute of Science concludes that the...
(JNS) — Robin Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot after killing two children at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn., wrote of murdering “filthy Zionist Jews,” that “six million wasn’t enough” and “free Palestine,” the New York Post reported on Wednesday. The Post said that it translated writings in the Cyrillic alphabet by the shooter, 32, who was transgender. “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews [sic],” the shooter reportedly wrote in a journal that the...
(JNS) — Former Hamas hostage Keith Siegel told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama on Wednesday that his faith was strengthened during the almost 500 days he spent in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. “As a boy, Judaism did not speak to me, but in captivity, I reconnected,” Siegel said in the interview, two days after he joined a special prayer service at the Western Wall late on Monday night for the release of the remaining 50 hostages still in Gaza after 690 days. “Every day, I said ‘Shema Yisrael’ and I recited a blessing over the food. S...
(JNS) — A German government spokesperson declared on Friday that Berlin has no immediate plans to recognize a Palestinian state, calling such a move at this stage “counterproductive” to the pursuit of a negotiated two-state solution with Israel. “A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today,” the spokesperson told a press briefing. “Recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process. Right now, it would undermine efforts toward peace.” Berlin’s statement stands in sharp...
(JNS) — Israel is set to carry out the world’s first ever implant of a lab-grown spinal cord using a patient’s own cells, in a medical breakthrough offering a potential cure for paralysis, Tel Aviv University announced on Wednesday. The groundbreaking surgery, which is expected to be carried out in the coming months, marks a milestone in regenerative science, with the goal of enabling the patient to walk again within a year. The university said that the Israeli Ministry of Health has given...
(JNS) - A gold coin dating back about 2,200 years has been uncovered just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem, shedding new light on the development of the city after the destruction of the first ancient Jewish Temple, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The small denomination quarter-drachma, made of pure gold (99.3 percent), and dated to 246–241 BCE, was minted for Queen Berenice II during the reign of her husband, Ptolemy III, the state-run archaeological body s...
(JNS) — A German government spokesperson declared on Friday that Berlin has no immediate plans to recognize a Palestinian state, calling such a move at this stage “counterproductive” to the pursuit of a negotiated two-state solution with Israel. “A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today,” the spokesperson told a press briefing. “Recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process. Right now, it would undermine efforts toward peace.” Berlin’s statement stands in sharp...
