Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The University of Central Florida’s campus came alive this week as UCF Hillel hosted its 5th annual Israel Block Party — an event that turned Memory Mall into a vibrant celebration of Israeli culture and spirit. More than 700 students gathered for the festivities, marking the largest Block Party to date and the biggest event in UCF Hillel’s history. From sizzling falafel stands to a lively shuk-style marketplace and even a guest appearance by a live camel, the celebration offered students a tas...
The Rosen JCC is proud to announce the appointment of Stacey Weiss as its new Director of Development & Foundation Relations. In this role, Weiss will lead philanthropic strategy and donor engagement efforts in support of the JCC's mission to strengthen community through culture, connection, and shared purpose. Weiss brings more than a decade of experience in fundraising, community engagement, and mission-driven leadership. Known for her relationship-centered approach and strategic mindset, she...
(JNS) - Nine people were killed and over two dozen wounded by an Iranian missile impact in Beit Shemesh on Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service. According to Channel 12 News, a direct hit on a residential building caused the structure to collapse. Israel Police Jerusalem District Cmdr. Avshalom Peled told local media that the casualties were believed to have been inside a shelter when it took a direct hit from a ballistic missile. "We know from past incidents...
As we grow older, changes in vision are common – but significant vision loss is not an inevitable part of aging. The Orlando Senior Help Desk at Jewish Pavilion Senior Services wants seniors and their families to understand that many serious eye conditions can be detected early and treated effectively. Older adults are at increased risk for several major eye diseases that can lead to low vision and reduced quality of life. These include age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. Age-Related Macular D...
(JNS) — Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, met with U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in November in what he called a “productive” meeting and the president said was a “very productive” conversation. The mayor said he had another “productive” meeting with Trump on Feb. 26. “I had a productive meeting with President Trump this afternoon. I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” he wrote. He shared a photo of himself standing behind a seated Trump in the Oval Office, holding a mock newspaper with the...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has done much to stabilize the Middle East and support Israel, but as during the Iran-Israel 12-day war in June 2025, it is imperative that Israel should once again do this operation as much alone as it can. Not only should it initiate and go first, but it must also remain the heavy-lifter and guide this through. In retrospect, one can argue that it would have been better last summer to avoid having “Operation Rising Lion” become “Operation Midnight Hammer,” although managing American pressure to intervene...
(JNS) — Harvard, Penn and other “elite” universities were Patient Zero for the recent resurgent contagion of Jew-hatred. What should be done on other campuses where such pathogens have yet to spread? We are higher-education leaders in Texas who have lessons to share in this context. We served together as regents of Texas Southern University, a Historically Black College and University in Houston’s historic Third Ward. Our student-focused approach centers on economic mobility, international experience and interfaith outreach. Our experie...
(JNS) — Hats off to Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel! With elegant professionalism, he tolerated a two-hour-plus hostile interview by conservative political commentator and podcaster Tucker Carlson. Simply, the former governor of Arkansas endured a torturous assault of loaded questions bordering on “blood libel.” Carlson’s inquiries were framed as variants of the infamous, “Do you still beat your wife?” They were complex questions based on false, malevolent assumptions. It was a “gotcha” for the unsophisticated recipient—a dis...
Just a few months after I was born in Iran, the Islamic (Demonic) Revolution took place, hijacking the country of my birth and, today 90 million Iranians, giving birth to the Islamic Republic. Make no mistake, the Islamic Republic was conceived by evil, born in sin, and against the United States to the core of its DNA. Anyone who thinks that a war against the Islamic Republic and the ayatollahs is wrong, does not know the history and does not understand the dangerous threats that it poses to all Americans. At its inception, the Islamic...
(JNS) — Zionophobia is a term people should get used to using. It deserves to be amplified far and wide. According to Wiktionary, “Zionophobia means hostility toward Zionism or people who identify as Zionists, often extending into prejudice against Jews when Zionism is treated as an inherent Jewish trait.” Judea Pearl, a computer scientist (and father of Daniel Pearl, employed by The Wall Street Journal, who was murdered by Al-Qaeda in 2002), has been trying to spread the word about this language change—and it is indeed worth spreadi...
(JNS) — On July 20, 2023, Zohran Mamdani, then a state assemblyman, led supporters at a rally promoting his “Not on Our Dime” campaign, repeatedly invoking a single word, “exception,” asking, “Who is ready to end the exception? … If New York State stands for justice, there can be no exception!” He framed his argument as a moral absolute—fairness without carve-outs, public policy without favored beneficiaries. Absolutist rhetoric invites scrutiny. When a politician insists there can be “no exception,” voters are entitled to examine whether th...
(JNS) — The U.S. embassy in Israel on Friday opened consular services for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria for the first time. The one-day consular pop-up operation took place in Efrat, in the Gush Etzion region of Judea. An additional one is expected to open soon in Beitar Illit, in the Binyamin region of Samaria, according to the Yesha Council, an umbrella organization of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria. Israel Ganz, head of the Binyamin Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, described the move as “historic jus...
(JNS) — The Supreme Planning Council of the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration on Thursday approved the construction of more than 1,300 housing units in the western Samaria community of Kedumim. The 1,338 homes in the planned Nahalat Esther neighborhood will more than double the size of Kedumim, which currently has some 4,850 residents living in around 1,050 households, Israel National News reported. The roughly 60-acre neighborhood will feature a green valley at its center. In total, the Kedumim Local Council is planning 3,000 hom...
(JNS) — British actor Hugh Laurie on Friday distanced himself from Zionism after receiving negative reactions online for eulogizing an Israeli friend who died at the age of 52. “Nothing I have ever said or done could lead a sane person to believe that I am a Zionist,” Laurie, 66, the star of Fox Network’s “House M.D.” medical drama, wrote on X in response to criticism of his Feb. 17 eulogy of producer Dana Eden. He added he’d block on X anyone who “exults” in the death of his “friend.” A creator of the “Tehran” series by Israel’s Kan broadcast...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces killed several terrorists in separate incidents in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the military said. In the south, Israeli troops identified several armed terrorists who emerged from the underground terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement on Friday. Shortly thereafter, “the troops alongside the Israeli Air Force struck and eliminated some of the terrorists in order to remove the threat,” the IDF said. I...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces military campaign, "Operation Roaring Lion," against the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue "until we achieve all our objectives," IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters on Saturday night. "We went to war-to this operation-to remove a real, existential threat to the State of Israel," he stated at the press briefing, adding: "It will take as long as it takes; it will continue until we achieve all our objectives." Asked by local media how...
(JNS) — Israeli Air Force jets have flown hundreds of sorties since achieving air superiority over Tehran, the Israel Defense Forces said on Monday morning. “The air force continues to strike across Iran and neutralize [missile] launchers,” the Israel Defense Forces stated on X, sharing footage of fighter jets returning after attacking targets in the Islamic Republic. On Sunday night, the IDF announced that it carried out more than 700 sorties after the IAF “cleared the way to Tehran” within 24 hours of the start of “Operation Roaring Lio...
(JNS) - For nearly 2,200 years, it lay hidden in a cave above the Dead Sea. Now, for the first time since 1968, the Great Isaiah Scroll has been unrolled to its full 24-foot length and placed on public display at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, a rare exhibition museum officials are calling a once-in-a-generation opportunity. "A Voice from the Desert: The Great Isaiah Scroll" is a highlight of exhibitions marking the museum's 60th anniversary. The manuscript will be presented in its entirety...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of Altamonte Springs — Sunday morning minyan, 8 a.m. Weekday morning minyan 6:30 a.m., 407-720-8111. Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at...
(JNS) — A new webinar program, “Beyond the Headlines: Judea and Samaria,” designed to chip away at disinformation spread by anti-Israel academics and opinion-makers, launched the first installment in a 10-part series on Feb. 22. “Our central challenge in the battle for international public opinion is the absolute lack of knowledge regarding the facts on the ground,” said Yigal Dilmoni, CEO and founder of American Friends of Judea and Samaria, which co-founded the project with Ariel University. “We want to reach out to students and people who...
(JNS) - When Ellen Dooley, a teacher at Milken Community School in Los Angeles, went to a school assembly on Tuesday morning, she had no idea that she was going to be named a national Milken Educator Award recipient, which comes with a $25,000 cash prize. The entire school gathered to hear from Stan Kasten, president and CEO of the Los Angeles Dodgers. After Kasten spoke, Lowell Milken, co-founder and chairman of the Milken Family Foundation, announced that Dooley, a social-science...
(JNS) — Azzam al-Ahmad, the secretary-general of Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization, on Monday declared that the PLO opposes the disarmament of Hamas, which he said was “not a terror organization.” In an interview with Egypt’s Al Shorouk newspaper, al-Ahmad slammed U.S. demands that the terrorist organization that led the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre disarm and cede its power in Gaza. “They don’t want Hamas to have any role in the Strip,” explained the veteran official in Abbas’s Fatah Party, adding: “We completely reject this, becaus...
(JNS) - The 4,500 Jewish teenagers from all over the world-from Australia to Slovakia to Singapore to Brazil to France to Los Angeles-who had come to Brooklyn, N.Y., for a weekend of inspiration and learning through the Chabad movement, intended to return home on Sunday. A blizzard that paralyzed the city, shutting airports and leading officials to ban cars from the streets, had other ideas. Instead, teens who had never seen snow before had friendly snowball fights outside 770 Eastern Parkway,...
(JNS) - Gumbo and Bandit, the dogs of U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee and his wife, dressed up ahead of the Jewish holiday of Purim, which was last week. In a video published on the U.S. ambassador's social media accounts on Thursday, Mike and Janet Huckabee dressed Gumbo and Bandit in the Israeli and American flag, respectively, as well as blue and red hats. "Two thousand three hundred years ago, God orchestrated through Queen Esther and Mordechai the salvation of the Jewish people and victory...
