Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 35
(JNS) - Thousands of Jewish teens and adults from 46 countries gathered at a Rosen Shingle Creek hotel in Orlando, Fla., for BBYO's annual international convention. Held from Feb. 15-19, the convention, themed "Forever Young," celebrated BBYO's centennial anniversary. Founded as the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization, BBYO includes the leadership programs Aleph Zadik Aleph, a fraternity, and the B'nai B'rith Girls, a sorority. Throughout the five-day event in Orlando, young people mingled; heard...
We don't get to choose when or where we are born. And it isn't until we are much older that we can begin to make our own life choices. In fact, most of our childhoods are spent doing what we are told, trusting those who care for us. Such was Orange City resident Katherine MK Mitchell's life. She was born in Budapest during World War II, and named Katalin Landstein, Kati for short. She was raised along with her brother, Laci, by her mother and grandmother. Her father died in a labor camp and her...
(JNS) - For about a year, officials at the Florida Holocaust Museum in downtown St. Petersburg kept a closely guarded secret that the museum was seeking to become the permanent home of a treasure trove of documents from the late Elie Wiesel. On Feb. 3, at its annual "To Life" fundraising gala, the museum's biggest annual social event, museum board chair Mike Igel let the secret out, telling the audience the Wiesel Foundation had chosen the museum to house and exhibit a collection of Wiesel's...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - A rare and exciting archaeological find has been unearthed in Jerusalem, providing an extraordinary glimpse into the ancient past. During excavations carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in the Western Wall Plaza, a small-stamped clay seal was discovered dating back to the First Temple period around 2,700 years ago. The clay seal contains ancient Hebrew writing indicating it belonged to the "Governor of the City" of Jerusalem, the highest municipal position...
(ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla) - One of Israel's most distinguished statesmen, Ambassador Michael Oren, a diplomat who worked at the highest levels of the Israeli government, was the featured speaker at Jewish National Fund-USA's second annual Stand with Israel Legacy Luncheon in Altamonte Springs on Feb. 12, 2024. The "thank you" event for local partners (donors) who are members of the organization's Legacy Society was attended by over 100 philanthropists. The solidarity portions of the afternoon inc...
There are certain signals that might mean it is time to give up the car keys. Unfortunately, very few seniors pay attention to these signs: • You are nervous behind the wheel. • Your reactions are too slow due to your vision. • You have trouble reading street signs. • You’ve had a near mishap, because you didn’t see a pedestrian, an object or another vehicle. • You get lost easily. • Your hearing has decreased • Your legs no longer work perfectly We suggest you start talking about these issues with your elderly parents as early as possible...
Local screenwriter and novelist Katherine MK Mitchell, a former talent agent and story-analyst in the Hollywood film industry, will lead a workshop titled “Screenwriting 101,” at the Maitland Library auditorium on March 23 from 10:30 a.m. – noon. The class will include basic information on screenwriting vs. narrative and the comparisons of writing requirements between the forms; challenging writers’ block; anecdotes; adaptations; specialty writers, infomercials; and suggested educational reading materials. The Maitland Library is located...
(JTA) — Vice President Kamala Harris called for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza and placed most of the onus on Israel for a shortfall in humanitarian aid entering the enclave. The call for a cessation of fighting was not actually a change in the U.S. position on the war. In her speech, at a civil rights-focused event on Sunday in Birmingham, Alabama, Harris made clear that she was not referring to a permanent ceasefire, which progressive activists have advocated for months. Rather, she was voicing support for the current Israeli-backed propo...
(JTA) — Comedian Richard Lewis, who parlayed his neurotic Jewish personality and self-deprecating humor into a 50-year career as a standup and actor, died Wednesday. He was 76. Lewis had been in ill health for a number of years and last April announced that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease two years earlier. Although he considered himself retired as a standup, he appeared again as a regular in the current season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” playing a version of himself in the HBO show created by and starring his childhood friend...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday night hit back at U.S. President Joe Biden for claiming that the Jewish state’s “incredibly conservative government” risked losing it international support. “Since the start of the war, I have been leading a diplomatic campaign to block pressure designed to end the war prematurely and to secure strong support for Israel,” said Netanyahu in a video message. “We have had considerable success. Today, a Harvard-Harris poll was published which shows that 82 percent of the American publ...
By (JNS) — Iran-backed terror groups are plotting to turn the Islamic holy month of Ramadan into the “second phase of Oct. 7” and set the Middle East on fire, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant charged on Tuesday. “The main goal of Hamas is to take Ramadan, with an emphasis on the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, and turn it into the second phase of their plan that began on Oct. 7. This is the main goal of Hamas, and it is being amplified by Iran and Hezbollah,” Gallant said following a situational assessment at the Israel Defense Forces’ C...
(JNS) — Sigmund Freud always took a somewhat jaundiced view of the human psyche, but in the wake of the horrors of World War I, it turned even darker. Confronted with mankind’s capacity to destroy itself, Freud concluded that within every living thing, there is a drive towards senescence and homeostasis—a state in which things do not change. The ultimate form of such a state, of course, is death. Thus, Freud believed, all life contains within it the seed of its own destruction and dissolution—a death drive. But Freud understood that this was no...
(JNS) — With settlers in the headlines because of recent U.S. sanctions on four Israelis in Judea and Samaria who have been linked to violent attacks against Palestinians and talk about a unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, one would think it was enough unwelcome news for the week. But now along comes U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and his criticism of Israel’s announced plan to add 3,000 homes to settlements in Judea and Samaria. Saying that Israel’s expansion of settlements in the territories was “inconsistent with interna...
(Jewish Journal via JNS) — Israelis may have been shocked by the recent Israel Defense Forces military intelligence report that Hamas will survive the war in Gaza. Leaked to the press in an apparent attempt to shame Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other senior officials, the internal report belies their repeated pledges to destroy Hamas completely. “The bottom line,” said Israeli investigative reporter Ilana Dayan, an outspoken critic of the government, about the report’s findings, is that “Hamas will survive this campaign as a terror gr...
(FLAME via JNS) — The clamor for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war is reaching a crescendo—from world leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, and a recently failed U.N. Security Council resolution to ordinary people demonstrating around the globe. But a ceasefire now offers virtually no benefits and would have disastrous consequences—satisfying only the insidious goals of Hamas. A permanent ceasefire would not liberate Gaza, and it would not stop Hamas’s war against Israel—nor would it stop the deaths of innocent Palestinians. Above all...
(JNS)— At the moment, 26 out of the 27 E.U. member states support an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas without requiring Hamas to unconditionally release all its hostages and surrender. At the same time, Hamas is demanding that Israel release 5,000 terrorists in exchange for the remaining hostages and exit Gaza, which would leave Hamas with a significant terrorist force intact. The sheer arrogance of such demands appears irrational, given the crushing military defeat Hamas is suffering and its likely destruction once Israel fully ent...
(JNS) — It’s challenging to remember life in Israel before the Simchat Torah massacre of Oct. 7., but it’s possible. We can remember the horrid Yom Kippur, just 12 days before the massacre, that required police to control and then stop a prayer service. For over a year beforehand, Israelis were at each other’s throats over proposed judicial reforms. Lines were drawn between right and left, religious and secular, north and south, the center and the periphery. On Oct. 7, however, we realized that in a divided society everyone is distrac...
MORNING MINYANS 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 Jewish Academy of Orlando — Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Temple Israel — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-647-3...
(JNS) — The United States on Feb.21 called on the International Court of Justice not to issue an advisory opinion that Israel must immediately withdraw from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Instead, Richard Visek, acting legal adviser at the U.S. State Department, argued on day three of public hearings at The Hague on Israel’s “ongoing occupation” that the conflict with the Palestinians should be resolved within “the established framework,” citing United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338. He also emphasized Israel’s “v...
(JNS) - When a 27-year-old Israeli university student vacationing in Thailand on Oct. 7 was determined to fly home to join his military reserve unit, he was given an unusual seat on the sold-out and overbooked El Al flight to Tel Aviv: the plane's restroom. "I felt for the first time that it was a war for our existence, and that we need to be here to protect our country," Itay Kahana recounted in an interview with JNS on Sunday after completing nearly five months of reserve duty. "I had no...
(JNS) — Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday received an award from the Israel Heritage Foundation in appreciation of his efforts to forge normalization agreements between the Jewish state and four Arab nations under the guise of the Abraham Accords. The award, a menorah, was presented to the former president at Mar-a-Lago by IHF Executive Director Rabbi David Katz, Executive Vice President Joseph Frager, Executive President Stephen Soloway, Executive Chairman Sam Nahmias, Lewis Topper and Harley Lippman. “This menorah, which represents...
Sitting in my comfortable environment in the United States, sharing discussions and expressions of upsets over what was happening in Israel left me with a deep pit of helplessness that could not be abated by writing a donation check or attending speakers. Israelis needed to know my unapologetic support, needed to know that we're not looking the other way, needed to see that we're here on their soil, needed to feel our hugs, and know that they're not abandoned or alone. I'm a first generation...
(JNS) - "I can't allow myself to get caught in the emotional rollercoaster around hostage negotiations," said Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui, 35, was kidnapped by Hamas on Oct. 7. "It is hard if not impossible to survive that when your loved one is being held captive by a terror organization," he told JNS. On Oct. 7, some 200 terrorists stormed Kibbutz Nir-Oz, murdering 40 residents and abducting 80 more. "I have been worried for Sagui's life since then. Every day is another day that the...
(JNS) — The Biden administration is privately pressing several United Nations agencies to take over the responsibilities of the beleaguered UNRWA but is being rebuffed by U.N. chief António Guterres, according to a report by Devex. Anticipating that the U.S. Congress will pull funding for UNRWA, the Palestinian-only refugee and social services agency with extensive ties to Hamas, Washington has approached the heads of the World Food Programme, UNICEF and other U.N. relief agencies, requesting they begin assuming the work traditionally ca...
WASHINGTON, D.C. (JTA) — For months, President Joe Biden has asked for — and Congress has debated — sending wartime foreign aid to Israel as it battles Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The bill currently on the table, passed in a bipartisan vote by the Senate last week, would see some $14 billion go to Israel as part of a $95 billion foreign aid bill. Biden is now pushing the Republican-led House to take up the bill. The majority of the bill’s funds would aid Ukraine in its war against Russia, and a smaller portion is earmarked to help Taiwan deter C...
