Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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An Orthodox Jewish music festival will take place in Bethel, New York on Aug. 7 - at the very same location where the iconic Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August 1969. Called Yamim Ba'im, or "The Coming Days," the four-act, family-friendly outdoor concert will occur at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Thursday, August 7. The venue, whose Pavilion Amphitheater and lawn seats 16,000, will host some of the biggest names in Jewish music, with Orthodox Israeli superstar Ishay Ribo...
Philanthropist Andy Pargh, known to many as The Gadget Guru, has donated a $1 million gift to the Jack & Lee Rosen JCC's event center. Previously known as the Rosen Event Center, it is now the Pargh Event Center. "This gift is more than generous. It is deeply meaningful. It reflects Mr. Pargh's enduring commitment to Jewish values, his family's legacy of giving and his belief in the power of shared experiences to bring people together," Rosen JCC CEO Ofira Bondorowsky stated in a press release...
The University of Central Florida Hillel has welcomed Rabbi Jordan Gerson as its new executive director. He joined the staff in June, leaving his position as the Silk Foundation campus rabbi – chief experience officer of Hillel at Washington University in St. Louis, where he served approximately 1700 Jewish students for 11 years. Before arriving at UCF, Gerson was selected to the eighth cohort of the Debra S. and Joseph S. Weinberg Accelerate Executive Advancement Program, Hillel's premier e...
(JNS) - History was made overnight at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, as Israeli-American Michael Mizrachi, 44, clinched the world championship title and walked away with a $10 million prize. Mizrachi, a Florida native and son of an Israeli father, proudly displayed a tattoo of the Israeli flag on his arm. In a recent major tournament victory, he requested that Israel's national anthem be played instead of the U.S. anthem. This time, he competed wearing a tag around his neck symbolizing...
(JTA) — An amateur film critic named Evan gave the new “Superman” movie five out of five stars. Writing on the Letterboxd platform, they praised the film’s “unique visual identity” and called director and screenwriter James Gunn “the best comic director.” And they added, “Very anti-Israel which is awesome to see from a major studio blockbuster.” When Evan’s capsule review was shared by at least one user on X, it garnered more than 11 million views and 36,000 likes. Evan isn’t the only one to...
October 2024 The opening concert is set for late November. The days have turned into weeks, weeks into months. A year has passed since the October war started. Should we go? Is it necessary to leave the house at night? The Home Front Command is clear: “If driving on the street when the siren is heard, leave the car, lie in the street next to it. Wait 10 minutes for falling debris to clear.” When you’re well into your 80s, lying in the street next to your car is not an option. On a good day, I may be able to lie down. Getting up is anoth...
A uniquely American Passover tradition could become a thing of the past, after President Donald Trump announced that he had successfully pressed Coca-Cola to change the formulation of its signature drink in the United States. “I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform, on Wednesday. “I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just b...
(JNS) — Israel has called on the United Nations Security Council to act against the Damascus regime for its role in atrocities being committed against Druze civilians in Syria’s Suweida province. In a letter dated July 17, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed “deep concern” over reports of brutal violence targeting the Druze community in southern Syria. Sa’ar described acts of “killings and executions, defacement of bodies, public humiliation of captured civilians,” alongside widespread looting and desecration of religious sites....
(JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified Israel’s two-pronged strategic goal in Syria on Thursday — ensuring southern Syria is demilitarized and protecting the Druze of that region. Netanyahu defined southern Syria as an area running from the Golan Heights to Jabal al-Druze, a region encompassing nearly all of the as-Sweida Governorate, recently the site of massacres perpetrated by regime-linked Syrian forces against the Druze community. The Syrian regime violated both red lines, Netanyahu said. “It sent troops south of Damascu...
(JNS) — Two of the three Iranian nuclear facilities that the United States struck in June could potentially resume nuclear enrichment over the next several months, according to NBC News. NBC cited five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the most recent assessment — which has been briefed to some U.S. lawmakers, U.S. Defense Department officials and allied countries — who said that one of the sites was “mostly destroyed,” while the other two “were not as badly damaged.” According to NBC, discussions have been held within the U....
(JNS) — The New York Times should consider adopting the Jerusalem cross as its new logo to represent its crusade against Israel and the Jewish people. With a steady stream of slanted reporting and a roster of columnists united by their hostility to Israel (with the lone exception of columnist Bret Stephens), the Times has transformed itself from a paper of record into a platform for moral inversion. Here’s the journalistic trick for looking credible while advancing a political agenda: Choose sources that support your point of view. It is par...
If you’re not watching developments unfolding in Syria with the Druze and Israel’s response, you should. You should also ask why you’re not seeing reports of these. One reason you may not be hearing about this is because it’s a situation of Arabs massacring other Arabs (though albeit Arabic speakers or Moslems slaughtering other Moslems and other minorities, though Druze do not consider themselves Arab or Moslem), which is “normal” and widespread throughout history. You’re not hearing about this because the Jews and Israel not only not be b...
(JNS) — When we speak of Israel’s diverse society, the spotlight often falls on its Jewish majority. But among the most steadfast pillars of the Israeli mosaic is the Druze community — a tiny, secretive offshoot of Islam whose loyalty to the state has become a model of shared citizenship. Roughly 140,000 Druze live in Israel, primarily in villages across the Galilee and on Mount Carmel. Unlike other Arab citizens, Druze men are subject to mandatory military conscription in the Israel Defense Forces and often volunteer for combat roles. They...
By David E. Bernstein, David L. Bernstein (JNS) — The Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, horrified the Jewish world. For many American Jews, it felt personal. What followed on American college campuses further shocked American Jews. Rather than mourning or condemning Hamas’s atrocities, many individuals and student groups celebrated them, excused them or blamed Israel. Chants of “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” spread across universities. Students praised “martyrs” and justified violence. Some mocked or denie...
(JNS) — By any historical measure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump are reshaping the world. Their alliance has helped deter global catastrophe. The two leaders worked in close coordination to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reshape the Middle East. Their partnership began before the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Muslim-majority states. In June, that alliance deepened when Trump authorized a decisive U.S. strike on Iran’s underground nuclear facil...
(JNS) — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared on July 11, “Lebanon does not intend to pursue normalization with Israel,” though he left open the idea of “peace” as merely an absence of war. This ambiguous stance reflects Lebanon’s long-standing refusal to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate regional partner, despite shifting regional dynamics and significant recent Israeli military successes. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its relationship with Lebanon has been marred by conflict, including major wars in 1978, 1982 and 2006. While Israeli...
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...
While the majority of Americans oppose antisemitism, a quarter believe that the recent string of attacks on Jews in the United States were “understandable,” according to a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League on Friday. The report comes in the wake of three recent attacks on Jewish targets by people claiming to act on behalf of the Palestinians: the arson attack on Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s house in April, the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington D.C. in May and the firebombing attack on a gro...
JERUSALEM - When the Tel Aviv light rail opened in the summer of 2023, it shaved travel time from the city's southern neighborhoods to the haredi Orthodox city of Bnei Brak to just 20 minutes. For some, the new route increased access to a burgeoning Thursday-night tradition: sitting down for steaming bowls of cholent, the slow-cooked Ashkenazi Shabbat stew. "For me, having a bowl of cholent on Thursday night adds a little bit of Shabbat's holiness into the end of the week, and deepens my...
After his beloved and extremely Jewish sitcom "Curb Your Enthusiasm" ended after 12 seasons last year, many fans undoubtedly had the same thought: Would this be the last of Larry David on TV? The notorious curmudgeon's answer: Absolutely not. On Thursday, David announced that he will be partnering with Barack and Michelle Obama's production company to create a six-episode sketch comedy series about American history. The 78-year-old David will star in, co-write and executive produce the new...
The number of antisemitic assaults and acts of vandalism on college campuses fell sharply in the last school year, according to Hillel International. And the pro-Palestinian encampments that ignited fear among many Jewish college students in early 2024 effectively disappeared in the year since, with just nine encampments taking place in the last school year, the Jewish campus group said in its annual tally of antisemitic incidents, released Thursday, July 17. But Hillel International said antisemitic incidents were still on the rise on college...
Submitted by the family Master Chief Francis "Frank" Carroll United States Navy, retired, age 83, born on June 1, 1942, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, sadly left our lives the morning of July 3, 2025. Frank was the beloved husband of Shirley (Blumenthal) Carroll for over 48 years. Master Chief Francis Carroll proudly and honorably served with the United States Navy for 23 years. He sailed on eight ships as a boilerman technician and was a Naval Instructor during his military career. He often...
(JNS) - Redeemed Hamas hostage Liri Albag will return to her Israel Defense Forces service this week, in a "significant" capacity, her father said on Monday. Albag was abducted by Hamas from the military's Nahal Oz outpost during the terrorist group's Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attack, and was kept in captivity in Gaza for 477 days. She was released as part of a ceasefire deal in January. "She's not scared of anything," her father, Eli Albag, told Israel's Reshet Bet radio station, according to...
(JNS) — Four rare, 1,900-year-old rare bronze discs decorated with lion heads that were uncovered in southern Israel in the last decade offer evidence of Roman-period burial culture and belief in the afterlife, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday. The ornate discs, which were found in a grave during a 2018 excavation at Khirbat Ibreika in the Sharon region, were probably intended to be used to help carry a coffin, the state-run archaeological body said. “Tracing the lion as...
