Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(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) — Revital Gorodeski Baskin and her husband, Joseph Baskin, both doctors from Cleveland, landed in Israel on a Nefesh B’Nefesh group aliyah charter flight on Aug. 20. They are moving to Zichron Ya’akov, in the Haifa district in northern Israel, with three teenage children (their fourth is studying at a college in the United States) and their dog. “Making aliyah has been our lifelong dream, and the war [against Hamas in Gaza] was an encouraging factor as we want to contribute our expertise in this time of need,” Revital told JNS. “We’ve al...
The United States Postal Service announced a new series of stamps honoring Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Wiesel, who died in 2016 at the age of 87, is the 18th person to be honored in the USPS' Distinguished Americans stamp series. "The 18th stamp in the Distinguished Americans series honors humanitarian Elie Wiesel (1928-2016), a survivor of Nazi concentration camps whose dozens of works bore witness to the Holocaust and whose resilience and compassion continue...
(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...
By Gloria Green What kind of 13-year-old memorizes and chants in a foreign language, interprets ancient texts in front of a crowd, and stands poised on a bimah with confidence beyond their years? The answer: One whose brain has been trained — not just in faith, but in focus. In Jewish life, that training often begins long before the Bar or Bat Mitzvah. It’s not just preparation for a single moment; it’s mental infrastructure that lasts a lifetime. Memory, discipline, bilingual agility, moral reasoning, public speaking — this is cognitive cross-...
Color therapy can be beneficial for those with memory loss. Dementia specialists recommend using different colors to provide contrast in spaces and to help distinguish different objects. Read below for some helpful tips about implementing different colors in different situations: PINK can reduce combative behavior, according to some research studies. The “pink effect” may reduce feelings of aggression and anger. BLACK is recommended by some therapists for individuals with Alzheimer’s. If wandering is an issue, some therapists recommend placi...
(JNS) — White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Aug. 19 that the Trump administration was continuing to discuss a ceasefire proposal for Gaza, and confirmed that Hamas had accepted it. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Hamas accepted this proposal after the president of the United States posted a very strong statement about this conflict on Truth Social,” Leavitt said at a press briefing at the White House. The talks coincide with IDF preparations for the seizure of Gaza City, seemingly with the support of U.S. Presi...
The Reform movement’s Washington-based advocacy arm is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi not to seek the death penalty for the man accused of killing two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., in May. Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, called on Bondi to forgo the death penalty in the trial of Elias Rodriguez in a letter sent Wednesday. “Despite the pain of Sarah and Yaron’s murders and despite the hateful motivation behind their deaths, we believe that the death penalty is a stain...
(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...
President Donald Trump said Monday morning that the remaining hostages in Gaza will only be returned when Hamas is “confronted and destroyed.” “We will only see the return of the remaining hostages when Hamas is confronted and destroyed!!! The sooner this takes place, the better the chances of success will be,” wrote Trump in a post on Truth Social. Trump’s latest comments appeared to support a recent plan approved by Israel’s security cabinet to take over Gaza City, a move reportedly opposed by the IDF over concerns it could endanger the remai...
Israel has approved a long-delayed settlement project that would build 3,400 housing units for Jews in Judea and Samaria, in a move that both its backers and its many critics say would undercut Palestinian ambitions to control the region. The E1 project would expand Jewish settlements on a stretch of land east of Jerusalem, effectively bisecting Judea and Samaria and limiting Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem from growing, Proposed decades ago, but never finalized, the plan was abruptly moved forward this month by Israel’s far-right f...
(JNS) — It’s time to acknowledge that in its 77-year history, Israel has made some critically painful mistakes. After the 1973 Yom Kippur War, during which as many as 2,800 Israeli soldiers had lost their lives, the Agranat Commission was established to investigate Israeli intelligence failures. It was found that the military and intelligence community failed to establish the gravity of the Egyptian military build-up along the Chaim Bar Lev Line. They also felt that they failed to establish that Syria would enter the war, assuming it would onl...
(JNS) — I’ve never been much of a flirt with people, but ideas? I flirt shamelessly. I don’t fall head over heels, but I linger. I’ll bat my lashes at a seductive concept, maybe take it out for coffee, but I rarely commit. One of my life mottos (possibly from Stephen Colbert?) is “Don’t believe everything you think.” It has served me well, especially when it comes to the thoughts that won’t leave me alone. Take “child of a Holocaust survivor.” My father was born in Germany in 1928. His teacher was a Nazi. He witnessed Kristallnacht in No...
(JNS) — I recently had the chance to speak with Kobi Samerano, the father of 21-year-old Yonatan Samerano, who was kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, by an employee of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees and held in Gaza for 627 days. His body was found by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza and returned to Israel. Kobi Samerano permitted me to share his story with the world. His words are not mine to keep; they are for all Jews to hear. During our exchange, he told me something that will haunt me forever: “Burying my son was a rel...
(JNS) — How is a two-state solution to the conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians like a cure for cancer? Consider the following: • Rational people of goodwill wish that there truly were “Y” today. • Rational people of goodwill hope that someday in the future there truly will be “Y”. • Rational people of goodwill understand that, notwithstanding their wishes and hopes, “Y” is not a reality today. If you substitute “Y” for either “a two-state solution for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians” or “a cure for cancer,” you will ge...
(JNS) — Currently, there are a number of essential questions not being asked of nations that will recognize a planned Palestinian state. Journalists should pose these questions to the foreign ministers of France, the United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. • Will the planned Palestinian state abolish the Palestinian Charter, which mandates the destruction of Israel? • Will the planned Palestinian state revoke the law that guarantees salaries to anyone who murders a Jew? • Will the planned Palestinian state remove texts t...
(JNS) — Over the years, I must have read tens of thousands of pages devoted to the topic of antisemitism, and I’ve yet to find a better explanation for its persistence across the centuries than this one: “Everything seems impossible or terribly difficult without the providential appearance of antisemitism. It enables everything to be arranged, smoothed over and simplified. If one were not an antisemite through patriotism, one would become one through a simple sense of opportunity.” The author of those words was himself an antisemite — Charl...
Dear Editor: Congratulations for your front-page news of the Arab League condemnation of the Oct. 7 attack and call on Hamas to disarm (Aug. 8, 2025). That news escaped the attention of most public “news sources” which usually reflect only the “information” provided by Hamas’ propaganda machine. Unfortunately, the same issue described in detail how mostly female “rabbis” wrestled with the Israeli war response in Gaza as to its “morality” in their Friday night sermons (“As images from Gaza spread, US rabbis wrestle with war’s morality from...
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) — Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Monday evening issuing a presidential decree establishing a committee to draft an interim constitution, the Ramallah-run Wafa news agency reported. The move comes against the backdrop of France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia declaring their intentions to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations meeting next month. “President Abbas took this step in the context of preparations for holding general elections following the cessation of Israeli genocidal aggression on the...
In recognition of 20 years since the Gaza pullout, JNS is featuring a five-part series of articles reflecting Israel's disengagement, speaking with an array of former Gush Katif residents to find out how they perceive the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Trump plan for the Gaza Strip and the prospect of returning. Many former Gush Katif residents believe that the massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, would have neve...
(JNS) - Ilan Gordon seemed calm, cool and collected the day before he changed his life. Or, at least, his location. The 22-year-old, who graduated from the University of Pittsburgh this spring with a degree in exercise science, headed to Israel on the Nefesh B'Nefesh group aliyah charter flight that left New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on Tuesday, Aug. 19, afternoon, along with 225 other North Americans. He is scheduled to be in Tel Aviv until Sept. 4, when he will officially join the Garin...
I must admit that while reading the first several chapters of “Living Dangerously: My Struggle to Get Rich Without Losing My Soul”(Beverly House Press, June 2025) by Irwin Gabriel Katsof, I didn’t like it or the author at all. I was even sorry that I agreed to review it. But to say it got better is an understatement. In the end, I loved both the book and the author; there is so much to learn from it. So if, like me, you have no patience with people who only seem to care about status and mater...
(JNS) — The Pentagon is seeking more than $3.5 billion to restock weapons and cover related costs following U.S. military operations tied to Israel’s defense, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. According to budget documents prepared through mid-May, the requested funds would be used to replace munitions expended during recent operations—including at least $1 billion for Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptors produced by Arlington, Virginia-based RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies)—and to finance routine tasks such as radar mainten...
