Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday night struck regime sites in northern Iran for the first time since the start of "Operation Roaring Lion" against the Islamic Republic on Feb. 28, according to the Israeli military. Strikes were carried out by the Israeli Air Force, at the guidance of the Israeli Navy and IDF Military Intelligence Directorate, according to an initial statement, which did not include additional details. The IDF also struck over 200 regime targets in central and...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday wished the “brave people of Iran” a Happy Nowruz, the Persian new year, which falls on the March equinox, the first day of Spring. “To the brave people of Iran, I wish you, as I do every year, a happy holiday season, beginning with the Festival of Lights. It signifies the age old belief of the Iranian people that light will triumph over darkness, that good will triumph over evil,” Netanyahu said, referring to the Festival of Fire, which falls on the Wednesday before the Persian n...
(JNS) — A new report by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance found that Jewish undergraduate enrollment at Harvard University has dropped to about 7 percent in 2025, its lowest level since before World War II and the lowest among Ivy League schools with reliable data. Titled “Jewish Enrollment at Harvard and Its Peers, 1967–2025: A Narrowing Gate,” the analysis reviewed nearly six decades of figures from Hillel International, historical Harvard Crimson surveys and peer‑institution reporting. It found that the share of Jewish undergradua...
(JNS) — Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) said he plans to introduce legislation to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens who commit acts of terrorism. In response to recent attacks committed by naturalized citizens, including the March 12 truck-ramming at Temple Israel outside of Detroit, Moore stated that “this horrific pattern of naturalized citizens committing acts of terrorism against the American people must end.” “I will introduce a bill to denaturalize and deport any naturalized citizen who commits an act of terrorism, plots to commit...
(JNS) - Rachel Goldberg-Polin, the mother of a hostage murdered in Gaza, was selected to feature in USA Today's "2026 Women of the Year" list, in which she recounted how her personal grief is touching tens of thousands of strangers worldwide. "I'm trying very hard to own and greet the grief that I feel every single day, in a way of actually thinking of it as a privilege. I had this beautiful son. He was and he is a blessing," she wrote. Her son, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, was held hostage by...
Israir cancels regularly scheduled flights until Passover By Etgar Lefkovits Israeli airline Israir announced on Thursday that it is canceling its regular scheduled flights planned through the end of March due to airspace restrictions and limited operations amid the war with Iran. Israel’s second-largest carrier will continue outbound and inbound repatriation flights during this time, alongside the country’s other three airlines. “In line with the Transportation Ministry’s outline, which restricts the number of seats on each flight, Israir...
(JNS)- Ayman Mohamad Ghazali, 41, of Dearborn Heights, drove a truck into the largest Reform temple in North America and opened fire on security guards, injuring one, in West Bloomfield, Mich., a suburb some 25 miles northwest of Detroit. The terrorist is confirmed dead, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office said. "At some point during the gunfight, Ghazali suffers a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head," said Jennifer Runyan, FBI Detroit's special agent in charge. "He has no previous...
(JNS) — As U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets continue and air-raid sirens send Israelis rushing to shelters, thousands of international students are choosing to remain in Israel to continue their studies, volunteer and adjust to wartime realities. According to the Israel Educational Travel Alliance, an initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America, nearly 5,500 participants, including roughly 3,000 Americans, on Jewish educational programs under the umbrella of Masa Israel Journey remain in the country. Masa said in a March 8...
(JNS) — Israel’s flag carrier, El Al, announced Sunday that it will launch six non-stop flights to New York that started last Monday to help thousands of U.S. citizens who have been stranded in the country since the outbreak of the Iran war to return home. The flights, which are designated exclusively for American citizens as part of an agreement with the State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, will operate at full capacity and will not be subject to the current 100-passenger limit per outbound flight. It was not immediately cle...
Thanks to a two-year grant from the S'firot Foundation, Jewish Pavilion Senior Services will dramatically expand its delivery of joy and Jewish culture to more than 400 residents of 40 senior-living communities across Central Florida. The expanded program, A World of Jewish Joy will create a consistent, monthly rhythm of stimulating, culturally grounded experiences that meet the holistic needs of older adults. "The S'firot Foundation's goals perfectly align with our mission to improve the lives...
On the morning of March 11, 2026, Jewish Pavilion Senior Services hosted a delightful Sponsors Breakfast at Grand Living in Lake Mary. The gathering brought together sponsors, board members, and supporters who share a commitment to enhancing the lives of seniors served by the Jewish Pavilion. The breakfast provided a wonderful opportunity for guests to enjoy a delicious meal while connecting with other businesses and community leaders who support Jewish Pavilion Senior Services. The relaxed and...
(JNS) — The Los Angeles Police Department said after an attack on a Detroit-area synagogue on Thursday that it was calling for unity against all forms of hate. The department “will continue working with our local, state, national and international partners to monitor developments and ensure the safety of all Angelenos,” it said. “Together, we stand united against hate and violence in all its forms.” The department identified the target as a “Jewish institution,” saying it was “deeply saddened” and stands “in solidarity with the Jewish communit...
(JNS) — The only offer extended to Iran was “unconditional surrender,” Israeli Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said on Tuesday. Ohana was responding to a post in which Ghalibaf said that the Islamic Republic was no longer seeking to negotiate a truce with the United States and Israel. “Absolutely, we are not seeking a ceasefire; we believe we must strike the aggressor in the mouth so that it learns a lesson and never again even thinks of aggressing against our dear Iran...
(JNS) — The Samaria Regional Council on Wednesday morning erected the first residential structures on Mount Ebal, around 10 months after Israel’s Cabinet approved the establishment of a new community at the site. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, together with the Amana settlement movement, worked overnight to establish the village after receiving formal Interior Ministry approval last month, Dagan said. “This morning, we’re privileged to feel the wings of history beating,” he said. “To make history together here by establishin...
(JNS)— The Union for Reform Judaism, the congregational arm of the Reform Jewish movement in North America, stated on Thursday that it was “deeply saddened and alarmed” by the car-ramming and shooting attack at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, Mich., outside of Detroit. Security officers shot and killed the gunman, who injured the head of security at the temple, the Reform movement’s largest in the country. “Our hearts are with the injured, heroic security officer, the congregation, and especially the children and educators, whose day was p...
(JNS) — The United States and its allies will release hundreds of millions of barrels of oil from strategic reserves in a coordinated effort to bring down global energy prices, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced on March 11. “Earlier today, 32 member nations of the International Energy Agency unanimously agreed to President Trump’s request to lower energy prices with a coordinated release of 400 million barrels of oil and refined products from their respective reserves,” he said. As part of the plan, U.S. President Donald Trump a...
(JNS) — Scores of parliamentarians from around the world are calling for the toppling of the Iranian regime and rejecting any negotiations with it that would enable its survival. A public letter, initiated by an Israeli lawmaker in the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus, as the war approaches its third week, was signed by more than 50 parliamentarians from Europe, Latin America and Africa, including dozens who lead Israel Allies caucuses in their respective parliaments. Entitled “International Call For A Free Iran,” the March 10 letter calls f...
(JNS) — The majority of the targets struck so far in Iran during “Operation Roaring Lion” were developed after the June 2025 war with the Islamic Republic, which was dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” military sources revealed on Tuesday. Since the launch of the current operation on Saturday, the IDF has struck more than 600 targets in Iran. Overnight on Tuesday, the Israeli Air Force said it acted on precise intelligence to strike and dismantle facilities within the leadership compound of the Iranian terrorist regime in the heart of Tehran. Regar...
(JNS) - Iran on Wednesday threatened a "war of attrition" that would destroy the global economy as it targeted oil tankers and neighboring energy infrastructure. Rear Adm. Ali Fadavi, adviser to the IRGC commander-in-chief, a member of the military's "war command room" and former deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, told Iranian state television on Wednesday that the U.S. and Israel "must consider the possibility that they will be engaged in a long-term war of attrition...
(JNS) - Hamas wages war on Israel through a coordinated strategy of terrorism and propaganda. They fight illegally behind human shields to frustrate enemy targeting. And whenever a human shield gets killed, they blame Israel. The terror group's propagandists specialize in crafting statistics, anecdotes and images of wartime suffering among Palestinian Arab children to evoke sympathy while slandering Israel. To the extent that outside parties such as moviemakers recycle the child-focused...
(JNS) — In a glowing profile of a Palestinian American neurosurgeon building schools and offering hot meals to children in the Gaza Strip, The New York Times inadvertently exposed a far more consequential story than the one it intended to tell. Beneath the “feel good” narrative lies an uncomfortable truth: the curriculum used in Palestinian Authority schools is saturated with anti-Israel incitement, antisemitism and the glorification of violence—an educational framework that has served to indoctrinate generations of young Palestinians with th...
(JNS) — Hillel International broke ground at Cornell University on March 8 on a long-planned Jewish student center designed to strengthen campus Jewish life. The campus Hillel has operated since 1952 out of Annabel Taylor Hall, a university building shared with other faith communities. Rabbi Ari Weiss, executive director of the Grinspoon Hillel Center for Jewish Community at the private university in Ithaca, N.Y., told JNS that setting up at Harkavy Hall, a new building, has “been a dream of the Hillel and our community for at least 30 yea...
(JNS) — In a moment that could have ended in tragedy, two rabbis from Temple Israel said preparation and training helped ensure that “everything went right” during a March 12 attack on the Reform congregation in suburban Detroit. The car-ramming and shooting attack at the synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., triggered lockdown procedures, a massive law-enforcement response and panic among parents rushing to their children. Authorities say Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, rammed a vehicle into the building and opened fire...
(JNS) — Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor, declined to say if Iran is better off without the ayatollah when asked during a press conference on Tuesday. “I’ve said before that the Iranian government has engaged in systematic repression of its own people, even killing thousands of Iranians who were seeking to express the most basic forms of dissent earlier this year. It is a brutal government,” the mayor said, standing alongside New York Gov. Kathy Hochul. “I’ve also said that while I may be a young mayor, I am old enough to remember the de...
(JNS) — After a vehicle-ramming and shooting attack at a Michigan synagogue, Jewish advocacy groups are pressing Congress to resolve a funding impasse they say is delaying critical security support for vulnerable nonprofits. Authorities identified Mohamad Ghazali, 41, a U.S. citizen born in Lebanon, as the suspect accused of driving a truck into Temple Israel, a large Reform synagogue in West Bloomfield, Mich., before exchanging gunfire with armed security personnel. Ghazali was killed in the exchange, and the synagogue’s director of sec...
