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...
(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) — 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...
(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) — 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) — 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, the headquarters of the international movem...
(JNS) — The joint Israeli-American military campaign against Iran, now in its third day, has systematically decapitated the Iranian regime’s leadership from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei down, while causing extensive damage to its ballistic missile program. A military official speaking on Sunday provided a detailed assessment of the severe damage inflicted upon the Iranian weapons industry and missile program during the ongoing operation. According to the official, hundreds of Iranian terror regime missiles were successfully destroyed, and the...
Germany’s largest political party moves to end funding for UNRWA, tighten oversight of PA aid (JNS) — The largest political party in the German federal legislature is calling for an end to financial support of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the global body’s Palestinian aid organization, according to Jüdische Allgemeine, the country’s national Jewish weekly newspaper. The Christian Democratic Union, led by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, unanimously approved a motion on Feb. 21 calling for stricter criteria for aid payments to the Pale...
(JNS) — Controversial conservative commentator and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson made several false statements during his Feb. 18 interview with U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee. Carlson claimed for example that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s family did not speak Hebrew and had no historical ties to the region. This is incorrect: the leader’s paternal grandfather, Nathan Mileikowsky, was a Zionist rabbi who delivered sermons in Hebrew—uncommon at the time—and ensured that his family spoke the language at home. His...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joined senior Israeli lawmakers at the Knesset on Tuesday, declaring that Israel is the United States’ “true and unparalleled partner” amid regional instability and rising global antisemitism. The session of the Knesset Caucus for Israel–U.S. Relations, initiated by the Ruderman Family Foundation and chaired by Knesset Member Ohad Tal, marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States. It brought together Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and coalition and opposition lawmakers in a rare...
(JNS) — Emergency medical services responded to a direct Iranian missile impact in Beersheva on Monday, as the Jewish state absorbed a third day of strikes in Tehran’s war against Israel and the United States. Magen David Adom crews treated and evacuated a 35 year old man to the city’s Soroka Medical Center who was moderately wounded and 18 others who were lightly hurt, all by flying glass. United Hatzalah said its medical teams were treating several lightly injured, conscious victims after a building was hit in the capital of the Negev. Iran...
(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...
Whale shark spotted off Eilat coast By JNS Staff (JNS) — A whale shark about 5-meters (16-feet) long was spotted on Sunday morning in Eilat Bay. The rare sighting was documented by city lifeguard Brian Lieberman, who captured the animal on video near the shore, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan reported. Whale sharks are the largest known living fish species and by far the most massive non-cetacean animal extant. They are considered harmless to humans. The shark briefly approached the shore before returning to deeper water. Former Hamas hos...
(JNS) — More than 350 current and former University of California scholars signed a letter calling on the system’s regents to discuss a recent AMCHA Initiative report about antisemitism at their next meeting. Judea Pearl, a University of California, Los Angeles computer science professor and father of Jewish Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002, organized the letter with Ilan Benjamin, a distinguished professor emeritus of chemistry at UC Santa Cruz. At press time, 279 current and 89 for...
(JNS) — Nearly 15 hours after Jessica Tisch, the New York City Police Department commissioner, decried attacks on police officers in Washington Square Park, Mayor Zohran Mamdani said that it was just "kids throwing snowballs." "The NYPD is aware of certain videos taken earlier today in Washington Square Park showing individuals attacking cops. I want to be very clear: The behavior depicted is disgraceful, and it is criminal," Tisch stated at 9:55 p.m. on Monday. "Our detectives are investigating this matter." At 11:46 a.m. on Tuesday, M...
Ice hockey Team USA won the gold medal in a 2-1 overtime victory against Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics over the weekend. The winning goal, scored in overtime, was made by Orlando-born, Jewish-American Jack Hughes, who plays center for the New Jersey Devils. This was the first Olympic gold for men's hockey since 1980. Making the winning goal made up for a tooth he lost in the third period when Florida Panthers and Team Canada forward Sam Bennett high-sticked him in the face, also...
