Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israel, Lebanon and the United States signed a framework agreement and security annex on Friday aimed at removing the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group from southern Lebanon and laying the groundwork for broader political cooperation between the neighboring countries. "It's the beginning of the beginning. There's a lot of work ahead," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said after the signing ceremony. In a later statement, he called it "a bold decision" of Israel and Lebanon to...
(JNS) - Mosab Hassan Yousef, a former Hamas member known as "the Green Prince" leveled on Tuesday scathing criticism at President Donald Trump's decision to pause the joint Israel-U.S. operation against Iran. "We could have finished the job. You stopped. You don't know what the hell you are doing. Total arrogance. Then when you came to the picture, you dragged us into this rabbit hole. And now you're throwing us under the bus," Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, said during a...
(JNS) — Iran has no plans to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit nuclear sites targeted during the recent war, a spokesman for its foreign ministry said on Tuesday, a day after U.S. Vice President JD Vance said Tehran had agreed to do so. “We neither had a meeting with the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, nor do we have any plans for the agency to inspect Iran’s nuclear facilities that were damaged as a result of the military aggression by the United States and the Zionist regime,” spokesp...
(JNS) — More than 700 rabbis from across the United States have signed an open letter urging New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to apologize for referring to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee as “monsters,” arguing that the rhetoric endangers American Jews. The appeal came as a new poll found that most Jewish New Yorkers believe the normalization of anti-Zionism is fueling antisemitism in the city. Among the signatories are 176 rabbis from New York, 96 from New Jersey, 76 from California and 53 from Florida, along with hundr...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there is “no room for two states” between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, arguing the war created broad public consensus against creating a Palestinian state. “Before the war, the public was divided: although in my opinion most of the public was against it, a significant portion was in favor. I think that has changed,” Netanyahu told reporters, answering a question at a press conference in Jerusalem on Saturday night. “That is a basis for agreement,...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on June 17 marked the death of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the former leader of the Lubavitch Hasidic dynasty, who died in 1994 at the age of 92. “On the [Hebrew date of] 3rd of Tammuz, I miss the Rebbe of Lubavitch—a towering spiritual leader who saw in every Jew a mission, faith, and infinite strength,” Netanyahu tweeted. “The light in his eyes, his love for the people of Israel, and his call never to despair continue to illuminate our path to this day. I will always remember my moments w...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday sharply rebuked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after he accused “Zionism” of threatening Turkey’s survival, calling the Turkish leader a “dictator” who persecutes opponents and backs jihadist groups. In a post on X, the ministry said that Erdoğan, who “persecutes political opponents, imprisons journalists, massacres Kurds, occupies the territory of Cyprus and backs jihadist groups is now attacking the Middle East’s only democracy,” adding that Israel had “extended its hand in peace to Le...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of Altamonte Springs — Sunday morning minyan, 8 a.m. Weekday morning minyan 6:30 a.m., 407-720-8111. 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...
(JNS) — Twin earthquakes in Venezuela on Wednesday killed at least 32 people and injured more than 700, prompting a nationwide state of emergency. Acting President Delcy Rodríguez said the back-to-back 7.2 and 7.5 magnitude quakes struck shortly after 6 p.m. on Wednesday, June 24, collapsing buildings and damaging communities across several states. She warned that the death toll is expected to rise as rescuers comb rubble in the hardest-hit coastal state of La Guaira, north of Caracas. Authorities reported extensive damage in the capital, wh...
(JNS) - With antisemitism rising around the world, Israel's Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli called for arming Jewish community guards with firearms during a discussion at the 2026 JNS International Policy Summit in Jerusalem on Tuesday. The minister stressed the importance of allowing the security forces of Jewish communities in the Diaspora to carry real weapons. "What is the meaning of armed security if they can't prevent horrific incidents?" Chikli...
(JNS) — Five Jewish American soldiers killed in World War I received new headstones bearing Stars of David at France’s Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery on June 2, replacing Latin crosses that had marked their graves for more than a century. The American Battle Monuments Commission made the changes in coordination with Operation Benjamin, a nonprofit that works to identify Jewish U.S. service members buried under incorrect religious markers. The marker replacements of the soldiers—Pvt. Samue...
(JNS) — The nation of France honored historian Marc Bloch on Tuesday with interment in the Panthéon in Paris in a ceremony led by French President Emmanuel Macron. A French Jewish academic, who helped found the Annales school of historiography, Bloch is perhaps best remembered today for his wartime heroism as a member of the French Resistance whom the Nazis captured, tortured and executed in 1944. Caskets for Bloch and his wife containing the historian’s medals and photographs of the couple were buried with military honors in the presence of h...
(JNS) — Some 500 people gathered on Sunday at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan for lessons, lectures, social play and vendors at the New York Jewish Mah Jongg Festival. “I think people really just want to connect,” mahjong historian Gregg Swain told JNS at the event, which also takes place on Monday. “Nowadays, it’s just so easy to spend time doing something mindless on the computer. Mahjong really allows people to connect in different ways.” Swain told JNS that the game, which...
Senate passes Iran war powers resolution By Andrew Bernard (JNS) — The Senate voted on Tuesday to pass a war powers resolution directing U.S. President Donald Trump to remove American military forces from the conflict with Iran. Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) voted with every Democrat except Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) to approve the rare rebuke of a president’s warmaking authority 50-48. The concurrent resolution, which originated in the House and passed 215-208 earlier in J...
(JNS) - It is a tragedy in its own right that Ilana Gritzewsky, a liberated Israeli hostage whom Hamas abused sexually, had to confront the United Nations expert on violence against women, according to Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. "It's absolutely horrible that this should have to be the case," Neuer told JNS on Wednesday, the day after Gritzewsky appeared before the U.N. Human Rights Council to address Reem Alsalem, special rapporteur on violence against women and girls. "It's...
(JNS) - More than 50 student leaders from over 30 universities across the United States and Canada have spent some of the summer in Judea and Samaria, visiting some of the most significant sites in Jewish history as part of the Hasbara Fellowships Student Leadership Mission to Israel. Organized by Hasbara Fellowships in partnership with IsraelAmbassadors.com, the program takes participants beyond the country's major urban centers and into the biblical heartland, where they explore locations central to Jewish history, faith and identity. The...
(JNS) - U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee urged Americans to recognize Israel's biblical heritage as a foundation of the United States, speaking at the opening of an international archaeology conference at the Herodium site in Judea and Samaria. He said it is his job "to represent the importance of Israel to the United States," adding that "without Israel, without the Jewish foundation, there would not be an America. We owe our very existence to what happened in this land." The remarks wer...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic of Iran must rein in its terrorist proxies in Lebanon, U.S. President Donald Trump insisted on Sunday, without naming Hezbollah. “Iran must immediately stop their highly paid PROXIES in Lebanon from causing trouble. If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah terrorist organization is a “malignant cancer,” U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said earlier on Sunday, notin...
(JNS) — Jeb Bush, chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran, and the group’s CEO Mark D. Wallace stated on Thursday that the organization cannot endorse the U.S.-Iran Memorandum of Understanding “in its current form.” In a statement released after the Wednesday night signing of the agreement at the Palace of Versailles in France, Bush and Wallace praised U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, noting that the Islamic Republic is “no longer on the cusp of a nuclear weapon.” “The American and Israeli militaries have neutralized the Irani...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic won the “2026 Iran War,” according to the Wikipedia page for the conflict. But when the crowd-sourced encyclopedia, which has a documented history of anti-Israel and antisemitic entries, cites news reports in a footnote ostensibly to support the claim that Iran won, it draws reader attention to sources that state that Iran wasn’t decimated or emerged in a better position in some ways. Not that it won. “So, who actually won?” states an Indian Express article, which is the first reference in the Wikipedia footnote. “T...
(JNS) — The Israel Football Association said on Tuesday it would welcome a proposed symbolic match against a Palestinian team, following reports that FIFA is considering the fixture as the opening game of a new under-15 tournament in the United States in September. “The initiative is known to us and is welcomed,” the association said in a statement to JNS, adding that chairman Shino Zoaretz has consistently supported using soccer to promote “reconciliation, normalization and peace.” The association said it would agree to a meeting “at any p...
(JNS) — Keir Starmer on Monday resigned as Britain’s prime minister and leader of the U.K. Labour Party, seven weeks after suffering a defeat in the May 7 local elections. Speaking outside 10 Downing Street on Monday morning, Starmer says he spoke to King Charles III and informed him of his decision to resign, the BBC reported. Starmer said the Labour Party asked him whether he was best placed to lead it into the next general election. He said he “heard the answer” to that question and “accepts that answer with good grace”. The outgoing premier...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday that he would be cutting ties with the office of E.U. High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas “until she retracts the blood libel she directed at the world’s only Jewish state.” Kallas “has for some time now been acting obsessively and with blatant unfairness toward the State of Israel,” Sa’ar tweeted, responding to reports that the European official, during a closed-door meeting, likened Jerusalem’s treatment of Palestinians to South Africa u...
(JNS) - National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Friday called for a dramatically intensified Israeli military response against Lebanon following a Hezbollah drone attack that killed four IDF soldiers in Southern Lebanon. "For every tear of an Israeli mother, a thousand Lebanese mothers must weep. All of Lebanon must burn," Ben-Gvir posted on X. The remarks came hours after the military announced that four IDF soldiers, including Lt. Col. Dor Gedalia Ben Simhon, commander of the 52nd...
Canada's Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg is embroiled in controversy over plans to open a major exhibit titled "Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present" on June 27. The controversy exists on multiple fronts including that the exhibit is not actually historically accurate, does not meet Canada's own standards and yet it is federally funded, that it is one-sided and risks inciting antisemitism, and undermines the museum's own mandate. Rev. Don James is the CEO of Bridges for Peace Canada....
