Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Israel Day on Fifth parade in Manhattan on May 31 made a statement both for who was and was not present, according to Ofir Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York. “To all our enemies all around the world, but specifically here in New York City, we are here to stay, we are strong, we are proud and my suggestion to all of these elected officials, who are thinking that we will disappear, the answer is ‘no,’” Akunis told JNS after the parade. “The opposite is the truth,” the...
(JNS) - Hundreds of New Yorkers filled the normally quiet and bucolic Upper East Side street adjacent to Gracie Mansion, the official home of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, on Tuesday evening, chanting "Hey, hey, no, no, Mayor Mamdani's got to go" and "stop Mamdani." Lilly Icikson was among the demonstrators-a group of mostly Jews with a few Muslims and Christians-and handed out stickers, which she prints at home and affixes to light poles and other surfaces outside Gracie Mansion and in...
Almost half of American Jews under 35 say the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved by creating a single country in Israel, the “West Bank” and Gaza with a government elected by both Israelis and Palestinians, according to a poll conducted by the Jewish Voter Resource Center. The findings signal a generational shift in U.S. support for a binational state in Israel, reflecting a core demand of anti-Zionist protests on college campuses and beyond — even as most major Jewish organizations classify calls for a single state as an expre...
(JNS) — Reported anti-Jewish hate crimes in Chicago declined from 79 in 2024 to 47 in 2025, and so far this year, there have been nine recorded in the Windy City, per Chicago Police Department data. In 2023, the year Brandon Johnson became mayor, Chicago had 50 anti-Jewish hate crimes, and the prior year, before Oct. 7, there were 39, according to a city crime dashboard. In 2026 so far, there has been one anti-Muslim hate crime—the same number as in 2025. In 2024 there were six, and in 2023, 16, according to police data. In 2022, there wer...
(JNS) — The Islamic Republic of Iran is likely to “double-cross” U.S. President Donald Trump in any agreement it reaches with Washington, and he will eventually retaliate, American evangelical leader Mike Evans said on Monday. The remarks by Evans, founder of Jerusalem’s Friends of Zion Museum, come amid high-stakes negotiations aimed at ending the war and addressing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. “If Iran double-crosses Trump and makes a fool out of him—and I believe they will—he will get his revenge and he will finish the job,” Evans told JNS in...
(JNS) — Members of NGO Monitor, an Israel-based research institute, signed an open letter on Sunday calling for an independent investigation of The New York Times following its publishing of an opinion column alleging Israeli authorities sexually assaulted Palestinian security prisoners. The column, penned by Nicholas Kristof, drew a flurry of criticism worldwide, culminating in the recent United Nation’s decision to place Israel on a list of parties suspected of committing sexual violence in conflict. The members of NGO Monitor’s Inter...
(JNS) — The UJA-Federation of New York said that it purchased 20,000 bags of Bamba in response to the Park Slope Food Coop’s recent decision to boycott Israeli products. The UJA, the largest Federation in the world, which distributes $275 million in grants annually, described the co-op boycott as “divisive and hate-driven.” Food co-op members voted 67 percent to 31percent to boycott Israeli products. Some 8,400 members, out of 17,000, reportedly voted at the meeting, which was moved online due to security concerns. The Federation said it will...
(JNS) — New York lawmakers rolled a proposal for a 50-foot “buffer zone” around Jewish day schools and community centers into the state budget on Tuesday. Sam Sutton, a Democratic state senator who is Jewish, stated that “after the horrific incident outside Park East Synagogue, I became the first legislator to introduce this proposal.” “Today, buffer zone protections were included in the final state budget,” he said. Noam Abrahams, Sutton’s communications director, told JNS that the proposal was included in the budget bill that’s being discusse...
(JNS) — No rabbinic seminary has a future in the United States if it ordains anti-Zionist clergy, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, senior rabbi at the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue, a Reform congregation in New York City, said at the third “Re-Charging Reform Judaism” conference. “We have an obligation to discuss what we mean by ‘Zionism,’” the rabbi, who is president of the New York Board of Rabbis, said in a keynote address opening the two-day conference on Wednesday. “We have an interest to establish the biggest possible tent. I am a liberal plurali...
(JNS) - The House Judiciary Committee said that it has uncovered new funding links between the Biden administration and left-wing groups that oppose the Israeli government, as well as groups with ties to terrorist organizations A May 29 committee memorandum, which JNS obtained exclusively, and which was addressed to committee members from the Republican-led committee staff, addresses "new information about the Biden-Harris administration helping to fund protests against the Netanyahu...
(JNS) — Israel controls approximately 60% of the Gaza Strip, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday. He added that he has instructed the Israel Defense Forces to expand that figure to 70% as part of its ongoing campaign against Hamas. Speaking at the Jordan Valley Conference, Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to increase pressure on the terrorist organization nearly three years after the Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. “Israel controls 60 percent of the Gaza Strip,” the prime minister said. “My directi...
(JNS) - "Obviously, the first thing you want to do is try to understand what she went through. I still don't know half of it. When she's older, I might be able to ask her." For Tom Hand, father of former Hamas hostage Emily Hand, the questions surrounding his daughter's 50 days in captivity remain largely unanswered. Yet nearly three years after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, he says the 11-year-old has shown remarkable resilience as she rebuilds her life and prepares to return home. On the...
(JNS) — Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei threatened the United States and Israel, calling on Muslims worldwide to chant for the destruction of the two nations during the upcoming Hajj pilgrimage. “In various parts of Iran and the world, and continuing well beyond these blessed days, ‘Death to America” and ‘Death to Israel’ shall become the common chants of the Islamic ummah [nation],” Khamenei said in a written statement issued on the occasion of the Hajj and published in English by the semi-official ISNA news agency. The ayatollah cal...
By Gloria Green In response to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack from Gaza, Israel created a new intelligence task force called NILI — Netzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker, Hebrew for The Eternal One of Israel Does Not Lie — involving Shin Bet internal security, military intelligence, and Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. Its mission was, and continues to be, to track down and kill or capture those responsible for the massacre — from direct attackers to senior planners — while also preventing future attacks. More than a century earlier,...
(JNS) — During a visit with Defense Minister Israel Katz to the IDF’s 96th Division along Israel’s eastern border on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel’s enemies are seeking to infiltrate the country. “We take into account that our enemies want to invade the State of Israel, and therefore we rely on you,” Netanyahu told commanders and soldiers stationed in the area. Netanyahu and Katz toured one of the upgraded “water-line outposts” along the Jordan frontier and received briefings from IDF officers on effort...
(JNS) — “All I wanted was to dance. I went dancing and almost didn’t come home to my son,” Rita Yedid told JNS on Monday. On Oct. 7, 2023, as Hamas terrorists stormed the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im on the Gaza border, Yedid hid in a ticket-booth caravan with her sister Eden; her husband, Guy; and three other partygoers. Guy was shot and wounded while shielding her from Hamas gunfire. Around 11:30 a.m., a terrorist looked through the caravan window, threatened the group and stole their phones and money. All six were rescued l...
IDF strikes 100-plus Hezbollah sites in Southern Lebanon By JNS Staff (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces overnight on Monday struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites and terrorist operatives in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley and across the country’s south. In several strikes in the Beqaa Valley, the IDF targeted Hezbollah terrorist infrastructure sites, including a weapons storage facility, the military stated on Tuesday. One operation in the Beqaa Valley town of Machghara consisted of several strikes carried out within seconds. The aerial assault was s...
By Andrew Bernard (JNS) — Sex therapist Maureen Galindo lost her bid to be the Democratic nominee in the primary runoff on Tuesday for Texas’s 35th Congressional district after she was denounced by leaders of her own party for making incendiary comments about Jews. The Associated Press called the race for Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy, after polls closed. At press time, Garcia had about 62 percent of the vote to Galindo’s 38 percent with 74 percent of votes counted. The race to represent the 35th district, which include...
Last week we marked the anniversary of Israel's hasty withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000, and with it, bringing thousands of Lebanese Christians to Israel. This is the story of a young man who was a child then. "G" was born into a Maronite Christian family in South Lebanon, part of a community that traces its roots to the ancient Phoenicians. His early childhood unfolded in a quiet Christian village just 15 kilometers from the Israeli border, surrounded by rolling hills, farmland, and deeply...
(JNS) - The creation of a new Jewish Federation in the Maryland state capital was inspired, in part, by the death of Sarah Milgrim, who was murdered along with her boyfriend Yaron Lischinsky a year ago Thursday, when the two Israeli embassy staffers left an American Jewish Committee event about a mile from the White House. "There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of her and mourn her loss, while also recognizing that it could happen to any Jew at any time anywhere at this point," Jenni...
(JNS) - Six men assaulted an Israeli man in London on early on Monday morning after hearing him speak Hebrew on the phone, he told police and the media. The Israeli, Shalev Ben Yakar, 22, also complained to police about the beating that he said the six men gave him outside the Solomon Hotel in Golders Green, The Jewish Chronicle of London reported on Monday. "[They caught me] completely off guard. I was not ready. I saw [them] coming [toward] me, and I had a suspicious feeling [about them], but...
On Sunday, May 17, 2026, 7th-grade students from the Shevet Agam Chapter of Israeli Scouts volunteered at Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando's Pearlman Food Pantry as part of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah Year Program, an experience designed to cultivate leadership, responsibility, and meaningful community engagement. The Bar and Bat Mitzvah Year Program guides students through a series of missions centered around the different circles of their lives - from their immediate family and close...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces jammed the radios of the Turkish-led Gaza flotilla and broadcast Britney Spears’ “Oops! … I Did It Again,” a source familiar with the matter confirmed to JNS on Tuesday. Flotilla organizers told Reuters that Israeli Navy commandos on Monday boarded 39 vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, some 250 nautical miles (463 km) from the Gaza Strip, and arrested those aboard, including 44 Turkish nationals. Israel’s Foreign Ministry shared video footage showing the activists celebrating and hugging aboard an IDF ship...
(JNS) — Israeli Minister of Transport and Road Safety Miri Regev on Monday convened an initial discussion regarding the recent hantavirus outbreak, her office told JNS. Regev instructed her ministry to prepare measures aimed at preventing the virus from spreading into the Jewish state through border crossings or airports, according to the statement. A special team headed by ministry Director-General Moshe Ben-Zaken will coordinate with the Health Ministry on the issue. “At the moment there is no concern, but we are preparing all systems in adv...
(JNS) — Israel officially handed over to Argentina the rotating chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on May 13, amid the worst burst of global antisemitism since the Holocaust. The symbolic ceremony held at the United Nations in Geneva took place two months after Argentina, on March 18, became the first South American country to assume leadership of the organization, which seeks to promote Holocaust education and awareness worldwide. IHRA Chair Marcelo Mindlin, president of the Holocaust Museum of Argentina since 2...
