Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli landmarks honored the United States on Sunday with gestures of gratitude following the American military's aerial operation against Iran's nuclear facilities early that morning. The front of the Knesset building was illuminated in red, white and blue, while the ceremonial plaza was adorned with American flags. An honor guard was stationed at the site, with the participation of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. "On behalf of the Knesset, which represents all the citizens of Israel, I...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s second-holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, giving thanks for the United States joining the war against Iran. Netanyahu visited the site alongside Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, and Mordechai “Suli” Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The prime minister recited a special prayer for U.S. President Donald Trump, known in Hebrew as Hanoten teshuah (“He who grants deliverance”), asking that God...
(JNS) - A year after the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 252 taken hostage by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a new phase in the war. He said the operation known as "Swords of Iron" now bears a far older, deeper name: "The War of Tkuma." In Hebrew, tkuma means resurrection - a word rooted in Jewish memory, struggle and renewal. This wasn't just a rebranding. It was a signal. With the symbolic conclusion of shiva - the seven-day Je...
Congregation Ohev Shalom was honored to host the Orlando Symphony Orchestra on June 12 as it launched its Two Concerts, One Community series. "Many of our congregants regularly attend performances at the Dr. Phillips Center, but welcoming the symphony and world-renowned baritone Lawrence Craig into our own sanctuary was beyond special. Seeing and hearing the musicians on our bimah was truly magical," said COS President Debby Gendzier. The sanctuary of Maitland's COS came alive with music,...
Shalom Orlando welcomed Dr. James Larsen as the next director of the Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center. Starting on July 14, Dr. Larsen brings more than three decades of educational experience and knowledge to this role. He will oversee ECLC curriculum, staff, budget, professional development, and family engagement, and he. Dr. Larsen comes to us from Orange County Public Schools where he was a classroom teacher, a school principal, and a district administrator during his 30-year...
As one of the largest Jewish camp operators in the United States, NJY Camps was expecting to host over 100 Israeli counselors this summer. Now, over half of them are stranded in Israel after the surprise onset of a war with Iran has ground air travel to a total halt. “Some of them were supposed to be here today. They will not be here today, and who knows when they will be here,” said Michael Schlank, CEO of the network of day and overnight camps in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At Jewish camps in the United States, hosting Israelis as cou...
(JNS) — Israeli fighter jets struck the entrance gate of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on Monday, according to Iranian opposition media and Israeli officials. Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation as part of a broader campaign targeting “governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.” Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing that the Israeli Air Force was “intensifying strikes” in the capital area. The Israeli military described the attack on the prison as “symbolic....
NEW YORK — Following a U.S. operation targeting Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, issued the following statement: “A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat to Western civilization and global security. It is my hope that today’s historic operation by the United States has brought an end to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions once and for all. “I applaud President Trump and his administration for having the courage to act decisively, and for lending critical Am...
(JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it...
Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country's new war with Iran. Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country's center, injuring dozens of people. Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and...
We are all following the devastation of war in Israel on TV, social media, and via direct reports from friends and family who are there. We are getting reports of community members who are unable to return to Florida due to the closure of Ben Gurion Airport and the airlines canceling their flights indefinitely. The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, part of the Shalom Orlando Family, is actively monitoring the situation and wants to make you aware of several resources that are being offered to help evacuate American citizens currently in...
(JNS)- The 2025 Maccabiah Games scheduled to take place in Israel in July have been canceled and postponed until 2026 as a result of the ongoing war against Iran, the Maccabi World Union announced on Monday. It said that in consultations between the heads of Maccabi World Union and the 2025 Maccabiah, together with Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and his staff, it was decided that due to Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on June 13, "the...
Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation has a new full-time rabbi. Rabbi Shai Specht-Sandler will officially begin his tenure at SOJC on July 1, 2025. Rabbi Shai's life experiences span the Jewish world, as well as the globe itself. "I was born in Israel and left at 13," he said, "then spent my formative years in Manchester, England and the United States. I come from a proudly pluralistic and Masorti background, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, and from a long line of educators and rabbis... [I've]...
(JTA) — President Donald Trump is pressing forward in seeking a nuclear deal with Iran following a massive wave of Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear program. Trump, who has built his public persona around a verve for making deals, addressed his now-weakened negotiating partner in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, several hours after the Israelis began carrying out a daring and apparently successful mission in Iran that took aim at the places and personnel involved in the country’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump said...
By JNS Staff (JNS) — A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria probably won’t happen “in our lifetime” and is no longer Washington’s goal, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday. “Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told Bloomberg, adding that a culture shift is unlikely to take place “in our lifetime.” When asked by Bloomberg if an independent Palestinian state is the goal of the Trump administration, the diplomat responded: “I don’t think so.” A Pa...
(JNS) — The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakay, warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home, as Israel’s main international airport remained closed for a third day on Sunday amid the war with Iran. The remarks came as tens of thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad since Israel closed its airspace after launching a pre-emptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites. “I want to say to Israelis abroad: It will take weeks, not days or hour...
Larnaca, Cyprus — In a remarkable and unprecedented emergency operation, Birthright Israel successfully evacuated approximately 1,500 program participants earlier today aboard the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, sailing from Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus. The 13-hour voyage (more or less) is conducted under the close protection of the Israeli Navy, which escorted the vessel across the Mediterranean to ensure the participants’ safety amid ongoing regional tensions. The cruise ship was secured by Bir...
The White House was informed of Israel’s strikes against the Iranian regime ahead of time but was not involved militarily, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News‘ Bret Baier on Friday. Washington still hopes that Tehran will clinch a nuclear agreement with the United States, Trump told Baier. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see,” Fox News cited the commander-in-chief as saying. “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” he added. U.S. officials w...
(JNS) — A new report published by Israel’s Regavim Movement NGO on Sunday has found that some 90 percent of incidents of “violence” attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the United Nations were fabricated. Regavim’s 128-page research report in English, titled “False Flags and Real Agendas,” scrutinized a database maintained by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which claims to have documented thousands of alleged incidents of Israeli “settler violence” against Palestinian Arabs from January 2016...
(JNS) - Eight people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in the early hours of Monday by an Iranian ballistic missile barrage on Israeli civilian population centers in the central and northern regions of the country. The impacts were spread across four locations. Four of the deaths took place in the greater Tel Aviv area - four in Petach Tikvah and one in Bnei Brak. Three people who were initially reported as being trapped in Haifa were later declared dead, while a 30-year-old woman is...
(JNS) - Haitham Amal wasn't always propelled toward science. He wanted to study international relations; he said he liked the networking and learning about new cultures. Then he took physics and chemistry in high school, and "fell in love with science," he told JNS. More specifically, he wanted to understand the pharmacological aspects of it - how drugs worked to help people. The trajectory seemed natural. Amal, 39, a Christian Israeli, grew up in Haifa with three siblings in an educated...
(JNS) - The worldwide Jewish population grew by 870,000 in the decade from 2010 to 2020, according to the Pew Research Center's global religion survey released on Monday. The analysis of worldwide religious trends looked at self-reported religious belief, except in Israel, where the surveyors used the government's population register. "The number of Jews around the world grew by 6 percent, from an estimated 14 million in 2010 to nearly 15 million in 2020," the researchers wrote. "That's fewer...
Ra'anana Today’s a day that’s really going to be remembered, maybe even more than the pager attack on Hezbollah’s leaders last year. In today’s confusing world, it’s hard to tell right from wrong. This makes it tough to stay morally clear. I think we need to stop and think about what just happened today. Friday the 13th of June...also written as 6.13 (if you know, you know) is a day of incredible events that will help finally remap the colonialist maps of the Middle East. These maps go back t...
The name of Israel’s newly launched military operation — Operation Rising Lion — echoes one of the most enduring symbols of Jewish strength and identity. For Jerry Klinger, founder and president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, the lion is more than metaphor — it is the centerpiece of a growing public art campaign that visually affirms Jewish history, survival, and legitimacy. “This military operation and our Lion’s Trail projects share a powerful metaphor — both the...
(JNS) — A 72-year-old Jewish man in New York City hanging posters of hostages being held in Gaza was punched in the face last week by thugs shouting, “Free Palestine.” Since the Oct. 7 massacre, the campaign to “Globalize the intifada” has exploded with a vengeance, threatening the safety of American Jews as never before on U.S. streets. A couple was shot and killed last month in Washington, D.C., by a radical leftist gunman outside the Capital Jewish Museum. Jews in Boulder, Colo., who were marching for the release of hostages in Gaza befo...
