Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — An estimated 50 cross-border tunnels link Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai, enabling Hamas to smuggle weapons, funds and personnel, and black-market traders to import a range of goods to the Strip. Yoni Ben Menachem, a senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said that since the Israel Defense Forces has not yet captured all of Rafah and the Philadelphi Corridor, aka the Philadelphi Route or the Saladin Axis (the narrow strip of land along the 8.7-mile border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt), the estimate for the number of...
(JNS) — Only a fortnight after the start of the Israel Defense Forces’ targeted operation in Rafah, almost a million Palestinians have been evacuated from the city to humanitarian zones, according to a military estimate made public on Monday. According to the IDF, 950,000 Palestinians have already left the Hamas stronghold on the Egyptian border. Approximately 300,000 to 400,000 noncombatants remain in Rafah, primarily in the coastal area and parts of the city center, Ynet cited army officials as saying. Almost all of them—some 300,0...
(JNS) — A group of pro-Israel Christian college students demonstrated their support for the Jewish state with a solidarity “walk-in” at the University of California, Los Angeles on Monday. Members of the organization Passages joined Students Supporting Israel on the Westwood campus to celebrate Israel’s 76th Independence Day. According to Passages, the “walk-in” concept was created to counter the anti-Israel “walk-outs” in recent months that have turned universities into hostile environments for Jewish and Zionist students and faculty. Passag...
Foxx warns ‘spineless college leaders’ of ‘healthy dose of reality’ at hearings (JNS) — Three more university leaders will face questions from congressional representatives regarding antisemitic rhetoric and intimidation on their U.S. campuses promulgated by anti-Israel protesters. Members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce will conduct a hearing titled “Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic College Chaos” on Thursday, when they will demand explanations from Northwestern University president Michael Schill; Rutge...
(JTA) — Spain, Norway and Ireland said Wednesday they would formally recognize a Palestinian state, a sign of Israel’s challenges on the global stage. The countries portrayed the step as an attempt to salvage long-dormant prospects for progress toward a two-state solution, creating a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Israel castigated the move as a reward for Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which launched the current war. “Last month I stood on these same steps with Prime Minister Sanchez of Spain, and we said that the point of recognizing the state of...
(JNS) — Knesset member Limor Son Har-Melech said on Tuesday that “foreign countries,” and in particular Pakistan, were developing a Palestinian army. “This army is being trained in foreign countries, is practiced, and armed, and plans to continue the atrocities that were carried out by Hamas on October 7th. They are just waiting for the correct moment to strike at the rest of the Israeli populace,” she told the Knesset plenum. Son Har Hamelech quoted a joint investigation by HaKol HaYehudi and the Struggle for Every Dunam organizat...
(JTA) — Pro-Palestinian encampment protesters at dozens of universities have called for their administrations to divest from Israel. But on two campuses, activists are asking their schools to split from organizations closer to home that they say are complicit in Israeli crimes. At Drexel University in Philadelphia and the University of California, Santa Cruz, pro-Palestinian protesters have demanded their universities cut ties with, or “terminate” the presence of, the schools’ Hillel chapters. The Drexel protesters also demand that the univers...
(JNS) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, known as the "Butcher of Tehran," was killed in a helicopter crash in the country's northwestern East Azerbaijan province on Sunday, Iranian state media confirmed on Monday morning. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem, the regime's representative in East Azerbaijan and Malek Rahmati, the province's governor, were also killed, along with the pilot and co-pilot. They were returning from an inauguration ceremony for a...
By Kim Fischer On Friday, May 17 former presidents of the Jewish Academy of Orlando and members of the community came together to hear from founder Dr. Edward Zissman. He announced to the people present that due to a very generous multi-year gift from Samra and Bernard Gotlib the school will be named “Gotlib Jewish Academy a Community Day School of excellence. This endowment will serve the future needs of the school. According to Samra Gotlib, “the base of your education is elementary school. We are thrilled to share some incredibly exc...
A Proclamation expressing support for the State of Israel and condemning the Hamas terror attack was presented to the Seminole County Republican Executive Committee by Sandi Solomon on May 16. SCREC Chairman Bruce Cherry and the general body voted enthusiastically in favor of the proclamation supporting the State of Israel, recognizing the right of Israel to defend itself and to exist as a sovereign nation. The Proclamation states: WHEREAS, beginning on Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacked the State of Israel, raping, torturing, and murdering over...
On Wednesday, May 8, 2024, nearly 100 female philanthropists attended Jewish National Fund-USA's Women for Israel reception at University Club in Winter Park to learn how they can make a tangible difference in the lives of Israelis who were impacted by the Oct. 7 massacres. The evening's featured speaker was Debbie Zimelman, an award-winning photographer and author who specializes in documenting the lives of women in Israel. Zimelman's photography book, "Women on the Front Lines," highlights...
Originally hailing from south central Pennsylvania, Rabbi Matisyahu Devlin was raised as a devout Catholic. The son of a Catholic father and Jewish mother. He attended Catholic school and mass on Sundays with his 10 brothers and sisters. Judaism at home was scant, so their identity rested firmly on their Catholic heritage and upbringing. Devlin himself was very active in his parish as an altar boy, choir member, and lector. At the tender age of 18, after getting into trouble at school and with t...
The Eleventh Annual Commemoration of the largest mass arrest of Rabbis in US History will take place outdoors at the Hilton St. Augustine Historic Bayfront, 32 Avenida Menendez, St. Augustine, at noon, Tuesday, June 18. This 30-minute event sponsored by the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society, is free and all are welcome. On June 18, 1964, at the request of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., 16 rabbis and a Reform Jewish administrator in St. Augustine were arrested and held in the St....
The Jewish Pavilion has a new name - Jewish Pavilion Senior Services -and a new logo. The official launch date is June 1. "The reason our board decided to expand our name is that the word Pavilion was unclear and people assumed we have a building," said Nancy Ludin, CEO of the Jewish Pavilion. When the name was conceived 23 years ago, the word Pavilion, which is an open air facility, was selected because the organization is not contained in a specific location but its outreach services affect...
(JNS) — Washington has no “real disagreements” with Israel over its targeted raid in eastern Rafah and war aim of destroying the remaining Hamas battalions in Gaza’s southernmost city, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew claimed in an interview with Channel 12 on Sunday. The interview came just days after U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin confirmed that the Biden administration decided to withhold approval of a sale to Israel of two types of precision-guided bombs. Biden also told CNN last week that he would stop providing weapons to the...
(JNS) — The Hamas terrorist organization has profited at least $500 million off humanitarian aid coming into the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to a report that aired on Israel’s Channel 12 last week. Veteran analyst Ehud Yaari, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the broadcaster on Thursday that, according to a calculation he made with “a friend—I don’t know if I’m allowed to mention his name,” Hamas earned “no less” than half a billion dollars from the aid. “We provide [this] for...
(JNS) — The ratio of terrorists to Palestinian noncombatants killed during Israel’s ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip is approximately one to one, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed this week. “What Israel has done is take the effort to minimize civilian casualties as no other army has done,” the Israeli leader said in an interview with U.S. author and political adviser Dan Senor on Monday. “We use leaflets, we use millions of text messages, phone calls. We actually call the people, give up the benefit of surprise,...
(JNS) — Egypt has rejected an Israeli proposal to work together with Israel to reopen the Rafah Crossing into the Gaza Strip and manage its operation jointly, two security sources in Cairo told Reuters on Thursday. The Egyptian government demands the crossing be managed only by Palestinians, the sources said, adding that Jerusalem had offered a mechanism for how to manage the crossing after its forces withdraw. Officials from the Israel Security Agency presented the plan during a visit to Cairo on Wednesday, amid rising tension between the t...
(JTA) — An Iranian Jew who has been sentenced to death has reportedly received a one-month stay of execution after a global pressure campaign that included calls for prayer in Persian Jewish communities around the world. The stay came as Iran was plunged into political turmoil when a helicopter carrying its president and foreign minister crashed under unclear circumstances. President Ebrahim Raisi is known by the nickname “Butcher of Tehran” for his role in overseeing executions in the country, whose top official is the supreme leader Ayato...
(JNS) - Pro-Israel candidates fared well in primary races across the nation on Tuesday, although their opponents largely shared their views about the Jewish state. Sarah Elfreth, a Maryland state senator, won the Democratic primary for the state's 3rd Congressional District with $4 million in spending from AIPAC's United Democracy Project super PAC. She defeated Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who rose to national prominence for his actions defending the Capitol during the Jan. 6...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Before sending the letter she knew would ricochet around the world, Lily Greenberg Call gave her parents a heads-up and said goodbye to her colleagues. Then she went home and prepared for the storm that she correctly predicted would be unleashed Wednesday night, May 16, when she was revealed to be the first Jewish staffer to resign from the Biden administration to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Speaking to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after watching her story unfold in public, Green...
(JTA) — The prosecutor for the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as well as the leadership of Hamas for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The charges Karim Khan announced Monday against Netanyahu and Gallant — the first ever to charge Israeli leaders by name — echo accusations Israel’s critics have made for months surrounding the war in Gaza: They include starvation as a means of war, willful killing and intentionally targeting civilia...
(JNS) - Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz on Saturday night threatened to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition if the premier does not declare a plan for the day after Hamas in Gaza. "I look you in the eyes tonight and tell you: The choice is in your hands. After talking to you again and again, the moment of truth has come. The time for a decision has come," said Gantz. "I have known you for many years as an Israeli leader and patriot, you know very well what needs to be...
(JNS) — The Israeli government on Wednesday unanimously approved a proposal to oppose a U.N. resolution promoting recognition of a Palestinian state. “No reward will be given for the terrible massacre of Oct. 7, which 80 percent of the Palestinians, both in the West Bank and in Gaza, support,” said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who initiated the proposal. “We will not allow them to establish a terrorist state from which they can attack us even more,” he added. “No one will prevent us, Israel, from exercising our basic right to defe...
(JNS) - "Somehow I know that Shani attended the Supernova festival on October 7 for a reason. Had she not, a lot more people would have died," Aviel Gabbay told JNS on Sunday. Aviel's sister Shani Gabbay was murdered by Hamas terrorists and later mistakenly buried along with another victim. "My father [Yaakov] would not have driven three hours from Yokneam [in the Lower Galilee] to Kibbutz Re'im [near Gaza] to look for her and would not have saved many others in the process," Aviel said. Shani...
