Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — A video clip making the rounds in Hebrew media features Ofakim Mayor Yitzhak Danino revealing disturbing details of a conversation he had with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant as the Oct. 7 attack unfolded, in which he pleaded for army helicopters to save the small southern city, which Gallant promised but were never sent. Located 18 miles east of the Gaza Strip, Ofakim suffered more than 50 dead during the Hamas attack. The death toll would have been still worse but for the heroic actions of local residents, most armed only with h...
(JNS) - U.S. President Joe Biden is harming Israel's efforts to demilitarize the Gaza Strip by demanding that Jerusalem scale back its military offensive against the Hamas terror organization, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told Channel 12 on Monday. Biden is "to some extent hampering the war effort by this desire to force Israel to engage in I think what he refers to as 'low-intensity combat'... That's sort of the kind of messaging that America has been giving Israel,"...
(JNS) - Despite a military closure, on Monday a diverse group of hundreds of protesters from all over Israel gathered at the country's Kerem Shalom border crossing with Gaza for the sixth day in a row, to demonstrate against the flow of humanitarian aid into the Hamas-controlled enclave. The demonstrators, including relatives of those murdered or kidnapped during Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre and of soldiers fighting the terror group in Gaza, avoided police checkpoints by driving through fields and...
(JNS) - In an exuberant display of support for re-establishing Jewish communities in the Gaza Strip, 5,000 activists filled three large halls to overflowing at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem on Sunday night. A kind of Zionist revival meeting, the conference featured music, a cheering crowd, and a parade of rabbis and politicians delivering speeches and prayers. Religious Zionists made up the vast majority of the participants, with a smattering of haredim or ultra-Orthodox....
(JNS) — Israel’s National Security Minister, Otzma Yehudit Party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir, threatened on Tuesday to bring down the government if it reaches a “reckless” hostage deal with Hamas. His tweet came amid apparent progress on an agreement to free the 136 captives remaining in Gaza whom the terrorist group abducted during its Oct. 7 attack on the northwestern Negev. In an apparent response to Ben-Gvir’s tweet, opposition leader Yair Lapid wrote on X that his Yesh Atid Party and its 24 Knesset members would give the government full back...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - There are about 245,000 Holocaust survivors alive, according to a new Claims Conference report. They are dispersed in more than 90 countries with 49 percent residing in Israel. The report, published ahead of the annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27 and described by the organization-full name: the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany-as an "unprecedented demographic report," breaks down their locations as well as their countries of...
Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv for first time since Jan. 1 (JNS) — Air-raid sirens blared across Tel Aviv and its suburbs on Monday afternoon, warning of incoming rockets from the Gaza Strip for the first time since Jan. 1. Local reports said at least 10 rockets were fired towards the greater Tel Aviv area, sending millions of civilians racing for shelter. Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades “military” wing confirmed it fired a volley of rockets at the city “in response to the Zionist massacres of civilians.” There were no reports of casualties...
(JNS) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was set to meet on Tuesday with major donors to the embattled U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the United Nations’ Palestinian-only refugee organization. A number of major donor countries announced in recent days the suspension of their contributions to the agency amid revelations that 12 UNRWA employees participated in Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre. The information was provided to UNRWA by Israel. Nine of the 12 employees had their contracts terminated, while anoth...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces will retain full security control over the Gaza Strip after the war with Hamas ends, giving it the freedom to operate there similarly to the way it currently does in Judea and Samaria, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told Israeli lawmakers on Tuesday. “After the war, when it’s over, I think it’s completely clear that Hamas won’t control Gaza. Israel will control [it] militarily, but won’t control it in a civilian sense,” Gallant told members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee dur...
(JNS) — A UN Watch report released this week further bolsters the assertions of UNRWA’s critics that the Palestinian aid agency, rife with terrorism supporters, is beyond repair. UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, has come under fire after The New York Times broke the story on Sunday that 12 staff members took part in the Oct. 7 massacre in which Hamas terrorists rampaged through Israel’s south, murdering some 1,200 persons, mostly civilians. At least 15 countries, including the U.S., have suspended funding to the organ...
USY is pleased to announce the third annual Heschel Fellowship cohort. Twenty-one teens from across the United States will be gathering virtually every week for immersive Jewish learning and fellowship through April 3, 2024. The two students from Central Florida are Yael Brener of Orlando and Jaynie Ragas of Sanford. Brenner attends Lake Brantley High School. She is a member of the Temple Israel USY chapter as well as C-Teen, the Chabad youth group. Ragas is a homeschool student. She is a member of the Temple Israel USY chapter and also...
The Congregation of Ohev Shalom Sisterhood is hosting Sisterhood & Sharsheret, an evening to bring awareness to breast and ovarian cancer, on Feb. 15, starting at 6:30 p.m. Guest speakers include Orlando Health specialists Amy Laughlin, MD; Amy Margolin, MS,CGC; Kirbie Whitaker, MS, RD, LDN; and Sara Trosty Walsh, LCSW Florida, program coordinator Sharsheret. The event is free, open to the community and men are welcome to attend. Registration is required. Visit ohevshalom.org/form/Sharsheret to register. Please RSVP by Feb. 12. Sharsheret, a...
The Jewish Chamber held a breakfast event at Pickles NY Deli & More in Longwood on Jan. 25. This exclusive gathering was chaired by Scott Leitner, vice president of Climate First Bank. The breakfast offered a unique opportunity for individuals from various backgrounds to come together, share ideas, and forge connections. Networking events like these play a crucial role in building a strong and supportive community, fostering collaboration and understanding. The next event is an afterhours on...
Join your friends at Temple Israel for TI Supper Club on Friday, Feb. 9, and enjoy a delicious, homemade vegetarian meal featuring produce grown in our very own Gan Chesed: Garden of Kindness! Shabbat services start at 6 p.m., with dinner following in the Roth Social Hall at 7 p.m. This month's meal includes baba ganoush made from Gan Chesed eggplants, minestrone soup, lasagna, Caesar salad, garlic bread, wine, and dessert. The atmosphere is relaxing, but the pace will pick up when you join a...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A growing number of countries has suspended funding to the main United Nations agency aiding Palestinians in the wake of allegations that a number of its staffers were involved in Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre in Israel. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, known as UNRWA, protested the cuts, saying that they were accelerating an oncoming famine in the Gaza Strip. The agency was founded to administer relief to Palestinian refugees and their descendants and is the main provider of aid in Gaza, where it emp...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday that more than 100 Hamas terrorists had been caught in the previous 36 hours, as the IDF pushes forward in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. “Hamas is collapsing into its own tunnels that it painstakingly dug. Every place it thought would be a trap for IDF soldiers becomes an area where we hit it,” Gallant told soldiers serving in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit. “In the past day and a half, we have over 100 captives, some of them who came up from underground, in the Khan Yu...
(JTA) — As reports of antisemitism have surged since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Jewish groups have sought to spotlight the issue through rallies, news coverage, billboards and social media campaigns. Next month, it will receive airtime during the year’s most-watched television broadcast: Super Bowl LVIII. On Wednesday, Robert Kraft’s Foundation to Combat Antisemitism announced that it purchased a 30-second spot due to air during the big game on Feb. 11. It appears to be the first time ever that a Super Bowl ad will focus on antis...
As Gazans passed through the humanitarian corridor from Khan Younis, many were heard yelling “down with Hamas,” potentially signaling growing discontent with the Iran-backed terror group’s command over Gaza. IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee announced that a humanitarian corridor has been established in a Bedouin area Al-Mawasi to protect Gazan civilians from the IDF military operations in Khan Younis. While tens of thousands were evacuating the area, many were heard yelling slogans against Hamas. “The people want to topple Hamas,” and oth...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces troops foiled a Palestinian stabbing attack in the Tekoa area in the Gush Etzion region of Judea on Monday. Soldiers from the Tabor Battalion of the Etzion Brigade shot and killed a terrorist who attempted to stab them while they were guarding a military position near the Arab town of Taqua, located near the Israeli community of Tekoa. The 16-year-old terrorist was identified as Rani Yasser Chalaf a-Sha’ar from Taqua. No Israelis were injured in the attack. Clashes broke out after residents who tried to reach the...
(JNS) - Founded in 1916, Kfar Giladi is one of Israel's oldest kibbutzim. Located less than a mile from the Lebanese village of Odaisseh, it is currently evacuated. Nisan Zeevi is a member of the kibbutz's local security squad. "If Israel does not address the threat Hezbollah poses, residents of northern Israel are at risk of another murderous invasion similar to Hamas's Oct. 7 attack," Zeevi told JNS. "On Oct. 7, we woke up to the horrors of Hamas's massacre and were certain that Hezbollah...
(JNS) - An art exhibition is debuting Thursday at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem, two days before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as the memory of the Shoah is fresh on the minds of Israelis following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7. The exhibition, titled "Bigger Than Me," features six oil paintings and some 10 additional sketches by the Israeli artist Shai Azoulay. It has been given added significance following the Hamas massacre, the worst single-day attack on the Jewish people since the...
On Tuesday, Jan. 23, the Jewish Pavilion hosted a Sponsor's Breakfast at Legacy Pointe in Orlando, marking a morning of community, connection, and culinary delights. The breakfast served as a platform for individuals to come together, share experiences, and strengthen their commitment to supporting the Jewish Pavilion's initiatives. Following the meal, participants were treated to a tour of the Legacy Pointe campus. Nestled in the heart of Orlando, Legacy Pointe is a testament to the commitment...
(JNS) - Hundreds of demonstrators prevented humanitarian aid trucks from entering the Gaza Strip from Israel at the Kerem Shalom border crossing on Wednesday. The protesters from the "Order 9" movement demanded that "no aid goes through until the last of the abductees returns, no equipment be transferred to the enemy." (An Order 8 call-up notice is an order for the emergency mobilization of an IDF reserve soldier outside the framework of regular reserve duty. Many were issued after Hamas's Oct....
By Sveta Listratov (JNS) - Israeli actor-singer-songwriter Idan Amedi, best known for starring in the hit Netflix show "Fauda," recounted to reporters on Thursday his experience fighting in Gaza and the blast that had him hospitalized for over two weeks. "We are dealing with an enemy that doesn't care about anything. This is a just war and the enemy we are facing is beyond Hamas, we have found weapons in schools, assorted institutions and private homes. The world needs to know that," said...
(JNS) — While the Israel Defense Forces is gaining ground against Hamas by the day, destroying it as a military force will take time, according to former IDF officers. Professor Gabi Siboni, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security and who holds the rank of colonel (res.), told JNS that the Israeli campaign will be “very long.” In Gaza, Hamas has built up the most fortified terror base in the world, he said, both above and below ground. With so many homes in Gaza containing weapons and being linked to under...
