Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1353 - 1377 of 10919
(JTA) — The mother of 23-year-old Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who was taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7, is one of nearly a dozen Jews on Time Magazine’s 100 “Most Influential” list, couched among comedians, writers, music producers, athletes, business executives, and politicians. Since Oct. 7, Rachel Goldberg-Polin has become one of the most prominent and indefatigable voices advocating for the release of Israeli hostages held captive in Gaza. She has attended an audience with Pope Francis, Zoomed with President Joe Biden and spo...
IAF strike in Lebanon kills senior Hezbollah terrorist (JNS) — An Israeli Air Force strike in Southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed a senior Hezbollah terrorist responsible for firing rockets and missiles at the Jewish state, the Israel Defense Forces said. Since the Iranian terrorist proxy joined the war against Israel in support of Hamas on Oct. 8, Ismail Baz, who commanded Hezbollah’s coastal sector, “organized and planned various terrorist plots,” the IDF said. The military added, “Ismail served in several positions as a senior and veteran off...
(JTA) – A Holocaust research center founded by Steven Spielberg has gotten embroiled in a drama over campus Israel speech that is dividing the University of Southern California, where it is housed. The USC Shoah Foundation is downplaying its role in the school’s academics after the university’s valedictorian, a pro-Palestinian student who earned a minor in “resistance to genocide,” touted her ties to the center. After USC announced last week that Asna Tabassum would be the valedictorian, pro-Israel groups mounted a campaign against her, citi...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday urged the international community to confront Iran, as Jerusalem prepares a response to the Islamic Republic’s massive drone and missile attack over the weekend. “The whole world must work decisively and defiantly against the threat posed by the Iranian regime, which is seeking to undermine the stability of the entire region,” Herzog said after meeting the foreign ministers of Britain and Germany in Jerusalem. Herzog reiterated the Jewish state’s “unequivocal” commitment to defending its...
It's rare, if ever, that one sits at home watching news of an impending attack that's already been launched at your country. But that's exactly what I did last night. First the IDF issued instructions to keep Israelis safe, including closing all schools, banning gatherings of more than 1000 people, and what to do in case of an air raid siren. An hour or so later it was announced that Iran had already launched dozens (up to 150-200) armed drones at Israel that would take as long as 9 hours to...
(JNS) — The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews will be supporting over 100,000 people in Israel this Passover, with a specific focus on families directly affected by the ongoing war against Hamas, especially bereaved families, hostages’ relatives and the tens of thousands of evacuees. As part of the 2024 Passover program, IFCJ will be distributing close to 19,000 600 shekel ($162) debit cards for evacuated families to use toward purchasing food items. The cards will also be delivered to families of injured soldiers as well as rel...
(JNS) — Israel’s War Cabinet on Sunday recommended retaliating to the first-ever direct Iranian attack on the Jewish state, although they were divided on the scope and timing of the response, Reuters reported on Monday, citing Israeli officials. However, no final decision was made, per reports, and ministers were to reconvene at 2 p.m. Monday to continue deliberations. The Islamic Republic and its terror proxies launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Israel on Saturday night, with Israel and its military allies shooting down most of the...
The RAISE work and social skills training program for adults with special needs is now accepting online applications for RAISE employees as well as opportunities to volunteer as a RAISE job coach. RAISE is a work and social skills training program that provides paid employment at its partnering agencies. If you know someone who may benefit from RAISE, apply online by clicking on “Apply for RAISE employment” at www.jfgo.org/RAISE. If you are interested in volunteering as a job coach, inquire online by clicking “Apply to become a job coach...
Parents get ready to plan a night out for yourself. The Rosen JCC Saturday Night Out will be on April 27, 6 p.m. -11 p.m. This event lets you drop off kids for a night of fun. The theme this month is “An Evening of Magic.” Kids will be able to play games, have playground time, read and watch a movie with pizza. The monthly event gives parents a place for childcare while they plan a night out or a quiet night at home. Register now because space is limited www.rosenjcc.org/sno....
NEW YORK — As costs continue to soar due to inflation, the Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty has launched an emergency fundraising appeal to ensure the Jewish organization can provide free food to the more than 300,000 Jews who rely on the organization’s free food distributions for Passover across the tri-state area. More than 230 distribution events have been strategically organized across all five boroughs of New York City, as well as in Westchester, Albany, Connecticut, and northern New Jersey. These events serve as crucial access poi...
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, the leadership of Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization, released the following statements in reaction to reports that President Joe Biden held a tense phone conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during which the President demanded an immediate cease-fire to the war in Gaza. “President Biden is playing directly into the enemy’s hands by undermining Israel’s effort to defeat Hamas. If the President wishes to help Israelis and Palestinians, he should do...
(JNS) — Pierre Poilievre, a member of the Canadian parliament and the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, recently spoke to members of the Orthodox Beth Israel Beth Aaron Congregation in Côte Saint-Luc, Quebec. His address on March 26 received robust applause and several standing ovations. Poilievre proclaimed the permanence of the Jewish people, saying that “a thousand years from now, whatever is going on, on Fridays, as the sun goes down, there will be a Shabbat in Israel.” He said, “Those songs will be sung. The Jewish people will go...
(JTA) — Rep. Gregory Meeks, the leading Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said he would not approve a U.S. sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel without “assurances” on what the jets would be used for. “I’m waiting for assurances,” Meeks, who represents a district in New York City, told CNN on Tuesday. “It is enough of the indiscriminate bombing. I don’t want the kinds of weapons that Israel has to be utilized to have more death.” Meeks is one of four lawmakers on Capitol Hill with the power to hold up weapons sales. He has pre...
(JNS) - Orthodox Union leaders delivered 100,000 letters to the White House on Wednesday, urging U.S. President Joe Biden to continue supporting Israel, demanding the release of hostages whom Hamas holds in Gaza and combating antisemitism domestically. The letters were the first batch of more than 180,000 that the OU has collected from synagogues across the country since Thursday, marking 180 days that the hostages have been in captivity. Rabbi Moshe Hauer, executive vice president of the OU,...
(JNS) - The Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition composed of Hamas and other terrorist groups, recently announced price drops for food in the Gaza Strip. Gazan merchants said, "An average family can now buy products for a hearty meal with 100 shekels [$27.15], compared to 200 shekels required for such a meal just a few days ago," Ynet reported. The news is in line with a report issued last week by the Israeli Defense Ministry's Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories...
(JNS) — U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday accused President Joe Biden of turning against Israel to appease the far-left flank of the Democratic Party. “Democrats are weak on Israel as well, and it’s their support for Israel. It’s rather stunning to us that there’s this dramatic shift. Hamas is holding more than 130 hostages, as you know, including Americans,” the 52-year-old Republican said at a press conference in Washington. “These people are languishing at the hands of barbaric terrorists, and Joe Biden is meanwhile giv...
(JNS) — Newly emerged video shot by Hamas terrorists showing the capture of female Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border has been described as “hard to watch” by Israeli media. In the video, parts of which have not been shared with the public, Hamas terrorists are initially seen with five female spotters, with two more later being added. “We will exchange you for our people,” the terrorists say. Another terrorist forces one of the soldiers to show him how to dial a Gaza number from her cell phone. The terrorists later put the soldiers into stol...
(JNS) - The father of an Israeli Defense Forces soldier killed in action in the Gaza Strip has denounced renewed anti-government protests, accusing demonstrators of using the plight of bereaved families and the relatives of hostages to further their political aims. "Nobody should burn the country down," Hagay Lober, whose son Staff Sgt. (res.) Elisha Yehonatan Lober, 24, was killed in the southern Gaza Strip in December, wrote in a viral Facebook post on Sunday. "You cannot dismantle the...
(JTA) — Since the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the right to abortion is no longer protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. But that seismic constitutional change has triggered a new legal debate: In the absence of federal constitutional protection, does state law provide Jews with a religious liberty right to abortion? Last week an Indiana state appellate court answered yes to the question — invoking variations on the word “Jew” more than 70 times in the process. As the first state appellate c...
(JNS) — Family members of U.S. citizens whom Hamas terrorists kidnapped and took to Gaza on Oct. 7 held a “very productive meeting” at the White House on Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris, Rachel Goldberg-Polin said, per the pool report. “We are thinking of all 133 souls who are being held” in Gaza, added Goldberg-Polin, whose son is the American Israeli hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin. (Hersh’s father Jonathan Polin also attended the meeting.) “We want results,” Goldberg-Polin said. Jonathan Dekel-Chen, father of American Israeli hostage...
By Yaakov Lappin (JNS) — Hamas’s leadership in Rafah continues to cling to fanatical visions of eventual victory, six months into the war it launched with Israel, according to Israeli observers. “As long as they are not decisively defeated, they have a chance to stay alive in Gaza. Therefore, they positively view the outcomes of the war, or at least they have some kind of optimism,” said Brig. Gen. (res.) Yossi Kuperwasser, former head of the Research and Assessment Division of Israel’s Military Intelligence and currently director of the Proje...
Some iPhone keyboards suggest Palestinian flag for ‘Jerusalem’ (JNS) — Typing “Jerusalem” on the current iPhone iOS 17.4.1 software in an emoji search returns a Palestinian flag icon if the phone is set to English (UK) but not when set to English (U.S.), JNS found on Wednesday. The same thing happens on some Google’s Android devices The Jewish Chronicle reported, citing a social media post by Rachel Riley, a British television presenter. “I’ve just upgraded my software to version iOS 17.4.1, and now, when I type the capital of Israel, Jerusal...
(JNS) — Esther Panitch was inspired when Renee Evans, of the World Jewish Congress, bought trees in Israel recently for Peach State legislators who voted in favor of a bill to codify into law the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. Evans put Jewish National Fund tree certificates on the lawmakers’ desks. “I saw the certificate, and I was like, ‘Huh. This would be great if I could just name it in honor of a troll,’” Panitch, a Democrat who is the only Jewish state representative in Georgia, told...
(JTA) - The celebrity chef behind the nonprofit whose aid workers were killed in an IDF strike on Tuesday is appealing to Israel, and the Jewish people, to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. In an op-ed published simultaneously Wednesday in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, and The New York Times, World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andres laments the killings and names the seven workers who died. He also calls on Israel to open land routes to deliver aid to hungry Gazans and says his...
(JNS) - Israel will open a new land crossing to the Gaza Strip designed primarily to facilitate the entry of foreign aid, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Wednesday. Gallant told reporters that the new crossing point would be established in the northern part of the coastal enclave, between the Israeli village of Zikim and the Palestinian village of As-Siafa. According to the minister, the new crossing will reduce travel time for trucks to enter Gaza after picking up shipments at...
