Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday mocked Paris’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, suggesting that this new entity be located in southern France and named after a fictional monster. “[French President Emmanuel] Macron’s unilateral ‘declaration’ of a ‘Palestinian’ state didn’t say WHERE it would be. I can now exclusively disclose that France will offer the French Riviera and the new nation will be called ‘Franc-en-Stine,’ tweeted Huckabee, in an apparent reference to Mary Shelley’s classic novel “Frankens...
Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the 2025–26 state budget, which includes over $500,000 in funding for the Jack & Lee Rosen Jewish Community Center in Southwest Orlando. This generous appropriation will help expand senior programs and enhance security measures across the campus. In addition to the state funding, a dollar-for-dollar match from the Harris Rosen Foundation brought the total investment to over $1 million. These funds will support vital capital improvements — from infrastructure upgrades to increased accessibility — ensuring that...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Israel will have to make a decision on next steps in the war on Hamas, adding he did not know what would happen after the terrorists blew up the ceasefire negotiations. “You know, they had a routine discussion the other day and, all of a sudden, they hardened up,” he said of the talks, speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. Hamas “don’t want to give them back,” Trump said in reference to the remaining 50 hostages held in the Gaza Strip. “So...
(JNS) — French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Thursday that “consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Paris intends to recognize a Palestinian state. “I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September,” Macron stated. “The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision “to recognize a Palestinian state nex...
(JNS) — Gal Gadot, the most prominent Israeli in Hollywood, met on Tuesday with five survivors of Hamas captivity in Gaza: Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Moran Stella Yanai and Ilana Gritzewsky. The women recounted their harrowing experiences in the hands of the terrorist group, and called on Gadot to keep advocating for the release of the 50 people still believed to be in captivity 655 days after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. Steinbrecher urged Gadot: “Don’t stop. We must keep talking about the hostages and keep them in the publi...
Sunday was Israel’s hottest day so far this year, according to the Israel Meteorological Service. According to IMS data, the temperature at the Sodom weather station in the Dead Sea region reached a high of 46.5°C (115.7°F), just three degrees shy of the all-time record for the area. In the Jordan Valley and around the Sea of Galilee, temperatures ranged from 43°C to 44°C (109.4°F to 111.2°F). An extreme heat stress index was recorded in Tel Aviv, with the mercury hitting 33°C (91.4°F) and humidity levels soaring to 70 percent. The heatwave has...
(JNS) — The first-ever Israeli baby born to a woman who had undergone uterine transposition surgery was delivered at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, the hospital announced on Wednesday. The newborn is only the sixth baby in the world born to a woman who has undergone the groundbreaking transposition procedure, it noted. Professor Ram Eitan, director of Beilinson’s Gynecologic Oncology Unit, who performed the uterine surgery in 2022, recently delivered the baby via Caesarean section, in what the medical center descr...
By (JTA) -A Muslim democratic socialist state lawmaker in his 30s defeats the establishment candidate for mayor of his city, setting up a showdown in advance of November's general election. The scenario played out last month in New York City - and again this week in Minneapolis, where Omar Fateh won the endorsement of the state's Democratic Party in his bid to unseat the city's Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey. Fateh, 35, is the latest progressive candidate to ascend amid a shift away from...
(JTA) — The first athlete to notch a Manischewitz endorsement is transferring from a university with just a handful of Jewish students to a school with one of the highest proportions of Jewish students in the United States. Jake Retzlaff will play for Tulane University, according to reports in sports media. Neither Retzlaff nor Tulane has confirmed the move, but Retzlaff retweeted an article about it. Retzlaff announced earlier this month that he would leave Brigham Young University, the M...
Part 1 of a series In recognition of 20 years since the Gaza pullout, JNS is featuring a five-part series of articles reflecting Israel's disengagement, speaking with an array of former Gush Katif residents to find out how they perceive the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Trump plan for the Gaza Strip and the prospect of returning. About two months into the Israel Defense Forces' invasion into the Gaza Strip as part of "Operation Swords of Iron" in retaliation of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern...
(JNS) — The United States will examine “alternative options” to bring home the 50 captives held by Hamas as the terrorist group “does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday. “We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s point man in the talks wrote in an X post on Thursday afternoon. While mediators Qatar and Egypt “have...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that it is investigating Harvard University’s participation in the exchange visitor visa program. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Harvard’s continued use of the program might undermine U.S. national security. “To maintain their privilege to sponsor exchange visitors, sponsors must comply with all regulations, including conducting their programs in a manner that does not undermine the foreign policy objectives or compromise the national security interests of the United...
Anti-Israel vandals deface AOC’s office Anti-Israel vandals defaced the Bronx, N.Y., office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday after the far-left member of “The Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against cutting aid to the Jewish state, the New York Post reported. The vandals wrote in red paint that the congresswoman “funds genocide in Gaza.” The Boogie Down Liberation Front, which claimed responsibility, stated that “the Bronx is sick and tired of people like AOC and Ritchie Torres using us as a stepping-st...
Israel says its army is pausing military operations in some parts of Gaza for 10 hours a day to facilitate the distribution of aid to civilians. The announcement Sunday comes amid a global outcry about the hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave where the IDF has been battling Hamas for more than 21 months. Israel also dropped supplies by air for the first time in the war on Sunday, while Egypt allowed aid to enter through its border with Gaza in a first for a period when hostilities are ongoing. In the first “humanitarian pause,” Israel said...
(JNS) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) voiced support for extending Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria during a meeting with Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan in Washington. “Sovereignty is so important to the world. It’s so important to all of us,” Scalise said. The congressman spoke alongside Dagan after taking part in a summit on the issue organized by the council on Capitol Hill. “We always pray for Israel and especially the people of Samaria,” Scalise said. “We know how difficult the times are but keep mora...
(JNS) — An Israeli musician says he and two colleagues were kicked out of a restaurant in Vienna for speaking Hebrew, while elsewhere in Austria, a couple from Israel reported being denied service at a trailer park because of their nationality. The musicians — Hagai Shaham, Julia Gurvitch and Amit Peled — were waiting for the server at an eatery called “Pizzeria Ristorante Ramazzotti” on Meiselstrasse, a quiet street in Vienna’s 2nd district, or Leopoldstadt, which is the city’s most heavily Jewish quarter. The server heard them speaking Hebr...
An Orthodox Jewish music festival will take place in Bethel, New York on Aug. 7 - at the very same location where the iconic Woodstock Music & Art Fair took place in August 1969. Called Yamim Ba'im, or "The Coming Days," the four-act, family-friendly outdoor concert will occur at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts on Thursday, August 7. The venue, whose Pavilion Amphitheater and lawn seats 16,000, will host some of the biggest names in Jewish music, with Orthodox Israeli superstar Ishay Ribo...
Philanthropist Andy Pargh, known to many as The Gadget Guru, has donated a $1 million gift to the Jack & Lee Rosen JCC's event center. Previously known as the Rosen Event Center, it is now the Pargh Event Center. "This gift is more than generous. It is deeply meaningful. It reflects Mr. Pargh's enduring commitment to Jewish values, his family's legacy of giving and his belief in the power of shared experiences to bring people together," Rosen JCC CEO Ofira Bondorowsky stated in a press release...
The University of Central Florida Hillel has welcomed Rabbi Jordan Gerson as its new executive director. He joined the staff in June, leaving his position as the Silk Foundation campus rabbi – chief experience officer of Hillel at Washington University in St. Louis, where he served approximately 1700 Jewish students for 11 years. Before arriving at UCF, Gerson was selected to the eighth cohort of the Debra S. and Joseph S. Weinberg Accelerate Executive Advancement Program, Hillel's premier e...
(JNS) - History was made overnight at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, as Israeli-American Michael Mizrachi, 44, clinched the world championship title and walked away with a $10 million prize. Mizrachi, a Florida native and son of an Israeli father, proudly displayed a tattoo of the Israeli flag on his arm. In a recent major tournament victory, he requested that Israel's national anthem be played instead of the U.S. anthem. This time, he competed wearing a tag around his neck symbolizing...
(JNS) — Israel has called on the United Nations Security Council to act against the Damascus regime for its role in atrocities being committed against Druze civilians in Syria’s Suweida province. In a letter dated July 17, Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar expressed “deep concern” over reports of brutal violence targeting the Druze community in southern Syria. Sa’ar described acts of “killings and executions, defacement of bodies, public humiliation of captured civilians,” alongside widespread looting and desecration of religious sites....
(JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clarified Israel’s two-pronged strategic goal in Syria on Thursday — ensuring southern Syria is demilitarized and protecting the Druze of that region. Netanyahu defined southern Syria as an area running from the Golan Heights to Jabal al-Druze, a region encompassing nearly all of the as-Sweida Governorate, recently the site of massacres perpetrated by regime-linked Syrian forces against the Druze community. The Syrian regime violated both red lines, Netanyahu said. “It sent troops south of Damascu...
(JNS) — Two of the three Iranian nuclear facilities that the United States struck in June could potentially resume nuclear enrichment over the next several months, according to NBC News. NBC cited five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the most recent assessment — which has been briefed to some U.S. lawmakers, U.S. Defense Department officials and allied countries — who said that one of the sites was “mostly destroyed,” while the other two “were not as badly damaged.” According to NBC, discussions have been held within the U....
While the majority of Americans oppose antisemitism, a quarter believe that the recent string of attacks on Jews in the United States were “understandable,” according to a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League on Friday. The report comes in the wake of three recent attacks on Jewish targets by people claiming to act on behalf of the Palestinians: the arson attack on Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s house in April, the deadly shooting of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington D.C. in May and the firebombing attack on a gro...
The number of antisemitic assaults and acts of vandalism on college campuses fell sharply in the last school year, according to Hillel International. And the pro-Palestinian encampments that ignited fear among many Jewish college students in early 2024 effectively disappeared in the year since, with just nine encampments taking place in the last school year, the Jewish campus group said in its annual tally of antisemitic incidents, released Thursday, July 17. But Hillel International said antisemitic incidents were still on the rise on college...
