Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Ditza Or, mother of Avinatan Or, who survived 738 days in Hamas captivity, said on Wednesday that the Jewish people stand at a historic crossroads. "Now is the time to advance the national dream of the people of Israel, the fulfillment of divine prophecy and the ultimate redemption of all humanity," Or said in an address to "The Future of Judea and Samaria" conference in Jerusalem. She described her son's return as part of the current ceasefire with Hamas as "a wondrous miracle."...
(JNS) — A new joint command center established by the United States military’s Central Command in the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat in recent days to help manage the future of the Gaza Strip is described by former Israeli military officers as an “unprecedented” development in external involvement in the affairs of the Strip. The Civil-Military Coordination Center houses hundreds of personnel. The three-story structure includes a first floor designated as for Israeli security personnel only (a secure area for officials from the IDF, Foreign...
(JNS) — The Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, can be traced back to Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, Amichai Chikli, Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, stated on Wednesday evening. “There is a direct line between the withdrawal from Gaza to the disaster of Oct. 7,” Chikli said in remarks at The Future of Judea and Samaria conference at the Inbal Hotel in Jerusalem, sponsored by the American Friends of Judea & Samaria and the Jewish News Syndica...
(JNS) — Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi submitted her letter of resignation to IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir at a meeting on Friday. Her resignation came after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he intended to fire her. “In light of the severity of the suspicions and the sensitivity of the role of the [Military Advocate General] in charge of enforcing the law and setting legal norms throughout the IDF, the Minister of Defense intends to begin the process of appointing a new Military Adv...
He was elected to represent Astoria, Queens, in New York’s state Assembly and is running to helm New York City. But Zohran Mamdani has called the Palestinian cause “central to my identity,” both in and out of politics. Mamdani consistently and proudly associates with the pro-Palestinian movement in high-profile settings across New York City. Shortly after delivering a stunning upset in the mayoral primary, for instance, he took the stage with Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian protest leader who was detained by the Trump administration, at co...
(JNS) MELBOURNE, Australia — Over one hundred Australian doctors were gathering this week in both Melbourne and Sydney as part of a major immigration fair for medical professionals planning on moving to Israel following the war against Hamas in Gaza. The event comes amid a sharp rise in antisemitism around the world following the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. In Australia, currently ruled by a strongly anti-Israel government, a synagogue and a Jewish daycare center were firebombed and Jewish-owned properties and cars h...
(JNS) — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who used an appearance before the Heritage Foundation last month to attack Tucker Carlson over the former Fox News host’s anti-Israel rhetoric, blasted him again Thursday after the head of the conservative think tank refused to disavow the right-wing firebrand. Cruz didn’t mention Carlson by name as he kicked off the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual legislative conference in Las Vegas with a call to action to stop the spread of anti-Israel talk among young Christians. But he left no doubt to whom he was ref...
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida has raised over $1m in philanthropic commitments of $150K or more in 2025, marking unprecedented organizational momentum and setting the stage for transformative years ahead. These crucial gifts, to fund annual operations and innovations, reflect confidence in the Center's strategic direction and long-term impact. Founded in 1980 as a lecture series on the Holocaust, the Holocaust Center was established in 1982 and opened its museum...
(JNS) — An Assyrian inscription on a pottery sherd over a possible tax revolt from the First Temple period about 2,700 years ago has been uncovered near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The tiny fragment, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in size, was uncovered six months ago during an excavation in the archaeological garden adjacent to the Western Wall, the state-run archaeological body said. It is the first such inscription in the Akkadian language eve...
Israeli singer Yair Levi’s melodies, in Hebrew and English, have touched the hearts of Jewish, Christian and secular men and women worldwide. Take his song, “The Blessing”: At a performance in The Netherlands, the overflowing crowd of Jews and Christians sang with him the Aaronic Blessing — “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” — in Hebrew and Dutch and English. Cent...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — After the initial euphoria over the return by Hamas of 20 living Israeli hostages and the outrage at the terrorist organization for handing over only a fraction of the deceased hostages, talks on the next steps to end the war in Gaza are advancing. Before moving to the next stage of U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, ending the first stage is required, namely the return of all deceased hostages, 24 in total. Hamas already said last week that it would have difficulty locating all the deceased, since some wer...
(JNS) — In an interview with “60 Minutes” host Lesley Stahl that aired on Oct. 19, White House envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff recounted the chronology of events that led to the hostage-for-ceasefire deal that Israel and Hamas signed in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on Oct. 9. Kushner said their approach was rooted in “pragmatic realism,” which he defined as preventing wars through strength and making deals instead of lecturing the world. The focus, he said, was on shared interests over shared values, working with other nations where goa...
(JNS) — Likud Cabinet and deputy ministers have signed a letter calling on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection to his ongoing criminal trial. The letter, dated Oct. 19, was initiated by Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, who posted it on X. “Unfortunately, today it is already clear to everyone that as long as his trial is underway, which is like a bleeding wound in the body of Israeli society, there will be no unity in Israel,” the letter states. The move comes in the w...
(JNS) — Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) led 44 Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, in a letter urging U.S. President Donald Trump to tell Israel that he is opposed to Israel annexing territory in Judea and Samaria. All of the Democrats in the Senate signed the letter except Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress. “Since your plan for Gaza does not address the West Bank, it is imperative that your administration reinforce your comments and emphasize its oppositi...
(JNS) — A prominent American evangelical leader said Thursday that the faith-based Christian community needs to take a more verbal stand against antisemitism, and “shut down” people like the right-wing political commentators Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson who feed hatred of Jews and Israel. The unequivocal remarks come at a time when polls show a drop in support for Israel among young evangelicals due to the fallout from the two-year war in Gaza and follow last month’s assassination of the American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was...
(JNS) — A poll in the New York City mayoral race released on Monday shows state representative Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic nominee, with a double-digit lead in a three-way race against independent, former Democratic governor Andrew Cuomo and the Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa. The AARP/Gotham poll of 1,040 likely voters shows Mamdani leading with 43.2% of the vote against Cuomo’s 28.9 percent and Sliwa’s 19.4 percent. But those margins would tighten considerably if either of the trailing candidates were to drop out of the race. “In a head-...
(JNS) - The Gaza ceasefire agreement faced its most deadly challenge yet on Sunday following an unprovoked attack by Hamas in southern Gaza that killed two IDF personnel-a company commander and a soldier from the Nahal Infantry Brigade-and severely wounded a third soldier. Hamas conducted at least two other attacks on Sunday as well. A military official, speaking to reporters on Sunday, stated that some of the IDF personnel targeted in the attacks were working on dismantling tunnel...
(JNS) - A decision by Britain's Safety Advisory Group to bar visiting Maccabi Tel Aviv fans from attending an upcoming Europa League match at Aston Villa's Villa Park has sparked outrage, with British-Israeli released hostage and soccer enthusiast Emily Damari calling it "shocking" and "disgusting." "I was released from Hamas captivity in January and I am a die-hard fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv," said Damari, who also supports Tottenham Hotspur. "I am shocked to my core with this outrageous decision...
(JNS) — Documents obtained by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza strip show substantial cooperation between Hamas and Al Jazeera, according to a report published on Monday. That coordination extended to the existence of a secure phone line between the terrorist group’s military emergency operations room and the Qatari news agency. “Qatar’s Al Jazeera gives Hamas a propaganda and psychological warfare platform. Hamas operatives, from rocket launchers to hostage takers, work for Al Jazeera. Terror propaganda is not journalism,” Israel’s...
(JNS) — Four in 10 Jewish Americans say they try to hide their religious identity, according to a new Washington Post poll that also reported almost one in three respondents saying they don’t feel safe as a Jew in the United States. In the survey, 42 percent of respondents said they do not wear, carry or display anything in public that could identify them as Jewish, with 58 percent saying they do. In an American Jewish Committee poll taken in November 2023, a month after Oct. 7, just 26 percent said they hid their Jewish identity, while 73 perc...
Israeli FM congratulates new Japanese premier on ‘historic election’ Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday congratulated Japan’s first female prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, on her “historic election.” “We look forward to further deepening the partnership between Japan and Israel across various fields and building a prosperous and secure future for both our nations,” tweeted Sa’ar. Takaichi, who leads Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was voted in as premier by a clear majority of the nation’s parliament on Monday. While the 6...
(JNS) — Jewish families have been banned from living in Saudi Arabia for dec-ades. Is this the model that Democratic House leaders now support for Judea and Samaria? When 178 House Democrats signed a letter on Sept. 25 to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposing any Israeli move to annex territory in the West Bank, they weren’t just making a policy statement but endorsing a future where no Jews would live in Judea and Samaria. Do they believe that Jews should be barred from living in their ancestral homeland—the biblical heart...
(JNS) — The Hamas terrorist organization, through the International Committee of the Red Cross, returned the remains of two more slain Israeli hostages it had been holding in the Gaza Strip. After being handed over to Israeli forces by a Red Cross team inside the Strip, the bodies were transferred to the Jewish state and received in a military ceremony, the Prime Minister’s Office said. Following an identification process at the National Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir in Tel Aviv, the PMO confirmed the hostages’ identities as Ar...
(JNS) - Rom Braslavski, one of the 20 hostages freed by Hamas as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire, was held alone for two years, and was offered better treatment if he agreed to convert to Islam. His testimony was shared with the media via his mother, Tami Braslavski, at Ramat Gan's Sheba Hospital, where he is being treated. During some of those two years, his only company was the bodies of murdered hostages, she said. She added that upon his return to Israel, he had reported the location of...
(JNS) — Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday passed in preliminary reading two opposition bills to extend legal sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. One bill, by Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman, seeks to annex Ma’ale Adumim, a large city in the Judean Desert, while a second, by Noam Party head Avi Maoz, concerns all of Judea and Samaria. The legislation will now be forwarded to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for consideration ahead of three additional votes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought to thwart the...
