Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli forces were involved in a heavy exchange of fire with Hezbollah on Tuesday after anti-tank missiles fired from Lebanon struck a church in the village of Iqrit in the Western Galilee, wounding at least 10 Israelis, including a soldier reportedly in "serious" condition. The wounded included an Israeli civilian in his 80s and nine Israel Defense Forces soldiers, per local media. The troops were reportedly hurt while evacuating the wounded civilian under missile fire. IDF and Magen...
(JTA) — Two Israeli-Americans missing since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel have been confirmed killed, their kibbutz announced. Judith Weinstein, 70, a member of Kibbutz Nir Oz, was fatally wounded during the terrorist invasion of southern Israel, Nir Oz said. The statement confirmed her death but did not say if she had died the same day. Last week, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, a volunteer group that represents Israelis held captive by Hamas, said Weinstein’s husband, Gadi Haggai, 72, had been killed. Their bodies are being hel...
The Wilfrid Israel Memorial was never intended to be an interpretive memorial for the Gaza War. Yet, for some, it has become just that, the first De-Facto Gaza Memorial in Israel. The Gaza War — an unwanted, terrible war that necessitated Jews to rush into the fire to save Jews. The Wilfrid Israel Memorial, adjacent to the ancient Levite City of Tel Yokneam, was conceived and funded by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. It is the creative work of noted Jerusalem artist Sam Ph...
(JNS) - Iris Haim on Wednesday told the Israeli soldiers who accidentally killed her son in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 15 that she doesn't blame them for the tragedy. "I wanted to tell you that I love you very much and I know that what happened is not your fault, it is the fault of no one except Hamas, may their names and memory be erased from the earth," she said in an audio message which has been distributed on social media. Her 28-year-old son, Yotam, along with Alon Shamriz and Samer Fouad...
(JTA) — Birthright Israel on Tuesday announced that it would resume its free, 10-day educational trips to Israel in January after suspending them amid the ongoing war with Hamas. Around 350 participants, students and young adults primarily from the United States, are expected to travel to Israel beginning the week of Jan. 5, 2024, the organization said in a statement. The 350 participants are a small fraction of the 23,000 Birthright had planned to send to Israel this year. Still, the resumption of the programs is a powerful symbol of a p...
School Out Days When schools close for the holidays it can be a magical time. But the school schedule doesn’t work for some working families. The Rosen JCC offers School Out Days. When OCPS schools close, School Out Days give families a place where kids can have a day of fun. Kids get games, playground time and other activities. The new year will kick off with School Out days on Jan. 3, 4, 5 and 8. Kids can be dropped off at 9 a.m. and picked up at 4 p.m. Extended hours are available. To learn more and to register, visit www...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives called on the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign after they declined to say clearly in a congressional hearing that their schools would take action against those calling for the genocide of Jews. The vote Wednesday night was 303-126, with three voting “present.” All but one of the votes against the resolution were by Democrats, including seven of the caucus’ 24 Jewish Democrats. The three voting “present” were likewise Democrats,...
(JNS) — Hamas should be removed from power when the conflict in Gaza ends, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a year-in-review press briefing at the State Department on Wednesday. “Everyone would like to see this conflict end as quickly as possible, but if it ends with Hamas remaining in place and having the capacity and the stated intent to repeat Oct. 7 again and again and again, that’s not in the interest of Israel,” Blinken said. “It’s not in the interest of the region,” he added. “It’s not in the interest of the world.” It...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces soldiers have recovered the body of hostage Elia Toledano, the IDF announced on Friday morning. The body of the 28-year-old Toledano was identified by medical and rabbinical officials as well as the Israel Police. The IDF did not indicate how or when he died. Hours later, the military announced that forces operating in Gaza retrieved the bodies of two more Israeli hostages: Cpl. Nik Beizer, 19, and Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19. Toledano was taken captive at the Supernova music festival at Kibbutz Reim. More than 360 p...
(JTA) — The Lincoln Memorial closed temporarily on Wednesday after its steps were vandalized with graffiti reading “Free Gaza” in multiple places. U.S. Park Police are investigating the graffiti, which was discovered Wednesday morning at the Washington, D.C. monument, according to ABC News. Crews were dispatched to clean up the vandalism. The steps of the memorial were splattered with red paint and pro-Palestinian messages, which the National Park Service said could take some time to complete. “National Park Service conservators have begun t...
There is a petition circulating, initiated by Defenders of Free Speech, to stand with Dr. Darren Klugman, who is a doctor and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. On Oct. 7, Dr. Klugman spoke out about the atrocities committed by Hamas that day. As a result of speaking out on social media, he has been suspended by Hopkins with possible termination, and the American Board of Pediatrics has begun the process of revoking his board certifications. His family has received death threats, requiring round-the-clock security. Why...
(JNS) — The city of Sderot is located less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. Some 90 percent of the town’s 30,000 residents fled on Oct. 7 after Hamas invaded southern Israel. My wife’s cousin Ilan is currently stationed with his IDF infantry unit in what was until recently a Sderot elementary school. The happy, high-pitched yelping of children has been replaced by the metallic sounds of assault rifles being taken apart, cleaned and reassembled by soldiers. We were visiting Ilan’s family in Nahariya, Israel’s northernmost coastal city, whe...
(JNS) - David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple, a conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, joined Harvard University's Antisemitism Advisory Group in the hopes that he could persuade the school to make some serious changes. "I wanted immediate, visible action," he told JNS. "In fact, what I saw was that the anti-Jewish agitation on campus was getting worse, not better." Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League's inaugural rabbinic fellow, named by Newsweek as the most influential rabbi...
(JNS) — Israeli ground, air and naval forces struck more than 300 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, causing heavy Hamas casualties and destroying terror infrastructure, the Israel Defense Forces reported on Wednesday morning. Paratroopers from the 55th Brigade raided a Hamas “military” headquarters in the terror group’s stronghold of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip, according to the military. During the search, many weapons were found as well as ammunition and explosive charges, including 20 mortar shells. Also in Khan Yunis, soldie...
(JNS) — Since Oct. 7, the International Red Cross has been helping imprisoned Palestinian terrorists receive controversial stipends from the Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch. According to PMW, incarcerated Palestinians fill out forms to receive the stipends, and the Red Cross delivers the paperwork to Ramallah. “The role of the International Red Cross in this process is central,” explained PMW director Itamar Marcus. “The international health organization is involved in this because as they visit prisone...
(MEMRI via JNS) — The Jews “who came to Palestine” are pagan Khazar converts, not the Children of Israel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Dec. 18 speech posted online by the official Syrian Arab News Agency and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The Syrian dictator went on to state there is “no evidence” that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and that the Nazis did not employ any special methods of torture or killing for Jews, who he said were killed just like other victims of World War II. The Holocaust...
(JNS) — Two months after his parents and two sisters were brutally murdered in their home by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre at Kibbutz Nahal Oz, Ariel Zohar celebrated his bar mitzvah on Thursday. The tefillin (phylacteries used for Jewish rituals) that the bar mitzvah boy placed around his arm and on his forehead were given to him by his Holocaust-survivor grandfather, who got it from his late father. Despite the charred home, it stayed intact and was recovered by first r...
(JTA) — In Oakland, California, an 11-foot-tall Chanukah menorah was broken and thrown into a lake. In New Haven, Connecticut, a Palestinian flag was planted in a publicly displayed menorah. In Juno Beach, Florida, a menorah made of sand was destroyed. As Jewish communities around the United States celebrated Chanukah over the past week, numerous stories of vandalism and destruction circulated online as public menorahs — many of them sponsored by local outposts of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement — were targeted. Some of the incidents are being...
(JTA) – The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of California, Davis, both of which have recently experienced widely publicized episodes of conflict around Israel, are among six new institutions facing U.S. Department of Education investigations. The department has indicated it is taking a newly aggressive approach to addressing it and Islamophobia on campus since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war and is announcing new investigations at a rapid clip, dramatically increasing the pace of civil rights inquiries that it o...
IDF drills for Oct. 7-type attack in Judea and Samaria (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces this week carried out a drill simulating an Oct. 7-style attack in Judea and Samaria and northern border communities, according to Israeli media reports. The exercise was one of various scenarios the IDF is preparing for in Judea and Samaria following the invasion by Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip, in which 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered, thousands more wounded and 240 people kidnapped. IDF released report on capture of Nahal Oz base (JNS) ...
(JTA) — When a recent survey showed that nearly three-quarters of Palestinians supported Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, Israeli officials and commentators cited it to justify their country’s war in Gaza, which aims to depose the terror group. “Palestinians need to focus on prioritizing the building of their nation, rather than trying to destroy ours,” read an online post by Act4IL, an Israeli government-run social media feed. “It’s not a conflict about borders, it’s about the mere fact that Palestinians don’t want us here.” For Israelis and others...
(JTA) — A 3-0 score is extremely rare in the NFL. But when the Minnesota Vikings beat the Las Vegas Raiders Sunday night in the league’s lowest-scoring game since 2007, the moment held extra significance for the player who scored those three points. Vikings kicker Greg Joseph, one of only a handful of Jewish players in the NFL, had worn cleats before the game that showed support for Israel as part of the league’s “My Cause, My Cleats” program. His shoes displayed Stars of David and the phrases “I Stand with Israel” and “Am Yisrael Chai,...
Central Florida continues to see an influx of observant families. In response to a growing need for Jewish families seeking affordable housing, attractive schooling options, warmer winters and lower taxes, a new 14-mile eruv has been established. Over the past year, local real estate executive Jacob Hara with the assistance of two rabbis from south Florida and under the supervision of Rabbi Sholom Ber Dubov of Chabad of Greater Orlando, investigated, planned and established this eruv. What is...
(JNS) — The Jewish Federation of North America announced recently that its post-Oct. 7 fundraising has surpassed $700 million. The $242 million that it has allocated—of the $711.5 million raised—is going to about 300 partnering organizations, including Jewish Agency for Israel, United Hatzalah, Magen David Adom, ZAKA and Chabad, the Federations stated. Its areas of focus include food security, support for Bedouin Israelis and people with disabilities and rabbinic services and pastoral guidance. Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Federatio...
On Dec. 4, the Hilton in Altamonte Springs played host to the JP Connections luncheon, leaving attendees with a memorable experience. The highlight of the luncheon was the recognition of Judy Appleton, who was honored with the Volunteer of the Year award for her outstanding contributions and dedication. Looking ahead, JP Connections is gearing up for its next spectacular event - the annual fashion show at Dillard's on Feb. 15. The upcoming affair promises to be a stylish celebration where Lisa...
