Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s second-holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, giving thanks for the United States joining the war against Iran. Netanyahu visited the site alongside Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, and Mordechai “Suli” Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The prime minister recited a special prayer for U.S. President Donald Trump, known in Hebrew as Hanoten teshuah (“He who grants deliverance”), asking that God...
(JNS) - A year after the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 252 taken hostage by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a new phase in the war. He said the operation known as "Swords of Iron" now bears a far older, deeper name: "The War of Tkuma." In Hebrew, tkuma means resurrection - a word rooted in Jewish memory, struggle and renewal. This wasn't just a rebranding. It was a signal. With the symbolic conclusion of shiva - the seven-day Je...
Congregation Ohev Shalom was honored to host the Orlando Symphony Orchestra on June 12 as it launched its Two Concerts, One Community series. "Many of our congregants regularly attend performances at the Dr. Phillips Center, but welcoming the symphony and world-renowned baritone Lawrence Craig into our own sanctuary was beyond special. Seeing and hearing the musicians on our bimah was truly magical," said COS President Debby Gendzier. The sanctuary of Maitland's COS came alive with music,...
Shalom Orlando welcomed Dr. James Larsen as the next director of the Richard S. Adler Early Childhood Learning Center. Starting on July 14, Dr. Larsen brings more than three decades of educational experience and knowledge to this role. He will oversee ECLC curriculum, staff, budget, professional development, and family engagement, and he. Dr. Larsen comes to us from Orange County Public Schools where he was a classroom teacher, a school principal, and a district administrator during his 30-year...
As one of the largest Jewish camp operators in the United States, NJY Camps was expecting to host over 100 Israeli counselors this summer. Now, over half of them are stranded in Israel after the surprise onset of a war with Iran has ground air travel to a total halt. “Some of them were supposed to be here today. They will not be here today, and who knows when they will be here,” said Michael Schlank, CEO of the network of day and overnight camps in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. At Jewish camps in the United States, hosting Israelis as cou...
(JNS) — Israeli fighter jets struck the entrance gate of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison on Monday, according to Iranian opposition media and Israeli officials. Defense Minister Israel Katz confirmed the operation as part of a broader campaign targeting “governmental repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.” Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said in a press briefing that the Israeli Air Force was “intensifying strikes” in the capital area. The Israeli military described the attack on the prison as “symbolic....
NEW YORK — Following a U.S. operation targeting Iran’s underground nuclear facilities, Ambassador Ronald S. Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress, issued the following statement: “A nuclear Iran would pose a grave threat to Western civilization and global security. It is my hope that today’s historic operation by the United States has brought an end to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear ambitions once and for all. “I applaud President Trump and his administration for having the courage to act decisively, and for lending critical Am...
(JNS) — Amid the devastation of recent missile attacks, the rescue of babies has become a poignant symbol of hope. A heartfelt video from Thursday in Ramat Gan captures a father’s reunion with his infant son, passed to him by rescuers after the massive Iranian barrage at around 7:30 a.m. “Hand him to me, all is well, my boy is OK, come to Mommy, such a smile,” he said, his voice breaking as he held his child, saved from a direct missile strike on their building. In another part of central Israel, rescuers freed a baby girl from the wreckag...
JAFFA, Israel - It was after 2 a.m. by the time I finally fell asleep, after yet another siren sent us scrambling to the safe room in our Jaffa apartment, which has transitioned - at least for this iteration of war - into a kind of Japanese-style tatami bed, sprawling mattresses wall-to-wall. Three hours later, I woke up inexplicably and saw the door was open. One of the kids was missing. Bleary-eyed, I went searching and found my middle son curled up asleep on my bed. I carried him back and...
I am a living witness to the attack on the center of Tel Aviv yesterday morning at 4 a.m. I was staying in a safe room with 3 other women, pretty much as close as one could be to the direct hit. It’s very important that you understand this was a neighborhood of young, relatively “secular” Israelis who do not wear any kind of head coverings. They cover themselves more in tattoos than clothes. From the young soldiers in the search and rescue crews that got us out of the apartment to the store owners on the street below, everyone was liter...
Iran fires 15 missiles at Israel in latest barrage By JNS Staff Some 15 ballistic missiles were launched at Israel’s north in Iran’s latest attack on Thursday afternoon, with no reports of direct hits or casualties. Air-raid sirens sounded across Israel’s north, including in Haifa, sending the city’s almost 300,000 residents running for bomb shelters. The IDF Home Front Command gave the all-clear some 20 minutes after the military detected launches from Iran. “At this stage, no calls have been received by the Magen David Adom 101 hotline r...
The United States has started the voluntary evacuation process for U.S. citizens who wish to leave Israel amid the country’s conflict with Iran. “Urgent notice,” Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, posted on social media on Wednesday. “American citizens wanting to leave Israel, the U.S. embassy in Israel is working on evacuation flights and cruise ship departures.” The envoy urged citizens to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive updates. The U.S. State Department announced on Tuesday that it established a Middle...
(JNS) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday endorsed Israel’s airstrikes on Iran, saying it was doing essential work for Germany and others. “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us,” Merz told the ZDF broadcaster during an interview on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Alberta, Canada. The phrasing came in response to a question from an interviewer who had used the term. “We are also affected by this regime. This mullah regime has brought death and destruction to the world,” Merz added. Israel’s ambassador to Germany, Ron...
(JNS) - Anti-Israel and Anti-Jewish sentiments have been on public display in university classrooms and campuses around the world, especially since Israel responded militarily to the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre. According to the CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis) watchdog group, that hatred has also seeped into the classrooms of children from kindergarten to 12th grade. On Sunday night, CAMERA, in partnership with the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, held...
(JNS) - They remembered Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky at the U.S. Capitol Tuesday evening, as lawmakers of both political parties vowed to continue the fight against the Jew-hatred that has led to violence and the deaths of two young, Israeli embassy employees on a Washington street earlier this month. "It's a dangerous time to be a Jewish American," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at the beginning of a 30-minute vigil, which drew more than 100 people, on the House steps. "Where is...
(JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it...
Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country's new war with Iran. Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country's center, injuring dozens of people. Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and...
We are all following the devastation of war in Israel on TV, social media, and via direct reports from friends and family who are there. We are getting reports of community members who are unable to return to Florida due to the closure of Ben Gurion Airport and the airlines canceling their flights indefinitely. The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, part of the Shalom Orlando Family, is actively monitoring the situation and wants to make you aware of several resources that are being offered to help evacuate American citizens currently in...
(JNS)- The 2025 Maccabiah Games scheduled to take place in Israel in July have been canceled and postponed until 2026 as a result of the ongoing war against Iran, the Maccabi World Union announced on Monday. It said that in consultations between the heads of Maccabi World Union and the 2025 Maccabiah, together with Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and his staff, it was decided that due to Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on June 13, "the...
Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation has a new full-time rabbi. Rabbi Shai Specht-Sandler will officially begin his tenure at SOJC on July 1, 2025. Rabbi Shai's life experiences span the Jewish world, as well as the globe itself. "I was born in Israel and left at 13," he said, "then spent my formative years in Manchester, England and the United States. I come from a proudly pluralistic and Masorti background, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, and from a long line of educators and rabbis... [I've]...
(JTA) — President Donald Trump is pressing forward in seeking a nuclear deal with Iran following a massive wave of Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear program. Trump, who has built his public persona around a verve for making deals, addressed his now-weakened negotiating partner in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, several hours after the Israelis began carrying out a daring and apparently successful mission in Iran that took aim at the places and personnel involved in the country’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump said...
By JNS Staff (JNS) — A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria probably won’t happen “in our lifetime” and is no longer Washington’s goal, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday. “Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told Bloomberg, adding that a culture shift is unlikely to take place “in our lifetime.” When asked by Bloomberg if an independent Palestinian state is the goal of the Trump administration, the diplomat responded: “I don’t think so.” A Pa...
(JNS) — The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakay, warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home, as Israel’s main international airport remained closed for a third day on Sunday amid the war with Iran. The remarks came as tens of thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad since Israel closed its airspace after launching a pre-emptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites. “I want to say to Israelis abroad: It will take weeks, not days or hour...
Larnaca, Cyprus — In a remarkable and unprecedented emergency operation, Birthright Israel successfully evacuated approximately 1,500 program participants earlier today aboard the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, sailing from Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus. The 13-hour voyage (more or less) is conducted under the close protection of the Israeli Navy, which escorted the vessel across the Mediterranean to ensure the participants’ safety amid ongoing regional tensions. The cruise ship was secured by Bir...
The White House was informed of Israel’s strikes against the Iranian regime ahead of time but was not involved militarily, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News‘ Bret Baier on Friday. Washington still hopes that Tehran will clinch a nuclear agreement with the United States, Trump told Baier. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see,” Fox News cited the commander-in-chief as saying. “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” he added. U.S. officials w...
