Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1808 - 1832 of 10941
(JNS) — As rockets from Gaza continue to rain down across Israel following the carnage of the Hamas attack on the western Negev that began on Oct. 7, and foreign nations including the United States consider further evacuations of their citizens, many new immigrants to the Jewish state are for the first time facing the harsh reality of living at war. Dov Lipman, former member of the Knesset and CEO of the Yad L’Olim NGO, shed light on how traumatic the last few weeks have been for olim in Israel. He made aliyah from the U.S. in 2004. “Ke...
Since Oct. 7, Israel Bonds has raised $1 billion (JNS) — In the first nine days since Hamas brutally attacked Israel on Oct. 7, Israel Bonds—which supports the Jewish state with its sales, which have totaled more than $50 billion since 1951—raised $200 million. Since then, Israel Bonds has raised four times that amount, raising its total in the past month to more than $1 billion. “This is Israel Bonds’ highest surge of investment ever, which demonstrates the strong support for Israel of the Jewish communities and Israel’s supporters in the Unit...
TAIPEI, Taiwan (JTA) — Growing up as a Bukharian Jew in China, Uriah was always told by his parents to hide his Jewishness in public and to try to assimilate into the greater Chinese population. Uriah — who asked to be identified only by his Hebrew name to ensure the safety of his family — said that when he began publicly talking about his Jewish identity, people told him that he would “never be one of us [Han Chinese].” But Uriah had never felt physically or personally threatened until the aftermath of Oct. 7, when Hamas killed over 1,400 Isr...
More than 250 people attended Jewish National Fund-USA’s Breakfast for Israel on Friday, Nov. 10, at the Hilton Orlando/Altamonte Springs in a powerful show of solidarity and unity with the Jewish State. The event’s featured speaker was Elie Klein, a Baltimore native who immigrated to Israel and is now a world advocate for the disability community, promoting inclusion, equity, and access around the globe. As Jewish National Fund-USA’s Liaison for ADI Negev-Nahalat Eran, a world-class rehabilitation facility for people with disabilities locat...
(JNS) — “This is a second Holocaust for me,” said survivor Ruth Haran, 87, who is reliving a childhood nightmare. Twice now, she has made it out alive from the inferno. But the death, the destruction and the fear have all returned and come full circle for the great-grandmother, eight decades after the Holocaust. Her son and two other family members were killed in the Oct. 7 Hamas assault on Israeli communities in southern Israel. Seven other members of her family, including her daughter, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, aged 3 and 8, we...
(JNS) — Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) sits on the House Foreign Affairs, Intelligence and Armed Services Committees, giving him a 360-degree perspective on both the context surrounding Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre in Israel and its aftermath. “At the end of the day, this administration has an Iran policy problem,” Waltz said of the White House’s reported efforts to appease Iran in exchange for restarting the 2015 nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action from which the Trump administration withdrew in 2015. “It has been obsessed wi...
(JNS) — Menachem Levy says he is “used to death.” A member of Tel Aviv’s chevra kadisha (“sacred society”), he is among a relatively small number of experts in Israel responsible for preparing tens of thousands of bodies each year for Jewish burial. Yet, he says, nothing he has ever seen prepared him for the jarring scenes he encountered in Israel’s south, where he joined with volunteers, led by ZAKA, in collecting the bodies and body parts of victims of Hamas brutality for burial. “Ther...
(JNS) — In an apparent attempt to reassure Gaza City residents after Israeli tanks were seen on Monday on Salah al-Din street, the city’s main highway, Hamas announced that “a number of tanks reached an agricultural area and escaped from the place under the fire of the resistance.” However, the Israel Defense Force’s pressure on northern Gaza continues. The army is still advising residents to move to the south as it continues to strikes Hamas positions and strongholds. In contrast to the initial days of fighting, Palestinian rescue services wer...
Walmart’s philanthropic arm announced Friday that it would be sending Israel’s Red Cross $1 million in response to the “horrific and inhuman” Hamas attack on Israel October 7 that set off the ongoing war that Israel declared in order to destroy the terrorist organization. “As you all know, throughout these horrific and inhuman attacks by Hamas, Magen David Adom has played a critical role in providing medical aid to victims,” said the statement by the Walmart Foundation to is business associates....
Neal Blaher sent this email out to update what has happened with Noah’s GoFundMe: (1) The GoFundMe Campaign through which you may have made a donation has been cancelled for the reasons previously mentioned, namely, the military purpose of Noah’s fundraiser. Whether this rule is new and a product of what is now happening in Israel I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter at this point. (2) Those who made donations will receive refunds in 1 to 3 business days. Refunds should include the hefty fee they charge. If not, please let me know so I ca...
The Rosen JCC is full of events for the entire family. November offers: Saturday Night Out — This is the perfect chance for parents to plan a night out as we come up on the busy holiday season. Parents can drop off children on Saturday, Nov. 11 from 6 p.m. -11 p.m. Children get a night full of games, playground time, pizza and a movie. This event does fill up so make sure to book early www.rosenjcc.org/sno. School Out Days — This month OCPS will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Rosen JCC School Out Days will offer childcare on Mon...
The Congregation Ohev Shalom Sisterhood is hosting the 11th Annual Mah Jongg Tournament on Sunday, Nov. 19, from noon to 5 p.m. This is a community wide event and all are welcome. The entry fee is $40. There will be prizes won and food available. RSVP by Nov. 15. For information, contact Lila Tinkoff, 703-626-6106 or moraht@cfl.rr.com....
(JTA) — Three Ivy League universities have announced steps to fight antisemitism after weeks of turmoil on their campuses and others. Harvard University has put together a group of advisors to address antisemitism on campus, and both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University announced that they would convene task forces on antisemitism. The announcements come as those schools and many others have contended with complaints that their administrations have not taken sufficient action to protect Jewish students or condemn Hamas f...
(JNS) — Israel does not have the right to defend itself, Russia’s representative to the United Nations said on Wednesday. The United States and its allies are hypocritical for talking “about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the [U.N.’s] International Court [of Justice] consultative ruling in 2004,” Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told a U.N. General Assembly special session on the Israel-Hamas war. Israel declared war on Hamas after thousands of terrorists from Gaza storme...
(JNS) — Antisemitic incidents across the globe, including violent ones and online hatred, increased significantly between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25 compared to that span last year, according to a report from the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. In the three weeks since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the number of antisemitic events rose 500 percent compared to the same period in 2022. A third of the new incidents recorded took place in the U...
This past Sunday, Oct. 29, marked Temple Israel’s First Annual Book Fair and Corned Beef Sandwich Day, and whether measuring books, beef, or bucks, the event was a success. Thousands of books were donated over the last several months and up to the day of the event, which was held in Temple Israel’s Roth Social Hall at 50 S. Moss Road in Winter Springs. Organized by fiction, nonfiction, and children’s categories, books filled nearly a dozen tables, including one for miscellaneous media such as ga...
This story was produced as part of the JTA Teen Journalism Fellowship program. (JTA) - After her husband left abruptly to join his army unit, Meytal Blumenthal Gordon realized she still hadn't disassembled her sukkah, the temporary structure the family put up during the Sukkot holiday at their home in Jerusalem. She wasn't physically capable of doing so alone. "Two sweet boys, teenagers, came and they took down the sukkah and helped me organize it," Blumenthal Gordon said. "We actually had a...
The Jewish Pavilion's recent online auction, which ran from Oct. 22 to 27, 2023, has proven to be a resounding success, with over 300 bidders coming together to raise a remarkable $30,000+. This achievement is a testament to the incredible dedication and generosity of the Jewish Pavilion's supporters, board members, and donors. What sets this auction apart is that all 375 items featured in the event were generously donated by board members and donors. This unique aspect ensures that every...
(JNS) - The messages kept coming in to Kibbutz Holit's emergency WhatsApp group. "Save us, save us," "Where is the army?" "They are trying to burn down the houses" and "There's gunfire." A 7-year-old girl reported that she was hiding in a closet; a 15-year-old reported that his parents were killed and that he was shot in the stomach; a woman reported that she was suffocating from the smoke in the safe room of her burning house. And a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor huddled in the safe room of his...
(JTA) — Israeli forces rescued an Israeli soldier from the Gaza Strip, the first such successful operation since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, and the first since the terror group assumed control of the territory in 2007. “Last night, our forces liberated Pvt. Ori Megidish from Hamas captivity,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday in a statement. “Ori was abducted on the black morning of October 7th. Welcome home Ori! I commend the [Shin Bet security service] and the IDF for thi...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces’ ground forces made significant gains in northern Gaza on Oct. 31, as Israeli Air Force fighter jets, acting on Shin Bet intelligence, launched a large-scale strike on Hamas’s Jabaliya Battalion and killed its commander, along with a large number of other terrorists, the military stated. IDF troops commanded by the Givati Brigade operated in a Hamas military stronghold in the northern Gaza Strip and killed approximately 50 terrorists, while in parallel, ground troops in Gaza are continuing counterterrorism activ...
(JNS) — The Jewish state is fighting a war against “the forces of barbarism” for itself and for all decent countries, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told foreign reporters on Monday. “It is a time for everyone to decide where they stand,” he said. Netanyahu hopes that the world will back Israel, because “Israel’s fight is your fight,” and should “Hamas and Iran’s axis of evil win, you will be their next target,” he said. The “horrors of Hamas” show that the 21st century has not moved “beyond the barbaric horrors of the past” toward...
Bolivia severs ties with Israel over war in Gaza By Gabe Friedman (JTA) — Bolivia’s foreign ministry announced Tuesday that it is severing diplomatic ties with Israel over what it called Israel’s crimes against humanity in its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Bolivia had previously cut ties with Israel in 2009 under President Evo Morales over another violent conflict in Gaza, but President Jeanine Anez restored relations in 2020. Bolivia’s current president, Luis Arce, is a member of the country’s left-wing socialist party and was formerly...
(JNS) — Eden Zechariah had told her family she was coming home when terrorists started shooting at the outdoor music festival she attended Oct. 7. Her boyfriend, Ofek Kimchi, was killed trying to protect her and she was dragged off to Gaza alive. Her mother, Orin Ganz Zecharia, talks about her on video: “If there’s something you can’t miss about Eden, it’s her smile. She used to write down thanks every day for everything she has: thanks for her job, for her parents, for her friends. She really wanted things to be good. The world can’t stand to...
(JTA) — The White House denounced “antisemitic messages being conveyed on college campuses” in a statement Thursday, condemning students groups that have praised Hamas’ attack on Israel or “call for the annihilation of the state of Israel.” The statement is the most direct critique President Joe Biden’s office has yet made about inflammatory rhetoric surrounding Israel on college campuses, which has spiked following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel and Israel’s war in Gaza against the group, which the United States has designated as a terrorist o...
