Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1909 - 1933 of 10919
Rescuers without borders medics arrived at the Gaza border on Shabbat/Saturday to help the wounded. Spokeswoman Natalie Sopinsky said they were able to get there quickly because 1) the medics are armed and 2) they have an armored ambulance. “We have remained there, working hand-in-hand with Magen David Adom. This is ongoing and we are working in shifts with volunteer from around the country. All hands are needed in the war effort and we are doing our best to treat wounded civilians and soldiers.” Sopinsky stated that they now need a 2nd tea...
(JTA) - The United States Postal Service has released a new series of Forever stamps honoring Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the late Jewish Supreme Court justice and liberal icon who died in 2020. The stamp, which became available for purchase on Monday, shows Ginsburg wearing her black judge's robe and signature white collar. It was announced last year as part of the postal service's 2023 lineup of new stamps, reflecting a jump on the service's standard timeline for honoring deceased people. The...
(JNS) - The Jerusalem March, the largest and oldest march in Israel, took place during the intermediate days of Sukkot, with tens of thousands of Israelis and participants from some 90 other countries joined in. Participants had the choice of three routes on Oct. 4: A 10-km. (6.2-mile) circuit, suitable for experienced walkers; one of about 8 km. (5 miles), medium level of difficulty; and one of about 5 km. (3.1 miles), low level of difficulty and suitable for the whole family. The event...
(JNS) - Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) began a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia on Wednesday with a moment of silence for Taylor Force, the 28-year-old West Point graduate and U.S. Army veteran who was killed in 2016 while on a graduate-school trip to Israel. "His death was a deranged and inhumane action," said Wilson, who chairs the subcommittee, which is part of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The congressman also slammed the Palestinian...
This year’s Jewish Pavilion online auction will feature luxury hotel stays, fitness packages, sports memorabilia, wine baskets and wine tastings, event tickets for unforgettable experiences, restaurant gift cards and homemade meals. The Jewish Pavilion’s 4th Annual Online Charity Auction, set to run from Oct. 22 to Oct. 27. It’s not just an auction; it’s a chance to make a difference while treating yourself to some of life’s finest offerings. Registering for this extraordinary event is a breeze — no credit card required. Just share your name a...
The Rosen JCC will host Community Bingo on Thursday, Oct. 19. The event will be held monthly at the Rosen Event Center, with dates to be announced. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the games start at 6:30 p.m. The cost is $20 to play and for a chance to win cash prizes. There are refreshments available for an additional fee. This is a night of fun and games. It’s the perfect opportunity for friends and family to get together. Or come alone and meet new friends....
(JTA) — Benjamin Netanyahu used his address to the United Nations to tout the prospect of a diplomatic agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and to broach a topic that he has previously downplayed: Israeli-Palestinian peace. The Israeli prime minister also used the end of his 25-minute speech to herald the benefits — and warn of the dangers — of artificial intelligence, largely reprising what he told tech mogul Elon Musk in a live streamed conversation earlier in the week. And he did not mention one burning issue that has preoccupied Israe...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday in Berlin signed an agreement to provide Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany. At an estimated value of $3.5 billion, the deal is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history. The first missile battery, including radar, launch and interception management systems, is to be supplied to the Germans by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) by the fourth quarter of 2025. Germany is the first foreign purchaser of the system. Arrow 3 is the upper-tier layer of Israel’s missile defense...
(JNS) — President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the speakers Tuesday at Israel’s state memorial ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War. The ceremony took place at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The attendees included Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Amit. On Oct. 6, 1973, a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, coordinated a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, “thinking that the IDF would not be able to defen...
(JTA) — Leaning into his latest controversies, Elon Musk is planning to join a bevy of Jewish men for a live chat. The conversation will focus on “X, anti-Semitism, and the future of free speech,” according to conservative pundit and social media personality Ben Shapiro, who announced Wednesday that Musk would join him on his “Daily Wire” podcast. Also participating in the conversation, Shapiro said, are Rabbi Ari Lamm, an Orthodox scholar and podcaster; former Israeli politician and Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky; an unnamed represent...
(JNS) — In the first Republican candidate debate on Aug. 24, Israel became the center of a heated exchange between two of those vying for the presidency in 2024. The Jewish state did not come up at all during the two-hour second debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif., a month later, on Sept. 27. Instead, the seven candidates focused largely on domestic issues, including urban crime, illegal drugs, immigration and the Southern border. Throughout the e...
(JNS) - Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) in an interview that aired on Wednesday shot down reports that U.S.-led talks over normalization with Israel had been suspended. In an hour-long interview with Fox News' chief political correspondent Bret Baier-MBS's first ever interview completely in English and the first with a major American network since 2019-the crown prince said that peace with the Jewish state was "getting closer every day." Asked what it would take for Riyadh to join...
(JNS) — Dalia al-Aqidi secured 4.7 percent of the vote in the 2020 Minnesota Republican primary in an unsuccessful bid to unseat Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). The Iraqi-born media adviser announced on Monday that she is again running for the Republican nomination in the state’s 5th Congressional District. “Many people assume that because Ilhan and I are both female, Muslim refugees, we must think alike,” al-Aqidi, who immigrated to the United States in 1993, told JNS. “We couldn’t be further apa...
(JNS) - Sen. Robert "Bob" Menendez (D-N.J.), a longtime supporter of Israel and critic of the Iran nuclear deal, is facing widespread calls for his resignation following charges from the U.S. attorney's office that he accepted bribes. The Democrat "allegedly agreed to use his official position to benefit" three New Jersey businessmen "and the government of Egypt in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to Menendez and his wife, Nadine Menendez, which included gold bars, cash...
(New York Jewish Week) — When a small group of people convened next to an inconspicuous plaque steps from the entrance to the Staten Island Ferry’s Whitehall Terminal, they weren’t there to catch a boat leaving the island. Instead, they had come to the southern tip of Manhattan to celebrate a ship that had arrived on its shores centuries before. The gathering was the 369th anniversary of an event most New Yorkers don’t know about, let alone celebrate: the arrival of the first Jewish community to the United States in 1654. That lack of awarene...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration is aiming to counter antisemitic discrimination in federally-funded transit systems, housing, food programs and other areas — one of the most major actions the White House has taken since it unveiled a far-reaching strategy to combat antisemitism in May. On Thursday, the administration announced that it is instructing eight cabinet departments to extend civil rights protections to victims of antisemitism and other forms of religious bigotry. The decision marks a broad expansion of the 1964 Civil Rig...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — As of November, Israelis will be able to enter the United States without a visa, a major change that Israel has long sought and that will ease travel for hundreds of thousands of its citizens. Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program, which now includes 41 countries, means that Israelis traveling to the United States will no longer have to go through a months-long visa application process that carried the threat of denial. It also means that Palestinian-Americans living in the West Bank and Gaza will be able to enter Isr...
Israeli forces evacuate Samaria outpost; Four arrested (JNS) — Members of Israel’s coalition expressed anger on Wednesday after Israeli security forces evacuated a Jewish outpost erected near the community of Ma’ale Michmash in Samaria. Four Jews were arrested during the evacuation. Dozens of police and Civil Administration inspectors cleared out residential structures and an animal pen built on the hill. The outpost, Givat Sde Yonatan, established a few months ago in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, sits on private Palestinian land....
(JNS) — In a television program this past July, Palestinian cleric Mahmoud al-Habbash asserted that Jews follow Satanism and “have left the path of humanity.” Indeed, he claimed, Jews are Satan himself. In an earlier broadcast, Habbash had called Jews “creatures that Allah created in the form of humans. They are cursed descendants of apes and pigs.” These gems and more have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Habbash also denies that Jews have any historical connection to the Land of Israel. He maintains, “There was no First Templ...
(JNS) — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing criticism following his testimony for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 20 titled “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice” during which he was visibly emotional on several occasions. The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), sought in the hearing to examine how the U.S. Justice Department “has become politicized and weaponized under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland.” Garland noted his Jewish ancestry in his opening statement. “My family fled religi...
(JTA) - Germany has banned a neo-Nazi group after raiding the homes of its leaders across the country, in a move the government said "sends a clear signal against racism and antisemitism." The Hammerskins, a local spinoff of a group founded in the United States in the late 1980s, are accused of promoting criminal activities and of opposing the German constitution. According to a recent report from Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the group was the only the only re...
By Jackie Hajdenberg (JTA) — More than 80 years after one of Germany’s most prominent synagogues was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the Jewish community of Hamburg has taken ownership of the building’s site and is set to begin rebuilding it. The site of the Bornplatz Synagogue, a neo-Romanesque building dedicated in 1906 that had a 1,200-seat sanctuary and was once the largest synagogue in northern Germany, was officially handed over to leaders of the city’s Jewish community on Wednesday. At the ceremony marking that restitution, officia...
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old tomb of a courtesan, including among other things a well-preserved bronze mirror, has been uncovered on a major Jerusalem thoroughfare, offering rare evidence of the Hellenistic period in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The burial cave, which was discovered on a rocky slope aside Hebron Road and near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, included the cremated remains of a young woman alongside a box mirror in a perfect state of preservation, the...
This story will be updated. (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Le... Full story
(JNS) - The world's largest sukkah is set to open to the public in Jerusalem, with plans for a series of free events, including workshops, plays, musical performances and virtual reality activities, for all ages and sectors. The "Mayor of Jerusalem's Sukkah" will be erected in Safra Square and be open during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday (Oct. 1-5) from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. It will also be open on Sept. 30 for a few hours after 9 p.m. and on Oct. 6 in the early morning. The...
