Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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October 2024 Opera Orlando presented $100,000 to the Holocaust Center. It had been 11 months since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, brutally murdering over 1200 Israelis and taking 250 hostages. Local neurosurgeon, Dr. John Jenkins, pledged a $50,000 matching grant for donations to moshav Ein Habesor in southern Israel, near the Gaza border. November 2024 More than 600 people attended the IAC memorial event, which the Israeli Consul General in New York co-organized with the Israeli-American Council. The Israeli Defense Ministry and the...
This high holiday season, Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation will open its doors to the public for two family-focused services — one on Rosh Hashanah, and the other on Yom Kippur. Rabbi Shai Specht-Sandler and Cantorial Soloist Ginny Kolin are preparing a magical, musical experience for all who attend. “We’re not just going to sit quietly and read,” said Rabbi Shai. “There will be music on the keyboard, songs everyone can sing, and a spirit that invites kids and adults alike to take part. It’s about joy, depth, and connection, not just fo...
(JNS) — As the IDF masses troops on the outskirts of Gaza City, Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir declared on Tuesday that the military will not stop until it achieves a “decisive victory.” Meanwhile, a fierce debate is raging within Israel over the necessity of a final, large-scale ground assault on Hamas’s last major stronghold. The IDF has been conducting preliminary operations on the ground and calling up reservists. On Tuesday, Zamir visited newly mobilized reservists from the IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate, telling them, ...
(JNS)- It wasn't lost on Ofir Sofer, the Israeli aliyah and integration minister, how unusual it was for someone of his prominence to fly to another country solely to board a charter return flight full of new immigrants. "Flights like this-a big group of olim that come in one day to Israel is a strong message that is conveyed to our people that is not just happening today. It's happened since Oct. 7," Sofer told JNS aboard the first Nefesh B'Nefesh charter flight since the terrorist attacks in...
When Vanessa Lozada, membership/program director at the Florida Press Association, came by the office to drop off the awards we received from the FPA Newspaper contest, there were four wins - not three - as we originally thought. So there are three First-Place trophies along with the Second-Place win by Stan Roberts. "What?" I thought out loud. I knew about the two first places - Ed Borowsky and Marilyn Shapiro. But there was a second trophy for Marilyn Shapiro in the Sports Feature division. "W...
The Library of Congress has awarded Geraldine Brooks, a Jewish author whose best-selling novels are often inspired by Jewish history, its prestigious 2025 Prize for American Fiction. Brooks, a former foreign correspondent for the Wall Street Journal, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction for her novel "March," which reimagines "Little Women" from the father's perspective, in 2006. Her bestselling novels also often focus on aspects of Jewish history, including "People of the Book," which chronicles...
(JNS) - The largest dam in ancient Israel, uncovered just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem, has been dated back to the time of the biblical kings, some 2,800 years ago, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The monumental dam, which runs about 12 meters high, more than 8 meters wide and 21 meters long, was excavated over the last two years in the history-rich ancient City of David. A new study carried out jointly with the Weizmann Institute of Science concludes that the...
On Aug. 24, the Temple Israel Sisterhood gathered for a wonderful "Welcome Back Brunch." It was a beautiful way to kick off a new season of friendship and fun. Held in a welcoming setting, the event featured delicious food from Sage Catering, joyful reunions, and an inspiring guest speaker from Safehouse of Seminole, a local shelter supporting women and children escaping domestic violence. The speaker shared powerful stories about the impact of Safehouse's work, reminding us all why our support...
Jewish Pavilion Senior Services is thrilled to invite Maitland Chamber of Commerce members and friends to a festive pre-Rosh Hashanah Breakfast on Thursday, Sept. 11, 8:30 a.m., at New Hope for Kids, 544 Mayo Ave., Maitland. Whether you’re familiar with the Jewish New Year or this is your first time learning about it, this event is designed to be welcoming, engaging, and deliciously memorable. While Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 22, we’re starting the celebration early with a breakfast experience you won’t want to miss. What...
pots of Light: To be a Woman in the Holocaust is a special exhibit at the Center that is running from Sept. 3 through Dec. 19. Produced by Yad Vashem, Spots of Light shares the unique voices of Jewish women in the Holocaust, highlighting their choices, resilience and struggles amid brutality and hardship. Through poignant personal stories, the exhibition illuminates nine aspects of Jewish women’s daily lives during the Holocaust....
(JNS) — Jerusalem’s mass recognition of new Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria “is not the end — it’s the beginning,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised local leaders on Tuesday evening. “I promised 25 years ago that we would deepen our roots, and we did, together,” said Netanyahu, who was speaking at an event organized by the Binyamin Regional Council in Samaria’s south. “I said that we would prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and we are doing it, together. I said that we would build and hold on to parts of...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces on Aug. 10 eliminated Hamas terrorist Jihad Kamal Salem Najjar, who took part in the abduction of Yarden Bibas from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the military announced on Tuesday. Bibas was held in captivity for 484 days before being freed on Feb. 1, having lost 33 pounds. His wife, Shiri, and their two sons — Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 9 months — were kidnapped separately. Their captors later murdered Shiri and the children, afterward claiming they had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. On Fe...
Washington, D.C. — The Coalition for a Safer Web has identified a wave of pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas protests being coordinated through both open and encrypted social media platforms, with events planned in major U.S. cities in the coming weeks. According to CSW, several of the groups behind the protests also organized antisemitic encampments and demonstrations on college campuses and in U.S. cities after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel. Among them, the Democratic Socialists of America, the China-backed Party for Socialism a...
(JNS) — Robin Westman, who died of a self-inflicted gunshot after killing two children at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minn., wrote of murdering “filthy Zionist Jews,” that “six million wasn’t enough” and “free Palestine,” the New York Post reported on Wednesday. The Post said that it translated writings in the Cyrillic alphabet by the shooter, 32, who was transgender. “If I will carry out a racially motivated attack, it would be most likely against filthy Zionist jews [sic],” the shooter reportedly wrote in a journal that the...
(JNS) — When the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that it is investigating manipulation of information on Wikipedia, Larry Sanger, co-founder of the encyclopedia, welcomed the news. “I am glad that Congress is investigating the use of foreign and U.S. government funds to pay for biased editing on Wikipedia,” Sanger, who has criticized Wikipedia frequently in recent years, told JNS. Sanger told JNS that he asked U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who led the U.S. Department of Gover...
(JNS) - The train from Jerusalem to Herzliya hums steadily along the tracks. It's full, as usual, for this time of day in the middle of the week. Voices mingle with the whir of the wheels. A mixture of languages - Hebrew, English, Russian - meld with universal sighs of weary commuters wishing to reach their destination before sundown. Suddenly, a minyan (public prayer quorum) of 10 men rises, almost simultaneously. One stands, calling out the afternoon prayer, his Yemenite accent ringing clear...
(JNS) — On Aug. 25, Palestinian Authority deputy leader Hussein al-Sheikh issued a striking public rebuke of Hamas, calling on it to undertake a “comprehensive re-evaluation of its policies” and describing the war in Gaza as a catastrophe greater than the “Nakba” of 1948. Such statements are routinely hailed in some Western circles as a sign of moderation and a potential opening for a revitalized Palestinian Authority role in governing Gaza once the war ends. Yet this interpretation is deeply misleading. The rhetoric from Ramallah is disconnec...
(JNS) — Israeli forces have retrieved the bodies of two Israelis, that of Ilan Weiss and another, unnamed, individual, that Hamas terrorists had kept in the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said on Friday. Weiss, 56, was murdered on Oct. 7, 2023, while defending Kibbutz Be’eri, and his corpse was taken to Gaza, according to the statement. His daughter and wife, Noga and Shiri, were also abducted. They were released in November 2023 as part of a hostage deal. The name of the other Isr...
A Democratic National Committee panel blocked a resolution Tuesday that would have called for a suspension of military aid to Israel and recognition of Palestinian statehood, after a debate underscoring growing fissures within the party over its longstanding support of Israel. The resolution, which was proposed by Allison Minnerly, a new Gen Z member from Florida, would have joined the growing chorus of calls in the House and Senate in recent weeks to block weapons sales to Israel. Following debate over the resolution Tuesday morning at the...
(JNS) — Former Hamas hostage Keith Siegel told the Haredi radio station Kol Barama on Wednesday that his faith was strengthened during the almost 500 days he spent in Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip. “As a boy, Judaism did not speak to me, but in captivity, I reconnected,” Siegel said in the interview, two days after he joined a special prayer service at the Western Wall late on Monday night for the release of the remaining 50 hostages still in Gaza after 690 days. “Every day, I said ‘Shema Yisrael’ and I recited a blessing over the food. S...
(JNS) - Israel's Ministry of Heritage has invested a million shekels (~$296,000) to locate the remains of the Altalena, the Irgun cargo ship that the newly created IDF shelled in a violent confrontation off the Tel Aviv beach in June 1948, public broadcaster Kan's Reshet Bet radio station reported on Monday. About a year after the battle, the Altalena, which had run aground at the foot of David Frischmann Street, was refloated, towed 15 miles out to sea, and sunk. The ministry hired the...
(Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs via JNS) As the French, the British, the Canadians and the Australians rush to recognize the “State of Palestine,” the question that must be asked is: What would this entity look like? Based on the experience to date and empty rhetoric aside, the “State of Palestine” would most likely be yet another dictatorship. In the Oslo Accords, the Palestine Liberation Organization committed to establishing a liberal democracy. Elections for the position of the Palestinian Authority chairman and parliam...
IDF targets Hamas terror financing in Ramallah The Israel Defense Forces conducted a large-scale counter-terror operation in the Samaria city of Ramallah on Tuesday targeting a money exchange business that transferred funds to Hamas terrorists. Five wanted terror suspects were arrested and hundreds of thousands of shekels identified as terror funds were seized during the morning raid, according to the military. The purpose of the cash laundered through this currency exchange establishment was “to advance terrorist activity against the State o...
(JNS) — A German government spokesperson declared on Friday that Berlin has no immediate plans to recognize a Palestinian state, calling such a move at this stage “counterproductive” to the pursuit of a negotiated two-state solution with Israel. “A negotiated two-state solution remains our goal, even if it seems a long way off today,” the spokesperson told a press briefing. “Recognition of Palestine is more likely to come at the end of such a process. Right now, it would undermine efforts toward peace.” Berlin’s statement stands in sharp...
