Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - The United States is applying pressure on the Palestinian Authority to increase security coordination with Israel, as part of a larger effort to reduce violence in Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, a former Israeli defense official tells JNS. A senior P.A. delegation arrived in Washington in early October, headed by Hussein al-Sheikh, secretary-general of the PLO Executive Committee. The delegation met with senior American officials including National Security Advisor J...
ANTAKYA, Turkey (JTA) - Jews have lived in the city of Antakya, known in ancient times as Antioch, for over 23 centuries. And the city wants visitors to know that. A symbol composed of a Star of David entwined with a Christian cross and Islamic crescent has practically become the city's logo, as it's plastered all over town, especially on restaurants peddling the southern Hatay province's patently spicy cuisine. "I was born in Antakya and I will die in Antakya," said Selim Cemel, a Jewish...
(JNS) - Meet the Israeli elections candidates: 1. Benjamin Netanyahu - Likud Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister and now head of the opposition, will attempt to win his sixth term as premier. He is credited with transforming Israel's heavily regulated economy into a capitalist, high-tech powerhouse. The most recent polls suggest that this time he will have enough Knesset seats to form a government. In the recent string of four rapid-fire elections, his right-wing bloc...
(JNS) — The Lions’ Den terror group, recently formed in Nablus, comprises dozens of gunmen and is not very well organized. Nevertheless, the group’s activities serve the purposes of established terror factions like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which are amplifying its influence, according to a senior Israeli terrorism expert. The group has also been punching above its weight in terms of influence on the Palestinian street due to its shrewd use of social media, according to Dr Michael Barak, a senior researcher specializing in terro...
VINNYTSIA, Ukraine (JTA) — Under a haze of early morning cigarette smoke, two Jewish men from Ukrainian cities in areas occupied by Russia were discussing how much they miss their parents. Neither had seen them for months and in the brief exchanges that they have had with them, they could only say so much without fear of putting them in danger. “We can’t talk about the war,” says Moshe, who is from Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine that has been occupied by Russian troops since early in the war. “I don’t want to make things difficult f...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Donald Trump, the former U.S. president, has once again said he is baffled by the lack of appreciation he feels coming from American Jews. “No president has done more for Israel than I have,” he said on Truth Social, the social media platform he owns. “Somewhat surprisingly, however, our wonderful Evangelicals are far more appreciative of this than people of the Jewish faith, especially those living in the U.S.” He added, “U.S. Jews have to get their act together and appreciate what they have in Israel — before it is too lat...
Family of fallen IDF soldier donates corneas, saving sight of two people (JNS) — The family of an Israeli soldier who was killed last week in a drive-by shooting in Samaria has donated his corneas to two people, saving their eyesight, Israeli media reported on Monday. The recipients, both in their 80s, “Were moved to tears when they heard about the identity of the donor,” Walla reported. Baruch was securing a civilian march near Shavei Shomron in northern Samaria when he was shot from a moving vehicle. He was evacuated to Meir Medical Cente...
This fall, Chabads in Metro Orlando will offer a six-week course produced by the acclaimed Rohr Jewish Learning Institute that unpacks Judaism’s understanding of G-d while providing fresh, profound answers to common questions about G-d. How did G-d come to be? Is G-d a He, a She, or a They? Does G-d have feelings? If G-d has foreknowledge of all events, do we have free choice? Is there a place in Judaism for doubts about G-d? These are just some of the 25 questions addressed in My G-d: Defining the Divine. Jewish culture and the Jewish people’s...
(JNS Wire) - On Oct. 24 at 1 p.m. at the beautiful, lakeside Shamir Park located in Ma'ale Adumim, a growing city outside of nearby Jerusalem, the district's newest tourist and interpretive cultural attraction, the "Tree of Life," will be dedicated by Mayor Benny Kashriel. The public is invited to attend the ceremony and share in the programmed events and experiences. The enormous sculpted knurled olive tree is modeled on a 500-year-old olive tree trunk retrieved near the Garden of Gethsemane. T...
(JTA) — Israel’s government has approved an historic maritime accord with Lebanon, as both countries are under pressure to get the agreement signed before October ends and their leaders may change. The Israeli and U.S. governments pushed back against claims that the deal ceded too much to Lebanon. The details of the deal are not yet in place, but Israeli prime minister Yair Lapid said Wednesday at a press conference, hours after his cabinet approved the deal, that Israel had declined two last-minute Lebanese demands. Lebanon had wanted to rem...
(JTA) — The U.S. Air Force Academy has pledged to “correct” its processes to ensure that it does not schedule key events on major faith holidays after a mandatory training exercise took place on Yom Kippur. “The U.S. Air Force Academy recognizes the importance of the holy days of all faiths. A training event was unintentionally scheduled this week during the Jewish observance of Yom Kippur,” Lt. Col. Brian Maguire, the director of public affairs, said in a statement his office emailed Thursday to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The Academy’s A...
Palestinian terrorists have carried out attacks on an hourly basis, according to the data of the Judea and Samaria emergency center, which registered 23 terrorist incidents in the past day. These attacks included shootings, one of which killed Staff Sgt. Ido Baruch near Shavei Shomron, explosives, a lynching attempt at Nebi Salah, rock attacks, and arson. Israel’s security forces continued their counterterrorism operations throughout Judea and Samaria on Tuesday night, including in the villages of Beit Sira, Deir Abu Mashal, Esawiya, and H...
World Elder Abuse Awareness Day was launched by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations. The purpose of day is to provide an opportunity for communities around the world to promote a better understanding of abuse and neglect of older persons by raising awareness of the cultural, social, economic and demographic processes affecting elder abuse and neglect. The events took place on June 15th. Many seniors are not in a place to stand up for themselves, whether it’s b...
The 104th anniversary of the Armistice ending World War I will be observed by the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, 2022. at 11 a.m. at the St. Augustine National Cemetery, 104 Marine Street, St. Augustine, 32084. A short and informal discussion of St. Augustine’s role in the Spanish American War and the Jews who were involved in those efforts, will be a part of the brief commemoration. The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society is a non-religious, non-sectarian organization. The Nov. 11 event is open t...
(JTA) — An official investigation by Stanford University released Wednesday confirmed longstanding suspicions that university administrators acted to limit Jewish enrollment in the 1950s while publicly denying that they were doing so. In tandem with the release of the report, Stanford’s president, Marc Tessier-Lavigne, apologized to the Jewish community on behalf of the university. “This ugly component of Stanford’s history, confirmed by this new report, is saddening and deeply troubling,” Tessier-Lavigne wrote. “As a university, we must acknow...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday ordered IDF troops to prepare for “any scenario” on the northern border after a proposed maritime frontier demarcation accord with Hezbollah-controlled Lebanon appeared to have hit a dead end. Gantz held a situation assessment attended by the IDF chief of staff and other security officials, and then instructed the military to increase its readiness for offensive and defensive actions should the enemy attack in the northern arena. Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid rejected proposed chang...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said that Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid was “making history” by agreeing to a maritime border deal with Lebanon to end a decade-long-plus dispute over gas-rich waters in the Eastern Mediterranean. In a phone call, Biden told Lapid, “You are making history,” and expressed his appreciation for the trust and confidence of all Israelis who participated in the U.S.-mediated process, according to a statement by the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Biden also emphasized his commitment to upholding the Je...
(JNS) - The Israel Allies Foundation has named Pastor Larry Huch of Dallas, Texas, as the No. 1 Christian ally of the Jewish state in its annual Top 50 list. The list of "Top 50 Christian Allies," published by IAF on the eve of Sukkot, known by Christians as the Feast of Tabernacles, celebrates men and women from around the world and of different Christian denominations who tirelessly support and defend Israel. Besides pastors, the list includes Hollywood stars and politicians, from Pat Boone...
(JNS) - Russia is deploying Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles in its war against Ukraine, and although it is not yet possible to determine their exact operational effectiveness, the weapons could pose a significant challenge for the Israeli military in a future conflict, a prominent drone and missile expert told JNS. Tal Inbar, former director of the UAV Research Center at Israel's Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies, and co-founder of the Ilan Ramon Space Conference, said t...
(JNS) — Israeli lawmaker Sharren Haskel called on Christian parliamentarians from around the world to demand their governments sanction Iran, in a dramatic address that culminated with her cutting her hair in a show of solidarity with Iranian women. “Demand that your governments and elected officials stand by the Iranian people at this time, support their protests and help them attain the freedom which they deserve,” Haskel said. “Demand that your countries impose sanctions on the leaders of Iran, the dictators who are leading us to a regiona...
(JNS) - The remains of two soldiers who fought in Israel's war of independence have been found, 74 years after their deaths. The Israeli Defence Forces announced on Friday that it had identified the remains of Privates Yitzhak Rubinstein and Binyamin Aryeh Eisenberg, who were members of the Palmach-the elite strike force of the pre-state Haganah militia-defending Kibbutz Yad Mordechai from an Egyptian attack in 1948, just days after Israel declared independence. The Egyptians captured the two...
(ISRAEL21c) - When a pregnant woman is worried about possible genetic defects in the child she is carrying, amniocentesis is the gold standard test. But amniocentesis is both invasive - a needle is inserted into the womb to extract amniotic fluid - and dangerous, resulting in miscarriage in as many as one out of every 200 tests performed. Furthermore, amniocentesis can only be done after week 15 of the pregnancy, yet many U.S. states and countries around the world ban abortion by that time,...
(JTA) — Since March, Rabbi Daniel Litvak has been required to appear three times a week at the magistrate’s office in Porto, the Portuguese city where he is accused of submitting fraudulent citizenship applications for Sephardic Jews. His passports were confiscated and he was barred from contacting the lawyer who is the other defendant in the criminal case against him. Now, an appeals court in Lisbon has ruled that Litvak does not need to abide by the stringent restrictions. The court also criticized Portuguese prosecutors for how they hav...
(JTA) — It started with a shirt and ended in a conflagration over antisemitism and Republican politics. Such is the extended news cycle over multiple antisemitic comments during the last week by Kanye West, the artist and provocateur who prefers to go by Ye. On Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show, Instagram and Twitter, West made a string of comments reflecting a range of antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories. The spree culminated with West’s vow to “go death con 3 ON JEWISH PEOPLE.” DEFCON is an acronym that refers to the state of alert of Ame...
Ben Bernanke, former Fed chair, shares economics Nobel for research on banks and crisis By Ron Kampeas (JTA) — Ben Bernanke, the Jewish former chairman of the federal reserve, shared the Nobel Prize for Economics with two other scholars for their work in examining how banks function in economic crises. Bernanke was recognized for an influential 1983 paper, written when he was a professor at Stanford University, that examined the Depression era to show how runs on banks during economic uncertainty tend to exacerbate and broaden a crisis. His t...
