Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Canadian border authorities interrogated and refused to let into the country the director of the Muslim Association of Britain, who had denied the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacres in Israel. Immigration officials in Montreal had questioned Anas Altikriti, a dual citizen of the U.K. and Iraq, at Montreal’s main airport for 11 hours before escorting him to a London-bound airplane, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday. Altikriti had planned to speak at a Muslim Association of Canada convention in Toronto on May 16-18, the r...
(JNS) — Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, referred to J Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community” on Monday. Speaking at a National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism meeting at Museum of the Bible in Washington, Leiter said that “the worst thing about J Street is it’s duplicitous.” “How can you be pro-Israel and advocate for an arms embargo on a state that’s fighting a seven-front war against Iranian proxies?” the ambassador said. J Street, a liberal Jewish organization that bills itself as “the political home for...
(JNS)— Israel participated at the Special Operations Forces Week 2026 exhibition in Tampa, Fla., last week, dispatching 11 Israeli defense companies to the event. The three-day exhibition that started on May 19 brought the international Special Operations community together and was supported by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Global SOF Foundation. The Israeli pavilion showcased advanced capabilities in five key areas: counter-drone and UAV defense systems, cyber and situational a...
(JNS) — Elected Democrats denounced a candidate for a House seat in Texas this week over her calls to imprison and castrate Zionists and raised questions about her funding from a newly-formed super PAC with possible Republican ties. Maureen Galindo, a sex therapist who led the first round of the Democratic primary in Texas’s 35th Congressional District, has drawn scrutiny for her social media posts about Jews and calling to turn immigration detention centers into prisons for Zionists. “She’ll turn Karnes ICE Detention Center into a prison...
(JNS) — George Deek, Israel’s newly appointed special envoy to the Christian world, said Wednesday that Christians in the Jewish state “are not just surviving — we are thriving.” In a video message posted to X, Deek, an Arab-Israeli diplomat from a “Christian family that has lived in this land for centuries,” said his role was to strengthen ties with Christian communities worldwide. “My mission is simple, to speak the truth, to listen carefully, and to deepen friendship between Israel and Christian communities everywhere,” Deek said. “In Is...
(JNS) - No Israeli athlete had assumed the podium at the Olympic games before Yael Arad won a silver medal in judo at the 1992 summer games in Barcelona. More than 30 years and 20 Israeli medals later, the legendary judoka, who is now president of Israel's Olympic Committee, is traveling across the United States to raise support for Israeli athletes ahead of the 2028 Summer Olympics. "We feel that Israeli athletes are doing much more than sports," Arad, 59, told JNS on a visit to New York. She...
(JNS) - The Israel parade on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue this year is slated to have a Muslim group marching alongside Jewish organizations in what is believed to be a first time in the parade's 61-year history. It will also be the first time in memory that New York City's mayor will not participate in the parade, which shows support for the Jewish state. The annual event, scheduled this year for May 31, typically has thousands of participants, with groups marching from Jewish day schools,...
(JNS) - To mark Jerusalem Day, (which was erev May 14-15), Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund unveils rare historical documentation from its archives, depicting the city between the 1930s and the 1950s, before the establishment of the State of Israel. Scenes of Jerusalem during the British Mandate and in the early years of the State of Israel are captured through the camera lens just a few years before its independence. The photos present an exceptional mosaic of a multifaceted city,...
Nickolay Mladenov, high representative for Gaza at the U.S.-backed Board of Peace, told the United Nations Security Council to “use every means at its disposal” to pressure Hamas to disarm. Amid concern that the stalled effort to get the terror group to lay down its arms will leave Gaza’s recovery paralyzed, Mladenov, a former U.N. envoy for the Middle East peace process, addressed the Security Council on Thursday. “There is no recovery in Gaza,” he said. Mladenov briefed the council on the board’s first report on the state of affairs in...
Elon Musk praises Israeli innovation as ‘number one in the world’ By JNS Staff (JNS) — Elon Musk, considered to be the richest person on the planet, has lauded Israeli innovation as “number one” in the world. “I’m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel,” Musk said Monday in video remarks at the Samson International Smart Mobility Summit at Expo Tel Aviv. “I think it is objectively true that Israel punches high above its weight for population.” The owner of Tesla and SpaceX added, “My hat is off to Israel for just how much inc...
(JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday accused the Palestinian Authority of waging “war” against the Jewish state, as he confirmed that International Criminal Court prosecutors had submitted a secret request for an arrest warrant against him. “The prosecutor submitted a request for arrest warrants. Whether they will actually be issued or not, we do not know; they also do not want us to know; this is part of the tactic,” Smotrich told reporters at a press conference in Jerusalem. “What is certain is that the Palestinian...
(JNS) — The New York State Department of Motor Vehicles forced an Orthodox Jewish woman to remove a religious head covering while posing for a driver’s license, violating state policy and the Constitution, according to a federal law suit filed on April 27. The state didn’t follow its own rules in its demand of Sara Fellig, the Brooklyn resident’s lawyer Emma Lerner Freeman told JNS. “Especially in New York City, which prides itself on being a safe place for people of all faiths, the DMV needs to do better,” the lawyer told JNS. “It must be...
(JNS) — Israel on Monday barred entry to American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira, known for viral videos that claimed Jews had “invaded” parts of New York and New Jersey. Oliveira was stopped at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport and deported back to the United States, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli confirmed to JNS on Tuesday. “It was my decision,” Chikli said. “We have a direct line of communication with the Population and Immigration Authority, and when we submit the name of a person or org...
(JNS)— Philadelphia Democrats nominated Chris Rabb, a state representative who has accused Israel of committing “genocide” in Gaza and supports a Palestinian “right of return,” in Tuesday’s primary to succeed retiring Rep. Dwight Evans (D-Pa.). With no Republican running in Pennsylvania’s heavily Democratic 3rd Congressional District, Rabb is widely expected to win the general election and join the U.S. House in January 2027. He received 44.3 percent of the vote in the four-candidate race, defeating Sharif Street, a Democratic state senator...
On May 17, Congregation Ohev Shalom students and families celebrated the end of the school year along with a special send off for Amy Geboff, director of youth and family education, who is retiring after 30 years of service. A native of Philadelphia, Geboff came to Orlando with her husband, Eric, and their daughters, Sara and twins Alana and Rebecca. Prior to joining Congregation Ohev Shalom, Amy worked as youth director and program director of the JCC in Youngstown, Ohio, for nine years. After...
(JNS) — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio reiterated on Wednesday Washington’s stance that Iran must not obtain a nuclear weapon, adding that he would welcome a more active role from China in helping resolve the Mideast conflict. “Iran is an example of a bilateral issue that is irreconcilable. Their clerical regime wants a nuclear weapon and the world, led by President [Donald] Trump, says that can’t happen,” Rubio told Fox News aboard Air Force One while en route to Beijing to join the U.S. delegation and the president for the first diplomat...
(JNS) — The New York Times is defending its reporting on Israel after one of its star columnists penned an opinion piece which Israel calls one of the worst blood libels ever published and after a freelancer for the paper apparently tried to placate anti-Israel protesters by holding up a paper, upon which he wrote, “Have you read Kristof?” Nicholas Kristof and the paper have drawn widespread criticism for his recent column, in which he accused Israel, among other things, of training dogs to rape Palestinian prisoners. Video footage circulated o...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday lashed out at those who mark so-called Nakba Day, screenshotting an image from a video posted by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “The Nakba was the result of the Arab rejection of the U.N. Partition Plan [of 1947] and decision to launch war to annihilate the State of Israel,” the ministry tweeted. It added, “You can’t start war, openly vow to ‘throw the Jews into the sea,’ and then pretend being the victim of the conflict you started. The real forgotten victims are the 850,000 Jewish refugees ex...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday accused The New York Times of publishing “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.” “In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the MFA tweeted, referencing the Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT columnist who wrote “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.” The opinion peace alleged that, despite an absence of evidence, the Jewish state utilizes sexual violence...
(JNS) — Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, on Saturday condemned a pro-Palestinian march in New York as “blatant antisemitism disguised as activism,” saying demonstrators chanted slogans calling for Israel’s destruction and to “Globalize the intifada” under a “Nakba Day” banner. In a video posted on X, a woman is heard leading the crowd in the slogan “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” appearing to condone acts of violent terrorism directed against Israeli civilians and soldiers. According to Getty im...
(JNS) — A unanimous U.S. House of Representatives approved its annual resolution on May 13 marking Jewish American Heritage Month, “calling on elected officials and civil society leaders to counter antisemitism and educate the public on the contributions of the Jewish-American community.” The vote was 419-0. “I’m thrilled,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), chief sponsor of the bill, told JNS. “When you have three-fourths of Jews, who report that they’ve experienced some kind of antisemitism directly in the last year, making sure tha...
(JNS) — Although Democrats have long decried Jew-hatred on the far right, “today, too many Democrats are noticeably and shamefully silent when antisemitism comes from the far left,” according to Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.). “It’s a glaring double standard,” the congressman wrote in the New York Times. “Consider the response to—really, the embrace of—Hasan Piker, a prominent left-wing commentator with millions of online followers,” who “referred to Orthodox Jews as ‘inbred’ and said ‘America deserved 9/11,’ both statements he halfheartedly w...
(JNS) — Republican governors across the United States issued a joint statement recognizing May as Jewish American Heritage Month, condemning antisemitism and expressing support for Israel and the Jewish community. “America’s Governors once again unite to celebrate Jewish American Heritage during the month of May,” the statement read. It was issued by the Republican Governors Association and signed by all 27 Republican governors. “Since our nation’s founding 250 years ago, Jewish people have played an important role in America’s story—seeking re...
(JNS) — A Georgian national known as “Commander Butcher,” who admitted to plotting a mass-casualty attack targeting Jews and minorities in New York City, was sentenced on Wednesday to 15 years in federal prison, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Michail Chkhikvishvili, 22, a leader of the neo-Nazi extremist group Maniac Murder Cult, pleaded guilty in November to soliciting hate crimes and distributing bomb-making and ricin instructions. He was extradited from Moldova. Federal authorities said that the plot evolved into a plan to poiso...
EU foreign policy chief: Close to deal on sanctions for ‘violent settlers’ By JNS Staff (JNS) — European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas used her doorstep remarks in Brussels to signal that E.U. foreign ministers are close to a deal on sanctions targeting “violent settlers,” saying she expects a political agreement at the Foreign Affairs Council. “I expect a political agreement on the sanctions of violent settlers. Hopefully we’ll get there,” the Estonian politician and diplomat told reporters, referring to accusations that some Jewis...
