Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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WASHINGTON (JTA) — After months of maneuvering over $1 billion to replace Iron Dome batteries Israel lost in last year’s Gaza conflict, the money is to be included in a bipartisan spending bill Congress will consider this week as it looks to avoid a government shutdown. Also included in the $1.5 trillion Omnibus Appropriations Agreement announced early Wednesday by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is substantially increased funding for nonprofit security, a key request by major Jewish groups over the last yea...
(JTA) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked Israel for its support for his country Sunday, the day after Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett flew to Moscow for a three-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. “I am grateful to Israel for their support for Ukraine,” Zelensky said, according to a translation by Sky News published by The Times of Israel. “We need the support of all countries and we were talking about the support we need now and how we are going to cooperate in the future after the war.” Zelensky did not m...
(Israel21C via JNS) — Regardless of which side of the conflict they’re on, young adults in three Taglit-Birthright Israel groups from Russia and Ukraine cannot return home after their free 10-day trip because of the war. So Birthright Israel has offered them the option to stay in Israel or reunite with their families when possible. The three groups include 26 participants from Ukraine. Sixteen of them were supposed to fly home on Thursday morning, but while they were sitting on planes, bombing began in Kyiv and flights were immediately canceled...
(JTA) — Around 300 Ukrainian Jewish refugees landed in Israel Sunday, among them some 90 orphans between the ages of two and 12, in the first round of what Israeli government officials are expecting to be a wave of thousands in the coming months. They were flown on three planes from Moldova, Romania and Poland. But whether Israel will accept Ukrainian refugees who are not Jewish, and therefore ineligible for Israeli citizenship under the country’s Law of Return, is unclear. The Law of Return allows any Jew who wishes to live in Israel to obt...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — A four-year-old boy from Jerusalem has contracted the first known case of polio in Israel since 1989, the Health Ministry reported on Sunday. A ministry official told Israel Hayom that the child was in a state of weakness and in a condition that could deteriorate to paralysis. According to the ministry, neither the child nor his family had been vaccinated against polio. The Health Ministry thinks that the child from Jerusalem is just one of hundreds or thousands of children who might have been exposed to a mutant s...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — In an emotional call with American Jewish leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky characterized the Russian invasion of his country as “pure Nazism.” Zelensky also invoked his Jewishness in an appeal for assistance while speaking Monday via Zoom with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. On the call, Zelensky angrily rejected claims by Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia launched the war to “denazify” Ukraine, saying that it was the Russians who were acting like Nazis. “This is...
(JNS) - The Sovereignty Movement recently organized a tour of Judea and Samaria for public figures, journalists, social media influencers and others to explore the complexities and dichotomies of life in the region. The Feb. 23 gathering - under the leadership of Yehudit Katzover and Nadia Matar - focused on explaining the situation on the ground in many areas, including diplomacy, infrastructure, education, environmental issues, employment and quality of life for both Jewish and Arab residents...
Getting a good night's sleep is critical to your well-being. Put away all electronics at least an hour before bed. Digital devices and screens emit a blue light that can interfere with your ability to get a proper good night's sleep. It's not just about getting your physical beauty sleep! There is scientific proof of a close link between sleep and mental health, including poor sleep contributing to initiation or worsening of depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other conditions. Whether...
Hope Hospice is among a select number of organizations across the country that has earned accreditation from the National Institute for Jewish Hospice. Hope Hospice is one of 52,000 members of NIJH working together to provide enhanced care to address the diverse needs of Jewish families in a caring, dignified manner. “At Hope, we make every effort to serve each person, at every stage in their life’s journey, in a culturally sensitive way,” said Samira K. Beckwith, president and CEO of Hope Healthcare. “We seek programs and accredi...
On March 10, the Jewish Pavilion staff and volunteers prepared a breakfast buffet for the members of the Maitland Chamber. "Sharing our holidays and culture with people of all faiths is very important to the leadership of the Jewish Pavilion," said Nancy Ludin, CEO of the Jewish Pavilion. The breakfast included home-baked challah, egg salad, tuna salad, vegetable frittata, Israeli salad, blintzes, Israelis salad, fruit salad, banana bread muffins, cherry strudel, blueberry cake and hamantashen....
(JTA) — Shelter, vital supplies, and escape from besieged cities: these are the keys to survival many Ukrainian Jews are seeking as the Russian invasion enters its second week. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators on Thursday acknowledged a need for humanitarian corridors for civilians, reflecting growing fears about an imminent crisis in multiple major cities under attack. Today, Ukrainian officials said the Russians were not upholding their end of the deal. If those corridors are not established and maintained, Ukrainians across the country c...
TAIPEI (JTA) — Many countries have roundly rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin’s argument that his attack on Ukraine is needed to achieve the “denazification” of that country. But the argument is alive and well in Chinese state-run media. “Russian President Vladimir Putin mentioned in a televised speech a few days ago that the military operation against Ukraine is aimed at protecting the people who have suffered abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for eight years. For this reason, Russia will seek to demilitarize and de-Nazify...
(JNS) — Israel could expect to see the arrival of a total of 15,000 Ukrainians by the end of the month if it continues to allow entry to refugees fleeing their war-torn country at the current pace, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked told the Cabinet during its weekly Sunday meeting. “Since the outbreak of the war, 2,034 Ukrainian nationals have entered Israel,” she said. “We are on an upward trend.” Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon told JNS that Israel is “intent on exhausting every possible option in the hope of hel...
TEL AVIV (JTA) - "You'll be calling until the mashiach comes," one woman responded this week to a frantic query about embassy appointments on a Facebook group for Russians planning to move to Israel. While Russians seeking to make the move, known as aliyah, may not have to wait until the messiah arrives, they are facing extended delays even as their country sinks into crisis because of the war their president, Vladimir Putin, launched last month against neighboring Ukraine. In Moscow and St....
(JTA) — Five years after raising the age limit for Israel tour participants, Birthright Israel is reverting to a policy of funding free trips only to young adults 26 and under. This summer will be the last chance for Jews aged 27 to 32 to participate in Birthright, with the exception of anyone older who had registered for a trip that was canceled because of the pandemic, according to a spokesperson for the nonprofit organization. The trips, designed to give young Jews (mostly Americans) a crash course in Israeli history and culture in the h...
(JTA) - The morning after Russian bombs fell at the site of a 1941 massacre of Ukrainian Jews, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the world's Jews to speak out about what is happening in his country. Russia's attack adjacent to Babyn Yar, the Kyiv site where Nazis and local collaborators executed tens of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust, along with its bombing several days ago of Uman, the Ukrainian city where hundreds of thousands of Jewish pilgrims visit each year,...
(JTA) - It is nearly 10 p.m. at the emergency refugee shelter in Tomaszow Lubelski, Poland, near the Ukrainian border. It's bitter cold; snowflakes catch in the headlights of the huge tourist bus from Hanover, Germany, as it pulls up at the guard post. Zohar Spivack's bus company, Kings Travel - "the logo is blue and white, and I don't have to tell you why," he said - has been picking up refugees every day since Russia's attacks began. Leaving Warsaw empty after sundown, stopping at shelters...
Coming out from the covid cocoon, eight RAISE employees have been working since October 2021 at partnering agencies - Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, The Roth Family JCC, Jewish Academy of Orlando, Kinneret, Central Florida Hillel and Congregation Ohev Shalom. Employees work two days a week and attend weekly Lunch and Learn sessions to develop and improve their employability and social skills, build their confidence, and promote independence in order to be able to apply for jobs in the...
Kinneret Council on Aging is providing Passover meals for low income Jewish seniors in the community. If you or a family member or friend is interested in taking part in this annual program, please contact Barbara Mills at 407-425-4537 or bmills@kinneretcouncil.org by March 28th. KCOA is proud to continue this annual tradition of providing meals around the Jewish holidays. If you would like to make a donation to support this program, you can do so through our website KinneretLiving.org or by calling Barbara Mills directly....
(JNS) — A fraternity at the University of South Florida was suspended after photos circulated of a Feb. 11 event in which members of the group, including a Jewish student, reportedly had swastikas drawn on their “shirts or body parts.” Noting that the school’s rules against hazing and alcohol were violated at the off-campus “bid party” by the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity, university officials said in a letter to the president of the fraternity that “the continual operations of the organization at USF likely pose an ongoing threat, disruption, o...
(JNS) — Avi Zinger was so upset after Ben & Jerry’s pulled the rug out from under him that he never picked up the phone to speak with them. Instead, he’s taking them, and their parent company Unilever, to a U.S. district court. The longtime Israeli manufacturer and distributor of the Vermont-based ice cream company’s products wants his license agreement renewed, and damages for the losses he’s suffered since Ben & Jerry’s succumbed to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and refused to renew its agreement with Zinger unless he b...
(JNS) — Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid announced on Saturday that he had instructed ambassador-designate to Poland Yacov Livne to leave for Warsaw ahead of schedule. “I made the decision … in order to enhance assistance to Israeli citizens crossing the border from Ukraine to Poland and in view of the importance of the events and the central role that Poland plays in them,” Lapid wrote on Twitter. “Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, the Israeli embassy in Warsaw, headed by charge d’affaires...
(JNS) - The Jewish Agency for Israel has opened six aliyah-processing stations at Ukrainian borders, the agency said on Saturday night. The stations are located in Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary, and are being operated through a collaboration with Nativ and Israel's Foreign Ministry. The ministry asked the agency's emissaries who had been stationed in Lviv to work out of Poland beginning on Saturday. Each day, these emissaries, together with Israel's diplomatic teams, will cross the...
(JTA) - Fleeing Odessa with 300 Jewish orphans, Rabbi Shlomo Baksht was terrified that Russian bombs would hit his convoy's three buses. Twice during the 27-hour trip from the city in Ukraine's south to the Carpathian mountains in its western part, the drivers hired by Baksht's group, Tikva, had to stop and the children needed to leave the bus quickly due to sirens. "Now it's calm and safe," said Baksht, whose 15 counselors and 300 children traveled during Shabbat to reach the Carpathian...
Nearly 200 guests gathered at the 11th Annual Jewish Pavilion Fashion Show at Dillard's Altamonte Mall on Feb. 24, 2022 to raise funds for senior programs at elder-care facilities throughout Central Florida. It was a morning of friendship, fashion, food, and fun, and the first time the fashion show was sold out. "It was a beautiful morning," said Julie Levitt Bain, who was honored at the event for her work as a program director. "I cannot express my appreciation for the love and support I felt...
