Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday for the latter’s “strong statement” calling on Hamas to release the 101 hostages it has held in Gaza for 424 days. “It is a forceful statement, which makes it clear that there is only one responsible for this situation, and that is Hamas,” the Israeli premier said. Netanyahu addressed the president-elect’s remarks ahead of an Israeli government meeting in Nahariya, a northern city that has often been the target of cross-border attacks by Irani...
Seven women from Orlando — Sarah Gittleson, Stacey Soll, Shifra Yachnes, Carol Feuerman, Debbie Cohen, Limor Raz and Orly Wilf — were part of a group of 100 women from eight American cities who visited Israel from Nov. 4-11 as part of an eight-day trip organized by the global Jewish organization Momentum. The organization aims to inspire Jewish women to lead a Jewish future by becoming more connected to their identity, heritage, and Israel. The eight-day trip was part of the Momentum year-long program known as the Journey of Growth, an ini...
(JNS) - Dozens of volunteers are heading north, following the implementation of Israel's ceasefire with Iranian proxy Hezbollah that ended 14 months of war, to assist local farmers in their recovery efforts. "We are currently developing a plan with the aim of bringing at least 100,000 volunteers in the coming months to support farmers in the north," said Yoel Zilberman, founder and CEO of the HaShomer HaChadash ("The New Watchman") agricultural volunteer organization, who is leading the effort....
(JTA) — Syrian dictator Bashar Assad has fled the country and his government has fallen to rebels, a swift and stunning collapse after more than a decade of civil war. The country is now enveloped in joy and turmoil as hundreds of thousands of refugees stream home, political prisoners go free and Syrians — along with the rest of the world — wonder what’s next. Also wrapped up in uncertainty: Syria’s neighbor and longtime adversary, Israel. Assad’s fall came after several of his regional partners have been weakened in Israel’s multi-front w...
(JNS) — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced his selection of Adam Boehler to be the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs in the incoming administration. Boehler previously led negotiations on the 2020 Abraham Accords, the agreement that normalized diplomatic relations between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that was later expanded to include Sudan and Morocco. Trump touted Boehler’s experience as a negotiator and his unanimous confirmation by the Senate as the first CEO of the U.S. Development Finance Cor...
(JNS) — On behalf of six families, the Deborah Project has sued the Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City, Calif., charging systemic failures to address antisemitism among both students and staff. The legal nonprofit’s suit, filed on Nov. 15, summarizes reported antisemitic acts and the alleged failure of administrators at the public school to take the threat seriously. Sam Kasle, the lead plaintiff, said “I tried for months to get the school officials to respond like professionals. Instead, they allowed my daughter to be harme...
German luxury hotel flies Israeli flag, sees 136% bump in bookings (JNS) — A luxury resort in the Bavarian Alps which has been flying an Israeli flag since Oct. 8, 2023, has seen a 136 percent rise in Israeli bookings over the past year, according to Hebrew media reports. Schloss Elmau, located in Krün near the Austrian border, reported 438 overnight stays by Israeli guests in the first 10 months of 2024, compared to 185 during the same period the previous year. Owner Dietmar Müller-Elmau has pledged to keep the flag flying until all the hos...
(JNS) - Michelle Rich, director of teen travel and international engagement at United Synagogue Youth, laughs as she tells JNS about a memory she has of Omer Neutra, an Israeli-American 22-year-old, whose death on Oct. 7 Israel confirmed on Monday. On a USY bus trip across the country in 2016, Neutra and his friend came down from the hotel and "they had given each other haircuts," Rich recalled. "I was like, 'call your parents please,'" she said. "He was so smiley, and so happy and so jolly,"...
(JNS) - Doha is no longer sitting on the sidelines of the Gaza ceasefire negotiations, after suspending its involvement on Nov. 9, citing a lack of "good faith" on the interested parties' part. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff has traveled to Qatar and Israel in a bid to restart ceasefire talks, with Trump seeking a deal before he is sworn in on Jan. 20, Reuters reported on Thursday, citing a source briefed on the talks. Witkoff met separately in late November...
Heritage Florida Jewish News has had a second change of ownership in its 48-year history. Laura Ossin purchased the paper on Nov. 30, 2024, from its publisher, Jeff Gaeser. Ossin grew up in the Dr. Phillips area. After graduating from Florida State University with a degree in communications and public relations she moved to Winter Park for work. She later met her husband, Lee Ossin, and moved to Maitland where they now reside. If the name Ossin sounds familiar to some that's because Lee is the s...
(New York Jewish Week) — Omer Neutra was killed more than one year ago, more than 5,000 miles away. But at his memorial service Tuesday morning on Long Island, the sanctuary overflowed with relatives, friends, Jewish leaders and at least one other hostage family. Coursing through the crowd was the pain of learning — after nearly 14 months of unending hope and activism — that Neutra had been killed in battle alongside his fellow Israeli soldiers on Oct. 7, 2023, the day Hamas terrorists abducted his body to Gaza. It is still being held there...
Staff Sergeant Yona Betzalel Brief, 23, died on Nov. 26, 2024, as a result of wounds he sustained on Oct. 7, 2023, near the Gaza border. Brief was the nephew of Lake Mary residents Dr. Bruce and Debra Hoffen and cousin of Sara and Frances Hoffen. Brief was 23 and the youngest son (of six children) of Hazel and David Brief, who have lived in Modi'in, Israel for 30 years. David is the brother of Debra Hoffen. Yona, a combat medic in the elite Duvdevan unit, died at Sheba Hospital in Tel Hashomer w...
(JTA) — Israel’s security cabinet approved a U.S.-brokered ceasefire proposal with Hezbollah, which ends more than a year of conflict with the terror group on Israel’s border with Lebanon. President Biden said in an address to the nation after the agreement that Lebanon’s government agreed to the agreement, and that the withdrawal of forces starting then would take up to 60 days. The ceasefire took effect early Wednesday morning in the region. “I’m pleased to announce that their governments have accepted the United States proposal to end the...
(JNS) — The University of Michigan Central Student Government voted 30-7 on Tuesday to impeach Alifa Chowdhury and Elias Atkinson, its president and vice president respectively, on five combined charges, the Michigan Daily, a student paper, reported. Chowdhury was impeached for incitement of violence against the student government, cybertheft of student government property and dereliction of duty, while Atkinson was impeached for inciting violence and dereliction of duty, per the paper. The Central Student Government voted that Chowdhury’s Oct...
(JNS) — Britain would follow due process and arrest Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if he were to visit the United Kingdom, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Monday in response to a question from reporters at a G7 meeting near Rome. Last week, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for the Israeli premier and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged “war crimes” committed in Gaza since the start of the Iron Swords War. “We are signatories to the Rome Statute, we have always been committed...
(JNS) — Hamas welcomed the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon that went into effect early Wednesday, with the Gaza-based terrorist group saying that it, too, wants a pause to hostilities. “We have informed mediators in Egypt, Qatar and Turkey that Hamas is ready for a ceasefire agreement and a serious deal to exchange prisoners,” a Hamas official told the AFP news agency. The Hamas official accused Jerusalem of obstructing an agreement. The terrorist group welcomed the agreement despite its Iranian-backed ally reneg...
(JNS) — Testimonials and photo and video footage on social media showing men donning tefillin and women wearing Stars of David or lighting Shabbat candles have emerged amid a Jewish great awakening after the Oct. 7 terror attacks. Add Shai Davidai, the Columbia Business School professor who has been one of the most prominent defenders of Israel on campuses and beyond, to that trend. Davidai, 41, who is Israeli-American and a self-described atheist, told JNS that he has largely stopped using his phone on Shabbat since the Oct. 7 attacks, and i...
(JNS) — Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, both Democratic Georgia senators, are facing a backlash from the Atlanta-area Jewish community over their votes to halt certain arms sales to Israel. AIPAC, the Atlanta JCRC and the local Anti-Defamation League and American Jewish Committee chapters joined 46 other Jewish organizations, including more than 20 Atlanta synagogues, in a letter to the senators on Thursday condemning their votes. “Your vote demonstrates that your commitment to Israel’s security is not ironclad,” the organizations wrote....
(JNS) - More than two decades on from suffering horrific injuries in a Hamas terror attack, a New Jersey resident says she and other victims have been "retraumatized" by ongoing support for Hamas on American streets and university campuses. Sarri Singer, a Lakewood native, was volunteering in Israel when she was seriously wounded in the Davidka Square suicide bombing on a Jerusalem 14A bus on June 11, 2003. The Palestinian terrorist, dressed as an Orthodox Jew, had boarded the bus at the Mahane...
(JNS) - We collectors are an odd but determined group. We latch on to a story and spend countless hours finding tangible items that tell it. We are determined that the story will never be forgotten. Nothing will stop us from telling that story, not even a Hezbollah rocket. My friend Hadi Orr is a collector of Israeliana. (Yes, there is such a word). He has amassed a collection of tens of thousands of items. His collection ranges from El Al and Naomi Shemer paraphernalia to key chains, New...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that he had decided to end the use of administrative detention orders against Israeli citizens, in a move that bears significant change for law enforcement in Judea and Samaria. “Given that the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria are subject to Palestinian terror threats and unjust international sanctions are slapped against the settlers, it is improper that the State of Israel would apply such a severe measure against the people of the settlements,” Katz said in a statement. Katz infor...
(JNS) - Sebastian Gorka, Donald Trump's pick as his senior director for counter-terrorism, has made several statements in favor of Israel recently, including that "Palestine" doesn't exist and that IDF generals should forget about diplomacy and focus on defeating terrorists militarily. Gorka, who had served as deputy assistant to the president-elect from January to August 2017, during his first term in office, broached the issue of Palestine in an interview on Nov. 16 with a host for RT, a Russian state-controlled international news television...
(JTA) — A number of progressive Jewish groups are backing an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block arms sales to Israel. The effort, a collection of several resolutions, is unlikely to pass in the closely divided Senate but could split Democratic lawmakers. The push is driving a wedge among Jewish organizations in the lead-up to Wednesday’s vote: A group of centrist and right-wing pro-Israel groups oppose the bills. But large liberal Jewish organizations have offered support, signaling those groups’ growing criticism of how Israel is opera...
(JNS) — Donald Trump announced Saturday that attorney Will Scharf will join his White House team. “I am pleased to announce that William Owen Scharf will serve as assistant to the president and White House staff secretary,” the president-elect said in a statement published by his transition team. According to Trump, “Will is a highly skilled attorney who will be a crucial part of my White House team. He has played a key role in defeating the Election Interference and Lawfare waged against me, including by winning the Historic Immunity Decisio...
(JNS) — The National on Wednesday published what the Emirati state-owned newspaper said is the full text of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Lebanon that halted hostilities with the Hezbollah terrorist entity. According to the Abu Dhabi-based broadsheet, the text was obtained from a senior official after it was discussed in a government meeting in Beirut on Wednesday. Here is the text: Announcement of a Cessation of Hostilities and Related Commitments on Enhanced Security Arrangements and Towards the Implementation of UNSCR 1701 A...
