Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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A delegation from Orlando will join thousands of proud American Zionists at the Global Conference for Israel for a weekend filled with camaraderie, inspiration, and riveting speakers who exemplify Israel's positive contributions to the world. The annual multi-day spectacular event, best known for showcasing the pride and beauty of Zionism, providing attendees with practical tools to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to antisemitism, and sharing first-hand accounts about the...
In a landmark agreement for both institutions, the Jewish Capital Alliance of Central Florida, Inc. and the TOP Jewish Foundation, Inc., announce the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding to expand the mission of providing low-cost Impact Loans to local Jewish institutions. The MOU establishes an outline to jointly market, manage, and fund loans to Jewish organizations throughout greater Central and West-coastal Florida. In addition, TOP will provide investment management of JCA’s $3.2MM capital portfolio. Both JCA and TOP contribute d...
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida announced that it has hired Emily Sterling as its interim CEO. Sterling's first day at the Holocaust Center was July 22. Sterling replaces HMREC Chief Executive Officer Talli Dippold, who accepted a leadership position at an out-of-state nonprofit organization and stepped down at the end of June. Leading the organization since 2022, Dippold expanded the reach of the Holocaust Center's educational offerings - solidifying core programs...
MILWAUKEE - Shabbos Kestenbaum remembers the first time he felt lonely because he held an unpopular political opinion. The year was 2008, and Kestenbaum was 9 and a student at a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, where he lived. In a school journal, he decried the Iraq War and extolled a young senator running for president on a platform of opposing it. "I remember with my dad, we bought a yard sign saying 'Barack Obama' in Hebrew," Kestenbaum recalled in an...
Tisha B’Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. On this day, both the first and second Holy Temples which stood in Jerusalem were destroyed: the First Temple by the Babylonians in the year 423 BCE, and the second by the Romans in 69 CE. In honor of this day, Chabad of North Orlando will present a lecture titled “The Archaeological Claim to Jerusalem.” The talk will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 7 p.m., in Nate’s Shul 1701 Markham Woods Road in Longwood. It will be a multimedia present...
Since 2007, Dan Pollak has been directing operations for the Zionist Organization of America at their Washington, D.C. office where his role is to help educate members of Congress, their staff, and other government officials on the relationship between the United States and Israel as well as on policy issues relating to the Middle East. Pollak is coming to Orlando on Sunday, Aug. 11, to present two topics at two different synagogues. At 1:30 p.m. he will be at the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congre...
(JNS) — The Knesset plenum voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The resolution, put forward by MK Ze’ev Elkin of the New Hope-National Right party with support from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party and the Land of Israel Caucus, passed by 68 to 9. The Land of Israel Caucus, the mission of which is to strengthen Israeli control of Judea and Samaria, includes members from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition as well as Benny Gantz‘s centrist National Unity P...
(JNS) — Israel’s new “Air Force One,” dubbed Wing of Zion, took off for the U.S. Tuesday on its first official flight, but will have to return to the Jewish state to pick up the prime minister. The double transatlantic round trips on the $200,000 flights come amid a reported tiff between the Prime Minister’s Office and Israel Aerospace Industries over the size of the new plane, which can sit 60 passengers, fewer than the expected entourage of aides, security detail and journalists accompanying the premier. It was not immediately clear why...
(JNS) — Activist groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party have disrupted U.S. Senate hearings and “have engaged in violent, antisemitic riots in many cities across the United States,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote last week to Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general. A U.S. citizen living in Shanghai with ties to the CCP has funded many far-left and pro-Hamas organizations across America, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Free Beacon. They apparently did not register under the F...
(JNS) — Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, should either step down or be fired by the school’s board, the Coalition for Jewish Values says. The group, which represents 2,500 Orthodox rabbis, noted that Shafik allowed a dean to remain in his role after exchanging text messages mocking the panelists during an event on Jew-hatred. Three other Columbia officials involved lost their administrative roles, but remain on the payroll and the faculty. “The bigotry and double standards are blatant, and entirely at odds with the exper...
(JNS) - The attempt on his life is an opportunity to unify the United States of America, former U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday, a day after he was shot in the ear at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. "This is a chance to bring the whole country, even the whole world, together," Trump told the Washington Examiner. Trump also talked to The New York Post about the harrowing experience, saying that he was "supposed to dead" and calling it "surreal." "The doctor at the hospital said he...
(JTA) — Jewish and Israeli leaders and lawmakers condemned what officials are investigating as an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, as did Gabrielle Giffords, a Jewish former congresswoman who survived an assassination attempt. A number of top Jewish lawmakers, many of them Democrats who oppose Trump’s bid to return to the presidency, immediately condemned the attack. “I am horrified by what happened at the Trump rally in Pennsylvania and relieved that former Presi...
(JNS) - The man killed in the assassination attempt on former U.S. president and presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump was Corey Comperatore, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced on Sunday. Comperatore, 50, was a former volunteer fire chief from the Buffalo Township who loved his family, the governor stated. "Corey died a hero. Corey dove on his family to protect them last night," Shapiro said. "Corey was the very best of us. May his memory be a blessing," the Jewish Democrat told...
The Friends committee comprises dedicated Jewish Pavilion Senior Services volunteers. This vibrant social group offers friendship and camaraderie, akin to a Women's Auxiliary. The committee members are friendly and sociable, often enjoying lunch together after meetings. They organize events such as the Jewish Pavilion Luncheon, fashion shows, and cocktail parties. Additionally, they volunteer at over 50 elder-care facilities, supporting programs arranged by Jewish Pavilion staff for Jewish...
On Friday, Aug. 2, Chabad of North Orlando will kick off its second annual "Rolene's Shabbos" in loving memory of Rolene Hunter Z"L. Rolene, was the first to become a member of Chabad Lubavitch of North Orlando's Jewish Legacy Society by remembering the Longwood Chabad in her will and leaving a portion of her estate to help ensure a Jewish tomorrow. "Rolene was taken from us way too soon but she will forever remain in our hearts. Honoring her with this special Shabbos is the least we can do to...
These two current situations have people questioning, “What’s going on?” Dan Pollack, ZOA director of Government Relations, will shed some light on what is happening concerning the Palestinians and the rift between the U.S. and Israeli governments at two separate meetings sponsored by the Zionist Organization of America – Florida. Both meetings will be held on Aug. 11. The first will be held at the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation, 11200 S. Apopka Vineland Rd, at 1:30 p.m. Pollack will discuss “Is the rift between the U.S. and Israeli g...
(New York Jewish Week) — The Democratic Socialists of America dropped its endorsement of New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez after she hosted a panel discussion on antisemitism. The DSA said in a Tuesday statement that it was rescinding its conditional endorsement of Ocasio-Cortez’s reelection campaign after she “conflated anti-Zionism with antisemitism and condemned boycotting Zionist institutions” during the discussion she sponsored last month. “This sponsorship is a deep betrayal to all those who’ve risked their welfare to fight Israe...
(JNS) — Google’s parent company Alphabet is in advanced talks to acquire Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup Wiz in a deal worth some $23 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday. If the agreement is inked, it would represent the California tech giant’s biggest-ever buy (scorching the previous record of $12.5 billion for Motorola Mobility in 2012). It would also mark a significant achievement for Israel’s high-tech sector. “This is the largest acquisition to ever happen in the Israeli high-tech sector. It’s a sign of the strength of...
(JNS) — Saturday’s assassination attempt on former president and presumptive Republican nominee for the White House Donald Trump “is not only a heinous crime, it is also an attempt to assassinate American democracy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that he “would like to send him in my name, in the name of my wife, Sara, in the name of the ministers of the Israeli government and in the name of the entire people of Israel our best wishes fo...
(JNS) — Former President Donald Trump on Sunday called for unity while paying tribute to the rallygoer who was killed in the attempt on his life. “Thank you to everyone for your thoughts and prayers yesterday, as it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening,” Trump wrote on his Truth social media platform. “We will FEAR NOT, but instead remain resilient in our Faith and Defiant in the face of Wickedness,” he continued. “Our love goes out to the other victims and their families. We pray for the recovery of those who were wounded...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — Vandals tore down Israeli hostage posters hanging outside the Capitol Hill office of Rep. Brad Schneider, an Illinois Democrat, a week after pro-Palestinian activists used megaphones and drums to protest outside his home in the middle of the night. “My Capitol office was vandalized yesterday in a vile act of hate in which the posters of the more than 100 people still held hostage in Gaza (including 8 Americans) were ripped from the wall, shredded and tossed across the hallway,” Schneider, who is Jewish, posted Friday...
(JTA) — MILWAUKEE — “Beautiful prayer!” the woman shouted out from the floor of the massive Fiserv Forum. The delegate to Donald Trump’s coronation was responding to a benediction led by Leora Levy, a Jewish Republican from Connecticut, to close out the first day of this year’s Republican Party convention. Levy’s comments included one of the rare mentions of Israel on the convention’s first day, as she led a hushed and somber crowd in praying for the release of hostages abducted by Hamas on Oct. 7. “O Lord our God, we pray for the peace of...
(JNS) - Nearly 350 Hamas terrorists, including 100 members of the terror group's elite Nukhba Force, managed to infiltrate Kibbutz Be'eri in southern Israel on Oct. 7 due to catastrophic failures by the Israel Defense Forces in their readiness and response, according to the first part of the IDF's internal probe of the attacks. "The IDF had difficulty creating a clear picture of what was happening in the kibbutz until the afternoon hours of Oct. 7, even though the yishuv emergency team had an...
(JTA) — As expected, on July 4, 1976, the United States celebrated its bicentennial with a flurry of patriotic pride and hype. The surprise was that the day also brought one of the most miraculous events in Jewish history: Israel’s rescue of 102 hostages being held over 2,500 miles away at an airport in Entebbe, Uganda. A week earlier, on June 27, terrorists from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a radical West German group hijacked an Air France airliner full of Israeli pas...
(JTA) — MILWAUKEE — Three Jewish organizations dealing with immigration and community relations said they were alarmed by the Republican Party’s plans to launch mass deportations, saying they are steeped in a racist conspiracy theory that at times has veered into antisemitism. The Republican platform, published this week, pledges to “carry out the largest deportation operation in American history.” “President Trump and Republicans will reverse the Democrats’ destructive Open Borders Policies that have allowed criminal gangs and Illegal Alien...
