Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - As of Jan. 13, 2,000 protesters have been confirmed killed, according to Iranian authorities, however, other reports claim different figures. Time of Israel reported that The Norway-based organization Iran Human Rights said it had confirmed 648 people killed during the protests, including nine minors, but warned the death toll was likely much higher - "according to some estimates, more than 6,000." Also, Times of Israel reported that the Iran International news site, which is based in...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that anti-regime protests in Iran could be approaching a critical moment, with the Iranian people poised to “take their fate into their own hands.” “We in Israel identify with the struggle of the Iranian people and their aspiration to liberty and justice,” Netanyahu said, speaking at a 40-signature debate, which the opposition can call once a month and which the prime minister is obliged to attend. “We may be at a critical moment,” he said. The premier stressed in his remarks t...
(JNS) — It takes Wikipedia nearly 7,500 words into its main entry on China to mention the word “genocide,” tucked in a section on “sociopolitical issues and human rights,” and even then, the crowdsourced online encyclopedia hedges. “Since 2017, the Chinese government has been engaged in a harsh crackdown in Xinjiang, with around one million Uyghurs and other ethnic and religion minorities being detained in internment camps aimed at changing the political thinking of detainees, their identities and their religious beliefs, in what some described...
(JNS) — Madrid is prepared to send peacekeeping troops to the Gaza Strip “once the opportunity presents itself, “Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Thursday. “Of course, we have not forgotten Palestine and the Gaza Strip,” Sánchez told a gathering of Spanish ambassadors in Madrid, El País reported. “Spain must actively participate in rebuilding hope in Palestine,” he added. “I will propose to parliament, when the opportunity presents itself, that we send peacekeeping troops to Palestine, once we can see how to advance this task...
(JNS) — The Jewish community in Pasadena, Calif., is experiencing a “mix of emotion” as the one-year anniversary approaches of the Eaton Fire, which broke out on Jan. 7, 2025, and killed 19 people and destroyed more than 9,400 structures, including the more than 100-year-old Pasadena Jewish Temple and Center. Melissa Levy, executive director of the Conservative synagogue, told JNS that the community is feeling “resilient and hopeful but also still in a period of mourning.” “It’s a mix of emotion,” she said. “We’re mourning the loss of this re...
(JNS) — Imprisoned Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti should be put to death over his leading role in the 2000-05 Second Intifada terrorist war against Israel, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said. “Marwan Barghouti should be taken out,” Ben-Gvir declared at a faction meeting of his Otzma Yehudit Party at the Knesset in Jerusalem, responding to a question from JNS about a petition by Alon Liel, a Reichman University lecturer and former Israeli diplomat, calling for the terrorist’s release. “Marwan Barghouti is a murderer, he is a terrori...
(JNS) — Just as countries must have borders to exist, the conservative movement needs to delineate what is beyond the pale, and the latter includes Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host who has both denounced core conservative tenets of late and given voice to and failed to denounce antisemites and Holocaust deniers. That was one of the messages Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative commentator and Daily Wire cofounder, shared in a Dec. 17 book talk with Kevin Roberts, president of Heritage Foundation. Roberts has drawn criticism after f...
(JNS) - Eva Schloss-Geiringer, who was adopted as a child survivor of the Holocaust by the father of Anne Frank, has died in London at the age of 96, the Anne Frank Foundation announced Monday. Otto Frank adopted Schloss-Geiringer, who had lived with her family near the Franks in Amsterdam before its occupation by the Nazis in 1940, after marrying her mother, Fritzi, in 1953. Schloss-Geiringer wrote books about her survival of the Holocaust, including "Eva's Story: A Survivor's Tale," and has...
(JNS) - More than 250 people gathered in Herzliya on Dec. 30, 2025, for "Stronger Together: An Evening of Courage, Compassion and Community" hosted by Telfed, an aliyah organization based in Ra'anana that supports immigrants from Southern Africa. The event brought together an extraordinary cross-section of speakers-all with ties to Southern Africa-who shared their personal stories of tragedy and triumph, heroism and hope in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror attacks. Opening...
(JNS) — Representatives from the United States, Egypt, Qatar and Turkey met Friday in Miami to review implementation of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire and to advance preparations for the next stage, U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff confirmed on Saturday. Witkoff said the initial phase of the Trump administration-brokered deal had produced progress, including the return of all but one hostage, partial IDF troop withdrawals, a reduction in hostilities and expanded humanitarian assistance to Gaza. “In our discussions reg...
Possible regime change? The meeting this week between Netanyahu and Trump takes place as there are growing domestic protests against the Iranian regime. There is also a possibility that Israel’s Mossad may be involved in subversive efforts to bolster the opposition and convince Iran’s public to rise up against the fanatical clerics that have steered the country from a path of moderation, into a pariah state ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1978-79. Trump acknowledged the protests but didn’t want to get into specifics of whether the regim...
(JNS) — The longtime Chabad House in Nepal, in the capital of Kathmandu, has been forced to relocate amid growing pressure from its landlord, who demanded that the Jewish center remove all Hebrew signs, Rabbi Chezky Lifshitz said on Sunday. The Chabad House, which serves thousands of Israeli and other Jewish travelers each year, has been in place at the site for the last two decades. “We came under a lot of pressure from the landlord, who started by demanding about a month and a half ago that we remove any Hebrew sign or signs connected to Jud...
BBC to pay Israeli family for filming their home after Oct. 7 By JNS Staff (JNS) — The BBC has apologized and agreed to pay a little over $37,000 to an Israeli family as part of a settlement for filming inside their home shortly after Hamas terrorists invaded it on Oct. 7, 2023, The Jewish News of London reported on Friday. The settlement was on legal action by the Horenstein family in Nativ HaAsara near the border with Gaza over the actions of BBC senior correspondent Jeremy Bowen and his film crew several days after the Oct. 7 massacre, a...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Committee chairman Knesset member Zvika Fogel and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both of the Otzma Yehudit Party, are advancing a Knesset bill aimed at tightening enforcement against noise from public address systems used in mosques. Under the proposed legislation, the construction or operation of a public address system for calls to prayer would require a permit. Permit applications would be reviewed based on noise intensity, efforts at noise-reduction, the mosque’s location and the imp...
Part I (JNS) - In a pre-New Year's meeting at Mar-a-Lago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump demonstrated that when it comes to U.S.-Israel relations, there is little daylight and total admiration between the two allies. This holds particularly true regarding the nations' policies toward Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas, in particular. Key differences remain. The meeting could not have come at a more important juncture for Israel. Phase 1 of a three-month-old ceas...
After his visit with President Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with approximately 30 Christian leaders in Orlando on Dec. 31 and followed with a visit to Jewish leaders in Miami. His visit with Christians was formal, almost like a board meeting - men in suits seated at tables. His later visit with the Jewish community was much more informal, like a family-gathering setting. Netanyahu's talk with Christians was warm and inspiring. "You are representatives of the...
(JNS) — At U.S. President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confronted what seemed to be an impossible mission. The international stage has shifted: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has exited the spotlight, while Netanyahu was invited to take part in the grand design of world peace envisioned by the American leader—a vision not without complications. From Israel’s point of view, Trump’s statement that he would “absolutely” support additional Israeli strikes on Iranian missile and nuclear facil...
(JNS) — Most foreign governments have allowed an unrestrained surge of overt antisemitism to fester in the public sphere, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Sunday. He called on world Jewry to move to Israel. “Jews have a right to live safely everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening and we have a certain historical experience,” Sa’ar said during a Chanukah candle-lighting event in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion. “Today, Jews are being hunted across the world.” He specifically called out the Jews of Engla...
(JNS) — More than 4,100 immigrants from North America made aliyah to Israel in 2025 with the support of Nefesh B’Nefesh, marking the highest annual figure in the past four years, the organization announced in a press release on Monday. According to the data, 4,150 North American Jews immigrated to Israel this year in cooperation with Israel’s Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, the Jewish Agency for Israel, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael and Jewish National Fund–USA. The figure represents an increase of more than 12 percent compared to 2024, when 3,...
(JNS) — Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the establishment and legalization of 19 Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich noted on X. Among the 19 towns are Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria. They were evacuated and destroyed by the Israeli government during the 2005 disengagement. In total, 11 new towns will be established, and eight existing neighborhoods will be officially recognized by the state. “We continue to make history in settling [the land] and in the State of Israel,” Smotric...
Israel’s Christian population is about 185,000, accounting for just under 2 percent of the country’s total population, according to data published Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics on the eve of Christmas 2025. Nearly 80 percent of the Christians in Israel are Arab, comprising 6.8 percent of the nation’s overall Arab population. Most Arab Christians reside in the Northern District (68.3 percent) and Haifa District (14.7 percent). Non-Arab Christians are more concentrated in the Tel Aviv and Central Districts (42 percent) with 34 pe...
(JNS) — Ariel, Hebrew for “lion of God”, retained its title as the most popular name given to Jewish boys in Israel in 2025, the country’s Population and Immigration Authority announced on Tuesday. It was followed by Lavie, meaning “lion” in Hebrew, with the biblical figure David rounding out the top three. Muhammad, Yosef and Adam were the three most popular boys’ names among the general population. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s population of roughly 10 million. Among girls, Avigail, who according to the Bible married the fut...
(JNS) - A Jewish ritual bath, or mikveh, dating back to the final days of the Second Temple period has been unearthed near the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The bath, which still bears ash remains that testify to the destruction of the Temple, was discovered recently beneath the Western Wall Plaza, the state-run archaeological body said. Hewn into the bedrock, the mikveh, which is rectangular in shape, measuring 3.05 meters in length, 1.35 meters in width...
A Jewish American fighter pilot shot down over China in World War II was finally laid to rest on American soil last week, with dirt from Israel placed over his coffin. Lt. Morton Sher, who flew with the famed Flying Tigers, was buried on Sunday in a cemetery in Greenville, S.C., where his headstone and an empty grave have awaited him for 80 years. The oldest son of David and Anna Sher, he was born in Baltimore before his family moved to the South. Active at Congregation Beth Israel in...
As Team Israel prepares to take on the world in the next World Baseball Classic, scheduled for March, it does so against the background of a worldwide spike in Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Israel's war against Hamas. The players are ready for that challenge. Two veterans of the 2023 team, which did well enough to secure an automatic bid for the 2026 event, told JNS that they are prouder than ever to wear the blue and white. "That means everything to me, and it gives me even more of a reason...
