Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Two Israeli embassy staffers were shot and killed on Wednesday evening outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. The male victim was identified as Yaron Lischinsky. His final post on social media was a repost of a message condemning the United Nations' false claim that 14,000 infants in Gaza were facing imminent starvation, labeling it a modern-day blood libel. According to Israeli Ambassador to Berlin Ron Prosor, who taught him as a master student, Lischinsky was a Germany-born...
Israel's Yuval Raphael defied expectations to come in second in the annual Eurovision song contest on May 17, narrowly losing out to Austria after being buoyed by the popular vote but also drawing points from the juries in 14 countries. "Thank you, Europe! Am Yisrael chai!" Raphael shouted from the stage after her performance. Azerbaijan awarded Israel all 12 of the points its jury could give, in a departure from last year, when Israel did not win any country's full jury points. Azerbaijan is a...
(JTA) - Since 1540, a prestigious chain of scholars has held the title of the Regius Professor of Hebrew at the University of Cambridge. But not one of these scholars of Hebrew and Semitic studies was Jewish - until this year. In September 2025, Aaron Koller will become the first Jew to join the university's department of Middle Eastern Studies as the Regius Professor of Hebrew, a role established by King Henry VIII. Koller is packing up from New York City, where he has taught at Yeshiva...
(JNS) - After signing agreements with Saudi Arabia worth about $600 billion on May 13, U.S. President Donald Trump was expected to tout the deals that evening during a speech in Riyadh at the Saudi-U.S. Investment Forum. Instead, he broke news announcing a major shift in U.S. foreign policy, by saying that he intended to lift sanctions on Syria, which had been imposed during the regime of Basher Assad. "In Syria, which has seen so much misery and death, there's a new government that will...
(JNS) — Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America has released its list of “18 American Zionist women you should know” for three years to “spread the word that today’s Zionists aren’t who you think of when you hear the word,” the nonprofit told JNS. “Zionism today is expressed in myriad powerful and personal ways by women of all different backgrounds and walks of life,” Carol Ann Schwartz, Hadassah’s national president, told JNS. “Hadassah’s list captures that breadth of experience and celebrates women who are not only advocating f...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump told Saudi Arabian officials that they ought to recognize Israel formally, and by doing so, “you’ll be greatly honoring me.” “It’s been an amazing thing, the Abraham Accords. It’s my fervent hope, wish and even my dream, that Saudi Arabia, a place I have such respect for, especially over the last fairly short period of time—what you’ve been able to do,” Trump said in a speech in Riyadh on Tuesday, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman looking on. “But we’ll soon be joining the Abraham Accords. I thin...
(JTA) - If she found it unnerving to see someone make a throat-slitting gesture at her as she walked the carpet at the first event in the Eurovision song contest, Yuval Raphael wasn't letting on. "It was a stressful situation, scary at times," Raphael, Israel's competitor in this year's song contest, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview Monday. She was speaking a day after the competition's "turquoise carpet" kickoff, when Israel filed a police report accusing a pro-Palestinian...
(JNS) — Where can rabbis gather to hear from the Speaker of the House and a progressive Democratic senator about their support for the State of Israel? Where can they join Christian ministers to advocate for Israel, participate in a respectful discussion about the administration’s efforts against antisemitism, study biblical texts, learn about troubling antisemitism trends, and hear from influential authors and student leaders confronting anti-Israel activity on campus? If you said the Annual Conference of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, you...
Argentine Supreme Court discovers over 80 boxes of forgotten Nazi documents By Grace Gilson (JTA) — The Supreme Court of Argentina discovered over 80 boxes of material from the Nazis in its basement last Friday, prompting court officials to work with local Jewish organizations to review their contents. The boxes were sent in 1941 from the embassy of Nazi Germany in Tokyo to German diplomats in Argentina. Their contents include Nazi postcards, photographs and propaganda material, which, the court said in a statement Monday, were “intended to...
(JTA) — Cardinal Robert Prevost, who was just elected as Pope Leo XIV, studied under a pioneer in Jewish-Catholic relations when he attended seminary in Chicago. The Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, who taught for nearly half a century at the Catholic Theological Union until his retirement in 2017, served as co-founder and director of the school’s Catholic-Jewish Studies Program and also served four terms on the board of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. More than 40 years after Leo’s ordination as a priest, Pawlikowski remembers the new pope as a...
(JNS) - Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, a Chicago native, was elected as the new pope of the Catholic Church on May 8. He will be called Leo XIV. The first U.S.-born pope is also a Peruvian citizen and was previously archbishop of Peru, the Associated Press reported. Most recently, the new pope was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, "one of the most important jobs in the Catholic Church," the AP reported, as "the powerful head...
By (JNS) — Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) urged Israel to destroy Iran’s oil facilities and continue to hit the Houthi rebels in Yemen. On May 5, Israeli fighter jets conducted a wave of airstrikes on Yemen’s Hudaydah Port, a day after the Houthis, an Iran-backed group, launched a ballistic missile that struck near Israel’s main international airport, wounding six. “To my friends in Israel, do what you have to do to protect your airspace and your people. It is long past time to consider hitting Iran hard. It wouldn’t take much to put Iran out of...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee affixed a mezuzah on the entrance of his office in Jerusalem on Sunday, during his first official meeting with Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan. A mezuzah (“doorpost” in Hebrew) is a piece of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, held in a case that is attached to the right doorframe of an entrance and in all of the rooms of a residence. The mezuzah gifted to Huckabee by Dagan, a longtime friend of the new ambassador, was made by an artist from the Samaria town of Itamar and cra...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu congratulated Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, 69, for being elected pope of the Catholic Church. “Congratulations to Pope Leo XIV and the Catholic community worldwide. I wish the first Pope from the United States success in fostering hope and reconciliation among all faiths,” wrote Netanyahu on X. The new pope is also a Peruvian citizen and was previously archbishop of Peru. Most recently, he was prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America,...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Approximately 800 digital recordings and transcripts of Nazi criminals from after World War II were revealed on Saturday, including dramatic and disturbing testimonies that shed light on Nazi methods during the war and Holocaust and on their escape routes. Among the recordings, published on the Hoover Institution website, is one from SS officer Bruno Streckenbach (1902-1977), head of the Administration and Personnel Department of the Reich Security Main Office, in which he admits that Adolf Hitler gave explicit i...
(JNS) — In a ceremony underscoring the enduring friendship and growing cooperation between Israel and Germany, Mayor of Tel Aviv-Yafo Ron Huldai and Governing Mayor of Berlin Kai Wegner signed a new Twin Cities agreement on Monday. The deal marks the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations and took place in the presence of Israeli Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor. Speaking at the ceremony, Mayor Huldai emphasized the symbolic and practical significance of the renewed partnership between the two cities. “Here today in...
Plaque in memory of deported Jewish children damaged in Marseille By Yossi Lempkowicz (JNS) — A plaque commemorating Jewish children deported during World War II was vandalized in the southern French city of Marseille, La Provence reported. The incident occurred in the city’s 13th arrondissement, at the Château de la Verdière, from where several Jewish children were deported during the war. According to authorities, the suspect was arrested shortly after the act. City officials condemned the vandalism, calling it “intolerable.” In a statement p...
(JTA) — The Irish rap group Kneecap denounced Hamas and Hezbollah after Micheál Martin, the Irish prime minister, called on them to “urgently clarify” their stances. The group is from Belfast, the capital of Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, and U.K. police have also announced that they are investigating the group. Martin’s call and the investigation come after the group ignited criticism and scrutiny with its anti-Israel performance at the U.S. festival Coachella earlier this month. Critics of the performance, which included a projecti...
(JTA) — Cleaning up beaches near Rio de Janeiro and learning about Jewish environmental values. Connecting with Jewish study abroad students in London. Discovering the richness and plurality of Jewish traditions at Israeli cultural centers from Haifa to Sderot. Exploring the intersection of art and Jewish identity in Berlin. And helping Jewish students rebuild, physically and emotionally, after bombings in war-torn Ukraine. What do these experiences have in common? They’re all possible bec...
(JNS) — The third round of talks on Iran’s nuclear program took place in Oman last Saturday as the United States hopes to restrain the Islamic Republic through negotiations. The talks have garnered mixed reactions from Israel supporters, with some calling for a wait-and-see approach and others, viewing past as prologue, warning that Iran will only use the talks to buy time, rebuild its capabilities and persist in its malign activities. To Western thinking negotiation means compromise and reconciliation, but Iran’s ayatollahs see it as a way t...
(JTA) — An amendment saying that criticism of the Israeli government is not antisemitic was added to the Antisemitism Awareness Act today in a Senate committee hearing. The amendment was proposed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Jewish progressive leader, and approved in a 12-11 vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. The committee adjourned before voting on the bill itself and another piece of legislation, the Protecting Students on Campus Act, which would require schools to share information about how s...
IDF intercepts drone smuggling assault rifles from Egypt By JNS Staff (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces intercepted a drone attempting to smuggle weapons from Egypt into Israeli territory late on Monday night. IDF surveillance teams identified the UAV entering Israeli airspace. Israeli forces promptly downed the drone and, upon examination, discovered it was transporting 10 M-16 assault rifles, as well as ammunition. The seized arms were handed over to security personnel for further investigation. This event is part of a broader pattern of rece...
(JTA) - OŚWIĘCIM, Poland - At Auschwitz for the annual March of the Living, Maggie Megidish and her daughter, released hostage Ori, stood among a delegation of survivors of both the Holocaust and Oct. 7. The visit stirred memories of their own ordeal. When a Holocaust survivor spoke of the hunger she endured in the camp, Maggie said she was transported back to the weeks she barely ate, tormented by thoughts of her daughter in captivity. "With every bite, or every sip of water, I wondered if she,...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Freed Hamas hostage Noa Argamani wore a stunning yellow maxi dress, designed by Israeli designer Eli Tala, to the 2025 Time100 Gala in New York on April 26. Argamani has become one of the most prominent figures in Israel and around the world in recent months, using her public platform to convey one clear message - the urgency of bringing all the remaining hostages home. The 27-year-old was included in TIME magazine's 2025 list of the 100 most influential people in the...
(JTA) - In his final public speech, delivered less than 24 hours before his death, Pope Francis addressed the war in Gaza, expressing sympathy for the Palestinian people and calling for an end to the war that includes the release of Israeli hostages. Francis made the comments in his annual Easter speech, which an archbishop delivered while Francis was seated on the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. His comments about the war in Gaza, which Israel and Hamas have been fighting since Oct....
