Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Six men assaulted an Israeli man in London on early on Monday morning after hearing him speak Hebrew on the phone, he told police and the media. The Israeli, Shalev Ben Yakar, 22, also complained to police about the beating that he said the six men gave him outside the Solomon Hotel in Golders Green, The Jewish Chronicle of London reported on Monday. "[They caught me] completely off guard. I was not ready. I saw [them] coming [toward] me, and I had a suspicious feeling [about them], but...
(JNS) — Canadian border authorities interrogated and refused to let into the country the director of the Muslim Association of Britain, who had denied the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacres in Israel. Immigration officials in Montreal had questioned Anas Altikriti, a dual citizen of the U.K. and Iraq, at Montreal’s main airport for 11 hours before escorting him to a London-bound airplane, Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Wednesday. Altikriti had planned to speak at a Muslim Association of Canada convention in Toronto on May 16-18, the r...
(JNS) — Yechiel Leiter, the Israeli ambassador in Washington, referred to J Street as a “cancer within the Jewish community” on Monday. Speaking at a National Task Force to Combat Antisemitism meeting at Museum of the Bible in Washington, Leiter said that “the worst thing about J Street is it’s duplicitous.” “How can you be pro-Israel and advocate for an arms embargo on a state that’s fighting a seven-front war against Iranian proxies?” the ambassador said. J Street, a liberal Jewish organization that bills itself as “the political home for...
(JNS)— Israel participated at the Special Operations Forces Week 2026 exhibition in Tampa, Fla., last week, dispatching 11 Israeli defense companies to the event. The three-day exhibition that started on May 19 brought the international Special Operations community together and was supported by the U.S. Special Operations Command and the Global SOF Foundation. The Israeli pavilion showcased advanced capabilities in five key areas: counter-drone and UAV defense systems, cyber and situational a...
Elon Musk praises Israeli innovation as ‘number one in the world’ By JNS Staff (JNS) — Elon Musk, considered to be the richest person on the planet, has lauded Israeli innovation as “number one” in the world. “I’m a huge admirer of the innovation coming out of Israel,” Musk said Monday in video remarks at the Samson International Smart Mobility Summit at Expo Tel Aviv. “I think it is objectively true that Israel punches high above its weight for population.” The owner of Tesla and SpaceX added, “My hat is off to Israel for just how much inc...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday lashed out at those who mark so-called Nakba Day, screenshotting an image from a video posted by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. “The Nakba was the result of the Arab rejection of the U.N. Partition Plan [of 1947] and decision to launch war to annihilate the State of Israel,” the ministry tweeted. It added, “You can’t start war, openly vow to ‘throw the Jews into the sea,’ and then pretend being the victim of the conflict you started. The real forgotten victims are the 850,000 Jewish refugees ex...
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry on Monday accused The New York Times of publishing “one of the worst blood libels ever to appear in the modern press.” “In an unfathomable inversion of reality, and through an endless stream of baseless lies, propagandist Nicholas Kristof turns the victim into the accused,” the MFA tweeted, referencing the Pulitzer Prize-winning NYT columnist who wrote “The Silence That Meets the Rape of Palestinians.” The opinion peace alleged that, despite an absence of evidence, the Jewish state utilizes sexual violence...
EU foreign policy chief: Close to deal on sanctions for ‘violent settlers’ By JNS Staff (JNS) — European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas used her doorstep remarks in Brussels to signal that E.U. foreign ministers are close to a deal on sanctions targeting “violent settlers,” saying she expects a political agreement at the Foreign Affairs Council. “I expect a political agreement on the sanctions of violent settlers. Hopefully we’ll get there,” the Estonian politician and diplomat told reporters, referring to accusations that some Jewis...
(JNS) — The TV show “Sesame Street” featured Black and Jewish actress Kat Graham in its celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month, which began on May 1, drawing both support from Jews and antisemitic backlash on social media. “Happy Jewish American Heritage Month,” it wrote. “Join us this May as we honor and celebrate our Jewish American friends and neighbors in our communities.” “As a proud Jewish American, I am so excited to celebrate my community and heritage this month and every month,” said Graham, best known for her role in the teen...
(JNS) — The Iranian regime’s response to the latest U.S. proposal to end hostilities was “totally unacceptable,” U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday. “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘representatives.’ I don’t like it — totally unacceptable!” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported earlier on Sunday that Tehran’s response to Washington’s plan had been submitted to Pakistani mediators. According to the regime outlet, Iran’s response sought to end “the war in the re...
(JNS) - Growing up in Israel, Ofir Akunis remembers spending Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli Independence Days, dancing in Kings of Israel Square, which was renamed Rabin Square after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995. This year, it felt different to Akunis, Israeli consul general in New York. "It's a unique feeling - to be somewhere else in the world during Yom Ha'atzmaut," he told JNS. "It's totally different. This is an ordinary day here. It's a day off for the employees...
Shekel hits 33-year high against dollar By JNS Staff The Israeli shekel gained 1.1 percent, reaching its highest level against the dollar in 33 years, amid investor optimism over a possible end to hostilities between Iran and the United States. The shekel, which has appreciated 9 percent so far in 2026, strengthened to 2.90 per dollar on Wednesday, its strongest level since October 1993, Reuters reported. ADL report says 2025 one of most violent years for American Jews By Aaron Bandler (JNS) — Although incidents of Jew-hatred declined o...
(JNS) - The head of a state-funded university in Norway said on Tuesday he had no plans to discipline a professor who last month called the Hamas Oct. 7, 2023, massacres "the most beautiful thing that has happened in our century." Following an uproar this week over comments made on April 21 by Professor Bassam Hussein of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Rector Tor Grande told broadcaster NRK that Hussein's views do not represent NTNU, the country's largest university. He...
(JNS) — The lower house of the Swiss parliament voted on Tuesday against recognizing Palestinian statehood, following the example of the upper house last year. In the vote at the National Council of Switzerland, 116 lawmakers out of 200 voted against recognition and 66 voted in favor, according to a bulletin by the Federal Assembly of Switzerland, the country’s bicameral parliament. Another 11 lawmakers abstained and the vote of the remaining seven lawmakers was not recorded. The vote was on a text submitted by the Geneva Canton and, in additio...
(JNS) - A jurist who reviews anti-terrorism legislation for the British government and the head of the opposition called last week for a ban on anti-Israel rallies in the near future following a series of serious antisemitic attacks. Jonathan Hall, the independent reviewer of terror legislation, said the government should consider a "moratorium" on the marches following the April 29 stabbing of two Jews in London's Golders Green neighborhood, allegedly by a Somalia-born British citizen named Ess...
A couple of hundred French Jewish doctors interested in moving to Israel gathered in Paris on Sunday in a major immigration fair for medical professionals. The event was held during a time of global turbulence in the Jewish Diaspora, which is especially noticeable in the 450,000-strong community in France that is also home to the largest Muslim population in Europe, and where a recent survey showed that nearly four of five French Jews feel unsafe. "It is becoming more and more difficult to live...
‘Miss Israel’ 2021 Noa Cochva cancels University of Oregon event due to safety concerns (JNS) — An event at the University of Oregon in the city of Eugene, featuring Noa Cochva, “Miss Israel” 2021, who served as a combat medic in the Israel Defense Forces, was disrupted by anti-Israel groups who blocked access to the reserved space and issued death threats toward Jewish students, according to the Oregon Hillel. The event, sponsored by the Oregon Hillel in partnership with StandWithUs and Ducks4Israel, was scheduled for April 22 on the Chapm...
When most people think of Israel, agriculture is not the first thing that comes to mind. Israel is small, much of it is arid, and water has always been scarce. The land in Israel has been farmed for thousands of years. What statehood changed was the scale, the conditions including rapid population growth and limited water, and the methods required to make agriculture work. That meant finding alternatives, moving water across the country, using it more efficiently, and eventually creating new sources through desalination. Out of those...
Iran says it executed a man accused of spying for Israel By JNS Staff (JNS) — Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel and transmitting sensitive information, the Islamic Republic’s judiciary news outlet Mizan reported on Wednesday, according to Reuters. The Iranian outlet identified the man as Mehdi Farid, saying he held a position in a civil defense unit within what it described as a sensitive organization and used his access to gather intelligence for Israel’s Mossad. According to the report, Iran’s Supreme Court upheld...
(JNS) — The U.S. military has fully implemented a blockade of Iranian ports, halting maritime trade in and out of the country within 36 hours, the commander of U.S. Central Command said on Wednesday. Adm. Brad Cooper said U.S. forces “maintain maritime superiority in the Middle East” as part of the operation, which he said has stopped economic trade by sea that fuels about 90% of Iran’s economy. The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that U.S. naval forces have intercepted eight oil tankers entering or leaving Iranian ports since t...
(JNS) — The House of Representatives narrowly defeated a measure to invoke the War Powers Resolution to end the conflict with Iran on Thursday in a mostly party-line vote. Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) was the lone Democrat to oppose the resolution, siding with Republicans to defeat the effort to withdraw U.S. forces from hostilities by 213 to 214. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a libertarian who frequently opposes foreign policy measures, was the only Republican to vote in favor of the motion. Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio), who previously joined M...
(JNS) — Against the twin backdrops of Israel at war and rising Jew-hatred around the world, some 7,000 people from around the world marked Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, by marching the two miles between the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps in Poland. Known as the International March of the Living, the annual event is designed to create a new generation of witnesses to the murder of 6 million Jews at the hands of the Nazis. The task is taking greater importance as the n...
Reform movement warns anti-AIPAC rhetoric among Democrats risks crossing into Jew-hatred (JNS) — The Union for Reform Judaism warned on Monday that Democratic criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee singles out the pro-Israel organization and, in some cases, crosses over into antisemitism. The Reform movement stated that it is “deeply concerned” by efforts to portray AIPAC as uniquely malign in campaign finance debates, as political rhetoric around Israel intensifies. “Every candidate has the right to accept or reject funding...
(JNS) - KRAKOW, Poland-For eight decades, Holocaust survivor Hannah Yakin, 93, wondered what happened to the baby boy who turned up outside a neighbor's home in suburban Amsterdam during World War II with some clothes, blankets, a hot water bottle and buttermilk powder. "I never forgot him because I loved him so much," Yakin told JNS this week during the annual March of the Living Holocaust commemoration in Poland. The little girl of nine who had played with the baby for two years in the garden...
(JNS) - KRAKOW, Poland-Scores of elderly Holocaust survivors from around the world, including a dozen from war-ravaged Israel, are in Poland this week for the annual March of the Living Holocaust memorial event, even as the war against Iran forced the cancellation of the official Israeli delegation. The annual event, expected to draw some 7,000 participants in one of the world's largest Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorations, takes place on Tuesday amid a surge in global antisemitism...
