Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Twelve days have passed since a father and son carried out a murderous terrorist attack at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, and murdered 15 Jews during the lighting of the first Chanukah candle. These are the stories and legacies of the victims. Sofia and Boris Gurman Russian immigrants Boris Gurman, 69, and his wife, Sofia Gurman, 61, shared 34 years of marriage before terrorists killed them. Their relatives described the couple as honest and industrious individuals who extended kindness to everyone they e...
(JNS) - The surviving gunman in the Bondi Beach terrorist attack has been charged with 59 offenses, including 15 counts of murder and one count of committing a terrorist act, Australian authorities announced on Wednesday. Naveed Akram, 24, awoke from a medically induced coma on Tuesday and faced court via video conference from his hospital bed, where he remains under police guard after sustaining injuries during an exchange of gunfire with officers. Akram's father, Sajid, 50, the second gunman,...
(JNS) — New South Wales Police identified 50-year-old Adam Smyth as the 14th victim of the Dec. 14 terror attack at Sydney’s Bondi Beach that killed 15 people during a Chanukah celebration. Smyth and his wife, Katrina, were walking near the beach when two gunmen opened fire on more than a thousand people gathered for the event, according to family statements released by police. He was not Jewish and was not attending the celebration. We mourn the loss of Adam Smyth who was walking with his wife Katrina along the Bondi Beach, a passerby to the C...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Dramatic video evidence has surfaced of two individuals physically engaging one of the two armed terrorists who carried out Sunday's Bondi Beach shooting, before being shot and killed themselves, according to The Guardian. Family members confirmed their identities as Boris Gurman, 69, and Sofia Gurman, 61, in a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald, stating that they were "heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss." Relatives added that the two "had been married for...
Former Louisiana congressman with pro-Israel record sworn in as CDC deputy director Dr. Ralph Abraham was sworn in on Monday as principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention following his most recent post as surgeon general of the Louisiana Department of Health. Abraham, 71, a Republican whose grandparents immigrated from Lebanon, previously represented Louisiana’s fifth congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015 to 2021. As a legislator, Abraham co-sponsored resolutions against the b...
(JNS) - One of the Bondi Beach gunmen, 24-year-old Naveed Akram, came to the attention of Australia's domestic intelligence agency six years ago for his close ties to a Sydney-based Islamic State terrorism cell, ABC News Australia reported Monday. Naveed and his father, Sajid Akram, 50, killed 15 people Sunday evening when they opened fire on the "Chanukah by the Sea" event celebrating the first day of the Jewish festival. The attack on more than 1,000 people gathered at Bondi Beach's Archer...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — As Australia mourns the victims of the Chanukah massacre at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, local media outlets searched for the hero seen in video footage struggling with one of the attackers and pulling the weapon from his hands. Australian network 7NEWS reported that the hero is a Bondi Beach stall owner named Ahmed Al-Ahmad. A family member of the hero who risked his life to snatch the weapon from one of the gunmen said he was shot twice. In a conversation with 7NEWS outside the hospital, Mostafa revealed that h...
(JNS) — Israel placed third in The Economist’s ranking of the world’s strongest economies in 2025. The London-based magazine has conducted its search for the “economy of the year” for five years now. “Israel has continued its strong recovery from the chaos of 2023, and Ireland only just misses out on top spot,” The Economist reported. “Although Czech and South Korean firms have done well this year, nowhere has done better (in local-currency terms) than Israel. In the past year the share price of the country’s most valuable listed company, B...
(JNS) — Members of a delegation of more than 1,000 American pastors and religious leaders who visited Israel last week were targeted by a coordinated wave of online harassment on their return to the United States. The development underscored both the hostility that exists on social media against Israel and the usage of bots to amplify hate on such networks. The weeklong visit, which was organized by American evangelical leader Mike Evans with the Israeli Foreign Ministry, was the single largest gathering of pastors in Israel since the e...
(JNS) — Wikipedia drew criticism from Jewish leaders after the site’s editors opted to freeze discussion about the title of a page that refers to Israel committing a “massacre” in June 2024. The decision means that no one can even discuss changing the title of the page “Nuseirat rescue and massacre” until at least August 2026. The page refers to the Jewish state’s liberation of the four hostages—Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov and Shlomi Ziv—from Gaza. Citing “Palestinian health officials,” the Wikipedia page claims that “at least...
Brussels synagogue briefly evacuated after false bomb threat By Canaan Lidor (JNS) — Unidentified individuals on Tuesday phoned in what turned out to be a false bomb threat at the Great Synagogue of Brussels, Belgium, leading to the building’s brief evacuation until the police’s bomb squad determined that there was no danger, a Jewish community security source said. “A bomb threat was received by phone targeting the Great Synagogue of Brussels,” the source told JNS after reports emerged in the Belgian media that the street of the Jewish ho...
(JNS) - The largest influencer delegation in Israel's history arrived in the country on Tuesday. The group includes 1,000 church leaders and influencers from the United States, initiated by Friends of Zion and at the invitation of the Israeli Foreign Ministry as part of its broader "battle for consciousness," led by Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar. The ministry aims to bolster pro-Israel sentiment among sympathetic American audiences. Officials acknowledged that some evangelical support has eroded...
(JNS) — Israel returned from the 2025 WAKO World Kickboxing Championships in Abu Dhabi at the end of November with seven medals—one gold, two silver and four bronze—following a standout showing at one of the largest global events in the sport. The championship, held from Nov. 21–30 at the ADNEC Arena, featured more than 2,000 athletes from over 85 countries, making Israel’s medal haul particularly significant in an intensely competitive field. Gold medalist Yulia Sachkov, 26, credited Israel’s success to mental toughness and discipline....
(JNS) — Denmark’s government on Tuesday unveiled a five-year plan for fighting antisemitism, with a budget of $18 million and which includes the establishment of a new research institute focused on hate crimes and headed by a former leader of Danish Jews. The new national plan, which extends and expands Denmark’s first national plan for fighting antisemitism from 2022, is needed because, “Following Hamas’s terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the subsequent war in Gaza, there has been a flare-up in antisemitism in Denmark,...
Two Jerusalem Arabs sentenced for bomb plot near Knesset A Jerusalem court sentenced two eastern Jerusalem residents to prison on Tuesday for plotting a bombing attack near the Knesset, according to the State Prosecutor’s Office. Mustafa Abd Al-Nabi received a 12-year sentence, while Ahmad Natasha was sentenced to five years, plus a suspended term. The Jerusalem District Court convicted the men of planning the terror attack near Israel’s parliament building. Israeli security forces recently broke up a major Hamas terror network in the Jud...
(JNS) — Alfred Dreyfus, the French Jewish military officer who was falsely accused of treason in 1894 in France, has been posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general, AFP reported on Tuesday. French President Emmanuel Macron and French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu signed the promotion into law on Monday, and it was published in the Journal Officiel de La République Française, the government gazette of the French Republic, the next day. The law is seen as an act of reparation for the notorious case that highlighted the ramp...
(JNS) — A high-level delegation of South African Christian leaders visited Israel in mid-November with a clear mission: to witness the reality on the ground, strengthen long-standing ties with the Jewish state and return home as “ambassadors for truth” at a time when diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Pretoria are under intense strain. Three members of the delegation—Shaun Zagnoev, chairman of the South African Friends of Israel (SAFI); Pastor Bert Pretorius, founder and president of the South African Coalition for Families and Faith (...
Last year, Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall held its 10th anniversary of a Hanukkah concert series that was rebooted 70 years after it was halted by the Nazis, in what some Dutch Jews saw as a repudiation of antisemitism that had swelled during the war in Gaza. This year, the concert has been called off — and the prestigious concert hall citing the chosen singer’s ties to the Israeli army. The Chanukah Concert Foundation, which organizes the event, had booked Shai Abramson to sing. Abramson is a retired lieutenant colonel for the IDF who serve...
(JTA) - When Michael Smuss died last month at 99, an era of Jewish history came to a close. Smuss was the last known resistance fighter during the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, when Jews rose up against their Nazi persecutors in one of the most dramatic episodes of the Holocaust. Smuss was not the only prominent survivor to die in recent weeks. A number of survivors, several centenarians, have died in a wave that underscores the rapid disappearance of anyone alive with robust memories of the...
(JNS) - A painting, which depicts a Jewish woman and which the Nazis stole after annexing Austria, sold for $236.36 million-reportedly a record for Viennese decorative artist Gustav Klimt-at a Sotheby's auction on Tuesday. Dated between 1914 and 1916, the oil painting is titled "Portrait of Elisabeth Lederer" and portrays the daughter of Klimt's "most important patrons," Serena and August Lederer, and captures "the social prominence and beauty of the sitter," according to Sotheby's. The auction...
(JNS) — A 5.1-magnitude earthquake centered in Cyprus’s Paphos region was felt in northern Israel on Wednesday, the Geological Survey of Israel reported. Israelis in Haifa, Tiberias, Nazareth and other northern towns reported feeling the tremor, but no injuries or damage were reported, Ynet reported. In September 2023, following a tremor that killed more than 2,000 people in Morocco, Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman said the country had failed to prepare for a major earthquake. Englman’s warning came after a report found that 93 pe...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces confirmed to JNS on Wednesday that it is building a barrier at the Israel-Lebanon border and that the security wall is entirely on the Israel side, countering Arab media reports that the work is being carried out beyond the Blue Line. “Contrary to Lebanese reports, the barrier in question is located within Israeli territory and does not cross into Lebanese territory,” the IDF said. The Hezbollah-affiliated Al Manar network had earlier reported that the IDF was building a new fence opposite the village of Yarou...
Last year, Amsterdam’s Royal Concert Hall held its 10th anniversary of a Chanukah concert series that was rebooted 70 years after it was halted by the Nazis, in what some Dutch Jews saw as a repudiation of antisemitism that had swelled during the war in Gaza. This year, the concert has been called off — and the prestigious concert hall citing the chosen singer’s ties to the Israeli army. The Chanukah Concert Foundation, which organizes the event, had booked Shai Abramson to sing. Abramson is a retired lieutenant colonel for the IDF who serve...
(JNS) — An Israeli medical delegation is heading to Jamaica to provide humanitarian assistance to the Caribbean island nation in the aftermath of last week’s Hurricane Melissa, Jerusalem’s health and foreign ministries announced on Wednesday. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is directing the team to help the local population recover from the devastating Atlantic Ocean storm, which according to Reuters took the lives of 32 people in Jamaica and 43 in Haiti as of Wednesday, with billions in economic damage. The team, led by Health Minis...
(JNS) — Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, said on Monday that it has “recovered the names of 5 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.” “Behind each name is a life that mattered,” stated Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem. “A child who never grew up, a parent who never came home, a voice that was silenced forever.” The memorial stated that many of the remaining names of Jewish victims, estimated to be about a million, will likely remain unknown forever. It added that researchers are analyzing “hundreds of...
