Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1482
(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) — 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) - 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) — 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...
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...
(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) — 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) - During his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., U.S. President Donald Trump was told that he is to be awarded the Israel Prize. Created in 1953, the award is the "most important and prestigious prize awarded by the State of Israel," and has "been awarded annually at the close of Independence Day, in an official state ceremony held in Jerusalem in the presence of the president of the state, the prime minister, the speaker of the...
The United States remains open to nuclear pact talks with Iran, which again rejected Washington’s advances during a United Nations Security Council meeting on Tuesday. The session focused on implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, of 2015 which outlined Iran’s commitments to limit its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. The permanent Security Council members—United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia—signed the agreement, as did Germany and the European Union. Tuesday marked the first council...
Maduro capture ‘act of war,’ says Mamdani, who calls for Netanyahu’s arrest By JNS Staff (JNS) — Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayor who has said that he would have Benjamin Netanyahu arrested if the Israeli prime minister visits the Big Apple, said on Saturday that he had been briefed on the U.S. military action in Venezuela, in which forces captured dictator Nicolás Maduro and his wife, and on “their planned imprisonment in federal custody here in New York City.” “Unilaterally attacking a sovereign nation is an act of war and a violatio...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Sydney Chanukah attack was exceptional in its scope, weaponry and planning, but it represents the peak of an antisemitic terror wave that has struck Australia, some with proven foreign involvement. Initial findings point to an ISIS connection, not Iran, which has been proven responsible for torching synagogues and Jewish businesses in the country. The distinction between streams of radical Islam does not diminish the threat: The Iranian model is sometimes replicated in other influence networks, both state and n...
Israel to open embassy in Fiji in 2026 By JNS Staff (JNS) — Israel will open an embassy in the South Pacific island nation of Fiji next year, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar announced on Thursday, saying he informed Fiji’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sitiveni Rabuka of the move during a phone call. “Fiji is one of Israel’s most consistent supporters, also in the UN arena. In our call today, the PM again said: ‘We will always be with you,’” Sa’ar wrote on X following the call. Sa’ar said that opening the embassy will deepen relations be...
(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...
