Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - The remains of Theodor Herzl's paternal grandparents are in the process of being brought to Israel from Serbia, and are due for burial on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Aug. 5 in an official state ceremony, the World Zionist Organization announced on Wednesday. Israel's senior leadership and leading public officials are expected to attend, including President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of the Executive of the WZO. Herzl is the visionary founder of modern Zio...
(JNS) — Israelis are marking the Hebrew anniversary of the 1929 Hebron Massacre this weekend, commemorating one of the deadliest pogroms of the British Mandate period and the destruction of Hebron’s centuries-old Jewish community. The massacre took place on the 18th of Av, 5689—corresponding to Aug. 24, 1929—and this year the Hebrew date falls from Friday night through Saturday. In a post on X marking the anniversary, Israel’s Foreign Ministry recalled that “67 Jews were murdered by their Arab neighbors in the Hebron Massacre, temporarily...
By (JNS) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with evangelical leaders in the U.S. on Wednesday and thanked them for their “steadfast and unwavering support” for the State of Israel. “We are the descendants of the original Hebrews from the Holy Land, and we are the first part of that Judeo-Christian heritage that is dear to our hearts and has given the world—human civilization—freedom and faith,” Netanyahu said during the Washington, D.C., meeting. “And again, we have to stand up and defend it. It is under attack from the rising wave of...
This week is the 25th anniversary of one of the most horrific terror attacks in Israel during what is referred to as the Second Intifada. During the period from late 2000 through the first half of 2005, more than 1000 Israelis were killed and several thousand wounded as a result of countless Palestinian Arab suicide bombings, shootings, stabbings, and more. While hardly a week went by without some such terror attack, the Aug. 9, 2001, bombing of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem...
Ramat Gan, Israel - Florida undergraduate students Zohar Ben Simon of Ponte Vedra Beach and Olivia Kahane of Hollywood are spending their summer conducting research at Bar-Ilan University as participants in the 16th annual Bar-Ilan University-Yeshiva University Summer Science Research Internship Program. They are among 24 students from the United States and the United Kingdom taking part in the seven-week program, which has brought nearly 500 undergraduates to Israel since its inception. Zohar...
Part Three of a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls Imagine this headline after an American presidential election: “Candidate Wins the Most Votes—but Doesn’t Become President.” Americans would immediately assume something had gone terribly wrong. In Israel, however, that outcome is entirely possible. In fact, it has happened more than once. That is because Israelis do not directly elect their prime minister. Instead, they elect a 120-member Knesset. Only after those election results are known does the... Full story
Part Two of a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls In the first installment of this series, we learned that Israel is unlike the United States in one fundamental respect: the entire country is a single electoral district. Israelis do not elect members of the Knesset from local constituencies. Instead, they vote for political parties. That naturally raises the next question. If Israelis are voting for parties rather than individual candidates, who decides who actually serves in the Knesset? The answer is t...
(JNS) - By lunchtime on Tel Aviv's Pinsker Street, it is hard to imagine that this was once the scene of one of the most devastating missile strikes of the Iran-Israel war. Cafes are full. Diners sit under the shade of mature trees. Cyclists and scooters weave through the traffic. The neighborhood has regained much of its familiar rhythm. But midway down the block, the illusion ends. Two damaged buildings still stand behind fencing, their broken windows and scarred façades a reminder that,...
(JNS) - Archaeologists excavating Jerusalem's City of David have uncovered massive charred wooden beams believed to have collapsed during the Babylonian destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, a discovery researchers say offers an extraordinary window into one of the most pivotal moments in Jewish history. The beams were found during excavations at the Givati Parking Lot site, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority and Tel Aviv University in the City of David, within the Jerusalem Wal...
PHILADELPHIA, PA - From record-breaking performances to championship victories, American athletes shine at the world's largest Jewish sporting event as Maccabi USA delegation concludes historic competition in Israel. After 900 members of the Maccabi USA delegation traveled to Israel for the world's largest Jewish sporting event, athletes from across the United States, including Minnesota, Louisiana, California, Florida and New York, returned home with more than 300 medals across dozens of...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Sid Rosenberg, host of 77 WABC radio’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” that he was in “tatters” over the sudden death of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). In the Monday interview, Netanyahu expressed shock at Graham’s sudden death, saying he had spoken to the senator only a few days earlier about how best to finish off the surviving remnant of the Islamist regime in Iran, and move to a “broader peace, which he very much believed in and devoted his life to.” The prime minister said Gra...
(JNS) — Israel’s parliament on Monday night gave final approval to a new Basic Law declaring Torah study a foundational value of the Jewish state. The 120-member Knesset passed the Basic Law: Torah Study in its second and third readings by a vote of 63-52. While Israel does not have a formal written constitution, the set of Basic Laws passed since the country’s founding in 1948 have quasi-constitutional status. The legislation, sponsored by lawmakers Yaakov Asher and Moshe Gafni of the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, states that...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz renewed his call to establish Nahal outposts in northern Gaza, telling Israel’s Channel 14 television station that the move would help protect communities along the border. “I intend to establish three Nahal outposts, which is also a military entity, in those places that were in northern Gaza,” Katz told the broadcaster during a tour of the Gaza Strip. Nahal is a program within the Israel Defense Forces that combines military service with educational and social welfare projects, often involvi...
(JNS) - Israel's Consumer Price Index has seen a 1.2 percent increase since the beginning of the year, marking the lowest inflation rate in the country in five years, according to data published by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. The data, running up to June, showed no change in the CPI rate compared to May. Consumer prices have increased by 1.6 percent over the past 12 months, since June 2025. Notable price declines were recorded in the categories of fresh vegetables and...
The first in a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls American Jews pay a great deal of attention to Israeli politics. We know the names. Benjamin Netanyahu. Yair Lapid. Naftali Bennett. Itamar Ben-Gvir. Yair Golan. Some American Jews identify passionately with Israel’s right. Others cheer on its left. We follow the polls and read about the latest political crisis. But as Israel approaches another national election, here is a question worth asking: How many American Jews actually understand how Israel elects...
Former Likud Knesset member and Temple Mount activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick believes his life's mission is to transform Jerusalem's Temple Mount - what he prefers to call "Zion" - into "a house of prayer for all nations." Interviewed in the JNS Jerusalem Studio on July 6, the American-born Israeli Orthodox rabbi reflected on four decades of activism, surviving an assassination attempt in 2014 and his belief that greater Jewish and international access to the site can advance religious freedom and...
(JNS) — Prof. Adam Ferziger, a historian in Bar-Ilan University’s Israel and Golda Koschitzky Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, has been named co-winner of the 2026 Shapiro Award for Best Book in Israel Studies for his book “Agents of Change: American Jews and the Transformation of Israeli Judaism” (New York University Press, 2025). Presented annually by the Association for Israel Studies, the award recognizes the best book in the field published during the previous calendar year. While much public discussion has focused...
(JNS) - Jerusalem was ranked as the world's seventh-best city in the World's Best Awards 2026 list in a survey published on Tuesday by the highly esteemed U.S. travel magazine Travel + Leisure. Israel's capital also topped the rankings as the best city in the Middle East and North Africa. Running for 31 consecutive years, this year's survey registered more than 661,000 votes by roughly 207,000 readers, across more than 10,088 total properties that include cities, hotels, cruise lines and more,...
(JNS) — Israeli Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook called on Monday for building Jewish communities throughout all of Judea and Samaria, including in Palestinian Authority-administered areas. Strook, a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, told Arutz Sheva that the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had reversed what she described as much of the damage caused by the Oslo Accords signed with the Palestine Liberation Organization in the 1990s, as well as the 2005 disengagement from northern Samaria. However, St...
(JNS) - Delegations of Jewish athletes from a record 43 countries entered a packed Teddy Stadium the evening of July 1 to cheers from family members, fellow countrymen, Israelis from across society, government officials and a lineup of Israeli performers, officially opening the 22nd Maccabiah Games. Some 3,000 athletes from five continents traveled to Israel for "Maccabiah 2026: More Than Ever!", which was postponed from 2025 because of the war. They are joined by about 2,000 Israeli athletes co...
(JNS) - For Asaf Goren, the theme of the 22nd Maccabiah - "More Than Ever" - is more than a slogan highlighting the power of Jewish unity and the bond between Israel and Jewish communities worldwide. It has become the driving force behind a Maccabiah-wide initiative honoring 18 athletes with ties to the Maccabi movement who lost their lives in Israel's wars. Through sporting events and educational programming across the country, organizers hope participants will return home as ambassadors...
(JNS) — Israel was scheduled to send a joint Foreign Ministry-Israel Defense Forces delegation to Venezuela on Tuesday to assist recovery efforts after powerful earthquakes there killed more than 1,700 people and left thousands homeless. The mission, ordered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, was approved following a National Security Council review to coordinate the Israeli agencies involved and address the diplomatic and logistical challenges of operating in a country that has had no formal rel...
(JNS) - For the first time in 2,000 years, Jewish authorities are conducting conservation work at the Tomb of the Patriarchs, where, according to the Bible, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, and Jacob and Leah are buried. The site, revered as the burial place of the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people, is Judaism's second-holiest site. The maintenance and safety upgrades include electrical renovations, air conditioning, improved drainage, new lighting and a fire protection system....
(JNS) — The Israel Antiquities Authority announced that it is joining an international, European Union-funded research project that will use artificial intelligence, chemical analysis and other advanced technologies to investigate one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Dead Sea Scrolls: where they were produced and copied. The five-year project, titled “Tracing Scribes and Scrolls,” has received a €2.5 million ($2.9 million) Advanced Grant from the European Research Council. It is led by Professor Mladen Popović of the Universi...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there is “no room for two states” between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, arguing the war created broad public consensus against creating a Palestinian state. “Before the war, the public was divided: although in my opinion most of the public was against it, a significant portion was in favor. I think that has changed,” Netanyahu told reporters, answering a question at a press conference in Jerusalem on Saturday night. “That is a basis for agreement,...
