Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding the creation of a regional support office for UNOOSA’s UN-SPIDER program, the United Nations announced in a statement on Monday. The program, the full name of which is “United Nations Platform for Space-Based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response,” is, as its name suggests, geared towards leveraging space for disaster management and risk reduction. Regional support...
(JNS) - An ancient two-shekel weight has been unearthed beneath Wilson's Arch, adjacent to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. The limestone weight, dating back to the Iron Age/First Temple period, was discovered during an archaeological dig conducted by the IAA in conjunction with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. It was revealed during the sifting of earthen fills at the site, which is soon to be included in the tour of the Western Wall...
(JNS) — The percentage of Israelis testing positive for COVID-19 has decreased for the third day in a row, according to Israeli Health Ministry figures released on Sunday. In an interview with Channel 12 on Sunday morning, Weizmann Institute scientist Eran Segal expressed “cautious optimism” regarding the trend, saying “it’s possible that the spike in morbidity in the general population has been halted [or is] on the decline.” He added that morbidity is also declining in the Arab sector, at the same rate as during the first lockdown, b...
I'm sitting in my sukkah, fighting off the heat. This week we all have an extra room outside. We eat all our meals in the sukkah, despite the heat of the day. We are obligated by the Torah to do this, to remember our exodus from Egypt, and we take it seriously. It's simply the way of life here. To NOT have a sukkah would be strange, an embarrassment. We would stand out and people would talk. All around Israel this is happening. Our medics, always standing by, have sukkahs, too. Growing up in...
Doron Almog, a former head of the Israeli Defense Forces' Southern Command, was one of the heroes of Israel's 1976 hostage rescue operation in Entebbe, Uganda, and winner of the 2016 Israel Prize for lifetime achievement. But the thing he says he's most proud of is ALEH Negev-Nahalat Eran, a rehabilitation village he founded in southern Israel for 160 physically and mentally disabled children and young adults. It's named after Almog's son, Eran, who was born with severe autism and died in 2007,...
(JNS) - As the Israeli cabinet weighs increasingly stringent steps to deal with the growing numbers of confirmed coronavirus cases, the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command is playing an increasingly essential part in the state's fight against the pandemic. The Home Front Command is the military's main interface with the civilian population, and it is tasked with helping the civilian domain prepare and respond to a range of emergencies. Currently, its headquarters south of Tel Aviv is...
(JNS) — In the wake of a reported U.S.-UAE deal in the works for the sale of F-35 fighter jets, Israel’s Defense Minister Benny Gantz departed for the United States on a brief 24-hour visit on Monday night, where he is scheduled to meet with U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and other senior members of the Trump administration. According to a Reuters report, the United States and the UAE “hope to have an initial agreement on the sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the Gulf state in place by December, as the Trump administration studi...
A government-ordered nationwide lockdown was set to go into effect Friday as Health Ministry statistics showed that Israel’s coronavirus numbers had reached record levels. The education system and most non-essential businesses will be closed for at least two weeks with Israelis restricted to remaining within one kilometer (0.6 miles) of their homes except to get food and medical care. Health Ministry statistics released Friday showed 7,755 Israelis tested positive for coronavirus in the past day, bringing the total number of confirmed active in...
(Israel Hayom and JNS staff via JNS) — Hamas deputy political chief Saleh al-Arouri said on Monday that due to recent events in the region, the terrorist organization and its political rival, Fatah, had agreed to join forces. In an interview with Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen TV, Arouri said the Palestinian people had been stabbed in the back three times in recent months. The first betrayal, he said, was the Trump administration’s “Peace to Prosperity” plan, the second was the Israeli sovereignty initiative and the third was the normali...
Jenna Lewinsky is panicked, rightly so. She's facing eviction. But it's not a bank that is forcing her to give up her home. She's not done anything wrong. In fact, she's done everything right. Many people have helped her to get where she is. Lewinsky's problem is unique. Lewinsky is panicked because all her years of devotion to bring home and preserve a biblical species of sheep to the Judean mountains south of Jerusalem risks being pulled out from under her. It's not just about her physical eff...
(JNS) - The first commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates touched down in Abu Dhabi on Monday, carrying a delegation of U.S. and Israeli officials. El Al Flight 971 - numbered to represent the UAE's international dialing code - made the trip in just three hours, having been granted permission to traverse Saudi Arabia's airspace, usually off-limits to Israeli air traffic. Leading the delegation are Jared Kushner, presidential son-in-law and senior adviser to U.S. President...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - The families of three Israeli teenage boys who were abducted and murdered by Hamas terrorists in Judea and Samaria in June 2014 - sparking "Operation Protective Edge" later that summer - filed a lawsuit against the terrorist group on Sunday morning, seeking NIS 520 million ($155 million) in damages. According to the families of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach, who are represented by attorneys Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Avi Segal and Avi Gaz from the Shurat...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said on Thursday that his government has moved away from plans to extend sovereignty to the Jordan Valley, and Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, in the wake of the recent U.S.-brokered agreement with the United Arab Emirates. “I think it’s very clear and it’s very tangible that the Israeli government’s policy moved from annexation to normalization,” Ashkenazi said at a press conference in Berlin during his first official trip abroad. Speaking with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at his s...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Former U.S. Special Representative for Middle East Affairs Jason Greenblatt on Wednesday called on those who oppose the suspension of Israel’s sovereignty initiative in favor of peace with the United Arab Emirates to “reconsider their approach.” Greenblatt, one of the architects of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan, said he hopes Israeli sovereignty “isn’t a matter of if, but when.” Q: Why was the sovereignty bid essentially taken off the table? After all, President Trump declared that “Israel can app...
(JNS) - Israel's national coronavirus project coordinator Ronni Gamzu apologized on Thursday for bypassing the country's political echelon and directly contacting Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ask that he bar Chassidic pilgrims from visiting the city of Uman in September. Many thousands of Jews visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov every year around Rosh Hashanah. In his letter to the Ukrainian leader, Gamzu warned of the massive spread of the virus that could be caused by...
(JTA) - At a moment when the world could use a dose of hope, along comes Rabbi Yehuda "Yudi" Dukes. In late March, Dukes was hospitalized in New York with COVID-19, a week after the otherwise healthy 38-year-old rabbi took ill at his Long Island home. Dukes spent a whopping four months on a ventilator, including nine weeks on an artificial lung machine. He endured four collapsed lungs, experienced a stroke and underwent a liver biopsy, among other challenges. He is believed to be among the...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - In just 10 days, Israel's "Light Blade" laser system, deployed on the Gaza border, downed 150 explosives-laden balloons launched toward Israel from the Hamas-controlled territory, according to Israel's Border Police, which operates the system. However, Israel's only deployed Light Blade system covers just a small part of the Gaza Strip, and while it's interception rate stands at close to 100 percent, Palestinians in other parts of Gaza continue to launch balloon-borne...
(JNS) — According to Israel’s Coronavirus Project coordinator, Ronni Gamzu, his main goal right now is to combat and contain the virus “without implementing a full lockdown on the country.” “I am not sure we will succeed, but I am trying,” he said. He made his remarks in a briefing to the foreign press this week. Gamzu, who in the past served as the Health Ministry director general, was appointed to the role in July by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein. He told reporters at the briefing that despit...
(JNS) - Israeli archaeologists have announced that they have unearthed a 1,300-year-old Byzantine-era church in the Lower Galilee in the village of Kfar Kama near Mount Tabor, which Christians believe is the Mount of Transfiguration where Jesus performed one his miracles. The excavation was conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, in collaboration with the Kinneret Academic College and local volunteers. The head of the Greek Catholic Church in Israel also personally visited the site,...
Physicians at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem report promising early results of a clinical study in which they are treating Covid-19 patients with immunoglobulin derived from the plasma of recovered patients found to have high levels of antibodies. The serum is prepared by Rehovot-based biopharmaceutical company Kamada. Three patients have already received the serum and are doing well, according to Dr. Yaron Ilan, chief of internal medicine at Hadassah University Medical Center....
(JTA) — In a diplomatic breakthrough, Israel and the United Arab Emirates are normalizing ties. The deal was finalized in a phone call on Thursday, Aug. 13, between President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi. In a joint statement by the United States, Israel and UAE posted by Trump on Twitter, it said that this was a “historic diplomatic breakthrough” and will “advance peace in the Middle East.” As part of a peace deal, Israel will pause its plans to...
(JNS) - A joint statement by U.S. President Donald Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, announcing the "Abraham Accord," a peace deal between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, is the first since Jordan signed such an agreement in 1994. What does this deal include, and what does it portend for the future? Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS that "the peace agree...
Vaccinations against Tuberculosis administered in the last 15 years may provide additional protection against COVID-19 to people under 24 years of age, according to a new study published recently in the medical journal Vaccines. Dr. Nadav Rappoport of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev collaborated with colleagues from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to analyze the correlation between different countries’ policies for the Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine for tuberculosis and countries’ COVID-19 outcomes. As explained in a BGU press rele...
(JNS) - As it conducts its mission to defend southern Israeli communities and vital strategic sites, the Israel Navy is also engaged in a quiet arms race with Israel's adversaries in the Gaza Strip - namely, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A senior IDF source told JNS about the ongoing activities of the Ashdod Naval Base, which is responsible for a substantial part of Israel's coastal waters, stretching from central Israel to southern Gaza. This area of jurisdiction, known as the Ashdod...
Arab arsonists set fire to the ancient Susya archaeological site in Judea during Tisha B'Av. "This is among the activities of our 'peaceful neighbors' when they aren't building on our land," said Natalie Sopinsky, a resident of Susya. The fire spread threatening the old synagogue ruins. Israel firefighters battled the blaze and saved the synagogue, which had a special place in Jewish history. It served as a refuge for Jews following the revolt against Romans, led by Bar Kochva. The...
