Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) — Israel is the ninth happiest country in the world, according to the World Happiness Report, a project of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Solutions Network. Israel has moved slowly up the rankings in recent years, going from No. 14 in 2020 to No. 11 in 2021. The report, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, says it factors a country’s GDP, social support, life expectancy, “freedom to make life choices,” citizen generosity and perceptions of corruption into its ranking. The U.N. is known as a harsh critic of Israel, s...
(Israel21C via JNS) - Almost a decade ago, a group of women from the Arab Jerusalem neighborhood of Isawiya looked for a program where they could study Hebrew. They didn't find anything appropriate, and ended up inviting two students from the nearby Hebrew University to teach them. They enjoyed their studies so much that a year later they sought to bring aboard all their female friends, relatives and neighbors. That's how the "Women Speaking Hebrew" program began. Fast forward a few years, and...
(JNS) - Two dozen Christian parliamentarians wrapped up a visit to Israel on Tuesday with discussions on how to embrace and defend Israel in modern times. The discussions were the culmination of a three-day journey that took them to the Western Wall, key holy sites in Judea and Samaria and face-to-face meetings with the country's top political leaders. The MPs were in Israel through the Israel Allies Foundation, the umbrella organization of more than 50 pro-Israel parliamentary caucuses from...
(JNS) — Remnants of poliovirus were discovered in sewage samples in Tiberias, adding to the growing list of hot spots in the country, Israel’s Ministry of Health said in a statement. A 4-year-old girl from Jerusalem tested positive for the virus earlier this month, marking the country’s first case in more than 30 years. Since then, another child has tested positive and five others, suspected of carrying the virus, are being tested. In all of the above cases, the children were not vaccinated against polio. Last week, the Health Ministry said...
A hopeful and dominant topic of conversation at this week’s National Religious Broadcasters convention in Nashville has been the re-opening of tourism to Israel for all, vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. Two years ago, at the same event and location, the early impact of the COVID virus started to be felt with early reports of Israel’s national airline laying off the first 1000 employees. Ultimately, nearly all tourism would be shut down leading to millions of cancelations, tens of tho...
(JNS) — The Knesset, which was to vote to revamp rules regarding Jewish conversion, has delayed the bill until the start of its summer session in May due to the political sensitivity of the issue. The delayed vote represents the latest in a series of efforts to resolve religious disputes through political means—most recently, an attempt to establish prayer sections for different streams of Judaism at the Western Wall (Kotel) and to introduce competition to kosher certification, currently a monopoly of Israel’s Chief Rabbinate. Of the three...
(JTA) — Israel began allowing unvaccinated tourists to enter the country on March 1 as the county’s COVID case numbers continue to decline, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced. Tourists will still need to produce negative PCR tests before and after their flights, while Israelis will only need to take a test upon landing. The more lax rules mean that children under the age of five who are ineligible to be vaccinated can now enter the country. Only fully vaccinated tourists have been allowed in since Jan...
By Israel Kasnett (JNS) - Screams pierce the air as the dust clears and survivors begin to emerge from the rubble. More than 10,000 people have been killed and 20,000 more are injured. Thousands of buildings across the country have collapsed. In some areas, there is deathly silence; in others, cries for help can be heard from beneath the debris. The streets are impassable; shattered glass, bricks and chunks of concrete are strewn everywhere. Trees, light poles and electrical wires lie across...
(Israel21c via JNS) — The closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing on Sunday brought to an end another Winter Games without a medal for Israel. Nevertheless, the six athletes representing the Jewish state had some high points to celebrate. Barnabas Szollos, 23, said at the start that his goal was to be in the top 30. He skied in five events and placed twice in the top 30, twice in the top 20 and once in the top 10, finishing in sixth place in men’s alpine skiing and setting a new Israeli record in that sport. He was just 1.0...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) -One of Israel's most curious mysteries was solved on Sunday when the identity of the artist who created the small bronze menorah that stands on the Knesset grounds was finally revealed. The Knesset Menorah is one of the most recognized and revered state symbols in Israel's history. Israel's parliament is home to more than one menorah statue. Most famously, a seven-branched menorah stands just outside the Knesset plaza. It towers 4.30 meters high, 3.5 meters wide (14 feet...
(JNS) — “We are together in the fight against terror posed by Iran and its nuclear development,” Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi said on Wednesday at the Knesset. Iran “is a threat to the world,” said Pelosi, who is heading a delegation of high-level members of Congress. “Israel’s proximity to Iran is a threat to us all and the responsibility of all of us.” Pelosi was greeted by Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, who said: “The strategic alliance between Israel and the United States has proven that we know how to stand toge...
(JNS) - The southern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel chose a new leader in recent weeks that cements its continued role in the Israeli government. Sheikh Safwat Frij, who previously served as deputy head of the movement and based in Kafr Qasim, was elected over Sheikh Muhammad Salameh Hassan, a religious authority in the movement. He has publicly used harsh rhetoric, saying, "The people of Palestine are united from the river to the sea until the occupation disappears entirely." Frij...
(Israel21c via JNS) — A few years ago, Shani Shukrun began matching people up on Facebook. Not for romantic purposes, but to bring together people in need with donors who could help them. Each time, she’d raise 300 to 400 shekels ($95 to $127) for a weekend shop for a family in need, or store dry goods in an extra room for someone to come and get. “But in 2020, my daughter Oreen was born,” recalled Shukrun, now 27. “She was born a preemie weighing 1.5 kilos at the height of the COVID pandemic, and I was really worried about people coming in...
(JNS) - In its annual strategic survey released in recent days, the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies pointed to a central understanding that has rippled through the region. The United States is focusing its attention and resources on dealing with China (and, more recently, Russia), and is unwilling to be significantly involved in further conflicts in the Middle East. Washington's enthusiasm for reviving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is one such signal of this intention...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have ordered the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria's supreme planning council to halt discussions on the authorization of construction to connect Ma'ale Adumim to Jerusalem in the E-1 corridor. Construction had been planned for some 3,000 acres of largely government-owned land and was to include some 3,500 housing units. The committee began to discuss the plan, which had been frozen for...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum sent a request on Jan. 16 under Israel’s Freedom of Information Act to Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, asking for information and details on his agreement to transfer hundreds of millions of shekels to the Palestinian Authority. The problem, according to Kohelet, is that such a move violates Israeli law, which directly prohibits money transfers to the P.A. as a consequence of its pay-for-slay policy that awards Palestinian terrorists with money if they kill Israelis. In his meeting las...
Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume. The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including: • Zachar, male. • Nekevah, female. • Androgynos, having both male and female characteristics. • Tumtum, lacking sexual characteristics. • Aylonit hamah, identified female at birth but later naturally developing male characteristics. • Aylonit adam, identified...
(JTA) — Hummus is the glue that holds society together in “Breaking Bread,” a new documentary about Israeli and Arab chefs that strives to be as delicious as its dishes. Unfortunately, the film is missing a few key ingredients. The film’s main protagonist is Dr. Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a microbiologist-turned-chef who organizes a food festival in Haifa, which she sees as a poignant symbol of Arab-Jewish coexistence. There is a special section of both the film and festival devoted to “The Hummus Project,” in which different chefs make different v...
(JNS) - An Israeli hospital has started recruiting volunteers for the world's largest known study for the detection of COVID-19 within the surface of the eye, announced Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer on Thursday. The hospital will be testing if the Tear Film Imager (TFI) developed by the Israeli company AdOM Advanced Optical Technologies, which takes a noninvasive measurement of the tear film, can effectively diagnose and determine if a person is infected with COVID. The tear film is a thi...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry has announced plans to allocate approximately 10 million shekels ($3.2 million) to the preservation, rehabilitation, and rescue of heritage sites in Judea and Samaria. Dozens of heritage and archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley have been damaged in recent years by authorities in Ramallah as well as antiquities thieves in the Palestinian territories. Last month, Israel Hayom reported that thieves had caused significant damage to an ancient Roman a...
(JNS) -Three pendants inscribed with the "Shema Yisrael" prayer and depictions of Moses and the Ten Commandments have been discovered in archaeological excavations in the Sobibor extermination camp over the past decade, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Thursday. The findings, made by Wojciech Mazurek from Poland, Yoram Haimi from the IAA and Ivar Schute from Holland, with the assistance of local residents, were made public on Thursday to coincide with International Holocaust...
(Israel21c via JNS) - I expected the office of SpaceIL-the company that created "Beresheet," the first-ever private spacecraft to attempt a moon landing, in 2019-to be in an industrial zone, filled with highly classified, space-age robotics. Instead, it's in an ordinary office building, next to companies geared to earthly pursuits like home decorating and teeth whitening. The only hint of the company's higher aims is in the office's modest conference room, where there is a scale replica of the...
(JNS) — Israel is preparing to test its novel coronavirus vaccine candidate, BriLife, as a booster dose, NRx Pharmaceuticals reported this week. The American company signed an agreement with the Defense Ministry in July to help fast-track the vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research. NRx, which is traded on Nasdaq, was given exclusive worldwide development, manufacturing and marketing rights. NRx met with IIBR experts last week to review data and research related to BriLife’s efficacy against the Omicron variant of...
TEL AVIV - A few weeks ago, Joel Tenenbaum, 81, and Marilyn Berkowitz, 84, arrived in Tel Aviv on an El Al flight from New York ready to start their new lives in Israel. They had met through JDate five years earlier. Each was widowed; Tenebaum had been married for 47 years, Berkowitz, known as Lyn, for 49. A retired New York trial lawyer raised in Brooklyn, Tenenbaum always had felt an affinity for Israel - fueled since childhood by Hebrew school and the movie "Exodus." Berkowitz, a former...
(JNS) — For two years now, since the outbreak of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, hotels in Israel have seen dramatic drops in stays by incoming tourists; tour guides have lost most, if not all, of their business; and restaurants and other business owners who rely heavily on visitor traffic have suffered catastrophic and often irreversible damage, with many forced to close. The question on everyone’s mind is: When will tourism to Israel pick up again? Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahum told JNS that the tourism industry has been mos...
