Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakay, warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home, as Israel’s main international airport remained closed for a third day on Sunday amid the war with Iran. The remarks came as tens of thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad since Israel closed its airspace after launching a pre-emptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites. “I want to say to Israelis abroad: It will take weeks, not days or hour...
Larnaca, Cyprus — In a remarkable and unprecedented emergency operation, Birthright Israel successfully evacuated approximately 1,500 program participants earlier today aboard the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, sailing from Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus. The 13-hour voyage (more or less) is conducted under the close protection of the Israeli Navy, which escorted the vessel across the Mediterranean to ensure the participants’ safety amid ongoing regional tensions. The cruise ship was secured by Bir...
(JNS) — A new report published by Israel’s Regavim Movement NGO on Sunday has found that some 90 percent of incidents of “violence” attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the United Nations were fabricated. Regavim’s 128-page research report in English, titled “False Flags and Real Agendas,” scrutinized a database maintained by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which claims to have documented thousands of alleged incidents of Israeli “settler violence” against Palestinian Arabs from January 2016...
(JNS) - Eight people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in the early hours of Monday by an Iranian ballistic missile barrage on Israeli civilian population centers in the central and northern regions of the country. The impacts were spread across four locations. Four of the deaths took place in the greater Tel Aviv area - four in Petach Tikvah and one in Bnei Brak. Three people who were initially reported as being trapped in Haifa were later declared dead, while a 30-year-old woman is...
(JNS) - Haitham Amal wasn't always propelled toward science. He wanted to study international relations; he said he liked the networking and learning about new cultures. Then he took physics and chemistry in high school, and "fell in love with science," he told JNS. More specifically, he wanted to understand the pharmacological aspects of it - how drugs worked to help people. The trajectory seemed natural. Amal, 39, a Christian Israeli, grew up in Haifa with three siblings in an educated...
This summer, a new memorial will rise in the Golan Heights - a mountainous region in Northern Israel known for its breathtaking views and strategic importance. Here, where rolling green hills meet the border with Syria, a quiet place of remembrance is taking shape beside a soccer field in the Druze town of Ein Qiniyye. The memorial will honor 12 children from the four neighboring Druze towns who were killed on July 27, 2024, when a Hezbollah missile struck a soccer field in Majdal Shams. The...
The Israeli army has recovered the bodies of two more hostages from Gaza, a married couple with U.S. citizenship who were slain on Oct. 7, 2023. Gadi Haggai and Judith Weinstein Haggai were on their regular morning walk on their kibbutz, Nir Oz, when terrorists attacked on Oct. 7. More than a quarter of their community of 400 was slain or taken as hostages to Gaza. Weinstein Haggai made an emergency call after the couple was ambushed but no one was able to reach them. Their children saw footage of their father’s body being dragged into Gaza. T...
(JNS) — Israel has rescued or returned 199 hostages held by Palestinian terrorist organizations in Gaza since the Oct. 7, 2023, cross-border attacks in the country’s south, the Prime Minister’s Office said on Thursday. One hundred forty-eight captives returned alive, while Jerusalem retrieved the bodies of 51 slain hostages, according to the official data. Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups abducted 251 Israelis and foreign nationals during the Oct. 7 massacre. The figure released by the Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday include...
On Shavuot, Jews who ascended the Temple Mount brought with them the “Two Loaves” sacrifice. The activists, who are priests, donned priestly garments and rushed to the presumed location of the altar, where they offered the two loaves, until they were stopped by the police and Waqf officials. This is the first time a sacrifice has been offered at the Temple site since its destruction, according to sources from the Temple Mount movement. “The priest sanctified his hands and feet in the courtyard area using a ritual vessel, and then recei...
(JNS) - "The body remembers captivity pressure. It has physical and mental costs," Professor Noa Eliakim-Raz, the head of the Returning Hostages Department at Beilinson Hospital (Rabin Medical Center) in Petah Tikva, told JNS recently. Eliakim-Raz explained that years after captivity, former hostages are more likely to develop conditions such as diabetes, heart diseases, respiratory issues, dental problems, premature aging and chronic pain. "It's not only about what we see when they come back....
(JNS) — Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday over his X post calling Israel’s current aid distribution model in Gaza “unacceptable” while failing to mention the Hamas terrorist group. On Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces rejected accusations that its troops had fired at civilians in Khan Yunis, and released drone footage showing masked gunmen firing at civilians in Khan Yunis during what the military said was the time of the incident. In his June 2 post, Guterres said he was “appalled...
(JNS) - Arnold and Frimet Roth, parents of Malka Chana Roth, a 15-year-old American citizen killed in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing in Jerusalem on Aug. 9, 2001, presented a petition bearing some 30,000 signatures to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee during a private meeting at the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem on May 13. The petition urges the United States to pressure the Kingdom of Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, 44, a Hamas terrorist who helped plan and engineer the bombing, which killed...
Judea and Samaria need people who are willing to take emotional and physical ownership of the area and say, “We get to be here.” Jews often say, “We have to take care of Eretz Yisrael.” It sounds noble to some…it might even sound responsible. But to me, “have to” sounds like the teenager who “has to” clean their room or take out the trash. It’s a duty. A chore. And for many Jews today, especially in the diaspora, that’s exactly what supporting Israel has become: a burden. Contrast that with what I’ve heard from many non-Jews — particularly...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog met on Tuesday with Omer Wenkert, a freed hostage who was released in February after being held by Hamas in Gaza for over a year. Wenkert was abducted during the massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, from a bomb shelter in Kibbutz Re’im, where he had sought refuge after escaping the attack on the Nova music festival. During the meeting, the president spoke with Wenkert and his parents, Niva and Shai, about his experience in captivity, the challenges of rehabilitation, and the urgent need to bring home the rem...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — The celebration of Jerusalem Day highlighted a profound religious controversy dividing Israel’s Orthodox establishment, with influential rabbis publicly questioning whether Jews should continue the traditional practice of praying at the Western Wall, or embrace the more contentious path of ascending the Temple Mount for worship. Monday’s Jerusalem Day observances, commemorating Jerusalem’s liberation, traditionally draw religious Zionist groups to the capital in celebration of the city’s reunification and restored acces...
(JTA) — Israel is embarking on the largest expansion of Judean and Samarian settlements in decades, its finance minister announced Thursday, a step meant to reinforce Israeli control of the territory. Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right minister who holds authority over civilian affairs in Israel’s settlements, announced the establishment of 22 settlements in Judea and Samaria. Some are existing outposts that the Israeli government considered illegal but will now authorize. Others will be new towns. Smotrich called the announcement a “once-in-a-gener...
(JNS) — The infant son of Tzeela Gez, who was critically injured in the same terror attack that claimed his mother’s life, died at Schneider Children’s Medical Center on Thursday morning after two weeks of intensive medical efforts to save him. The tragedy began two weeks ago when Tzeela and her husband, Hananel Gez, were driving from their home in the Samarian community of Bruchin to the hospital for the birth of their child. En route, a terrorist opened fire on their vehicle. Tzeela was fatally shot, and medics attempted extensive resus...
(JNS) - "I dream of seeing both of my sons coming through the door," Silvia Cunio, a survivor of the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in Kibbutz Nir Oz and the mother of Hamas hostages David, 35, and Ariel Cunio, 27, told JNS on Friday. On Oct. 7, Hamas attacked Cunio's house along with the residences of her four sons. David and Ariel were taken captive by the terrorist group and have remained in Gaza ever since. The Cunio family marked David's second birthday in captivity last Wednesday. "It's very...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Art Garfunkel from the legendary musical duo Simon and Garfunkel delivered a performance for the ages at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on Thursday evening as a guest of Israeli rocker Aviv Geffen, marking the first visit by a major international artist to Israel since the war erupted almost 19 months ago. “I am happy to be here in Israel,” the 83-year-old performer told tens of thousands of audience members who greeted him with enthusiastic cheers. Performing alongside his son Art Garfunkel Jr. and Geffen, he delivered several...
(JNS) — In the nearly 20 months since some 6,000 Hamas-led Gazan terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Jewish state has facilitated the delivery of close to 1.8 million tons of aid to the Strip, including 1.3 million tons of food, Israel said this weekend. The figures were released amid warnings of “imminent famine” in the Strip by international aid agencies led by the U.N., alongside criticism of the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that was launched a week ago to distribute aid in Gaza that circumvents Hamas. The 1.8 milli...
(JNS) - During her 471 days in Hamas captivity, then-hostage Emily Damari lost two fingers, raised a hand to a terrorist, organized a "lice competition," was genuinely "excited" to be brought down a Hamas tunnel, and was the unquestionable morale-lifter for her captive friends. In an extensive interview with Israeli broadcaster Channel 12 aired on Saturday, Damari, 28, opened up about her captivity in the Gaza Strip. "I was nicknamed 'Shejaiya,'" Damari said in reference to her captors. "Which means heroes [in Arabic]. ..., then they called me...
(JNS) KFAR ADUMIM, Israel - It was four decades ago that three childhood friends from New Jersey who had immigrated to Israel heard of a young Jerusalem rabbinical student who was looking for scuba divers who could help him find snails off the Mediterranean coast. The three young men knew nothing about snails or the centuries-old search for the biblical blue known as tekhelet, but it was an adventure that would change their lives. "It became a hobby that became an obsession that tuned into a...
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old ring set has been discovered in Jerusalem's ancient City of David. It is the second such find at the same site within the last year, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The small size of the ring, gold and set with a red gemstone, indicates that it belonged to a youngster living in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period more than two millennia ago, the state-run archaeological body said. The member of the excavation team who found the previous...
(JNS) — Five United Nations trucks carrying humanitarian aid, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip via the Kerem Shalom Crossing on Monday, the Israeli military confirmed. The transfer followed the recommendation of Israel Defense Forces officials and was carried out under the directive of the political echelon. The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (emphasized that all aid was subjected to “a thorough security inspection” by the Defense Ministry’s Crossing Points Authority. The IDF reiterated that it “will continue...
(JNS) — Yarden Bibas, who was a Hamas hostage for 484 days and whose wife and children were murdered by the terror group in captivity, spoke with Israeli media about his best friend, David Cunio, who remains in captivity. Yarden, who didn’t want to speak about himself, told Israel’s Channel 12 News in the interview that he and David had been friends since first grade. “When they were introducing the students, something about his name, about his appearance, caught my eye,” he said. “During the first break I went and actually offered him friends...
