Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1222
(JNS) — An Assyrian inscription on a pottery sherd over a possible tax revolt from the First Temple period about 2,700 years ago has been uncovered near Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The tiny fragment, about 2.5 cm (1 inch) in size, was uncovered six months ago during an excavation in the archaeological garden adjacent to the Western Wall, the state-run archaeological body said. It is the first such inscription in the Akkadian language eve...
(JNS) — Likud Cabinet and deputy ministers have signed a letter calling on Israeli President Isaac Herzog to pardon Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in connection to his ongoing criminal trial. The letter, dated Oct. 19, was initiated by Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, who posted it on X. “Unfortunately, today it is already clear to everyone that as long as his trial is underway, which is like a bleeding wound in the body of Israeli society, there will be no unity in Israel,” the letter states. The move comes in the w...
(JNS) — Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) led 44 Democratic colleagues and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who caucuses with the Democrats, in a letter urging U.S. President Donald Trump to tell Israel that he is opposed to Israel annexing territory in Judea and Samaria. All of the Democrats in the Senate signed the letter except Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress. “Since your plan for Gaza does not address the West Bank, it is imperative that your administration reinforce your comments and emphasize its oppositi...
(JNS) — Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday passed in preliminary reading two opposition bills to extend legal sovereignty to Judea and Samaria. One bill, by Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Liberman, seeks to annex Ma’ale Adumim, a large city in the Judean Desert, while a second, by Noam Party head Avi Maoz, concerns all of Judea and Samaria. The legislation will now be forwarded to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for consideration ahead of three additional votes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had sought to thwart the...
(JNS) — Freed hostage Avinatan Or was discharged Tuesday from Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital and returned to his parent’s home in Shiloh, Samaria, eight days after he was released from Hamas captivity in Gaza. The Petach Tikvah hospital said that Or, who was freed on Oct. 13 as part of the U.S.-brokered deal with Hamas, had passed all medical examinations and would continue his rehabilitation through its unit for ex-captives. “Beilinson will continue to accompany Avinatan and his family, who will receive all the support they need,...
(JNS) — Freed Hamas hostages Eitan Horn and Nimrod Cohen were discharged on Thursday from Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center’s Ichilov Hospital, three days after returning to Israel under the truce deal that secured their release after more than 700 days in captivity in the Gaza Strip. Sourasky Medical Center said the ex-captives completed all the required medical evaluations before their release and that medical teams would continue to accompany them and their families during their recovery. Horn, 38, was released to his family’s home in the c...
(JNS) - Forty-eight Israeli children who lost a parent serving in the Israel Defense Forces celebrated their b'nei mitzvah on Monday in Jerusalem, in a day-long program that blended joy, remembrance, and unity. The event, organized by the IDF Widows and Orphans Organization (IDFWO), began with a moving reception at the President's Residence, where President Isaac Herzog and his wife, Michal, warmly welcomed the children and their families. "It's OK to be sad," Michal Herzog told them. "You...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman took to the stage on Saturday in Jerusalem to perform a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s hit rock song, “Sweet Home Alabama.” American comedian and actor Elon Gold led the ensemble, singing “Sweet Home Yerushalayim” (“Jerusalem” in Hebrew) over the catchy chorus. Huckabee expertly pulled off the song’s funky bass line on electric bass, with Friedman accompanying the group on electric guitar. The performance was shared on X by Eli Beer, president a...
(JNS) — Hamas terrorists must give up their weapons, or “all hell breaks loose,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with CBS on Tuesday. Netanyahu spoke in response to a question on whether Israel’s two-year war against Hamas in Gaza was over. He replied that Israel was giving a chance to the ceasefire agreement forged by U.S. President Donald Trump, which includes “both demilitarization and disarmament,” which are “not the same thing,” the prime minister said. “Well, we agreed to give peace a chance,” Netanyah...
(JNS) - "My life, my life," cried out Einav Zangauker, embracing her son, Matan, for the first time in one of many emotional moments, as the 20 living hostages embraced their joyful families upon their return to Israel after 738 days in Hamas captivity. Hamas kidnapped Matan and his girlfriend Ilana Gritzewsky from their home in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Oct. 7, 2023. On Dec. 7, 2024, Hamas published a letter that it said was from Matan. "We are still alive. We want to return safely before we go...
(JNS) — If you hadn’t known anything about the huge crowd that gathered in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square two days before the actual return of the rest of the living hostages, you’d have thought you stumbled into a rally of the Israeli chapter of MAGA. The banners celebrated U.S. President Donald Trump as the godfather of the hostage deal, and Trump’s personal representatives—Steve Witkoff, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner—were warmly welcomed. The atmosphere was festive, even ecstatic. These have been two long years, during which massively lon...
(JTA) - Scenes of joyful reunions played out in public and private. All 20 of the Israeli hostages still alive two years after being taken hostage by Hamas have returned to Israel, following an emotional morning that commanded the attention of Jews around the world who had lobbied for their release. Unlike in past hostage releases, Hamas did not stage release "ceremonies," a condition of the deal the group in charge of Gaza made in striking a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal last week. But in...
(JNS) — Eli Sharabi, a former Israeli hostage held by Hamas in Gaza, is being featured on the cover of TIME magazine that hits newsstands on Oct. 27. An excerpt of his memoir, documenting his survival of 491 days of captivity in the Strip, was published online on Oct. 1. “As they dragged me out, I called out to my girls, “I’ll be back.” I had to believe that. But that was the last time I ever saw them. I didn’t know I should have said goodbye, forever,” said the 53-year-old Be’eri reside...
(JNS) — Israel’s Ministry of Religious Services is prepared to receive the remains of “between one and 28” slain hostages as part of the agreement with Hamas in Gaza, director-general Yehudah Avidan said on Sunday. Despite expectations, no one yet knows how many hostages’ bodies will be handed over by the terrorist group before the deadline of 6 a.m. on Monday, Avidan told Kan Reshet Bet radio. A team from the International Committee of the Red Cross will carry out an initial identification process after receiving the bodies, according...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday marked two years since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, pledging that Israel “will prevail” and reaffirming his commitment to achieving all the war’s objectives — the return of hostages, the elimination of Hamas and ensuring that Gaza will never again pose a threat to the Jewish state. In a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu recalled the immense suffering caused by the attacks, in which some 1,200 people were murdered and 251 were abducted into the terror...
(JNS) - Michelle Rukovicin, the most severely wounded survivor of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacres, married her partner on Tuesday night in a ceremony celebrated as a symbol of resilience. The IDF intelligence systems technician, who was critically injured defending Kissufim base from Hamas terrorists and spent three months in a coma, wed her boyfriend of five years, Rinat Kasimov, the partner who remained at her side throughout her grueling recovery. She was struck by seven bullets, wounde...
(JNS) - Several hundred family members, friends, members of Knesset and Israel Defense Forces soldiers gathered at the Oz VeGaon Nature Preserve in Gush Etzion on Sept. 28 for the annual Lion of Zion prize in memory of renowned Israel advocate Ari Fuld, on his seventh yahrzeit. Fuld, 45, who was born in New York and made aliyah in 1994, was murdered by an Arab teenager in a 2018 terrorist stabbing, several days before Yom Kippur, outside a mall near the Gush Etzion Junction. With his last...
25 has come to a close. In Israel, this time of year is evident by the changing landscape, notably the fruits on the trees, the grapes in the vineyards. If there was no calendar to tell us the date, we would still know it was the High Holydays. We feel a need to focus on our recent announcement about the establishment of an ambulance fleet dedicated in memory of Charlie Kirk, z"l. In response to that announcement, we received thoughtful feedback, and we realized we may have unintentionally...
(JNS) — More than 50,000 new immigrants have arrived in Israel since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, according to figures released by the Jewish Agency for Israel ahead of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. In addition, through Masa Israel Journey, a Jewish Agency program in partnership with the Israeli government, roughly 20,000 young people from Jewish communities abroad have come to Israel to volunteer and support the country. Tens of thousands of Jews have participated in aliyah fairs held worldwide since Oct. 7, and m...
(JNS) - Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sept. 15 reopened the Pilgrimage Road in Jerusalem, a first-century route linking the City of David to the Temple Mount. The Pilgrimage Road, a broad stone route used during the Second Temple period, connected the Pool of Siloam, where pilgrims purified themselves in ritual baths, to Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount. Jerusalem "is forever our city," Netanyahu declared at the ceremony in the City of Da...
(JNS)— Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday invoked the memory of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States as he defended Israel’s strike in Qatar targeting Hamas leaders behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre. “We remember September 11. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery on American soil since the founding of the United States,” Netanyahu said. “We also have a September 11. We remember October 7. On that day, Islamist terrorists committed the worst savagery against the Jewish people since the...
(JNS) — A memorial mural featuring angel wings in a prominent city square in Israel. A sand sculpture on the Tel Aviv beach. An Israeli tank shell inscribed with a commemorative message. Spontaneous Israeli public tributes that have poured in since last week’s assassination in Utah of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, 31, who was admired in Israel for his staunch support of the Jewish state and had a large following across the Atlantic. “If the world is divided into good and evil, the...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed to Jerusalem what his office described as the largest-ever bipartisan delegation of American lawmakers to ever visit the Jewish state. “We value and cherish your support,” Netanyahu told the delegation of some 250 U.S. state legislators gathered at the Foreign Ministry, noting that there was an “active effort” ongoing to erode the ties between the two countries. These efforts are “orchestrated by the same forces that supported Iran,” he continued, accusing China and Qatar of spearheadi...
(JNS) — Israeli ministers on Saturday night called on the government to annex Judea and Samaria, after the U.N. General Assembly voted to adopt the so-called New York Declaration on the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine, which outlines the implementation of a two-state solution and the path towards recognition of a Palestinian state. “The fact that a diplomatic attack on Israel is met with Israeli silence—is unacceptable and cannot continue,” said Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who is also a minister in the Defense...
Behind Kibbutz Nir Oz, on a small rise overlooking the fields toward Gaza, stands a new memorial. At 14 feet tall, the Lion of Judah sits with its mouth agape, teeth bared, eyes dark with anger and pain. One massive paw rests upon a dedicatory stanchion. This Lion is the work of Jerusalem artist Sam Philipe, a fifth-generation Jewish sculptor. The project was conceived and funded by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation in collaboration with the Nir Oz community. Philipe and I...
