Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1150
(JNS) - Israeli landmarks honored the United States on Sunday with gestures of gratitude following the American military's aerial operation against Iran's nuclear facilities early that morning. The front of the Knesset building was illuminated in red, white and blue, while the ceremonial plaza was adorned with American flags. An honor guard was stationed at the site, with the participation of Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana. "On behalf of the Knesset, which represents all the citizens of Israel, I...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday prayed at the Western Wall, Judaism’s second-holiest site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, giving thanks for the United States joining the war against Iran. Netanyahu visited the site alongside Shmuel Rabinovitch, the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Places, and Mordechai “Suli” Eliav, director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation. The prime minister recited a special prayer for U.S. President Donald Trump, known in Hebrew as Hanoten teshuah (“He who grants deliverance”), asking that God...
(JNS) - A year after the horrors of Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 Israelis were brutally murdered and 252 taken hostage by Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a new phase in the war. He said the operation known as "Swords of Iron" now bears a far older, deeper name: "The War of Tkuma." In Hebrew, tkuma means resurrection - a word rooted in Jewish memory, struggle and renewal. This wasn't just a rebranding. It was a signal. With the symbolic conclusion of shiva - the seven-day Je...
(JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue for as many days as it...
Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country's new war with Iran. Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country's center, injuring dozens of people. Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and...
(JNS)- The 2025 Maccabiah Games scheduled to take place in Israel in July have been canceled and postponed until 2026 as a result of the ongoing war against Iran, the Maccabi World Union announced on Monday. It said that in consultations between the heads of Maccabi World Union and the 2025 Maccabiah, together with Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and his staff, it was decided that due to Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on June 13, "the...
(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...
