Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 1249
(JNS) — Most foreign governments have allowed an unrestrained surge of overt antisemitism to fester in the public sphere, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar said on Sunday. He called on world Jewry to move to Israel. “Jews have a right to live safely everywhere. But we see and fully understand what is happening and we have a certain historical experience,” Sa’ar said during a Chanukah candle-lighting event in the Tel Aviv suburb of Rishon Letzion. “Today, Jews are being hunted across the world.” He specifically called out the Jews of Engla...
(JNS) — Israel’s Security Cabinet on Sunday approved the establishment and legalization of 19 Jewish communities across Judea and Samaria, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich noted on X. Among the 19 towns are Ganim and Kadim in northern Samaria. They were evacuated and destroyed by the Israeli government during the 2005 disengagement. In total, 11 new towns will be established, and eight existing neighborhoods will be officially recognized by the state. “We continue to make history in settling [the land] and in the State of Israel,” Smotric...
Israel’s Christian population is about 185,000, accounting for just under 2 percent of the country’s total population, according to data published Wednesday by the Central Bureau of Statistics on the eve of Christmas 2025. Nearly 80 percent of the Christians in Israel are Arab, comprising 6.8 percent of the nation’s overall Arab population. Most Arab Christians reside in the Northern District (68.3 percent) and Haifa District (14.7 percent). Non-Arab Christians are more concentrated in the Tel Aviv and Central Districts (42 percent) with 34 pe...
(JNS) — Ariel, Hebrew for “lion of God”, retained its title as the most popular name given to Jewish boys in Israel in 2025, the country’s Population and Immigration Authority announced on Tuesday. It was followed by Lavie, meaning “lion” in Hebrew, with the biblical figure David rounding out the top three. Muhammad, Yosef and Adam were the three most popular boys’ names among the general population. Arabs comprise about 20 percent of Israel’s population of roughly 10 million. Among girls, Avigail, who according to the Bible married the fut...
(JNS) - A Jewish ritual bath, or mikveh, dating back to the final days of the Second Temple period has been unearthed near the Western Wall, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Monday. The bath, which still bears ash remains that testify to the destruction of the Temple, was discovered recently beneath the Western Wall Plaza, the state-run archaeological body said. Hewn into the bedrock, the mikveh, which is rectangular in shape, measuring 3.05 meters in length, 1.35 meters in width...
As Team Israel prepares to take on the world in the next World Baseball Classic, scheduled for March, it does so against the background of a worldwide spike in Jew-hatred in the aftermath of Israel's war against Hamas. The players are ready for that challenge. Two veterans of the 2023 team, which did well enough to secure an automatic bid for the 2026 event, told JNS that they are prouder than ever to wear the blue and white. "That means everything to me, and it gives me even more of a reason...
(JNS) — Former Israeli hostage Matan Zangauker and his girlfriend, former hostage Ilana Gritzewsky, have become engaged. Zangauker’s mother, Einav Zangauker, who was one of the most vocal voices among the families of the hostages held in Gaza, posted a photo on Sunday night of Matan, 26, and Ilana, 32, drinking champagne in front of a “Will you marry me” sign inside a flower-bedecked wreath in the form of a heart. “My picture of victory,” Einav wrote. “Ilana & Matan.” A large guitar-shaped building in the background placed the photo at the Se...
(JNS) — 18.4 million passengers travelled through Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport this year, an increase of 33 percent compared to the previous year, the Israel Airports Authority announced on Tuesday. The figures highlight both the resurgence of the Israeli aviation sector and the postwar re-emergence of Tel Aviv as an international travel hub. Some 60 foreign carriers are now flying to Tel Aviv compared to 80 two years ago, before the war, with the Hungarian budget carrier Wizz Air expected to open a hub in Israel in the spring. The...
(JNS) - Researchers at Israel's Hebrew University have identified the world's earliest systematic botanical art, dating back more than 8,000 years, that demonstrates sophisticated mathematical reasoning. Professor Yosef Garfinkel and Sarah Krulwich analyzed pottery from the Halafian culture of northern Mesopotamia (circa 6200-5500 BCE) across 29 archaeological sites. Their study, published in the Journal of World Prehistory, found that flowers, shrubs and trees painted on vessels displayed precise numerical patterns-particularly petal counts...
(JNS) — Israel arrested a Russian citizen working in the country who allegedly photographed infrastructure and ships at ports under the direction of Iranian intelligence, security officials said on Friday Vitaly Zvyagnitsev, 30, was detained in early December after allegedly carrying out surveillance tasks for an Iranian handler who identified himself as “Roman,” said the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Erez Unit of the Defense Ministry’s security directorate, known by its Hebrew acronym MALMAB. The suspect continued the mission...
(JNS) — Police opened an investigation on Friday after security camera footage showed a woman in Muslim religious garb blowing out Chanukah menorah candles at a Tel Aviv shopping mall. If the woman is identified, police are expected to charge her under Article 170 of the Penal Code, which criminalizes the desecration or damage of places of worship or sacred objects with the intent or awareness. The offense carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison. In video taken at the Weizmann City Mall, an indoor mall located next to Tel Aviv S...
(JNS) - An Israeli was found dead with signs of hypothermia, and two children sustained minor injuries from a falling tree, on Thursday, the second day of winter storm Byron. Emergency teams were also called to flooding incidents in the Judean Foothills (the Shfela), the Magen David Adom medical response group said. MDA says its first responders were deployed to several sites where cars became trapped in rising waters and were working alongside rescue teams, with medics on standby amid fears of...
(JNS) - Surgeons in Israel successfully removed a 2.3-inch tumor protruding from the upper jaw of a baby girl immediately after her birth, a Rabin Medical Center spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday. The tumor was the largest of its kind and location ever described in the medical literature, nearly matching the size of the newborn's head. "It is a miracle. We told our baby she has used up all her drama for a lifetime," her family was quoted as saying by the hospital in Petach Tikvah. The...
(JNS) — A 1,300-year-old lead pendant decorated with a menorah was uncovered during an archaeological excavation beneath the southwestern corner of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, north of the City of David, the Israel Antiquities Authority revealed on Monday. Only one other ancient lead pendant bearing the menorah symbol is known in the world, the government agency added. The personal necklace dates to the 6th to early 7th centuries in the Late Byzantine period and was recently discovered in a large-scale archaeological excavation in the D...
New research is challenging long-held assumptions about how flight evolved in dinosaurs and birds, according to a study published on Tuesday in Communications Biology. Yosef Kiat of Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology and the Steinhardt Museum of Natural History led an international team that examined 160-million-year-old fossils and found that some feathered dinosaurs had lost the ability to fly—suggesting the path to flight was more complex than scientists believed. The research focused on nine exceptionally preserved fossils of Anc...
(JNS) - Four English-speaking Israeli writers convened in Jerusalem on Sunday night for a candid discussion on spirituality, creativity and resilience, reflecting on how Oct. 7, 2023, transformed their inner worlds and their work. The panel, one of several, was part of the first-ever "Book Shuk" at the Nefesh B'Nefesh Aliyah Campus in Cinema City, a literary fair featuring more than 50 "olim" (immigrant) authors who have written and published their own books since making aliyah, the majority...
(JNS) - The National Library of Israel is displaying a rare 14th-century manuscript of Maimonides' Mishneh Torah for the first time as part of its permanent exhibition. The illuminated volume, copied in Provence between 1300 and 1350 C.E., represents one of Judaism's most significant legal texts. Italian artist Matteo di Ser Cambio later enhanced the manuscript in Spain with vivid illustrations, gold ornamentation and decorative motifs featuring figures, animals and plants. The manuscript shows...
(JNS) — The Israel’s Cabinet is set to approve next week a $31.8 million budget to strengthen the eastern Negev cities of Arad, Dimona, Yeruham and Mitzpe Ramon, the Prime Minister’s Office and Finance Ministry announced in a joint statement on Thursday. The decision is to be green-lit in a special session in Dimona on Dec. 14, as part of a national plan to encourage demographic growth and sustainable economic development in Israel’s south, the statement read. The budget planned for 2026 involves investment in infrastructure, personal security,...
(JNS) — “The fact that Israel is in a good situation in the worldwide AI race does not say anything about the future,” warned Dror Bin, CEO of the Israel Innovation Authority, at AI Week 2025, currently taking place at Tel Aviv University. “We need to make sure that we remain in the forefront of this race—in industry, among entrepreneurs, investors, companies, as well as the government,” he said. Investors, government agencies and start-ups gathered in Israel for AI Week, now in its sixth year, an annual conference that celebrates the country...
(JNS) - An ancient archaeological site containing Hasmonean-era palace ruins will open to Israeli visitors this weekend, after vandals defaced the location and destroyed artifacts, local officials announced. Graffiti was sprayed on a 2,000-year-old ritual bath at the Hasmonean Palaces site, and looters crushed a skull believed to belong to a noble from the Hasmonean dynasty, according to the Binyamin Regional Council, which manages the area. The Hasmonean kings ruled Judea from roughly 140...
(JNS) — Doctors at Rabin Medical Center in Petach Tikva have successfully performed a rare and complex small-intestine transplant on Daniel Haim Biton, a 36-year-old man who had lived for 17 years without a functioning digestive system, the hospital said in a press release on Thursday. The seven-hour surgery gave Biton, who has depended on intravenous total parenteral nutrition since age 19, the chance to live without medical devices or dietary restrictions for the first time in nearly two decades. He is currently hospitalized in stable c...
(JNS) — Israel on Thursday night recovered the remains of Hamas hostage Meny (Menachem) Godard, who was murdered by the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and whose body was taken into the Gaza Strip. Meny was 73 at the time of his murder and was abducted from his home in Kibbutz Be’eri. His death was officially confirmed on Dec. 8, 2023. He is survived by four children and seven grandchildren. His wife, Ayelet Godard, was also killed during the attack on the kibbutz. “The IDF expresses deep condo...
(JNS) — Some 250,000 Israelis living in communities along the Samaria security barrier are facing an escalating environmental and health emergency from Palestinian waste fires, Channel 12 News reported on Thursday. Tens of thousands in Emek Hefer, Menashe and Shoham and nearby towns have reported sleepless nights, strong odors and respiratory issues, a Knesset Interior Committee hearing revealed on Wednesday. At the meeting, residents shared testimony of nights when “you simply cannot breathe,” while government representatives blamed the lack...
(JNS) — Assault rifles and other equipment belonging to Hamas terrorists were discovered on Wednesday during reconstruction work at Kibbutz Be’eri, more than two years after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the community. “Arms and communication devices belonging to Hamas terrorists were found in a kindergarten in Kibbutz Be’eri. Police bomb squad officers neutralized the weapons safely and without incident,” the Israel Police stated. An investigation found the weapons included “loaded and ready-to-fire Kalashnikov rifles, along with communicati...
(JNS) - A world-first event took place at Rabin Medical Center's Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, where a woman suffering from severe intestinal inflammation caused by Crohn's disease underwent a life saving, minimally invasive robotic bowel resection in her 32nd week of pregnancy. The complex surgery, which lasted several hours and involved dozens of medical staff, was completed successfully, allowing her to carry the pregnancy to term and give birth to a healthy baby girl. Tzofiya...
