Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — As U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian targets continue and air-raid sirens send Israelis rushing to shelters, thousands of international students are choosing to remain in Israel to continue their studies, volunteer and adjust to wartime realities. According to the Israel Educational Travel Alliance, an initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America, nearly 5,500 participants, including roughly 3,000 Americans, on Jewish educational programs under the umbrella of Masa Israel Journey remain in the country. Masa said in a March 8...
(JNS) — The only offer extended to Iran was “unconditional surrender,” Israeli Knesset speaker Amir Ohana, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said on Tuesday. Ohana was responding to a post in which Ghalibaf said that the Islamic Republic was no longer seeking to negotiate a truce with the United States and Israel. “Absolutely, we are not seeking a ceasefire; we believe we must strike the aggressor in the mouth so that it learns a lesson and never again even thinks of aggressing against our dear Iran...
(JNS) — The Samaria Regional Council on Wednesday morning erected the first residential structures on Mount Ebal, around 10 months after Israel’s Cabinet approved the establishment of a new community at the site. Samaria Regional Council head Yossi Dagan, together with the Amana settlement movement, worked overnight to establish the village after receiving formal Interior Ministry approval last month, Dagan said. “This morning, we’re privileged to feel the wings of history beating,” he said. “To make history together here by establishin...
(JNS) — The Israeli military said early on Thursday morning that in the prior hours, it launched a “wide-scale wave of strikes” at Hezbollah terror infrastructure across Lebanon. “As part of the strikes, the IDF located and dismantled dozens of launchers, which were ready to launch, and neutralized dozens of Hezbollah operatives while they were preparing to launch toward the State of Israel,” the military said. It added that it hit “10 terror structures in the Dahieh area,” a Beirut suburb, “including intelligence headquarters, a headquarters...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Wednesday called on Jewish communities worldwide to remain “vigilant and cautious” as Israel continues its war with the Iranian regime and its regional terror proxies. “We’re very much aware both of the support and the challenges of the Jewish communities and the Jewish world at large,” Herzog told JNS during a visit to the National Operations Center of Magen David Adom in Ramla. “In these trying times, where there is war here, where we are in the shelters, we know that Iran doesn’t rest only on th...
(JNS) - In an exclusive interview with JNS CEO and Israel Bureau Chief Alex Traiman on Thursday, Israeli Innovation, Science and Technology Minister Gila Gamliel said expanding cooperation with India-from space and defense technologies to water and agriculture-could propel both nations to new economic heights, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Jerusalem this week to deepen bilateral ties amid mounting regional tensions with Iran. Alex Traiman:...
(JNS) — Two qualities of leadership define Benjamin Netanyahu at this pivotal moment. The first is the ability to pursue an objective that appears impossible—relentlessly, patiently, for years—until circumstances align and it can finally be achieved. History remembers Winston Churchill for precisely this: breaking the paralysis of fear before Nazi aggression and dragging a reluctant world toward victory. Netanyahu’s struggle against Iran’s nuclear ambitions belongs to that same category of long, lonely battles. The second quality is the moral...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces killed several terrorists in separate incidents in the northern and southern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the military said. In the south, Israeli troops identified several armed terrorists who emerged from the underground terror infrastructure in eastern Rafah, in violation of the ceasefire agreement, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement on Friday. Shortly thereafter, “the troops alongside the Israeli Air Force struck and eliminated some of the terrorists in order to remove the threat,” the IDF said. I...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces military campaign, "Operation Roaring Lion," against the Islamic Republic of Iran will continue "until we achieve all our objectives," IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told reporters on Saturday night. "We went to war-to this operation-to remove a real, existential threat to the State of Israel," he stated at the press briefing, adding: "It will take as long as it takes; it will continue until we achieve all our objectives." Asked by local media how...
(JNS) — An Israeli high school this year began using an AI-powered robot to help teachers in one of the country’s first classroom applications of the technology, the school has said. The robot, known as “Buddy,” is used at the ISTS Kiryat Bialik school near Haifa, where it supports technology classes and special needs students, the Israel Sci-Tech Schools network, to which the Kiryat Bialik institution belongs, announced last week. The device is not meant to replace teachers but assist them, school administrators said. “When we first set out t...
(JNS) — Over 1,400 bereaved families gathered last week to plant trees in memory of their loved ones at the newly established Iron Swords Forest, which spans 367 dunams (approximately 90 acres). Established last October by Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund at Khirbet Mador, near the Re’im Recreation Area, the forest is Israel’s largest memorial dedicated to those murdered and the fallen in the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and the ensuing war. Among the participants was Vered Libstein of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who lost four family...
(JNS) - Mati Caspi, one of Israel's most influential and innovative musicians, died oFeb. 8, 2026, at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (Ichilov Hospital) following a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 76 years old. "With aching hearts and deep sorrow, we announce the passing of our beloved husband and dear father," Caspi's family said in a statement. "His love and the creations he left behind will always remain a part of us." Born on Nov. 30, 1949, in Kibbutz Hanita, Caspi was widely regarded...
(JNS) — The Israeli currency surged to one of its strongest levels in decades, trading at 3.09 shekels per dollar at noon on Thursday. A similar exchange rate was last recorded in November 2021 and in 1996. The Bank of Israel’s representatives exchange rates set on Wednesday afternoon included 3.0910 per U.S. dollar, 4.2609 per British pound, 2.2798 per Canadian dollar, 2.1657 per Australian dollar and 3.7039 per euro. The shekel’s strengthening is not a momentary outlier, as it has been rising against the nominal effective exchange rate...
(JNS) — A bill increasing government support for bereaved Israel Defense Forces families and victims of terrorism passed its final reading in the Knesset on Monday, following approval by the Labor and Welfare Committee. Among other provisions, the amendments to the Families of Soldiers Who Fell in Battle Law and the Benefits for Casualties of Hostile Acts Law grant orphans aged 21 and up a monthly stipend of 3,500 shekels ($1,120) until age 30 and 2,000 shekels ($640) per month until age 40. The amendments also significantly increase the m...
(JNS) — A large stone storage vessel used by Jews in the Galilee during the Roman period nearly 1,800 years ago is on display as part of an exhibition marking the Knesset building’s 60th anniversary. The vessel, standing about 80-centimeters (31.5-inches) high and 50-centimeters (19.5-inches) in diameter, was recently unearthed at the Pundaka de Lavi (“Lavi Inn”) site, located in the Lavi Forest near the Golani Junction in the Lower Galilee, by the Israel Antiquities Authority and KKL-JNF. Stone vessels were important in ancient Jewish society...
(JNS) - In today's global discourse, few words have done more damage to Israel's legitimacy than "occupation." What is often presented as a neutral legal term has instead become a political weapon-one that reframes terrorism as resistance and casts Israel as a state whose very existence requires justification. That warning comes from American Judge Alan Clemmons, who argues that modern antisemitism is sustained not only by hatred, but by language that is repeated until it becomes accepted as...
(JNS) - Israeli model and actress Tal Berkovich was killed in a traffic accident Thursday on Route 40 outside Telalim, a small community in the Negev. Relatives said they had been on their way to celebrate their mother's birthday at the time of the crash. She was 41 years old. Berkovich, who was visiting family in Israel, was traveling with her brother, Gil, 40, when their vehicle collided with a truck, police said. He was listed in critical condition at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheva. The...
(JNS) - Tu B'Shevat, the "Jewish New Year for Trees," gained a new meaning in the early 20th century. The tree-planting tradition that was renewed and adopted by the Zionist movement became a symbol of connection to the Land of Israel. Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) played a central role in embedding this late-winter celebration as a tradition in Israel through mass tree plantings, environmental education and the promotion of nature conservation values. The holiday became...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces on Monday confirmed its soldiers recovered the body of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, the last remaining hostage, from the Gaza Strip. "Following the completion of the identification process by the National Center of Forensic Medicine in collaboration with the Israel Police and the Military Rabbinate, IDF representatives informed the family of the hostage Ran Gvili, of blessed memory, that their loved one has been identified and will be laid to rest," the IDF...
(JNS) — Israel received its 11th university on Tuesday following the Higher Education Council’s decision to upgrade Tel Hai College near Kiryat Shmona in the Upper Galilee, and award it university status thanks to a $181 million grant to meet the relevant requirements. The unanimous decision by the Council for Higher Education in Israel—a supervisory board headed by Education Minister Yoav Kisch—means that beginning with the 5786–87 (2026-27) academic year, the University of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee will have the title for a five-year...
(JNS) — Kibbutz Be’eri has decided to keep as is one of the homes burned in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on southern Israel as a testimony to the horrors of the worst single-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. The move by the community, located five miles from the Gaza Strip, to move on and demolish the rest of the homes destroyed in the attack is opposed by some bereaved families, but is seen as an attempt to move on and rebuild. The house selected is on the edge of the community and belongs to a family that was abr...
(JNS) — Israeli National Security Committee chairman Knesset member Zvika Fogel and Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, both of the Otzma Yehudit Party, are advancing a Knesset bill aimed at tightening enforcement against noise from public address systems used in mosques. Under the proposed legislation, the construction or operation of a public address system for calls to prayer would require a permit. Permit applications would be reviewed based on noise intensity, efforts at noise-reduction, the mosque’s location and the imp...
(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...
