Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces jammed the radios of the Turkish-led Gaza flotilla and broadcast Britney Spears’ “Oops! … I Did It Again,” a source familiar with the matter confirmed to JNS on Tuesday. Flotilla organizers told Reuters that Israeli Navy commandos on Monday boarded 39 vessels in the eastern Mediterranean, some 250 nautical miles (463 km) from the Gaza Strip, and arrested those aboard, including 44 Turkish nationals. Israel’s Foreign Ministry shared video footage showing the activists celebrating and hugging aboard an IDF ship...
(JNS) — Israeli Minister of Transport and Road Safety Miri Regev on Monday convened an initial discussion regarding the recent hantavirus outbreak, her office told JNS. Regev instructed her ministry to prepare measures aimed at preventing the virus from spreading into the Jewish state through border crossings or airports, according to the statement. A special team headed by ministry Director-General Moshe Ben-Zaken will coordinate with the Health Ministry on the issue. “At the moment there is no concern, but we are preparing all systems in adv...
(JNS) — Israel officially handed over to Argentina the rotating chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on May 13, amid the worst burst of global antisemitism since the Holocaust. The symbolic ceremony held at the United Nations in Geneva took place two months after Argentina, on March 18, became the first South American country to assume leadership of the organization, which seeks to promote Holocaust education and awareness worldwide. IHRA Chair Marcelo Mindlin, president of the Holocaust Museum of Argentina since 2...
(JNS) — George Deek, Israel’s newly appointed special envoy to the Christian world, said Wednesday that Christians in the Jewish state “are not just surviving — we are thriving.” In a video message posted to X, Deek, an Arab-Israeli diplomat from a “Christian family that has lived in this land for centuries,” said his role was to strengthen ties with Christian communities worldwide. “My mission is simple, to speak the truth, to listen carefully, and to deepen friendship between Israel and Christian communities everywhere,” Deek said. “In Is...
(JNS) - To mark Jerusalem Day, (which was erev May 14-15), Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund unveils rare historical documentation from its archives, depicting the city between the 1930s and the 1950s, before the establishment of the State of Israel. Scenes of Jerusalem during the British Mandate and in the early years of the State of Israel are captured through the camera lens just a few years before its independence. The photos present an exceptional mosaic of a multifaceted city,...
(JNS) — Israel on Monday barred entry to American YouTuber Tyler Oliveira, known for viral videos that claimed Jews had “invaded” parts of New York and New Jersey. Oliveira was stopped at Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport and deported back to the United States, Israeli Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Amichai Chikli confirmed to JNS on Tuesday. “It was my decision,” Chikli said. “We have a direct line of communication with the Population and Immigration Authority, and when we submit the name of a person or org...
(JNS) - A rare sight, a halo surrounding the sun, was seen in Israel's northern skies on Saturday, May 2. The striking halo was reportedly spotted by residents in the city of Kiryat Shmona in the Galilee Panhandle and at Shavei Zion beach near Nahariya in the Western Galilee. Dr. Amir Givati, director of the Israel Meteorological Service, told Ynet that the phenomenon is the result of high-altitude clouds typical of heatwave conditions. Due to their high altitudes of four to five miles in the...
(JNS) - Israeli journalist Amit Segal shared video footage on Monday, May 4, showing rare May snowfall on Mount Hermon, noting that it marked the first snowfall on the mountain's upper slopes this late in the season in 15 years. A clip posted to his X account showed the popular northern resort blanketed in white as an unseasonably cold front swept through the region....
(JNS) - The U.S. State Department approved a possible sale of $992.4 million worth of laser-guided rockets, or "advanced precision kill weapon system" and relevant equipment, Foggy Bottom said on Friday. Israel sought 10,000 of the APKWS equipment, which is made by BAE Systems, the State Department said. "The secretary of state has determined and provided detailed justification that an emergency exists that requires the immediate sale to Israel of the above defense articles and defense services...
(JNS) — Air-raid sirens blared across the Western Galilee on Monday morning, sending thousands of civilians scrambling for bomb shelters as Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it fired an interceptor missile toward a “target that was launched from Lebanon,” but said it subsequently lost contact with the UAV. “No injuries were reported,” the military stated, adding that additional missile alerts in the north were activated “due to concerns of falling interception debris.” La...
(JNS) — Air-raid sirens blared across the Western Galilee on Monday morning, sending thousands of civilians scrambling for bomb shelters as Iranian-backed Hezbollah launched a drone attack from Lebanon. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed that it fired an interceptor missile toward a “target that was launched from Lebanon,” but said it subsequently lost contact with the UAV. “No injuries were reported,” the military stated, adding that additional missile alerts in the north were activated “due to concerns of falling interception debris.” La...
(JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog last week visited the Jerusalem College of Technology, where he expressed his deep appreciation for combining Judaism with scholarly work. “The unique integration that JCT represents—between Torah and science—is a tremendous asset for the State of Israel, especially in a time of division,” he was quoted as saying in a press release by the institution of higher education. JCT is home to approximately 4,500 religious and Haredi students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering, managemen...
(JNS) — Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael–Jewish National Fund chairman Eyal Ostrinsky is pushing back against an April 28 report in the Haaretz newspaper that his organization is halting funding to agricultural farms in Judea and Samaria based on their geographic location. Though last month, KKL–JNF’s executive committee passed a motion to halt funding to certain farms, Ostrinsky says the decision was based on each farm’s mission, not its position relative to Israel’s “Green Line” (the 1949 armistice line). Ostrinsky told JNS that his organization ha...
(JNS) — Nobody was entirely sure the ceremony would take place. Organizers had quietly filmed a full dress rehearsal days earlier in case renewed fighting with Iran made a live public event impossible. A fragile ceasefire with Iran and Lebanon was holding—barely. Last year’s ceremony was canceled due to wildfires in the Jerusalem hills. This year, thousands arrived from across the country, determined not to miss the event. What followed was one of the most emotionally charged Independence Day ceremonies in recent memory—a sweeping, two-hou...
(JNS) — Israel’s population has reached 10.244 million as the country marks its 78th Independence Day, according to data released on Sunday by the Central Bureau of Statistics. Of the total population, 7.97 million are Jews and others (76 percent), 2.15 million are Arabs (21 percent) and 296,000 are foreign residents (2.9 percent), according to the figures. Israel’s population has grown by 146,000 since its last Independence Day, registering an increase of 1.4 percent, the Bureau noted. Durin...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed on Friday that he underwent treatment for a very early-stage malignant tumor in his prostate and has fully recovered. “Today, my annual medical report was published,” Netanyahu wrote on X. “I requested to delay its publication by two months so that it would not be released at the height of the war, in order not to allow the Iranian terror regime to spread even more false propaganda against Israel. “I ask to share with you three things,” he continued. “1. Thank God, I am healthy. 2. I...
(JNS) - "Operation Roaring Lion" against Iranian nuclear sites fulfilled the Jewish state's promise to prevent a second Holocaust, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday night. Had the Israeli and U.S. militaries failed to act, "the names Natanz, Fordow, Isfahan and Parchin might have been remembered eternally in infamy, just like Auschwitz, Treblinka, Majdanek and Sobibor," the prime minister said in Hebrew remarks aired during the state ceremony for Holocaust Martyrs' and...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Monday with Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav, conveying his “deep sorrow over the tragic loss of four lives” in an Iranian missile attack that targeted the city the previous night. “The most important point that came up again in our conversation is one simple principle, an iron rule: Anyone who follows the guidelines of the [Israel Defense Forces] Home Front Command and stays in a protected space has almost no chance of being harmed,” Netanyahu said in a video statement following the call. “I ask...
(JNS) - More than 50,000 participants registered for the 15th International Jerusalem "Winner" Marathon, held Friday under the theme "Am Yisrael Runs," in an event marked by a more subdued atmosphere than usual amid the ongoing war. The event took place as a 10-day ceasefire between Lebanon and Israel brokered by the United States began. The 26.2-mile race was canceled, while other runs were moved to earlier in the morning, due to an expected heatwave and dusty conditions. Alame Haimro, 36,...
(JNS) - A team from the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites arrived in early April in a small Upper Galilee community where the sounds of air-raid sirens and explosions had become routine amid weeks of sustained rocket fire. Despite the U.S.-brokered 10-day ceasefire with Lebanon that went into effect on Friday, residents of Israel's north continue to face uncertainty as security conditions evolve. For many children in the region, daily life has unfolded largely within bomb shelter...
(JNS) - Israel is home to some 111,000 Holocaust survivors and victims of antisemitic persecution, according to new government estimates released ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2026. Women make up about 63 percent of survivors, most of whom are in their 80s and 90s. Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics said on Sunday that the global Jewish population stood at 15.8 million at the start of 2025, including 7.2 million Jews in Israel, or roughly 45 percent of the total, and 6.3 million in the...
(JNS, Israel Hayom) - Imagine you are a fighter in an elite unit of the Israel Defense Forces. In two days, a critical mission in Lebanon awaits. Before the operation, you are taken for a final drill at one of the military's training grounds to sharpen your combat edge and make sure every shot you fire hits the enemy's kill zone. You enter the training compound according to procedure. Everything is advancing smoothly. Then, in the very last room, a split second before the finish line, a corporal leaps from a hiding spot and shouts at you:...
(JNS) — At the Orchid Hotel in Tel Aviv, the bomb shelter on level minus one is filled largely with foreign voices, with little Hebrew heard. The space is occupied by tourists who arrived for short visits, but now find themselves stranded in Israel, with no clear departure date. Jacqueline Sanders, a headhunter from the Netherlands, arrived on Feb. 23 for what was meant to be a two-week Purim visit with a close friend and her 23-year-old son. “We are from the Jewish community in Holland and we come to Israel regularly. I knew it could pos...
Israeli troops have taken operational control of a destroyed stadium in southeastern Lebanon where slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah once threatened the Jewish state, the military said on Monday, confirming a major raid in the Bint Jbeil area. “Bint Jbeil in the year 2000. Someone stood here, in this field, and claimed that Israel is a cobweb filled with spiders that must be exterminated. Today, that man is gone, the compound is gone, and his words are worth nothing,” Brig. Gen. Guy Levy, commander of the 98th Paratroopers Division, said...
(JNS) — “The impacts in central Haifa are very close to the hospital. It feels like Russian roulette,” said Ahuva Tal, head nurse at Clalit Health Services’ Carmel Medical Center in Haifa, in an interview with JNS on Monday, a day before a two-week ceasefire paused 40 days of war against Iran. Carmel Medical Center, which has a capacity of 500 beds, began evacuating some patients on Feb. 28, when Israel and the United States launched a joint attack against Iran. Some patients were transfe...
