Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 2027
(JNS) - Legendary Jewish film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele Singer were found dead in their Los Angeles home on Sunday afternoon, according to TMZ. The outlet cited law enforcement sources in reporting that the couple suffered lacerations consistent with a knife attack. A family member is being questioned by investigators, a law enforcement official told the Associated Press. Reports indicate that the suspect is the couple's son, Nick, who has a long history of drug...
(JNS) — Rosie the Riveter may get a spot on the National Mall in Washington. The House of Representatives, without dissent, approved legislation for a memorial on or near the Mall to honor the women who took up jobs traditionally held by men when the latter went off to fight World War II. Congress approved such a memorial in 2022, but Tuesday’s vote authorized its placement on the Mall, the grassy area between the U.S. Capitol and Lincoln Memorial and the site of numerous demonstrations in the nation’s capital. It would join the memor...
(JNS)— A gunman opened fire during a final exam review for the economics class of a Brown University professor, who also teaches Jewish studies courses, in Providence, R.I., on Saturday afternoon, killing two and wounding nine, according to law enforcement, officials and media reports. On Monday morning, law enforcement said a person of interest was in custody. Rachel Friedberg, teaching professor of economics and faculty associate of the Judaic studies program and of the population studies and training center at Brown, reportedly said that the...
(JNS) — The Redlands, Calif., Police Department, located some 60 miles east of Los Angeles in San Bernardino Valley, said that it is investigating both what it called an incident targeting a Jewish family and a “potential hate crime.” A Jewish family in Redlands had just returned home on Friday evening when “a vehicle drove past the victims’ residence, yelled an antisemitic slur and fired several shots,” the department stated at about 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday. The department said that there were no injuries nor damage, and officers di...
(JNS) — The most powerful Jewish official in Washington introduced a resolution Monday that condemns white supremacy and antisemitism and specifically calls out far-right provocateurs Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes. The resolution introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), which every other Senate Democrat co-sponsored, is a response to Carlson’s recent friendly interview with Holocaust denier Fuentes. “Antisemitism and white supremacy and, indeed, neo-Naziism—just saying the words send shudders down one’s spine—are...
(JNS) - The importance of the City of David, the capital of ancient Israel, and specifically its Pilgrimage Road, was the topic of discussion at an event featuring U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and former IDF Spokesman Maj. (res.) Doron Spielman at the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem on Dec. 9. The ancient site's excavation has aroused worldwide opposition. The Pilgrimage Road, a Second Temple-era route, connects the Pool of Siloam to the Temple Mount. It is located just south...
Dr. Michael Lozman's dream of a permanent Holocaust Memorial in the Capital Region of New York became a reality on Dec. 1, 2025, when Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation establishing a New York State memorial to honor Holocaust victims and survivors. "With the first ever state-sponsored Holocaust Memorial, we are honoring the victims and survivors of the Holocaust while ensuring that all visitors have a place to remember and reflect on what the Jewish community has endured," Governor...
(JNS) — The popular TV series “Dancing With the Stars” ushered in Chanukah a little early as part of an inaugural show, “Dancing With the Holidays,” which aired on Dec. 2. Alan Bersten, a Jewish dancer and choreographer, led the several-minute-long routine that featured themes of the Jewish holiday. “Growing up Jewish, you don’t really see a lot of Chanukah representation, so tonight we’re doing a special performance to celebrate,” Bersten said on the Tuesday-night show. “Hopefully, Jewish kids are watching this, and they feel seen and they...
(JNS) — Fraudulent programs that claimed to feed needy children and to support kids with autism in Minnesota stole billions of dollars in recent years, with some of the funding going overseas to Somalia and helping fund the Al-Shabaab Islamist terror group, according to a new report from City Journal, a Manhattan Institute publication. According to the report, a nonprofit called Feeding Our Future received $250 million in state funding. “Using fake meal counts, doctored attendance records and fabricated invoices, the perpetrators of the fra...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Wednesday urged more than a thousand visiting American pastors and Christian leaders to “light the pulpits of America” with the truth about Israel, and to quash criticism of the Jewish state from both the left and the right with the facts and the Bible. “We need the pulpits of America to be on fire with the truth,” Huckabee said in a fiery address. “I pray that you don’t just go back home and say, ‘Oh, I had wonderful trip. I took some good pictures. I saw some wonderful sites.’ I hope...
(JNS) — Robert Kraft, the Jewish owner of the New England Patriots, has been named a contributor finalist for the Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026, the Hall announced on Wednesday. Kraft, who has owned the Patriots since 1994, led the franchise to six Super Bowl victories and 10 Super Bowl appearances, in both cases more than any other owner in NFL history. He purchased the team for a then-record $172 million to prevent its relocation to St. Louis and privately financed construction of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass. The 2026 c...
(JNS) — Calling U.S. President Donald Trump’s defense of former Fox News host Tucker Carlson “disgusting,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced on the Senate floor on Thursday that he would introduce a resolution condemning antisemitism and white supremacy. The highest-ranking Jewish official in Congress, the senator said that his resolution also would call out Carlson for giving a platform to Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes. He called on his Republican colleagues to “take a clear stand against hatred and...
(JNS) - U.S. President Donald Trump warmly welcomed a delegation of former hostages and family members to the White House on Thursday. In a message shared by the White House, he told them: "You're not a hostage anymore ... today you're heroes." The delegation consisted of 26 former hostages, including 17 of the 20 living captives who were released in the Gaza ceasefire deal that Trump brokered in October. Trump handed each member of the delegation a special presidential coin. In his remarks to a...
(JTA) - A silver Tiffany & Co. menorah from the year 2000. A bronze, 23-inch tall Statue of Liberty menorah made in 1986 in New Jersey by German-born artist Manfred Anson. A silver Chanukah lamp, inlaid with carnelian stones, that was made in the early 20th century at the Bezalel school in Jerusalem. These are just a few of the 35 unique and historic menorahs that famed auction house Christie's is selling ahead of the Jewish holiday of Chanukah, which this year begins on Dec. 14. The menorahs,...
(JNS) — Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Justice Department task force to combat Jew-hatred, were among the honorees awarded for speaking out on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people at a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday. Speaking at the Endowment for Middle East Truth’s annual “Rays of Light in the Darkness” gala, Fetterman said that the more people “back away from Israel,” the more he would “lean in stronger.” “What Hamas has started was a full-on war against civilization and trying to destroy Israel,...
(JNS) — The Anti-Defamation League released a report on Friday detailing how prompts can produce antisemitism, extremism and violence in text-to-video artificial intelligence tools despite safeguards that companies have put in place. Text-to-video AI tools generate videos from written prompts. The ADL says that misleading and disturbing materials produced with that technology have been “leveraged to sow confusion and division following newsworthy events or tragedies.” The companies that created and run the tools are supposed to have safeg...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office alongside Zohran Mamdani, mayor-elect of New York City, that the two had “a great meeting.” “A really good, a very productive meeting,” Trump said. “We have one thing in common. We want this city of ours, which we love, to do really well.” Trump said of Mamdani, a socialist who has said that he would have Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested in New York City, that “I met with a man who’s a very rational person.” “I met with a man who really wants to see N...
(JNS) — A new watchdog report alleges that the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, “the largest and most financially significant branch of the national CAIR network,” paid $1,000 to anti-Israel campus activists disciplined by their universities. The report—conducted by the Network Contagion Research Institute and the Intelligent Advocacy Network—states that CAIR-CA “started an education fund to ‘help students targeted for their pro-Palestine advocacy on college campuses’ and solicited over $64,000 in donations....
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 400 to 15 on Monday to pass a bill that aims to stop what its author, Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.), calls the growing terror threat of “vehicle-based attacks.” H.R. 1608 cites the Jan. 1 attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, in which the attacker drove into a crowd and then shot at police officers. The attacker killed 14 people and injured dozens of others. The bill calls on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to submit a classified report to Congress within 180 days assessing “the current and em...
Historically, unflavored beers have been generally assumed to be kosher, but the stout and bitter truth is that craft brewing has introduced recipes that extend beyond water, hops, barley and yeast, per a Nov. 17 letter from the Orthodox Union certification service that spread on social media. There is now a “proliferation of flavored beers, diverse additives and shared equipment that can compromise the kosher status of even seemingly straightforward brews,” per the letter attributed to the OU. (JNS sought comment from the kosher cer...
(JNS) - Starship Bagel of Dallas won the Best Bagel award at this year's New York BagelFest, a competition that brought bakeries from across the globe to Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y., on Nov. 16. In addition to taking home the top prize in the festival's blind-tasting category, the Dallas bagel shop also earned wins in multiple subcategories, including Best New York Style Bagel and Best Showmanship, as well as placements in Most Creative and Schmear of the Year. New York BagelFest 2025, sponsore...
(JNS) - When David Letterman took the stage at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles, he wasn't just paying tribute to a friend and frequent guest on his late-night talk show. He was paying forward a piece of Jewish-American rock history. During his final appearance on Letterman's Late Show in 2002, Warren Zevon, who was terminally ill, performed "Keep Me in Your Heart." He later gifted his guitar to the comedian. Letterman brought that guitar to the Nov. 8 cer...
(JNS) — Rep. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) lashed out at conservative firebrand and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson Saturday, calling him “the most dangerous antisemite in America.” Fine didn’t mince words on the third day of the four-day Republican Jewish Coalition annual legislative conference, taking place this weekend in Las Vegas. “Tucker Carlson is the most dangerous antisemite in America,” Fine told the 1,000 participants, making this year’s conference one of the more well-attended. “He has chosen to take on the mantle of leader of moder...
Zohran Mamdani has been elected mayor of New York City, delivering a decisive win in a three-way race that divided and in many cases distressed the city's Jews. Mamdani received a significant enough majority of votes that major news agencies declared the election less than 40 minutes after polls closed in the city, following the highest turnout in more than half a century. The results mean that Mamdani, a 34-year-old democratic socialist who ran on a platform of affordability, will now have a...
(JNS) — On the first day of the Jewish National Fund-USA’s annual Global Conference, held in the heart of South Florida’s extensive Jewish community from Oct. 23-26, CEO Russell Robinson met with representatives from cities not particularly known as bastions of American Judaism. It’s part of a basic business strategy, Robinson told those in attendance. “If you’re not forecasting where your customer acquisition is going to be, if you’re not looking at your customer base and examining those pieces, you won’t be in business long,” he said....
