Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1702 - 1726 of 2213
Marina Delfos is on a mission. Working with a group of people who come to Jamaica each year through Caribbean Volunteer Expeditions and a handful of local volunteers, she is helping to take inventory of the area's Jewish gravestones, trying to make sense of the 360-year-old and oft-forgotten Jamaican Jewish past. This past March, Delfos struck stone while she was on the Way Back When (Black River Heritage Tour) trip with Allison Morris. "I knew there had to be a cemetery in [the town of] Black... Full story
SDEROT, Israel (JTA)—In the past week, Israel has endured a thousand rockets. Yet the only Israeli death so far from Hamas’ attacks was a civilian killed Tuesday by mortar fire while visiting soldiers near the Erez border crossing into Gaza.In many ways, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge—its third Gaza operation in six years—is much like previous Israeli campaigns in the territory. Israel has used airstrikes to exact a toll on Hamas and has massed troops on the Gaza border, threatening a ground invasion. So far, Israel has conducted nearly 1,... Full story
Australia's Sydney Harbor is up in flames. Large letters superimposed on the scene ask, "How would they react?" That image and many others like it have been distributed by an Israeli student initiative called "Israel Under Fire," which now boasts more than 57,000 followers on its Facebook page. While rocket attacks continue from Gaza after Palestinian terrorists' rejection of a cease-fire brokered by Egypt and accepted by Israel, more than 400 student volunteers are working together from a compu... Full story
FAA suspends U.S. airlines’ flights to Israel NEW YORK (JTA)—The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited all U.S. airlines from flying to Israel for at least 24 hours. All three U.S. carriers with nonstop flights to Israel—United, U.S. Airways and Delta Airlines—canceled their flights to Tel Aviv on Tuesday. El Al, which is not bound by the FAA order issued in the early afternoon Tuesday, said it plans to continue to maintain its normal schedule of up to five daily nonstop flights to Tel Aviv from the United States. The FAA order came after... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The air war has become a ground war. The Israeli population, always on edge, has become a nation in mourning. And a military operation that nearly ended after eight days has become a bloody invasion of Gaza that could last weeks and has Israeli officials divided over how it ought to end. With the death toll rising on both sides—more than 600 Palestinians and 30 Israelis were reported killed as of Tuesday—some Israeli leaders are calling for a cease-fire. But others argue that the only way to address the Hamas threat is to reocc... Full story
With the launch of the Israeli army's Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, much of the public's attention has appropriately focused on Hamas, the Palestinian terrorist group behind the June 12 abduction and murder of three Jewish teens and more recently the escalation of rocket fire on Israel. But the threats the Jewish state faces from Gaza may not be as clear-cut as they seem. While Hamas is still extremely deadly, it has seen a weakening of its grip on the coastal enclave over the past few... Full story
(JTA)- Israel and Hamas are fighting their third major conflict in six years, and while some things have stayed the same, the battle lines have also shifted in a few notable ways. Here are eight things you need to know about the current conflagration: • Iron Dome has been a game changer: The U.S.-funded Israeli anti-missile system was operational during the last conflagration in November 2012, but its remarkable success rate this go-around has reduced Gaza's missiles to more of an irritant t... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Get used to conflict. That's the message Israeli officials and security experts are relaying as the Israel Defense Forces conducts its third operation in six years against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel's missile defense capabilities have grown significantly since previous rounds of fighting in Gaza-Operation Cast Lead in 2008-09 and Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012-while Hamas has expanded its capability to strike deep at population centers in the Israeli heartland. But... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-For many Israelis, eyes are turning south watching yet another conflict unfold with Hamas. Yet thoughts are also turned inward, contemplating the sense of national solidarity occasioned by the abduction and murder of three teenagers and then shattered by the murder of a fourth. The Israeli media-the social and conventional varieties-have exploded in recent days with recrimination and self-recrimination over the brutal murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir, the Palestinian teenager from... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-The Obama administration's anti-Semitism monitor has added an issue to his office's portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe. Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department's special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to warn European governments that moves to ban ritual circumcision could lead to the demise of their countries' Jewish communities. "Because circumcision is essentially universal... Full story
NEW YORK—Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel’s national emergency medical response organization, has issued a list of emergency needs Americans can sponsor as it continues saving lives amid increasing rocket attacks from Gaza. MDA, which does not receive Israeli government funding for its operations, has activated its entire 13,000 volunteer corps and manned all of its 1,000 ambulances in response to sustained rocket fire from Gaza. The latest operations have strained MDA’s resources, which also must be dedicated to standard, day-to-day emergencies... Full story
JERUSALEM—The Helmsley Charitable Trust has announced 1.75 million dollars in grants to two Israeli institutions that help disabled children and adults, as well as their families. These grants are part of a continuing effort to invest in Israel’s leading institutions and critical initiatives toward the goal of strengthening Israel in the field of heath care and assuring that people with disabilities have quality community-based services. The $1,000,000 grant to Shalva, The Association for Mentally and Physically Challenged Children in Israel, i... Full story
Shachar Bar, an art therapist who teaches in Sderot, became increasingly alarmed after seeing the thousands of children of the western Negev suffering the cumulative effects of trauma due to the ongoing barrage of Kassam rockets from Gazan Palestinians. Teachers reported the fear and panic being heightened each time the recorded alert “Color Red” sounded, giving students 15 second to run for cover. “Children experienced real developmental regressions, some began bedwetting,” she said. “They were getting hysterical when the alarm sounded—s... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in the station's office Thursday morning when a rocket from Gaza was intercepted overhead by Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system. The rocket exploded in the air, but shrapnel fell onto the gas station, only narrowly missing the gas tanks. "It was like a truck hitting... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—As rockets from the Gaza Strip targeted Jerusalem for a second straight day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was taken to a special safe room. Two of the rockets fired last Thursday afternoon were intercepted by Iron Dome and two landed in open areas. The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad both claimed responsibility. One of the rockets landed in an area near Jerusalem under the control of the Palestinian Authority. A warning siren in Jerusalem came in the middle of a briefing by Netanyahu during a Knesset c... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-It's midnight here and two balding men in blue vests are on the move. Someone has sprayed tear gas at a club two blocks away. Outside a club known as The Mossad, located in a warehouse in the dilapidated Tel Aviv neighborhood of Florentin, groups of high-school students mill about sporting stylish haircuts, revealing clothes and dazed expressions. A boy in a black shirt and jeans lies passed out on the sidewalk as a woman in a blue vest makes sure he has not suffocated on his own... Full story
MOSCOW (JTA)-Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked senior rabbis from Israel and Europe for what he called their help in Russia's fight against the revival of Nazism. Putin made the statement on Wednesday during a meeting in the Russian capital with more than a dozen prominent rabbis, including Berel Lazar, a chief rabbi of Russia, and Yitzchak Yosef and Israel Meir Lau, Israel's chief rabbis. "Of particular concern is the revival of Nazi ideas," Putin told the delegation of rabbis, which... Full story
Damage from Gaza rocket cuts power to 70,000 in strip JERUSALEM (JTA)—A rocket fired from Gaza damaged power lines in Israel that resulted in the loss of power to 70,000 Palestinians in the coastal strip. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Infrastructure Minister Silvan Shalom instructed the Israel Electric Company not to endanger its employees by repairing the lines from Sunday night’s outage while the threat of rocket attacks from Gaza remains. The lines were knocked down at Kissufim, near the Gaza border. “The power company plans... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)-Escalations between Hamas and Israel are nothing new. What's missing this time, analysts say, is the alignment of outside interests that has resolved such fights in the past. Egypt's government lacks the influence over Hamas of its predecessors and the United States is in hand-washing mode on the Middle East, said Ami Ayalon, a former chief of the Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service. "In the past, Egyptians could play a major role and America had an interest" in... Full story
MODIIN, Israel (JTA)-They were their mothers' sons. They were all of our sons. They were dear boys. They were martyrs for Israel. They were funny, clever, creative. They are the messengers of the Jewish people in heaven. The joint funeral Tuesday of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach provided a capstone to a harrowing ordeal that over 18 days united Israelis in hope and prayer. When the teens were found dead Monday night, their bodies lying half exposed in a field near Hebron, the... Full story
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched "Operation Protective Edge" in Gaza after at least 80 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel on Monday night. Above Netivot and Ashdod, the Iron Dome missile defense system shot down 12 rockets. In Ashdod, residents fled for shelter as rocket sirens sounded throughout the city, and eight people were injured. Beersheba-Israel's largest southern city-and Ofakim were also subjected to Gaza rocket fire, with most of those rockets either striking open... Full story
Emerging from the chaos of the Syrian civil war, the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terrorist group has gained the world’s attention for its brutal medieval-style Islamic justice and its swift victories in Iraq, threatening to overrun the weak U.S.-backed government there. But now ISIS is also setting its sights on Jordan, threatening to drag Israel into the global jihadist conflict. “They are a vicious and brutal group, and have even done some things that al-Qaeda thought were unwise,” Elliot Abrams, who served as deputy natio... Full story
NEW YORK (JTA) - What does a fervent religious movement do after the death of its singular leader? That was the existential question the Chabad-Lubavitch movement faced 20 years ago this week when its charismatic rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, died with no heir. Amid the grief and turbulence following his 1994 death, many believed Chabad would be torn apart by those who believed it should proclaim its departed rebbe as the messiah and those who didn't, or that the messianists would doom the... Full story
By Linda Gradstein The Media Line JERUSALEM—Three of the six young Israelis who were arrested for the murder of 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir have confessed to the killing and have cooperated in a reenactment for police in the Jerusalem forest where the body was found. The murder has sparked outrage in Israel, both because of the brutality of the act — Abu Khdeir was reportedly burned to death — and because, according to media reports, the killers are ultra-Orthodox Jews. “The hand that did this murder is impure,” Rabbi Benny Lau... Full story
JNS.org– The full recording of the emergency call made by one of the kidnapped Israeli teens was released on July 2. On the recording, the murderers can be heard singing in celebration in Arabic, saying “Three!” after gunshots that presumably killed the teens were fired. The 2-minute, 9-second recording was published on the Ynet website. On Tuesday, the first 49 seconds of the call were released by Israeli police. In that portion of the call, a voice, identified as Gilad Shaar by his father, Ofir, says in a whispering voice to police, “They... Full story
