Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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My mother used to tell a story about how when she was in college, she believed that she had a professor who liked her so much that her papers were never checked but just given an “A” automatically. Of course, that’s a better problem than a teacher automatically failing a student without looking at their work, but it bothered her all the same. To prove it, one day she submitted a paper having inserted a full type-written page from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland” in the middle. The teacher didn’t look, and my mother got an A. I learned from...
Recently, Hamas released horrific videos depicting two Israeli hostages, Evytar David and Rom Braslavski, who have now been held in captivity in inhuman conditions for more than 670 days. One particularly harrowing video shows David, visibly emaciated, being forced to dig what appears to be his own grave in a Hamas tunnel beneath Gaza. These images evoke painful historical parallels to the Holocaust and the brutal conditions of Nazi concentration camps. Jews were rounded up throughout Europe and forced to dig their own graves before they were...
(JNS) — As reports grow more harrowing of Israeli hostages starved, emaciated and forced to dig their own graves, the painful truth must be confronted: The “Bring Them Home Now” campaign has not only failed to free our people; it has served to entrench their suffering. What began as a unifying cry of anguish transformed into a moral and strategic disaster. The campaign’s well-intentioned, emotionally driven message quickly lost sight of the enemy — Hamas — and turned its fury inward, at the Israeli government. By doing so, it handed Hama...
(JNS) — Following the decision in late May 2024, when Spain, Ireland and Norway formally recognized a Palestinian state in “an attempt to refocus attention on efforts to find a political solution to the war in the Middle East,” more countries have recently joined the bandwagon. French President Emmanuel Macron has declared so, but he is waiting for the U.N. Security Council in September. France will be “true to its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.” Likewise, Britain’s Prime Minister, Keith Starmer, co...
(JNS) — Let’s be honest: Benjamin Netanyahu is not everyone’s favorite politician. That’s fair. Debate over policy, leadership and politics is healthy in any democracy, including Israel’s. But there comes a point in times of war when internal disagreements must be set aside. Because this war is not about Bibi. It is about Israel’s survival. And the Jewish people, especially American Jews, must not let personality distract from principle. Since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, Israel has faced a military, moral and psychologic...
Until a few years ago Princeton, N.J. was the place I spent the longest part of my life. Since 2004, I have lived in Israel, but Princeton is my legal U.S. address from which I and my family file taxes, vote, and to which we get notices for jury duty. Princeton is in the New Jersey 12th district, represented by Congresswoman Bonnie Watson-Coleman. I receive her monthly updates about issues that she cares about, and how she’s allocating federal dollars to projects in the district. I don’t know a lot about a lot of things, but I do know a lot...
(JNS) — A father and his six-year-old son were recently assaulted at a rest stop near Milan for the crime of wearing kippot. In today’s Europe, sadly, there’s little shocking about such incidents anymore. Nor is it surprising to see French President Emmanuel Macron leading a diplomatic charge to recognize a Palestinian state, rallying the usual bloc of Norway, Spain, Ireland, Slovenia and lobbying Saudi Arabia to add gravitas. What’s more, 34 former Italian ambassadors — some still holding influential posts — have urged Italy’s Prime Minister G...
This past Monday and Tuesday, July 28-29, 2025 a large number of United Nations member-states met in New York at the invitation of France and Saudi Arabia to try to revive the now discredited and diplomatically dead ”Two-State Solution.” The “Two-State Solution” has been the diplomatic mantra of world diplomacy, for many decades since the founding of the State of Israel, and was taken seriously by a large majority of the international community including some Israelis and misguided Jews in the Diaspora. In light of the continuing terrori...
(JNS) — In the first century, the Roman poet Juvenal disliked Jews. Besides circumcising themselves, he wrote, in the 14th chapter of his Satires, that they “revere the Sabbath … treating every seventh day as a day of idleness, separate from the rest of daily life.” They were, well, lazy. Marx, in his 1843 critique of Bernard Bauer, suggested that “the basis of the Jewish religion? Practical need, egoism. … Money is the jealous god of Israel. … The bill of exchange is the real god of the Jew.” Hating Jews for economic reasons seeks to tarnis...
(JNS) — The global information that we have today is overwhelming, but unfortunately, too many people in the free world and elsewhere are living in a fantasy of wishful thinking, not realizing that their own future is in danger. Let us look at a few critical points to help us identify some current trends and address them: 1. Turkey, led by the Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is working hard on expanding its control over the Middle East and beyond, by killing Kurds, infiltrating Syria, trying to build strongholds in Jerusale...
(JNS) — In the midst of one of the most painful and complex military operations that Israel has ever known, while the families of the hostages wait in anguish for the return of their loved ones being tortured in Hamas’s tunnels and as a humanitarian tragedy unfolds in the Gaza Strip, it is vital to look reality in the eye and ask honestly: Who is responsible for what is happening? This conflict was not sought by Israel. On the contrary, just as regional initiatives of hope and reconciliation were beginning to take shape, including serious pro...
(JNS) — Over the past few days, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish feeling has been ratcheted up into an absolute frenzy. Every few hours seems to bring a fresh outrage. In London, a prominent Jewish broadcaster was chased down the street by a man screaming “fascist Zionist scum.” A woman dining at a Jewish restaurant in the city was asked if she was a Jew and then had food thrown over her. On the Greek island of Rhodes, a mob armed with knives attacked a group of Jewish teenagers. About 50 French Jewish children, returning from a summer camp in Sp...
(JNS) — The war in Gaza has been going on for more than 650 days, and for all this time, Israeli hostages have been held by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in tunnels spanning the coastal enclave. The objectives that the Israeli government laid out for victory at the beginning of the war have not been fully met. Fifty hostages, 20 of whom are believed to be alive and the rest murdered by Hamas, remain in captivity. Hamas is still on its feet, despite 15,000 dead and many more wounded. And despite losing its top commanders and p...
(JNS) — More than 300 people recently crowded into the Whitestone Republican Club in Queens, N.Y., to hear Republican politicians endorse Curtis Sliwa to be the next mayor of New York City. I was one of them, curious to learn more about the Republican candidate in the most consequential election in the city’s history. On its website, the first stated mission of the Whitestone Club affirms America to be “the greatest country in the history of the world.” It is followed by a pledge to the “three pillars of our system: individual rights, f...
(JNS) — While humanitarian aid drops from the sky, hundreds of trucks carrying the same supplies sit idle at the Gaza border. The failure is not logistical — it is political and moral. Efforts to divide the Gaza Strip into humanitarian zones have collapsed. The so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is nonfunctional. The United Nations is absent. UNRWA, rather than assist, has reportedly blocked aid entry for fear of upsetting Hamas. Why? Because Hamas insists on controlling all food distribution. Aid must go through its hands, not for the ben...
Gabe Friedman in his Heritage article July 11, 2025, “What Zohran Mamdani has actually said about Jews and Israel,” quotes New York mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani as having “no problem” with Israel’s right to exist. But readers deserve more than assurances. They need to know what Mamdani actually said — and what he deliberately left out. Similarly, Mamdani gives rhetorical cover to the slogan “From the River to the Sea.” While Mamdani says he doesn’t personally use the phrase, he has refused to condemn it, defending it instead as a “des...
(JNS) — The New York Times should consider adopting the Jerusalem cross as its new logo to represent its crusade against Israel and the Jewish people. With a steady stream of slanted reporting and a roster of columnists united by their hostility to Israel (with the lone exception of columnist Bret Stephens), the Times has transformed itself from a paper of record into a platform for moral inversion. Here’s the journalistic trick for looking credible while advancing a political agenda: Choose sources that support your point of view. It is par...
If you’re not watching developments unfolding in Syria with the Druze and Israel’s response, you should. You should also ask why you’re not seeing reports of these. One reason you may not be hearing about this is because it’s a situation of Arabs massacring other Arabs (though albeit Arabic speakers or Moslems slaughtering other Moslems and other minorities, though Druze do not consider themselves Arab or Moslem), which is “normal” and widespread throughout history. You’re not hearing about this because the Jews and Israel not only not be b...
(JNS) — When we speak of Israel’s diverse society, the spotlight often falls on its Jewish majority. But among the most steadfast pillars of the Israeli mosaic is the Druze community — a tiny, secretive offshoot of Islam whose loyalty to the state has become a model of shared citizenship. Roughly 140,000 Druze live in Israel, primarily in villages across the Galilee and on Mount Carmel. Unlike other Arab citizens, Druze men are subject to mandatory military conscription in the Israel Defense Forces and often volunteer for combat roles. They...
By David E. Bernstein, David L. Bernstein (JNS) — The Hamas-led massacre in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, horrified the Jewish world. For many American Jews, it felt personal. What followed on American college campuses further shocked American Jews. Rather than mourning or condemning Hamas’s atrocities, many individuals and student groups celebrated them, excused them or blamed Israel. Chants of “globalize the intifada” and “from the river to the sea” spread across universities. Students praised “martyrs” and justified violence. Some mocked or denie...
(JNS) — By any historical measure, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Donald Trump are reshaping the world. Their alliance has helped deter global catastrophe. The two leaders worked in close coordination to counter Iran’s nuclear ambitions and reshape the Middle East. Their partnership began before the 2020 Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and several Muslim-majority states. In June, that alliance deepened when Trump authorized a decisive U.S. strike on Iran’s underground nuclear facil...
(JNS) — Lebanese President Joseph Aoun declared on July 11, “Lebanon does not intend to pursue normalization with Israel,” though he left open the idea of “peace” as merely an absence of war. This ambiguous stance reflects Lebanon’s long-standing refusal to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate regional partner, despite shifting regional dynamics and significant recent Israeli military successes. Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its relationship with Lebanon has been marred by conflict, including major wars in 1978, 1982 and 2006. While Israeli...
(JNS) — There may be no more damning indictment of higher education’s moral collapse than its willingness to accept vast sums of money from authoritarian regimes and terror sponsors. For all their lofty rhetoric about social justice, human rights, free speech and academic freedom, universities are proving that their true allegiance is to cash. Georgetown University, one of the nation’s most prestigious Jesuit institutions, is a glaring case in point. Georgetown proclaims its mission is to promote justice, compassion and the common good. Yet i...
(JNS) — Zionism is the unwavering support for a Jewish state in its ancestral homeland. It is the recognition that, as the indigenous people of Israel, Jews have the right to live in peace and security without denying the rights of others. It is not about exclusion. It’s about survival, dignity and self-determination after thousands of years of persecution and exile. Every few years, the World Zionist Congress, the legislative body for the World Zionist Organization, gives Jewish communities worldwide the power to choose their rep...
(JNS) — There are many unknowns in the aftermath of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran, but one thing is certain: It will spark renewed calls for that long-cherished diplomatic mirage of a two-state solution. It already has. Forgive me if I respond to calls for Palestinian statehood with profound skepticism, if not outright disbelief. It’s not just that the Hamas-led terror attacks on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and the broad support it received among Palestinians, has deepened Israelis distrust of Palestinians (assuming that was even possi...
