Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — My son led Birkat Hamazon, the blessing after a meal, for the first time this summer at the Conservative movement’s Ramah summer camp in Wisconsin. This was a breakthrough—and not because 10 years ago, when he was 15 and knee-deep into Nietzsche, Nathaniel was an adamant atheist. The camp’s Atzmayim vocational program has guided Nathaniel, who is on the autism spectrum, into a role of public leadership. (Atzmayim is Hebrew for “independent.”) The program is an extension of Ramah’s storied Tikvah inclusion program. It pairs neurodi...
Almost 50 years ago the movie “Network” (1976) was released. The film is best known for the anchorman rant scene that features Howard Beale’s: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” But it is also known for another dramatic scene, a five-minute oratory by a man named Arthur Jensen (chairman of the conglomerate that owns the network) who convinces the same Howard Beale “the world is a business.” That concept was introduced to Beale because he had earlier caused a hysteria among the American public that was responsible f...
(JNS) — A strange thing happened in the middle of the night on Monday: the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved one of the most acrobatic, contradictory resolutions in its long history. It envisions an International Stabilization Force marching into Gaza to rebuild “civil order,” control the borders, dismantle Hamas’s military infrastructure and—almost as an afterthought—lay down “a path toward a Palestinian state.” As always, the conditions are buried in diplomatic language. First, Hamas must complete the handover of the...
Here is an amazing set of iconic and ironic events! Israel essentially defeats its Muslim enemies on seven military fronts after the unprovoked barbaric attacks of Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli Mossad obliterates 90 percent of Hezbollah leadership by distributing pagers to its upper echelon which simultaneously explode in their hands, killing and maiming thousands and humiliating the survivors. The Israeli Air Force decimates Iran’s air defenses and missile launches allowing American B-2 bombers to invade Iranian airspace unhindered to deliver BGU-...
(JNS) — I’ve often wondered what we can learn from the stories of ancient Jewish communities that have for years been besieged by cultural prejudice. How did they survive for centuries, in some cases, for millennia? What can we learn from their resilience? And, most importantly, how did they maintain a sense of community in the face of antisemitism? What customs and traditions helped them build that strength in times of difficulty? This November, one such community, the Beta Israel, will gather at the Armon Hanatziv Promenade above Jer...
Visiting the Collingwood art and street fair in September, my wife and I did not expect to find anti-Israel slogans stenciled into the sidewalks and an anti-Israel Defense Forces message chalked in front of the CWOOD sign in front of City Hall. It felt unnerving and out of place that the pitch of standard slogans rallying against Israel would be underfoot on this sunny day in downtown Collingwood, which calls itself “a progressive community” in Ontario, Canada, with not one person seeming to be bothered enough to question the message’s offen...
(JNS) — Israel’s greatest strength is not only its military resilience or technological success, but its insistence on building a democratic, lawful, moral society in a region where power often substitutes for principle and justice is too often replaced by vengeance. From the first days of its founding, the State of Israel has insisted that Jewish sovereignty must rest on a different foundation — one anchored in due process, accountable government, ethical national defense and a justice system that binds leaders and citizens alike, Jews and n...
(JNS) — “Start spreading the news. I’m leaving today . . .” Oh, sorry for the lyrical misdirection, but this version of the Frank Sinatra standard has the crooner fleeing New York! Hold onto those “vagabond shoes,” after all. Don’t jettison those “little-town blues,” just yet. New York might become the “city that doesn’t sleep” for more redoubtable reasons. A day may come when we might actually not “wake up” at all! Not a valentine, but a requiem for what was once the world’s cosmopolitan wonderland. After this past week’s mayoral election...
(JNS) — For decades, the Heritage Foundation championed honest, intelligent, pro-Israel conservatism. The Zionist Organization of America proudly participated in Heritage’s Project Esther to combat antisemitism. But things at Heritage have changed. In a recent, disgraceful video statement, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts defended, whitewashed and allied with Jew-hating, Israel-basher Tucker Carlson after he said Christian Zionists are “heretics” infected with a “brain virus” and spouted other shocking antisemitic libels, while fawni...
(JNS)— The Council on American-Islamic Relations presents itself as a benign civil-rights organization; however, behind this friendly facade lurks an extremist core. From its inception, CAIR has harbored alarming ties to jihadist groups like Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood—connections that reveal it as a wolf in sheep’s clothing and a threat to the American way of life. While CAIR denies supporting terrorism and touts its advocacy for Muslim Americans, evidence from courtrooms, investigations and even its own leaders’ words tells a darker...
(JNS) — The post-World War II halcyon days for the American Jewish community in the United States have ended. New York City, which has more Jews within its population than any place on earth outside of Israel, elected its first jihadist mayor. This has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that Zohran Mamdani is a Muslim. It has everything to do with the very words that have come out of his mouth. Two years ago, Mamdani said, “We have to make clear that when the boot of the NYPD is on your neck, it has been laced by the IDF,” a refer...
As I went on my nightly dog walk with a neighbor couple, the wife who is a dedicated fifth-grade teacher mentioned a troubling new problem at her school. She said the principal had told her of a new trend he was seeing — boys were being reported for threatening another with “I’ll shoot you,” not in play but with a tone that chilled her. It wasn’t roughhousing anymore, she said — it was an echo from somewhere darker. Her husband introduced a term I’d never heard before: stochastic terrorism. He said it described the way inflammatory words from p...
(JNS) — Anyone who has watched the news, scrolled through social media or spent time on an American college campus since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, knows the chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” To the Western ear, the English slogan is lyrical and emotive. But the version chanted in Arabic is a far different sentence with a far different intent. In Arabic, the line is closer to “Palestine will be Arab.” The two chants are not synonymous. Palestine will be Arab does not mean equa...
Just five days before the 87th anniversary of the two-day pogrom on German and Austrian Jews and Jewish communities, known as Kristallnacht (Nov. 9-10, 1938), an eerily familiar feeling is being felt by the American Jewish consciousness following the disturbing election of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as mayor-elect of New York City. This sentiment begs the question: What’s going to be with the Jews? The answer in 1938 was that the very people who had contributed for so many years to the advancement of Europe’s most enlightened soc...
Twenty-five months have passed since the barbaric Palestinian terrorist invasion from Gaza into Israel. These Hamas monsters and their popular supporters in an unprovoked attack brutally massacred 1,200 men, women, children and babies, with another 3,500 wounded. If that wasn’t evil enough, Hamas also took 251 hostages, both living and dead, to later ransom them for convicted Arab murderers who had been afforded due process under Israeli law and found guilty for their criminal acts. The Jewish people were among the first among civilizations w...
(JNS) — This series has explored the many fronts on which Israel has struggled since the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023; however, Israel has scored one clear and decisive victory—in Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank. This success is not the product of a single battle, but of Hamas’s failure, Israel’s foresight and the Israel Defense Forces’ quiet exploitation of an opportunity while the world’s attention was elsewhere—fixed on Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran. In the shadows of those wars, Israel has struck a...
(JNS) — In 1918, V.I. Lenin renamed the Bolshevik Party the Russian Communist Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying communism and the threat it posed to free nations. In 1920, the German Workers’ Party adopted a new name: the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Western scholars and policymakers soon began studying Nazism and the threat it posed to free nations. In 1928, Hassan al-Banna founded the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Western scholars and policymakers were uninterested, regar...
(JNS) — Former Fox News host and current political commentator Tucker Carlson recently said he “dislikes” Christian Zionists “more than anybody,” deeming their views un-Christian and inconsistent with Western civilization. He singled out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee as adherents to this “dangerous heresy,” but he might have added President Abraham Lincoln, who saw the restoration of Jews to their national home in Palestine as “a noble dream and one shared by many Americans.” After the Civil War, Lincol...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem Post recently reported that Congregation Shaare Zion, a large Orthodox synagogue serving the Syrian-Jewish community in Brooklyn, had taken an unprecedented step in the run-up to New York City’s mayoral election: Members and their spouses must show proof of voter registration before they can secure seats for the High Holidays. “In approximately two months, New York City will be electing its next mayor,” the synagogue’s executive committee wrote, “The outcome of this election could result in very serious problems th...
(JNS) — The old clichés no longer apply to the U.S.-Israel relationship. It’s time to stop talking about the United States “acting in Israel’s interests” or claiming that “Netanyahu takes orders from Trump.” The relationship has moved beyond those outdated formulas. What we are witnessing now is a genuine alignment of interests—a partnership built not on dependence, but on shared purpose. Its name is peace. This evolving strategy is complex and long-term, requiring patience and a broader view of the regional transformation underway. Report...
(JNS) — The tuition crisis has been on the Jewish community’s agenda for many years. No silver bullet has delivered day school affordability to our families. Teach Coalition has worked together with community leaders, politicians and schools to bring relief in the form of additional government funding. We’ve achieved remarkable progress, but no silver bullet has appeared; until now. With the creation of the Federal Scholarship Program, we are on the cusp of a revolution in Jewish education, making it vastly more affordable and acces...
(JNS) — Former U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann is the only one brave enough to say what too many so-called “friends of Israel” in President Donald Trump’s camp won’t admit: the Gaza plan spearheaded by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff isn’t just flawed; it’s dangerously disconnected from reality. It risks halting Israel before it can finish the job and effectively rewards barbarism. There’s no question that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are working on something historic—a transformative vision for the Middle East. A new econo...
(JNS) — Since Israel’s founding, one assumption guided its leaders: that America would always stand as the ultimate guarantor of its security. From Truman’s recognition in 1948 to Kennedy’s arms deals and Reagan’s intelligence coordination, this belief became almost sacred. Even moments of tension—such as Eisenhower’s rebuke after Suez or Obama’s Iran deal—were seen as temporary storms in a permanent alliance. By 2025, that illusion was fractured. The world has changed: Washington’s focus drifts between Asia and domestic politics, while Isr...
To the Jewish community of Central Florida: Where were you during the last two years of terror of the Israeli community? There were no rallies showing support for Israel, there were no fundraisers to financially support Israel, there were no parlor meetings (that I was aware of). Basically, nothing done as a community as in the past. As an Orlando resident for 83 years, I cannot ever remember when there was such a lack of open support for Israel by the Greater Orlando Jewish Community — no rallies, no fundraisers, no community action, nada. M...
(JNS) — Hundreds of thousands gathered in Jerusalem for what some called “Prayer for Shalom HaMedina” (Prayer for the Peace/Welfare of the State of Israel), representing a broad, unified front of the ultra-Orthodox (Haredi), traditional and Religious Zionist communities. The massive demonstration, characterized by prayer only with no speeches, is a powerful expression of concern over recent arrests of Torah students and, more broadly, a perceived assault by progressive, left-wing forces on the nation’s traditional values and the role of the...
