Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — Without detracting in the least from the considerable merits of the far-reaching military operation currently being carried out in Iran by the joint forces of the United States and Israel, it must be said that if these incredible efforts and incomparable successes in the field are not ultimately crowned with regime change—with the absolute toppling of the Islamic Republic and its replacement by a moderate, friendly state—much of what has been accomplished to date will have been in vain. In fact, it may well come back to smack us in th...
(JNS)— On the morning of the outbreak of “Operation Roaring Lion,” which also fell on the Torah portion Zachor (“Remember”), I once again found myself exchanging my Shabbat clothes for a military uniform. As a reservist soldier in the Israel Defense Forces and the CEO of AFJS: American Friends of Judea and Samaria, an organization working to strengthen the bond between friends of Israel in the United States, and Judea and Samaria, the transition from national mission to operational duty was sharp and unmistakable. It represented a united We...
How would you define the word “holy?” It’s not “religious,” nor is it “spiritual.” I actually prefer the word “distinctive.” You see, one doesn’t have to be otherworldly to be holy. Take money, for example. It’s greasy, often corrupt, the ultimate expression of materialism. But give it to a pauper, and you’ve sanctified it. Last week in Vayakhel—the first of two portions read last Shabbat—the Mishkan, or sanctuary built in the wilderness, was finished. The people had contributed all the various materials necessary, and the sanctuary was complet...
(JNS)— Iran stood at the peak of its power on Oct. 7, 2023. For decades, the Islamic Republic armed, trained and funded Hamas. On this day, the terrorist organization inflicted the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Hamas gunned down young concertgoers in an open field, dragged children dragged from their beds and massacred residents in 21 communities dotting southern Israel. Hamas murdered more than 1,200 innocent men, women and children—some burned alive or beheaded—including 46 Americans. Another 251 were taken hostage, 85 ne...
“No president was willing to do what I am willing to do tonight,” boasted U.S. President Donald Trump, speaking to the people of Iran shortly after unleashing a joint attack that may have finally ended the theocratic nightmare that has been their miserable fate since 1979. He was right: For nearly half a century, the Iranian clerics who ruled the country with its morality police and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps did everything imaginable to deserve the retaliatory fury of the United States. Yet aside from last summer’s 12-day war, which...
(JNS) — Australia is an open, tolerant democracy and that is worth defending. But openness should never mean blindness. Currently in the country, events are being organized to honor the memory of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 86-year-old theocratic dictator slain on Feb. 28 in the joint U.S.-Israel war on Iran, who ruled the Islamic Republic for nearly four decades through one of the most repressive regimes in the modern world. The disturbing part is not only that these memorials are being planned. It is that they are proceeding openly, including...
(JNS) — Congressional critics of the war with Iran are not in short supply. Their statements and social-media posts read as if they come from the same song sheet. No surprise there. These voices are marching in lockstep on the applicability of the War Powers Act, breaches of “international law” and “illegal regime change.” And there is no question that party politics play a role in all of this. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) decried the attack on Iran that occurred during Ramadan, saying, “I am convinced it isn’t what these countries [Iran now and...
Iran’s evil regime has been fomenting terror and instability in the region and far beyond almost since its inception in 1979. Trampling human rights is its bread and butter. The ayatollahs who lead it have harnessed Iran’s resources to destroy Israel and advance a messianic religious vision. That is why dealing it a lethal blow is the right and moral thing to do. In moments like these, the shameful hypocrisy of some leaders of the American and European left is plainly exposed. Instead of joining the fight against evil, they condemn Israel and...
(JNS) — There is a war going on in Israel. Iran is launching barrages of ballistic missiles at targets all over Israel, particularly at night, to keep them exhausted. The country is locked down in a state of siege. No one can leave their homes to do anything that will bring them more than a few minutes away from a shelter. Everyone there, whether they admit it or not, is terrified of the dangers they face. And yet I desperately want to be in Israel now. Here is why. I am a strong advocate for Israel and a huge supporter of the war we are w...
The United States, Israel, and Qatar have now attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran along with several other countries providing defensive coordination. News across the U.S. has been about the success of the military operation, congressional approval or lack thereof, the cost of the war in gross numbers and to Americans individually, and whether this war is justified. As an Iranian-born American who was arrested and sentenced to death by hanging because of my faith in Jesus, let me assure you it is not only justified but necessary. I spent...
(JNS) — There is a great deal of anger swirling around California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s description of Israel “as sort of an apartheid state.” That anger is entirely justified. The smear that Israel has duplicated the cruel Jim Crow-style segregation in the U.S. South that prevailed in South Africa for most of the previous century was originated at the height of the Cold War by the Soviet Union, as an ideological justification for both its alignment with Israel’s Arab enemies and its persecution of its domestic Jewish population. But rather lo...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump has done much to stabilize the Middle East and support Israel, but as during the Iran-Israel 12-day war in June 2025, it is imperative that Israel should once again do this operation as much alone as it can. Not only should it initiate and go first, but it must also remain the heavy-lifter and guide this through. In retrospect, one can argue that it would have been better last summer to avoid having “Operation Rising Lion” become “Operation Midnight Hammer,” although managing American pressure to intervene...
(JNS) — Harvard, Penn and other “elite” universities were Patient Zero for the recent resurgent contagion of Jew-hatred. What should be done on other campuses where such pathogens have yet to spread? We are higher-education leaders in Texas who have lessons to share in this context. We served together as regents of Texas Southern University, a Historically Black College and University in Houston’s historic Third Ward. Our student-focused approach centers on economic mobility, international experience and interfaith outreach. Our experie...
(JNS) — Hats off to Mike Huckabee, U.S. ambassador to Israel! With elegant professionalism, he tolerated a two-hour-plus hostile interview by conservative political commentator and podcaster Tucker Carlson. Simply, the former governor of Arkansas endured a torturous assault of loaded questions bordering on “blood libel.” Carlson’s inquiries were framed as variants of the infamous, “Do you still beat your wife?” They were complex questions based on false, malevolent assumptions. It was a “gotcha” for the unsophisticated recipient—a dis...
Just a few months after I was born in Iran, the Islamic (Demonic) Revolution took place, hijacking the country of my birth and, today 90 million Iranians, giving birth to the Islamic Republic. Make no mistake, the Islamic Republic was conceived by evil, born in sin, and against the United States to the core of its DNA. Anyone who thinks that a war against the Islamic Republic and the ayatollahs is wrong, does not know the history and does not understand the dangerous threats that it poses to all Americans. At its inception, the Islamic...
(JNS) — Zionophobia is a term people should get used to using. It deserves to be amplified far and wide. According to Wiktionary, “Zionophobia means hostility toward Zionism or people who identify as Zionists, often extending into prejudice against Jews when Zionism is treated as an inherent Jewish trait.” Judea Pearl, a computer scientist (and father of Daniel Pearl, employed by The Wall Street Journal, who was murdered by Al-Qaeda in 2002), has been trying to spread the word about this language change—and it is indeed worth spreadi...
(JNS) — On July 20, 2023, Zohran Mamdani, then a state assemblyman, led supporters at a rally promoting his “Not on Our Dime” campaign, repeatedly invoking a single word, “exception,” asking, “Who is ready to end the exception? … If New York State stands for justice, there can be no exception!” He framed his argument as a moral absolute—fairness without carve-outs, public policy without favored beneficiaries. Absolutist rhetoric invites scrutiny. When a politician insists there can be “no exception,” voters are entitled to examine whether th...
(JNS) — A constitution is the moment a national movement decides what it will leave behind—and what it intends to carry forward. When a national movement publishes a draft constitution, it is making a statement not only about governance but about its future intentions. It is saying: This is who we are. This is what we aspire to become. This is how we intend to live with others. The newly released draft constitution of the “State of Palestine” does many things. It speaks the language of rights. It promises democratic institutions. It describ...
(JNS) — The press contact person for the group Jews for Racial Equality and Justice released a position statement on Feb. 9 that included the joint agreement of the American Council for Judaism, the Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and IfNotNow NYC. Sophie Ellman-Golan, “a committed activist working on issues of racial and gender justice, queer liberation and police violence” and “is a proud member of the #JewishResistance,” informed the media that they are urging New York’s City Council to reject “anti-democratic buffer zone bills” that p...
(JNS) — As the United States and Israel move closer to action in Iran, which is needed to make the world a safer place, they must cooperate more closely than ever before. Thankfully, the U.S. ambassador to Israel is a closer friend to the Jewish state than anyone who has ever been in the very sensitive role. Mike Huckabee recently told a delegation of more than 200 American lawmakers that Israel is akin to the “wife” of the United States. “If you came to my house tonight for dinner, and you came in and said, ‘Oh, Mike, we like you. We really...
(JNS) — When I was a kid, I remember always wondering why all the older people around us were forever using the Yiddish catchphrase Abi Gezunt—“as long as we have our health.” In my youth, I never understood why they kept saying that. Why was gezunt (good health) such a problem for them? When youngsters, our biggest health issues were the occasional winter cold or a bruised knee on the baseball field. What were all these people going on about, I wondered. Well, my friends, what should I tell you? All I can say is I wonder no more. Becomin...
(JNS) — Antisemitism, an enduring scourge that has plagued humanity for centuries, has resurged in recent years, challenging the assumption that the Holocaust fundamentally transformed attitudes toward Jews. For roughly three-quarters of a century after World War II, antisemitism was pushed to the margins of public life. Expressions of hatred were widely condemned and considered socially unacceptable. Today, that restraint is eroding. We are witnessing a troubling return of open hostility toward Jews, one that threatens the foundations of d...
Dear NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: In light of Spike Lee’s antisemitic attire at the NBA and the NBA’s failure to follow their own Fan Code of Conduct in this incident, I am writing this open letter to you about the NBA’s failure to follow your own fan code of conduct and choice to be silent in the face of blatant Jew hatred at your 2026 NBA All Star Game. Your league’s code of fan conduct states, “The National Basketball Association seeks to foster a safe, comfortable, and enjoyable sports and entertainment experience in which: Obscene o...
(JNS) — America’s classrooms are under siege. Not from budget cuts or test scores, but from an ideology that undermines our very foundations of liberty, equality and mutual respect. A new White Paper by the North American Values Institute titled “When the Classroom Turns Hostile” lays out the case in unmistakable terms: what’s happening in K-12 education is not a series of isolated incidents, but a systemic crisis that is robbing our children, especially Jewish children, of a safe, honest and empowering education. The battle for the minds of...
(JNS) — The proliferation of semi-autonomous Muslim majority communities in Western Europe applying aspects of “Sharia,” Islamic law jurisdiction, has alerted some U.S. lawmakers to this same developing phenomenon in America. During a Feb. 10 hearing titled “Sharia-Free America: Why Political Islam and Sharia Law Are Incompatible with the U.S. Constitution,” the U.S. House Subcommittee on the Constitution will examine evidence about the potential threat that Sharia poses to the basic freedoms underpinning our constitutional republic. Sharia is...
