Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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In the wake of Israel’s remarkable attack on nuclear facilities, military and other strategic targets, and leaders of the Islamic Republic regime in Iran, I have received many questions about the situation, informally from people on social media, and in a variety of media interviews. Allow me to share some important background and perspective. Before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran was a monarchy under the Pahlavi dynasty, with Reza Shah (1925–1941) remembered as a respected modernizer who fostered ties with nations like Israel and the Uni...
“America can’t do a damn thing against us,” Ayatollah Khomeini bragged while holding our hostages. The Carter administration had undermined the shah’s government in favor of the Islamists who seized power in 1979 and then prevented the Tehran embassy’s Marine guards from defending the facility and the people inside against the Muslim “student” groups who claimed to be coming in peace. The “peaceful” student activists took over our embassy and held our people hostage. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei taunted President Trump with the same slogan i...
Israel is a strong country because its home front endures impossible travails. Imagine going through years of running to public shelters, safe rooms, or, when caught in a car during an Iranian, Houthi, Hamas or Hezbollah rocket, missile or drone attack, getting out and lying flat on the ground, hands protecting head. Israel’s triumph last year over the vaunted Hezbollah—the most lethal weapon in the arsenal of the Islamic Republic of Iran—and its campaign against Iran dubbed “Operation Rising Lion,” will be remembered for generations as a bibl...
By Rabbi Steven Burg (JNS) — In the past few weeks, we have witnessed horrific acts of violence against American Jews, from the cold-blooded murder of Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., to the firebombing of peaceful marchers in Boulder, Colorado. These weren’t random acts. They were deliberate, targeted attacks fueled by hatred and antisemitism, which mainstream media have stoked for far too long. Even before Hamas’s horrific attack against Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, many mainstream media outlets and pundits throughout the world propa...
(JNS) — And so, once again, Israel is doing the heavy lifting for the rest of the world. It’s what Jews do. Israel’s pre-emptive and technically accomplished strike on Iran is the stuff of legend. Given how close Iran was to nuclear weaponry, Israel could wait no longer. Our tiny homeland is always under siege, always defamed, always endangered. It is also the bravest country on Earth. Israel is, truly, a miracle. How much is due to human genius, and how much does God play a hidden role? I really cannot say, but I began reciting psalms. The I...
By Jonathan Feldstein Overnight, literally 12 hours ago, Israel launched a bold, historic, and wildly successful military operation targeting Iran’s nuclear and military infrastructure, as well as eliminating key Iranian military and nuclear figures. The strike involved some 200 Israeli Air Force jets, along with sophisticated Mossad covert operations on the ground, and marks a pivotal moment in the long-standing shadow war between Israel and Iran. From both a military, and biblical-prophetic perspective, the operation carries profound i...
(JNS) — A Molotov cocktail attack on a group of Jewish rally-goers gathered in Boulder, Colo., was a stark reminder of the growing security threats facing Americans, particularly Jews. The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, is an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa in 2023. In response, U.S. President Donald Trump issued a new executive order that imposes travel restrictions on nationals from nearly 20 countries. In the order issued on June 4, Trump made his rationale clear: national security. He stated that he “must act to protect the nat...
(JNS) — In the wake of two major attacks on Jews in the past two weeks, I have seen appeals from the Jewish community calling on their non-Jewish neighbors to stand up and declare their outrage and solidarity. I understand the sentiment, but I believe that a more effective tactic at this point is not to urge people to stand up for my safety and well-being, but rather, to rise up for their own. Certainly, it would be nice if Americans en masse would voice their absolute intolerance for antisemitic violence, even if it did not impact them p...
(JNS) — Whatever happened to “Never Again?” Since the Holocaust, Jews have clung to this phrase as a talisman and a pledge. But “Never Again” has become “Not Again.” The Jewish community watches as violent extremists wage a war against our people, our culture and our homeland. Jewish bodies are littering our nation as pundits dither and pontificate away over definitions of terrorism and, ignoring the blood on the ground. It’s time to operationalize the phrase “Never Again.” Just days ago, at least eight Jewish victims lay on the ground, burn...
(JNS) — Tikkun Olam, the Jewish call to “repair the world,” has long inspired Jews to champion justice, defend the vulnerable and fight oppression. For much of the 20th century, that ethos naturally aligned with the Democratic Party, widely seen as the defender of civil rights and social progress. Jewish activists stood at the forefront of labor movements, civil-rights marches and anti-apartheid campaigns, believing that liberalism and Jewish values were one and the same. But the political landscape has changed—and dangerously so. The Democra...
In keeping with Jewish tradition that makes no differentiation between those who are born Jews and those who become them, I rarely talk about being a convert. But in light of the antisemitic attacks in America over the last two weeks, and as we celebrated Shavuot, a holiday honoring a convert, I wanted to break that silence. My beit din — the rabbinic court that signed off on my conversion — was exactly 16 years minus a month ago. I completed my conversion after four years of study — because I’m nothing if not both thoughtful and stubbor...
(JNS) — Another week, another country recognizing a Palestinian state. In the past 12 months alone, Norway, Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, Armenia and Mexico have joined more than 140 others already recognizing Palestine. France may be next, as it plans with Saudi Arabia to cohost a United Nations summit on the topic of Palestinian statehood. But symbolic nods of recognition don’t help anyone. Is there any agreement on what the country of Palestine looks like? Who governs it? Where are its borders? And does it matter whether Israel is on board wit...
(JNS) — It has been nearly a week since two unarmed, innocent Israel supporters were gunned down in Washington, D.C., without cause or provocation. I have been waiting in the intervening days for some sign of remorse or regret from the pro-Palestinian camp here in America. Not simply the compulsory condemnation of unprovoked violence (though that itself may not be a given in these confounding times), but a full-throated reappraisal and disavowal of a movement that has proven itself to be very different from what it claimed to be. From the d...
(JNS) — A Rubicon has been crossed. As so often has happened to the Jewish people throughout history, the hateful words that have been delivered in academia, on the media and in town halls by certain politicians have resulted in violent atrocities on Jews in Washington, D.C., and in Boulder, Colo. Somehow, the words “From the river to the sea, Palestine should be free” have become an acceptable part of the American lexicon. Does anyone even stop to understand the meaning of those words? “Free” of whom? Of Jews? Of the entire State of Israel? T...
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — After spending 583 days as a hostage in Gaza, Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old American-Israeli citizen, was released. A moment of relief rippled through Gainesville, where some Jewish students say the moment brought a sense of healing and hope. Alexander’s release was part of an agreement organized by the U.S. and international leaders. At the University of Florida, home to one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country, students say the conflict between Israel and Hamas feels personal. “I waited so long for h...
(JNS) — In C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the Pevensie children are evacuated from London to a home in the English countryside to escape the Blitz. There, they discover a wardrobe that contains a portal into the magical and fictitious world of Narnia, a land where animals talk and there is no ambiguity between good and evil. In the end, the Christ-like figure of Aslan the Lion and his army, with the help of the children, defeat the evil White Witch who has brought perpetual winter to Narnia. Last week, evil passed through...
It’s taken a few days for the West to wake up and realize the significance of strikes that are taking place and widening throughout Iran, and to report on these. What’s needed now is for Western leaders to take action that capitalizes on these strikes and empowers the Iranian people to replace the evil Islamic Republic regime which has threatened them and the world, causing immeasurable pain, suffering, trauma, and death for nearly five decades. Massive national strikes are taking place specifically among truck drivers and bakers, so far, thing...
(JNS) — This has not been a good week for the State of Israel or the Jewish people. Sarah Milgrim, 26, and Yaron Lischinsky, 30, two young, promising members of the staff of the Israeli embassy, were brutally murdered as they were leaving a reception at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. This sort of abominable antisemitic atrocity is what occurs when America’s young people are constantly indoctrinated by academics of the “woke” far left and the highly biased left-wing media. Our educational institutions have been fortified by imme...
(JNS) — Why is Palestine still not an independent state? The conventional answer normally begins and ends with Israel and its “occupation,” presumably denying Palestinians their lands and their right to self-determination. Columbia University professor and Palestinian American Edward Said’s famous words that Zionism should be judged from the standpoint of its victims continues to possess cultural authority even if they contradict the historical record. Zionism always endorsed a policy built around the idea of sharing the land. For almost...
(JNS) — Despite being one of the worst foreign-policy decisions in the history of the United States, the “wisdom” of the 2015 nuclear deal is embraced as an article of faith by Democrats. Some see the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as genius simply because it was President Barack Obama’s idea. Others support it because they missed the day in school when their history teacher taught how the policy of appeasement led to the ravages of World War II. A third group, radical progressives, support it because they are inherently antisem...
(JNS) — The May 21 terror attack in Washington, D.C., where two Israeli embassy staffers planning to get married were shot and killed outside the Capital Jewish Museum is more than a national tragedy. It is a harbinger. The murder of Yaron Lischinsky, 30, and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, 26, allegedly committed by Elias Rodriguez while shouting “Free, free Palestine,” is not only an act of terrorism; it is a symptom of a far more dangerous climate of normalized antisemitism in the United States. You would have to be intentionally wearing blinders not t...
(JNS) — Jews often say, “We have to take care of Eretz Yisrael,” the Land of Israel. It sounds noble to some, and it might even sound responsible. But to me, “have to” sounds like the teenager who “has to” clean their room or take out the trash. It’s a duty. A chore. For many Jews today, especially in the Diaspora, that’s exactly what supporting Israel has become: a burden. Contrast that with what I’ve heard from many non-Jews, particularly Evangelical Christians, who say with joy, “We get to take care of Israel.” They see it as a privilege....
(Israel National News, Arutz 7 via JNS) — One of the problems today is convincing too many oblivious people to support the United States, free Western societies and the State of Israel, instead of supporting Hamas terrorists and other anti-American, anti-free-world entities. It sounds bizarre, but unfortunately, we deal with this unbelievable problem every day. It was instigated by nefarious domestic and foreign actors who invested billions of dollars over many years to brainwash people from all walks of life. We should find ways to share w...
(JNS) — In his inaugural address, Pope Leo XIV expressed concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence, warning that it could undermine human dignity and replace human conscience with algorithms. The pope’s discomfort with AI resonates with a long history of the Catholic Church confronting transformative technologies that challenge its authority and influence. While non-Catholics have no place critiquing Vatican policy, Christian-Jewish relations have been impacted by its responses to major shifts. It thus behooves us to review those piv...
Dear Mr. President, You are about to make a decision for which you will be remembered by history. Your legacy will either be as a world leader who saved, or failed to save, many lives. The decision concerns Iran’s intention to develop a nuclear arsenal. There can be no reasonable doubt that Iran’s mullahs are determined to obtain nuclear weapons, despite their assurances to the contrary. Nor can Israel, which is the intended target of an Iranian bomb, be expected to rely on deterrence or containment. Iran must be prevented from achieving the...
