Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — As the father of a terror victim, as a Zionist and as an Israeli citizen, I quake with the report of every missile strike or terror attack against the Jewish state. That is not a figure of speech. It is not political theater. It is the involuntary reaction of someone who knows what a phone call can mean, what a headline can hide, and how quickly an ordinary day can become the day that divides a family’s life into before and after. The targets are always civilians. They are people going about their lives, trying to make a shekel, wai...
(JNS) — This week, Jewish communities around the world mark the anniversary of the passing of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, known as the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Escaping Europe and arriving in America during World War II, the Rebbe knew well where silence leads. His father died in exile for daring to defend religious liberty under communism. The Rebbe taught the world to lead with light—to fight hatred by speaking out against injustice wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head. Today, that ancient poison of global antisemitism strikes wit...
(JNS) — In my media interviews, I am often asked: “Has Israel become the 51st state of the U.S.?” With half a smile, I answer: “If only. American states have far more freedom and room to maneuver than Israel does.” This situation is hardly new. Ever since U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded that Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion halt the Israel Defense Forces’ campaign against Egypt in Sinai in 1956, and later withdraw from Gaza, the United States has consistently forced Israel to stop fighting and agree to a ceasefire....
(JNS) — The IDF’s top brass is convinced that Hezbollah is a semi-dismantled organization that has suffered the hardest blow in its history. It had 30,000 fighters on Oct. 6, 2023; since then, 8,000 have been killed and about the same number wounded. “Even a jihadist enemy is dying for a ceasefire.” The chief of staff, for example, said in closed discussions that he is in favor, under the following conditions: One, Hezbollah’s withdrawal beyond the Litani River. Two, the destruction of all its infrastructure, this time not by the impotent...
Sometimes it is exhausting reading all the lies that people say about Israel. It is true that if you tell a lie long enough people will believe it. This is why we must address all the lies that people — students, professors, congressmen, neighbors — hear and grasp hold of. Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun wrote in his editorial this week, “The Rebbe taught the world to lead with light—to fight hatred by speaking out against injustice wherever and whenever it rears its ugly head.” I would add to that to also lead with truth — not just speak out against inju...
It’s not easy writing and editing dictionaries. As the world changes so does the vernacular. Besides introducing new words that come along, there is a core responsibility of the lexicographer to revise existing words that have taken on new or expanded meanings. The profession certainly must have its challenges. Take the word “ceasefire.” We can all agree that it means a temporary pause in hostilities between warring factions. Yet, for quite some time, the president — a high-profile influencer because of his communication skills and bully p...
(JNS) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland recently wrote an op-ed in The New York Times urging Democrats to abandon what he called their “reflexive and unconditional support” for Israel. The irony is hard to miss. At the very moment the senator was lamenting America’s supposed unwillingness to pressure Israel, U.S. President Donald Trump was publicly treating Israel less like an ally than a dependent client state—telling Jerusalem to jump while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was left asking, “How high?” Van Hollen’s argument rests on...
(JNS) — There was a time, long ago, back in the drug-addled days of Woodstock, when tie-dyed shirts were formal wear, and hair was both a Broadway musical and a countercultural trademark. During those days, the progressive left—known colloquially at the time as “hippies”—knew their proper place, rarely overstepping. Sure, they made their politics known. And, yes, many wished to change the world by urging to “give peace a chance.” But their groove remained mainly local and cultural. International affairs were largely left to the squares in suits...
(JNS) — From the start of the war with Iran, it was clear that the stakes couldn’t have been higher. If the United States and Israel were to succeed in neutralizing the Iranian regime, the outcome wouldn’t just have been the removal of a monstrous threat to Israel, the Iranian people and the world. It also would have reshaped global politics by tearing apart the web of evil spun by Russia, China and North Korea, at the center of which squatted the regime on which they all depended—the Islamic Republic of Iran. If, however, the United States...
(JNS) — Jewish Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice David Wecht jolted friends when he recently announced that he was leaving the Democratic Party, citing the group’s “acquiescence to Jew-hatred.” Wecht not only voted Democrat but was a decades-long activist who won two races for the Supreme Court as a Democrat. He noted that the party too often minimized, ignored or excused anti-Jewish rhetoric and incidents. What’s perhaps more surprising is that more American Jews haven’t reacted similarly to the party’s increasing disregard—and...
As the United States gears up to celebrate its 250th anniversary, I have watched with growing alarm as the freedoms we cherish have been systematically exploited by those who despise these very freedoms and use them to destroy America and American values. The chief offender of this systematic invasion is the Moslem Brotherhood. The “Brotherhood” motto declares “Allah is our objective; the Koran is our constitution; the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” It has been executing a decades...
Some readers may remember that U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North testified at televised congressional hearings on the Iran-Contra scandal in 1987. At one point, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) suggested that North speak for himself, admonishing his lawyer, Brendan Sullivan, for constantly objecting to questions posed to the colonel. “Well, sir,” Sullivan responded, “I’m not a potted plant. I’m here as the lawyer. That’s my job.” The line has endured because it captures something fundamental: People in positions of power are not decorative ...
I have been watching reports of negotiations between President Trump’s administration and the Islamic Republic of Iran with an anguish that is difficult to put into words. I want to believe that my president understands what he is dealing with. I want to believe that this time will be different. I want to believe that he understands what I know as the truth about the Islamic Republic: that you can never negotiate with them, and they will always lie and do anything to stay in power, and in control of more than 90 million Iranians. I have n...
(JNS) — Jewish American Heritage Month was celebrated by New York City’s Mayor Zohran Mamdani at a reception he hosted, with food supervised by Tarnopol Kashrus services, at Gracie Mansion on May 18. There were speeches galore. The mayor took advantage of the event to announce that he will be adding $26 million in funding to prevent hate crimes to his proposed 2027 fiscal year budget. Of course, many believe that if Mamdani had come out more strongly against anti-Jewish groups these past few months, such as those threatening and demonstrating o...
(JNS) — About 20 pro-Israel activists gathered last month for a dinner meeting in suburban Washington, D.C. A veteran Democratic congressman was our guest speaker. Though his district contains comparatively few Jews and not Jewish himself, he has been for decades a staunch supporter of close U.S.-Israel ties, backed the Soviet Jewry movement and promoted other issues dear to most Jewish voters. The representative expressed qualified optimism about November’s midterm elections. Though much can change, he said he expects the Democrats “to net a...
(JNS) — In his typically acerbic style of dry humor, comedian-pundit Bill Maher marked the 78th anniversary of Israel’s Declaration of Independence with a hard-hitting monologue that promptly went viral. During the closing segment of the May 15 episode of his eponymous HBO show “Real Time,” Maher stated that “everyone must either wish [the Jewish state] a happy birthday or admit they’re antisemitic.” He didn’t mention that Zohran Mamdani—who openly mourned the nakba, the “catastrophe” of Israel’s establishment in 1948—perfectly fits the...
(JNS) — Forty-seven years ago, the Islamic Republic of Iran vowed “Marg bar Amrika!,” “Death to America!” That declaration of war was followed by multiple acts of war from the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran to the orchestration of two bombings of Americans in Beirut in 1983 to the arming of Shia militias who killed more than 600 Americans in Iraq from 2003 to 2011 to numerous assassination and kidnapping plots. American attempts to end the war diplomatically failed. Five presidents vowed that Iran’s rulers would never be permitte...
In a May 10 interview on “60 Minutes,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained bitterly about social media: “We have seen the deterioration of the support for Israel in the United States almost—I would say, it correlates almost 100 percent with the geometric rise of social media.” A key function of this trend is the way critics of Israel use—and often misuse—celebrities. Let’s look at one example. Last month, memes began appearing all over social media with a quote from actor Richard Gere: “There’s no defense of this occupation....
(JNS) — The violent anti-Israel demonstration in Brooklyn last week took place practically in my own backyard. I live in the Midwood section of the borough, where a 400-plus police presence was necessary to protect Jews at the Young Israel of Midwood from masked antisemitic demonstrators wearing keffiyehs, waving Palestinian and Hezbollah flags, and yelling antisemitic slurs. The protesters were out in force to scare people away from the synagogue, which hosted an event promoting real estate in Israel. The front of the synagogue looked like a c...
(JNS) — The question of how a democratic society balances free expression with public safety becomes especially urgent when protests begin to escalate. The landmark National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie case (1977) is often cited as a defining moment in which the United States reaffirmed its commitment to protecting even deeply offensive speech. The concern behind that protection was that the government should not be trusted to decide too easily which movements are legitimate and which are hateful. For that reason, the law g...
(JNS) — The veteran British broadcaster Trevor Phillips began a recent Sunday-morning program by telling his audience that he had been distressed to learn of a conversation that is increasingly common around Shabbat dinner tables in the United Kingdom. The question being asked is: Who among our non-Jewish neighbors would try to rescue us should we find ourselves being rounded up for the second time in less than a century? I thought of Phillips’s monologue last Tuesday, when I attended the funeral in Manhattan of my former boss, the leg...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump’s new counterterrorism strategy is now public, and its stated objective is exactly the right one: to protect Americans from terrorist groups and deter the support they receive from enemy actors. The strategy promises “peace through strength.” It repeats the president’s warning that those who hurt Americans or plan to hurt Americans will be found and killed. That is a powerful standard. But it will be measured not by words aimed at enemies alone, nor by how aggressively Washington names threats. It will be mea...
(JNS) — From May 21 sundown until May 23 sunset, Jews around the world observed the holiday of Shavuot. Arguably it is the most important of all Jewish holidays because it commemorates God giving, and Jews receiving, the Torah. Indeed, one of its names is z’man matan Torateynu—“the time of the giving of our Torah.” And of course, without the Torah, there would be no Judaism and (again, arguably) no Jewish people. Those who were in synagogue for the holiday read and heard Exodus 19 and 20, the traditional Torah selection for this holiday. Exodus...
(JNS) — Every year around Shavuot, people start talking about cheesecake, all-night learning and staying awake until sunrise. And honestly, I love all of it. There is something powerful about walking into a synagogue late at night and seeing Jews still learning Torah together. In a world that moves so fast, there is something beautiful about traditions that have lasted thousands of years. But this year, I keep thinking about a more foundational part of Shavuot. I keep thinking about Mount Sinai. Not just as a moment when the Torah was given, b...
With the rising tide of antisemitism around the world, coming together as Jews is more important than ever. Our strength in numbers provides intellectual, financial, and emotional stability — something a divided community cannot sustain. Our future, in many ways, depends on it. This is not a discussion about Israel, which faces its own complex challenges. This article focuses specifically on Jews living in the diaspora — particularly here in the United States. Divisiveness within our community is strategically beneficial to our enemies. On Jun...
