Week of August 1, 2025
Week of August 1, 2025
By (JTA) -A Muslim democratic socialist state lawmaker in his 30s defeats the establishment candidate for mayor of his city, setting up a showdown in advance of November's general election. The scenario played out last month in New York City - and again this week in Minneapolis, where Omar Fateh won the endorsement of the state's Democratic Party in his bid to unseat the city's Jewish mayor, Jacob Frey. Fateh, 35, is the latest progressive candidate to ascend amid a shift away from...
Part 1 of a series In recognition of 20 years since the Gaza pullout, JNS is featuring a five-part series of articles reflecting Israel's disengagement, speaking with an array of former Gush Katif residents to find out how they perceive the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the Trump plan for the Gaza Strip and the prospect of returning. About two months into the Israel Defense Forces' invasion into the Gaza Strip as part of "Operation Swords of Iron" in retaliation of the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in southern...
(JNS) — The United States will examine “alternative options” to bring home the 50 captives held by Hamas as the terrorist group “does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith,” U.S. Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff said on Thursday. “We have decided to bring our team home from Doha for consultations after the latest response from Hamas, which clearly shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire in Gaza,” U.S. President Donald Trump’s point man in the talks wrote in an X post on Thursday afternoon. While mediators Qatar...
(JNS) - Israel recently reassumed administrative control over the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Judean city of Hebron after Palestinian Authority and Islamic officials refused to coordinate on renovations at the holy site, JNS has learned. Jerusalem decided to start a process to transfer authority from the Islamic trust that has managed the site to the Kiryat Arba-Hebron Religious Council to improve infrastructure for Jewish worshippers, Hebron's international spokesperson confirmed to JNS on...
Israel says its army is pausing military operations in some parts of Gaza for 10 hours a day to facilitate the distribution of aid to civilians. The announcement Sunday comes amid a global outcry about the hunger crisis in the Palestinian enclave where the IDF has been battling Hamas for more than 21 months. Israel also dropped supplies by air for the first time in the war on Sunday, while Egypt allowed aid to enter through its border with Gaza in a first for a period when hostilities are ongoing. In the first “humanitarian pause,” Israel...
(JNS) — An Israeli musician says he and two colleagues were kicked out of a restaurant in Vienna for speaking Hebrew, while elsewhere in Austria, a couple from Israel reported being denied service at a trailer park because of their nationality. The musicians — Hagai Shaham, Julia Gurvitch and Amit Peled — were waiting for the server at an eatery called “Pizzeria Ristorante Ramazzotti” on Meiselstrasse, a quiet street in Vienna’s 2nd district, or Leopoldstadt, which is the city’s most heavily Jewish quarter. The server heard them...
(JNS) — Gal Gadot, the most prominent Israeli in Hollywood, met on Tuesday with five survivors of Hamas captivity in Gaza: Doron Steinbrecher, Liri Albag, Naama Levy, Moran Stella Yanai and Ilana Gritzewsky. The women recounted their harrowing experiences in the hands of the terrorist group, and called on Gadot to keep advocating for the release of the 50 people still believed to be in captivity 655 days after the Oct. 7, 2023 massacre. Steinbrecher urged Gadot: “Don’t stop. We must keep talking about the hostages and keep them in the...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department announced on Wednesday that it is investigating Harvard University’s participation in the exchange visitor visa program. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested that Harvard’s continued use of the program might undermine U.S. national security. “To maintain their privilege to sponsor exchange visitors, sponsors must comply with all regulations, including conducting their programs in a manner that does not undermine the foreign policy objectives or compromise the national security interests of...
(JNS) — House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) voiced support for extending Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria during a meeting with Samaria Regional Council leader Yossi Dagan in Washington. “Sovereignty is so important to the world. It’s so important to all of us,” Scalise said. The congressman spoke alongside Dagan after taking part in a summit on the issue organized by the council on Capitol Hill. “We always pray for Israel and especially the people of Samaria,” Scalise said. “We know how difficult the times are...
(JNS) — French President Emmanuel Macron stated on Thursday that “consistent with its historic commitment to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East,” Paris intends to recognize a Palestinian state. “I will make this solemn announcement before the United Nations General Assembly this coming September,” Macron stated. “The urgent priority today is to end the war in Gaza and to bring relief to the civilian population.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “strongly” condemned Macron’s decision “to recognize a...
Governor Ron DeSantis has signed the 2025–26 state budget, which includes over $500,000 in funding for the Jack & Lee Rosen Jewish Community Center in Southwest Orlando. This generous appropriation will help expand senior programs and enhance security measures across the campus. In addition to the state funding, a dollar-for-dollar match from the Harris Rosen Foundation brought the total investment to over $1 million. These funds will support vital capital improvements — from infrastructure upgrades to increased accessibility — ensuring...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Israel will have to make a decision on next steps in the war on Hamas, adding he did not know what would happen after the terrorists blew up the ceasefire negotiations. “You know, they had a routine discussion the other day and, all of a sudden, they hardened up,” he said of the talks, speaking alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Scotland. Hamas “don’t want to give them back,” Trump said in reference to the remaining 50 hostages held in the Gaza...
Anti-Israel vandals deface AOC’s office Anti-Israel vandals defaced the Bronx, N.Y., office of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday after the far-left member of “The Squad” in the U.S. House of Representatives voted against cutting aid to the Jewish state, the New York Post reported. The vandals wrote in red paint that the congresswoman “funds genocide in Gaza.” The Boogie Down Liberation Front, which claimed responsibility, stated that “the Bronx is sick and tired of people like AOC and Ritchie Torres using us as a...
Sunday was Israel’s hottest day so far this year, according to the Israel Meteorological Service. According to IMS data, the temperature at the Sodom weather station in the Dead Sea region reached a high of 46.5°C (115.7°F), just three degrees shy of the all-time record for the area. In the Jordan Valley and around the Sea of Galilee, temperatures ranged from 43°C to 44°C (109.4°F to 111.2°F). An extreme heat stress index was recorded in Tel Aviv, with the mercury hitting 33°C (91.4°F) and humidity levels soaring to 70 percent. The...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday categorically rejected claims of starvation in the Gaza Strip, dismissing such reports as “a bold-faced lie.” Speaking at a Daystar TV conference in Jerusalem hosted by Pastor Paula White, leader of the White House Faith Office, Netanyahu said, “There is no policy of starvation in Gaza, and there is no starvation in Gaza.” Israel, he continued, had “enabled humanitarian aid throughout the duration of the war to enter Gaza. Otherwise, there would be no Gazans.” It is...
(JNS) — The first-ever Israeli baby born to a woman who had undergone uterine transposition surgery was delivered at Rabin Medical Center’s Beilinson Hospital in Petach Tikvah, the hospital announced on Wednesday. The newborn is only the sixth baby in the world born to a woman who has undergone the groundbreaking transposition procedure, it noted. Professor Ram Eitan, director of Beilinson’s Gynecologic Oncology Unit, who performed the uterine surgery in 2022, recently delivered the baby via Caesarean section, in what the medical center...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Friday mocked Paris’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, suggesting that this new entity be located in southern France and named after a fictional monster. “[French President Emmanuel] Macron’s unilateral ‘declaration’ of a ‘Palestinian’ state didn’t say WHERE it would be. I can now exclusively disclose that France will offer the French Riviera and the new nation will be called ‘Franc-en-Stine,’ tweeted Huckabee, in an apparent reference to Mary Shelley’s...
(JTA) — The first athlete to notch a Manischewitz endorsement is transferring from a university with just a handful of Jewish students to a school with one of the highest proportions of Jewish students in the United States. Jake Retzlaff will play for Tulane University, according to reports in sports media. Neither Retzlaff nor Tulane has confirmed the move, but Retzlaff retweeted an article about it. Retzlaff announced earlier this month that he would leave Brigham Young University, the...
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...
(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...
(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...
(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...
(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...
(JNS) - When I was younger, I often struggled with understanding the purpose of the Jewish holiday of Tisha B'Av. Why, thousands of years later, do we still fast and mourn the destruction of Judaism's two temples? Why do we continue to commemorate a way of life so remarkably different from the Judaism we practice today? It wasn't that I couldn't appreciate the profound loss and anguish that the Israelites experienced when they were exiled from their lands in 70 C.E. But since then, we had...
Kinneret Living, Orlando, FL — At 92, Ethel (Ester) Goodmark still radiates warmth, wit, and wisdom from her apartment at Kinneret, where she’s lived for the past five years. Raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Ethel’s life has been deeply shaped by her Jewish upbringing, a 70-year marriage, a fulfilling career, and a devotion to family. “I was raised conservative,” Ethel recalled, “because my mother came from an Orthodox family and my father from a Reform one. Middle of the road was...
Long before stand-up went mainstream, the backroads of the Catskills echoed with the rhythms of Jewish laughter. The Borscht Belt wasn't just a vacation spot - it was a refuge, a proving ground for comedy legends, and a cultural sanctuary for families turned away elsewhere. Today, thanks to the vision and dedication of Marisa Scheinbeld and her associates, that legacy is being brought back to life. Scheinbeld's Borscht Belt Historical Markers Project is transforming forgotten resort towns into...
I’m reading a new novel by an Israeli author that has nothing to do with the war in Gaza, or any current crisis for that matter. I can’t tell if I feel relieved or guilty. With a world in turmoil, how much permission can I give myself to tune out — if tuning out is even possible? Iddo Gefen’s “Mrs. Lilienblum’s Cloud Factory” is set in a village on the lip of a crater deep in the Negev Desert — far from the bright lights of Tel Aviv and even Beersheba. When the family matriarch...
By In 1965, I stood with a tour group at the Wailing Wall — then part of East Jerusalem and under Jordanian control. That control began under Article VIII of the 1949 Armistice Agreement, where Jordan explicitly guaranteed Israeli Jews free access to the Wailing Wall, along with other religious sites. Historian Martin Gilbert has noted that promise was never honored: “During the 19 years of Jordanian rule in East Jerusalem, no Israelis were allowed to visit this site which was most holy to...
In the 80s there was a hit song by Sheila E., that went: She wants to lead the glamorous life She don’t need a man’s touch She wants to lead the glamorous life But without love, it ain’t much The song describes the lady wearing a mink fur coat and driving a Mercedes Benz car. It is about materialism. Materialism = glamour. That is what the message was in 1980s America. That was society’s message. The movies, the music, the television shows, that is what we saw and that was our aim, our goal. I had no idea what a sham it was. None of...
Round foods are eaten around this holiday when one is not fasting. Lentil soup is one of these foods. Lentil soup is easy to make and keeps in the refrigerator 3-5 days. It also freezes well. 2 tsp. olive oil 1 onion, chopped in small pieces 2 garlic cloves, minced (An easy way to remove skins is rub cloves back and forth in a rubber bottle opener.) 1 large carrot chopped (1 1/4 cups chopped) 2 celery stalks, chopped (1 1/4 cups) 2 cups dried lentils, any color except black French lentils 6 cups vegetable or chicken soup 1/2 tsp. cumin 1/2...
Tom Lehrer never identified closely with his ancestral Judaism. But the famed satirist and mathematician, who died Saturday, July 26, at 97, wrote one of the first popular songs about a Jewish holiday. "(I'm Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica" debuted in 1990, well after Lehrer's peak as a performer, on a come-from-retirement performance on Garrison Keillor's radio show. Keillor commissioned the new song from Lehrer because, he observed, Jews had written many popular Christmas songs but none...
Rabbi Neil Danzig, a longtime professor of rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York and an authority on the post-Talmudic Babylonian scholars known as the Geonim, died July 4. He was 74. A longtime resident of Teaneck, New Jersey, he was buried in Israel. As a scholar of medieval rabbinic literature, Danzig explored the halachic, or Jewish legal, writings of the Geonim, the Jewish leaders and scholars during the late sixth to mid-11th centuries in what is now Iraq. The Geonim secured the Babylonian Talmud as the central...
(JTA) - Oscar-winning lyricist Alan Bergman, who with his wife Marilyn wrote the words for some of Barbra Streisand's best-known hits as well as her 1983 film "Yentl," died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 99. The Bergmans were already an established lyrics-writing team when, in 1962, they met Streisand after a performance at the Bon Soir nightclub in Manhattan. It wasn't until 1969, however, that she recorded one of their songs, "Ask Yourself Why," for her "What About Today?" album....
Roslyn (Roz) Weber Halpern, 82, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, passed away peacefully on July 7, 2025, at Elizabeth Residence Bayside. Born on Oct. 8, 1942, she was raised in Philadelphia, Pa., and graduated from Temple University with a degree in education. After graduation, she was married to Rabbi Larry J. Halpern, with whom she had two children, Susan and Ari. They moved to Orlando, Florida in 1970 where Roz was an active member of the community starting the JCC’s summer camp program, serving as chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community Minyan at Jewish Academy of Orlando — Monday – Friday, 7:45 a.m. – 8:30 a.m. Temple Israel — Sunday,...
