Week of June 20, 2025
Week of June 20, 2025
Larnaca, Cyprus — In a remarkable and unprecedented emergency operation, Birthright Israel successfully evacuated approximately 1,500 program participants earlier today aboard the Crown Iris, a luxury Israeli cruise ship operated by Mano Maritime, sailing from Ashdod Port to Larnaca, Cyprus. The 13-hour voyage (more or less) is conducted under the close protection of the Israeli Navy, which escorted the vessel across the Mediterranean to ensure the participants’ safety amid ongoing regional tensions. The cruise ship was secured by...
Ra'anana Today’s a day that’s really going to be remembered, maybe even more than the pager attack on Hezbollah’s leaders last year. In today’s confusing world, it’s hard to tell right from wrong. This makes it tough to stay morally clear. I think we need to stop and think about what just happened today. Friday the 13th of June...also written as 6.13 (if you know, you know) is a day of incredible events that will help finally remap the colonialist maps of the Middle East. These maps...
The name of Israel’s newly launched military operation — Operation Rising Lion — echoes one of the most enduring symbols of Jewish strength and identity. For Jerry Klinger, founder and president of the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation, the lion is more than metaphor — it is the centerpiece of a growing public art campaign that visually affirms Jewish history, survival, and legitimacy. “This military operation and our Lion’s Trail projects share a powerful metaphor...
(JNS) - The worldwide Jewish population grew by 870,000 in the decade from 2010 to 2020, according to the Pew Research Center's global religion survey released on Monday. The analysis of worldwide religious trends looked at self-reported religious belief, except in Israel, where the surveyors used the government's population register. "The number of Jews around the world grew by 6 percent, from an estimated 14 million in 2010 to nearly 15 million in 2020," the researchers wrote. "That's fewer...
Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation has a new full-time rabbi. Rabbi Shai Specht-Sandler will officially begin his tenure at SOJC on July 1, 2025. Rabbi Shai's life experiences span the Jewish world, as well as the globe itself. "I was born in Israel and left at 13," he said, "then spent my formative years in Manchester, England and the United States. I come from a proudly pluralistic and Masorti background, both Sephardi and Ashkenazi, and from a long line of educators and rabbis... [I've]...
(JNS)- The 2025 Maccabiah Games scheduled to take place in Israel in July have been canceled and postponed until 2026 as a result of the ongoing war against Iran, the Maccabi World Union announced on Monday. It said that in consultations between the heads of Maccabi World Union and the 2025 Maccabiah, together with Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar and his staff, it was decided that due to Operation Rising Lion, the Israeli military campaign against Iran that began on June 13, "the...
(JNS) - Haitham Amal wasn't always propelled toward science. He wanted to study international relations; he said he liked the networking and learning about new cultures. Then he took physics and chemistry in high school, and "fell in love with science," he told JNS. More specifically, he wanted to understand the pharmacological aspects of it - how drugs worked to help people. The trajectory seemed natural. Amal, 39, a Christian Israeli, grew up in Haifa with three siblings in an educated...
(JNS) - Eight people were killed and nearly 300 wounded in the early hours of Monday by an Iranian ballistic missile barrage on Israeli civilian population centers in the central and northern regions of the country. The impacts were spread across four locations. Four of the deaths took place in the greater Tel Aviv area - four in Petach Tikvah and one in Bnei Brak. Three people who were initially reported as being trapped in Haifa were later declared dead, while a 30-year-old woman is...
Just minutes after Shabbat began in Israel, sirens sounded, sending Israelis back to their shelters to await the next salvo in their country's new war with Iran. Roughly 100 missiles were on their way from Iran, officials warned, teeing up a repeat of an April 2024 attack that marked the first direct exchange of fire between the two countries. Soon, projectiles fell across the country's center, injuring dozens of people. Less than 24 hours had passed since Israel launched a dramatic and...
(JNS) — The head of Israel’s Civil Aviation Authority, Shmuel Zakay, warned this weekend that it will take weeks before all Israelis stranded abroad will be able to fly home, as Israel’s main international airport remained closed for a third day on Sunday amid the war with Iran. The remarks came as tens of thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad since Israel closed its airspace after launching a pre-emptive strike on Friday against Iranian nuclear and military sites. “I want to say to Israelis abroad: It will take weeks, not days...
(JNS) — A 72-year-old Jewish man in New York City hanging posters of hostages being held in Gaza was punched in the face last week by thugs shouting, “Free Palestine.” Since the Oct. 7 massacre, the campaign to “Globalize the intifada” has exploded with a vengeance, threatening the safety of American Jews as never before on U.S. streets. A couple was shot and killed last month in Washington, D.C., by a radical leftist gunman outside the Capital Jewish Museum. Jews in Boulder, Colo., who were marching for the release of hostages in...
(JNS) — A new report published by Israel’s Regavim Movement NGO on Sunday has found that some 90 percent of incidents of “violence” attributed to Judea and Samaria Jews in recent years by the United Nations were fabricated. Regavim’s 128-page research report in English, titled “False Flags and Real Agendas,” scrutinized a database maintained by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which claims to have documented thousands of alleged incidents of Israeli “settler violence” against Palestinian Arabs...
(JTA) — President Donald Trump is pressing forward in seeking a nuclear deal with Iran following a massive wave of Israeli attacks on the country’s nuclear program. Trump, who has built his public persona around a verve for making deals, addressed his now-weakened negotiating partner in a post on Truth Social on Friday morning, several hours after the Israelis began carrying out a daring and apparently successful mission in Iran that took aim at the places and personnel involved in the country’s effort to develop a nuclear weapon. Trump...
(JNS) — The U.S. State Department declined to clarify its position on a potential Palestinian state on Tuesday, following comments from Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, that such a state within the current Palestinian Authority-governed territory is unlikely “in our lifetime.” Huckabee told Bloomberg that he doesn’t think a two-state solution remains U.S. policy, and that “unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it.” He told the publication that Palestinians...
We are all following the devastation of war in Israel on TV, social media, and via direct reports from friends and family who are there. We are getting reports of community members who are unable to return to Florida due to the closure of Ben Gurion Airport and the airlines canceling their flights indefinitely. The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, part of the Shalom Orlando Family, is actively monitoring the situation and wants to make you aware of several resources that are being offered to help evacuate American citizens currently in...
The White House was informed of Israel’s strikes against the Iranian regime ahead of time but was not involved militarily, U.S. President Donald Trump told Fox News‘ Bret Baier on Friday. Washington still hopes that Tehran will clinch a nuclear agreement with the United States, Trump told Baier. “Iran cannot have a nuclear bomb and we are hoping to get back to the negotiating table. We will see,” Fox News cited the commander-in-chief as saying. “There are several people in leadership that will not be coming back,” he added. U.S....
By JNS Staff (JNS) — A Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria probably won’t happen “in our lifetime” and is no longer Washington’s goal, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Tuesday. “Unless there are some significant things that happen that change the culture, there’s no room for it,” Huckabee told Bloomberg, adding that a culture shift is unlikely to take place “in our lifetime.” When asked by Bloomberg if an independent Palestinian state is the goal of the Trump administration, the diplomat responded: “I...
Following a directive from Israel’s political echelon, the Israel Defense Forces launched what it described as a preemptive, precise and combined offensive codenamed “Operation Rising Lion” in the early hours of Friday, targeting Iran’s nuclear program and other military targets across the Islamic Republic, as well as, reportedly, senior Iranian military and Islamic Republican Guards Corps commanders. The decision was, according to a defense official, signed off on by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister...
(JNS) — Dozens of Israeli jets attacked dozens of targets, including military and nuclear sites, in Tehran in a “preemptive, precise, combined offensive” strike against Iran’s nuclear program early in the morning on Friday, June 13, the Israel Defense Forces stated. The IDF said that the attack was based on “high-quality intelligence” and came “in response to the Iranian regime’s ongoing aggression against Israel.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the operation, dubbed “Rising Lion,” would “continue...
IDF to civilians in much of northern Gaza: Leave now (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces issued an “urgent” and “serious” evacuation notice for noncombatants in parts of the northern Gaza Strip on Monday morning. Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, head of the Arab Media Branch in the military’s Spokesperson’s Unit, posted to his Arabic-language account the areas that have become dangerous combat zones where IDF troops will be engaging with terrorists: Jabalia, Jabalia Camp, the Old City, and the neighborhoods of Al-Nahda, Al-Rawda,...
(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...
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...
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...
(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....
(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...
(JNS) - Israel is the only country in the world that has an embassy for indigenous people. Situated in the heart of Jerusalem, the Indigenous Peoples' Embassy pays tribute to clans and tribes around the world - and is a testament to shared heritage. As antisemitism surges around the world, we need to be reminded that Israel and the Jewish people have many friends. Some of them are from indigenous communities, such as the Aboriginal people in Australia. Sydney residents George and Anita Fisher...
By When last year’s hurricane tore through South Florida, the devastation reached far beyond shattered windows and waterlogged furniture. For Jewish Heritage editor Christine DeSouza, it meant the total loss of her cousin’s irreplaceable family photos, records, and keepsakes —family history, gone in a matter of hours. (DeSouza’s cousin lives on Pine Island, where Hurricane Ian made landfall in 2022). After a recent conversation with DeSouza, I found myself thinking: what if it had been me? Over the years, I’ve carefully compiled our...
Readers remember well the beloved writer Gloria Yousha who related thousands of stories in her column “Scene Around.” Nearly three years since her passing, the community greatly misses Gloria and how she shared so many different insights and experiences with us. A wonderful article about Gloria was written by Heritage editor Christine DeSouza and published on Dec. 9, 2022. Christine’s tribute column/obit earned a first-place award from the Florida Press Association! There has been talk of...
Heritage columnist Steven Cardonick, who writes the “Give a listen…” column, discovered a “kinahora” moment recently after one of his columns was published. Cardonick submitted his first article, titled “What a blessing — Kinahora!”, on March 17. However, publishing was delayed until after Passover because he wrote an excellent article for the Passover issue, titled “Guess who came to seder,” (published April 4, 2025). The “Kinahora” article came out in the April 18 issue. In the article, Cardonick used the game of...
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,...
