Week of June 12, 2026
Week of June 12, 2026
The Wikipedia page for Hasan Piker, a far-left streamer who has called the Israel Defense Forces a “Nazi army” and Orthodox Jews “inbred,” has received more than 327,000 views in the past 30 days. At the top of the page, it states that he has “regularly spoken about the Gaza war, advocating for Palestinians and criticizing the Israeli government.” Readers must scroll down quite a bit to learn that he has praised Hamas, a U.S.-designated terror organization. Despite an editor recommending it, the page does not note that the U.S....
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces struck military targets in western and central Iran early Monday after the Islamic Republic launched ballistic missile barrages at the Jewish state overnight. The military said the Israeli Air Force, guided by Military Intelligence, carried out strikes on military targets belonging to the Iranian regime. IAF fighter jets "completed a large-scale strike on strategic defense systems," according to a statement. "Recently, defense systems were deployed in numerous...
(JNS) — Iran on Monday warned it would carry out “far more severe and crushing” missile attacks against Israel if the Jewish state continued military operations against Hezbollah, its Lebanese proxy. The Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Iran’s highest operational military command, said Tehran delivered “heavy, targeted and costly blows” to Israel in its attacks on Sunday and Monday. “The cessation of armed forces operations is hereby announced,” the statement continued, according to a translation by Iran’s Press TV...
(JNS) — Iran and its regional terrorist proxies fired more than two dozen ballistic missiles at Israel overnight on Sunday and into Monday, sending millions of civilians running for bomb shelters. An Israeli military official told reporters on Monday that 22 ballistic missiles were launched by Tehran overnight, in addition to two projectiles fired by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists. As of Monday morning, 44 people had sustained injuries in the attacks, according to Israel’s...
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Sunday praised former President Bill Clinton’s approach to the Arab-Israeli conflict, saying he wished more Democrats shared his understanding of the issue. Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) “is one of the few who do,” Huckabee tweeted, sharing footage of Clinton’s October 2024 remarks about negotiations he led between Israel and the PLO in the ’90s and early 2000s. PLO leader Yasser Arafat “didn’t tell me the truth ... when he promised me he was gonna accept the peace deal that we had worked...
64 evacuees from ‘Operation Roaring Lion’ still living in hotels By JNS Staff (JNS) — Sixty-four Israelis whose homes were damaged by Iranian missiles during “Operation Roaring Lion” against Tehran are still living in hotels, Knesset lawmakers heard on Wednesday. The evacuees are temporarily being housed in 11 hotels across the Jewish state, a representative of the Israel Tax Authority’s Compensation Fund told members of the Knesset Committee for Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs. “According to our projections, by...
(JNS) - Israel on Sunday, June 7, marked the 59th anniversary on the Gregorian calendar of its capture of eastern Jerusalem and reunification of the capital during the 1967 Six-Day War. June 7, 1967, marked the day "the Jewish people returned to the heart of their ancient capital," according to an Israeli Foreign Ministry X post. It described the reunification of the holy city as a moment of "historic joy and liberation." The MFA's statement highlighted the significance of Jerusalem in Jewish...
(JNS) — Israel “hit back” after Iran targeted it with missiles, U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized early on Tuesday, saying that he “can’t blame” Jerusalem for retaliating against the Islamic Republic. Trump told reporters after attending the NBA Finals in New York City that he had a “very good conversation” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu following the latest flare-up in hostilities. “He hit back, and I can’t blame him for that,” said the president. “Now they’ve called it quits, so they’re going...
(JNS) — As Israel prepared to mark the reunification of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War on June 7, the Tower of David Jerusalem Museum is asking the public to help uncover a visual record of one of Judaism’s most cherished sites—the Western Wall. The museum has launched a nationwide appeal for photographs, postcards and other visual materials documenting the Kotel from the earliest days of photography through 1968, ahead of a major exhibition to open in 2027, on the 60th anniversary of the war. The exhibition, titled “Eyes on the...
(JNS) — A grandmother and her three grandchildren were stranded in a wadi near Meron in the Upper Galilee on a dark, rainy Lag B’Omer night. Unable to climb out and unsure how they would reach safety, they waited for help. Before rescuers could reach them on foot, a drone appeared overhead. Operated by United Hatzalah volunteers, the drone located the family, illuminated the area with onboard lights, delivered thermal blankets and flashlights, and guided rescue teams to their location. The...
An old friend of mine, an academic who typically infuses his scholarly papers about such topics as economics and social trends with the perspective of Torah stories, Torah-based ethics and Torah scholars, challenged me the other day to write an essay about a subject that has increasingly bothered him in recent years — the growing uncivility in our culture. In politics. In religion. In journalism. In …. You get the idea. This increase in public hostility and decrease in mutual respect is evident in many venues: The standards of comedy...
(JNS) - Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) was rebuked on the House floor on Wednesday after accusing Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) of supporting Hezbollah during debate over her War Powers resolution concerning U.S. forces in Lebanon. Tlaib's measure would direct the president to withdraw U.S. armed forces from Southern Lebanon, arguing the United States is acting without congressional authorization by providing intelligence and coordinating activities related to Israel's military actions against...
(JNS) - HAIFA, Israel-"You're from the Jewish school?" the French Ministry of Education official quizzed the teenage girl who had come for her post-high school baccalaureate exam. The examiner began firing off the most difficult questions on the physics test, seemingly seeking to trip up the high school senior, but Noa Uziel, 18, who was at the top of her class at Paris's Yabne school, stood her ground. "Are you going to cry?" the Education Ministry official pressed her. "I am the one who...
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Michel Issa discussed the ongoing high-level trilateral talks between Israel, Lebanon and the U.S., in a meeting with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Beirut on Monday. Issa, who was born in Lebanon, said the U.S.-brokered talks would resume in Washington, D.C. He praised the professionalism of Lebanon’s negotiating team. According to the State Department, talks will reconvene during the week of June 22. Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire on June 3. The ceasefire was to be contingent on Hezbollah,...
(JNS) — The House Armed Services Committee voted on Thursday to reject an amendment from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that would have stripped a provision from the annual defense authorization bill calling for greater defense cooperation with Israel. Khanna and other critics of section 224 of the National Defense Authorization Act have said that it would “fuse” the U.S. and Israeli militaries and was an example of Congress bowing to the wishes of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “The American people are tired of the arrogance...
(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...
(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...
(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...
(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...
(JNS) - Teperberg Winery has a new target. Ironically, it stems from the winery's success in selling millions of bottles of good, reasonably priced wines in Israeli supermarkets. Today, however, Teperberg is producing finely crafted premium wines that still offer strong value. The target is persuading serious wine drinkers to give them a try. Once they do, the winemakers say, the wines will speak for themselves. "Along with the changing palate of us and our clients, the wines we are making...
As America approaches the 250th anniversary of its independence, a familiar claim has resurfaced. In recent months, I have heard a number of television commentators describe the United States as a "Christian nation," as though that settles the matter. A brief look back is in order, beginning with George Washington and a deadly problem. George Washington and the battle against disease Americans often think of George Washington as a military commander on horseback, crossing the Delaware or...
(JNS) - When IDF reservist and father of four Moti Malka returned home to Netanya for a much-needed 24-hour break from reserve duty, his wife had one request: Help their 10-year-old son prepare for an English exam the next day. Realizing the task was daunting, Malka turned to a tool he knew well from his day job developing AI-based solutions for companies. "I said to my son David, 'Let's create a game using AI to prepare for the exam,'" Malka recalled. The result surprised them both. "After two...
Part Three of a Six-Part series A On May 15, as has been done for decades, Palestinian Arabs, their supporters and Israel detractors observed the “Nakba” or the catastrophe of Israel’s birth in 1948. In order to understand the veracity of that narrative and how it’s been conflated in modern dialogue and reporting, it’s important to understand what lies behind that. The Term and Its Meaning The word “Nakba” is Arabic for “catastrophe.” For Palestinians and their supporters who have become conflated with and indistinguishable...
I was in a dark place recently. Too much stress, not enough encouragement, and failure to get proper nourishment and sufficient sleep. It took a toll. I had to reach out for inspiration and the actor Bill Murray came to mind. More than one of his films has meant much to me. One of my favorites is the fantasy/romantic comedy “Groundhog Day” in which Phil Connors gets to relive February 2nd over and over. He learns and grows eventually, and develops talents, character, and a loving...
Submitted by Jewish Pavilion Senior Services There is a meaningful shift taking place in how we understand aging. Older adults are not looking to be managed or directed, they are asking to be included. Included in conversations, in celebrations, in decisions, and in the future itself. The most powerful stories about later life are not centered on decline or limitation. They are rooted in belonging, joy, usefulness, and the enduring human desire to feel part of something larger. At the Orlando Senior Help Desk, a core principle is recognizing...
Goldie Berman, 86 of Winter Park, Florida passed away in the early morning hours of Monday, May 18, 2026. Goldie was born to Nissim and Emily Mayo on Oct. 10, 1939, in the Bronx, New York. The youngest of four children, Goldie grew up a “tom-boy” who was never afraid to mix it up with the other kids on the block. In 1961, Goldie’s older sister, Victoria, introduced Goldie to Aaron Koller, while he was home on leave from the Navy. The couple hit it off, fell in love and were married 3...
Allan Frank Solomon passed away peacefully on May 22, 2026, at the age of 87, surrounded by the family he loved so deeply, in his Orlando, Florida home. He was a husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend. He was also a mentor to the thousands of campers and staff members who came of age under his watch and leadership at Camp Coleman. Born in Conway, South Carolina, Allan grew up with a love of the outdoors and camping. Summers in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and Camp Brant Lake...
Joel A. Newman, 78, of The Villages, Florida, formerly of Detroit, Michigan, died on May 28, 2026. Beloved husband of Michelle "Shelly" Newman. Cherished father of Casey Newman. Loving brother of Susan (Benson) Barr, Neal (Esther) Zalenko, the late Sherwin Newman, and the late Sanford (the late Miriam) Newman. Special brother-in-law of Robert (Janet) Sher, Lawrence Sher, and Beverly (the late Albert) Hacker. Dear son of the late Charles and the late Libbie Newman Zalenko. Also survived by other...
Mrs. Dalia Isaiah, 81, Orlando, Florida passed away Wednesday, May 20, 2026, at HCA Osceola Regional Hospital, Kissimmee, Florida following a brief illness. Mrs. Isaiah was born May 27, 1944, in Tel Aviv, Israel to the late Joshua and Bruria (Kisaleyvitz) Avni of blessed memory. She is predeceased by her loving husband Benzion Isaiah and her cherished brothers, Ilan Avni and Avi Avni all of blessed memory. Dalia was a natural teacher, dedicating many years of teaching Hebrew School in...
MORNING MINYANS Chabad of Altamonte Springs — Sunday morning minyan, 8 a.m. Weekday morning minyan 6:30 a.m., 407-720-8111. 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...
