Week of August 28, 2026
Week of August 28, 2026
Delta and United are returning to Israel in September By Etgar Lefkovits (JNS) — U.S. carriers, led by Delta and United, are resuming service to Israel next month, following summer suspensions driven by regional conflicts. The move, which comes just ahead of the Jewish High Holiday season, typically a busy travel time, follows the gradual resumption of service to Tel Aviv by most major European airlines and highlights the resilience of the Israeli tourism sector. Delta Air Lines is resuming service to Tel Aviv on Sept. 6 with a daily flight...
Where I live in the Judean mountains, Jewish Israeli communities exist alongside Palestinian Arab communities. Visually in some places, we coexist so close to one another it's as if clutching your own hands together as your fingers would be intertwined between one another. Driving where I live in the Judean mountains, as in Judea of Judea and Samaria, it's common to see red signs in Hebrew, Arabic, and English, warning Israelis that it is both illegal and unsafe for them to enter areas under...
(JNS) — Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on Tuesday that he launched an investigation into whistleblower allegations that Trump administration officials manipulated federal Jew-hatred probes of several universities and withheld federal funding to pressure the schools into costly settlements. “Antisemitism at American universities and medical schools is real. It needs to be addressed seriously,” the Jewish congressman wrote to Harmeet Dhillon, assistant U.S. attorney general for civil rights. “But your ‘investigation’ into...
(JNS) — A Bronx man faces federal hate crime charges after allegedly assaulting a Jewish congregant and a black security guard during Shabbat services at Central Synagogue in Manhattan, the U.S. Justice Department announced on Thursday. Larry Montes, 46, was charged with two hate crime counts and one count of damaging religious property resulting in bodily injury. According to a federal complaint, Montes began shouting during an Aug. 14 Shabbat service attended by about 375 people and damaged two ceremonial candlesticks. When security...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces located four kites over the weekend that crossed the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip. One of the kites was identified on Friday in the area of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, adjacent to the northern Gaza Strip. The other three were found the following morning, the IDF said. “No suspicious items were found on the kites,” the military noted, adding that at no stage did they pose a danger to the public. Terrorists in Gaza have used incendiary kites in the past to start fires in the northwestern Negev, resulting...
(JNS) — At the University of California, Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine, Jews were labeled as oppressors. Patients were afraid to be identified as Jews at the University of California, San Francisco, and protesters targeted medical schools in New York City and demanded the destruction of the State of Israel. These are some of the antisemitic incidents that erupted in hospitals, dental schools, psychology conferences and elsewhere since Oct. 7, according to a new study published in the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal. “After...
(JNS) - On Tuesday, Key West, Fla., elected Samuel Kaufman as the city's first Jewish mayor in its nearly-200-year history. A lawyer currently serving as a city commissioner, Kaufman told JNS that he is proud to continue the long tradition of Jewish contributions to the island community. "To carry that forward and to contribute in a positive way to the entire city as a Jewish person, given our values and given what it means to me to be a Jewish person, it's an incredible honor and...
(JNS) - The sound of construction in Kibbutz Yiftah travels across the border with Lebanon and echoes among the ruins of the Shi'ite village of Blida, which Hezbollah used as a stronghold before Israel destroyed much of it. "Blida is gone, and we are building new homes for new families who want to move here. That's the story this image tells," Annat Zisovich-Charrit, the head of civilian security at Kibbutz Yiftah and a mother of two, told JNS earlier this month near a construction site where...
(JNS) — A group of American travel agents visited Israel this week in a push for postwar tourism following a period of regional turbulence that reduced travel to the Holy Land. The weeklong trip, sponsored by the Israeli Ministry of Tourism, comes as the number of visitors from the United States began to pick up this summer, just ahead of next month’s much-anticipated return to Tel Aviv by two major US legacy carriers. “People do want to come; it’s just the fear factor of ‘Oh my God, it’s the Middle East,’” said Sima Pagash, a...
(JNS) — In the days after the Michigan Democratic primary for Senate, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, hadn’t made up his mind if he would vote for former congressman Mike Rogers, the Republican nominee, or for the Democrat, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, former Detroit health director. “I’m going to vote for Mike Rogers,” the Orthodox rabbi, who typically votes Democrat, told JNS on Tuesday. Lopatin, who made clear that he was speaking personally, and not issuing a Federation...
(JNS) — Pro-Israel Republicans defeated a pair of alt-right candidates accused of antisemitism in Florida’s primary elections on Tuesday in races for the House and governor. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) won the Republican gubernatorial primary to succeed Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who is term-limited. With 87 percent of votes counted at press time, Donalds had 762,364 (48.3 percent), trouncing James Fishback, a 31-year-old investor who courted the “groyper” movement associated with the Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes, who came in...
(JNS) — In a meeting on Monday with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law who advises the president on Middle East subjects, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made “very clear, and in no uncertain terms, that he is against a Palestinian state,” according to a senior Israeli official. Kushner and other visiting Americans didn’t press a Palestinian state, but the prime minister made it “abundantly clear that he is 100 percent firm on this,” the senior Israeli official told JNS. The Israeli prime minister...
By (JNS) — Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) won their House Democratic primaries in Florida on Tuesday. The pro-Israel incumbents, who are Jewish, both defeated challengers who have accused Israel of genocide in the Gaza Strip. After Republican-led redistricting earlier this year significantly altered the Florida congressional map, Moskowitz ran in the 25th Congressional District previously held by Wasserman Schultz, who opted to run in the plurality-black 20th Congressional District. That district has...
(JNS) — Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to adopt a “zero-tolerance” policy toward kites and balloons launched from Gaza into communities in the Negev. “If the launches continue — powerful actions will be taken to put an end to the phenomenon,” Katz said. “A balloon and kite shall be treated the same as a drone — with or without explosives.” He said Israel would not allow its security zone inside the Gaza border to be bypassed....
(JNS) - KIBBUTZ NA'AN, Israel-The personal wartime diary, assiduously written by the young mother, detailed the infant's early development, from his first smile to his weight and even a curl of his hair. It was Jacqueline Meents-Lenstra's first experience of parenthood. Still, the baby whose milestones she so meticulously recorded was, in fact, not her own, even as the diary itself tells the story of her devotion to the child. It was 1943 in Nazi-occupied Holland, and the Jewish baby boy,...
(JNS) — T’ruah calls itself a Zionist organization. Yet its recent actions, increasingly legitimizing individuals, organizations and ideas that reject Zionism and deny the legitimacy of Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state suggest otherwise. As leading rabbis of the Zionist Rabbinic Coalition, an independent network of more than 2,000 North American rabbis spanning all denominational movements, we are deeply concerned about this contradiction. T’ruah says that it is “committed to the State of Israel’s (Medinat...
(JNS) — Here is a question for Palestinians and their supporters around the world: How is the resistance going? Is everyone pleased with the results? Has it benefited Palestinian Arabs themselves? After decades of war, intifada, rocket fire, mass murder, kidnappings, international campaigns, boycotts, rejected peace offers and billions of dollars in humanitarian aid, the Palestinian people remain stateless and impoverished. Gaza now lies in ruins after the Palestinians regained control of it in 2005. Perhaps 70,000 people—civilians and...
(JNS) — Isaiah’s declaration, “For Zion’s sake, I will not be silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake, I will not be still” (Isaiah 62:1), stands as one of the most stirring calls to moral and spiritual responsibility in Jewish scripture. It is not poetic flourish. It is a charge. Isaiah speaks as the guardian of Israel’s destiny, refusing to allow the covenantal mission of the Jewish people to be diminished or forgotten. His words describe sacred duty, not political advocacy. They remind us that the Jewish people are called to stand...
(JNS) — The term “de-Judaification,” coined by the Nazis, refers to the systematic exclusion of Jews from civic life. It happened in Germany. It happened in the Soviet Union. Now it’s happening in America. We’ve all read the recent stories: Jews are not being hired for teaching jobs, especially at elite colleges. The same schools have reduced Jewish student admissions from upward of 20 percent a decade ago to single-digit percentages. Those Jews who are admitted are subject to increasing harassment — to the point that students at...
(JNS) — On Nov. 14, 2023, barely five weeks after the horrors of Oct. 7, nearly 300,000 American Jews gathered for the March for Israel on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. They came to stand with Israel, to demand the release of the hostages and to declare that the Jewish people would not face this terrible moment alone. Near the end of the rally, the popular Jewish musician and singer Matisyahu joined the Maccabeats in singing “One Day,” his moving song about hatred giving way to peace. As the song drew to a close, he recited the...
(JNS) — If schools devote just 45 minutes to a lesson that situates the Holocaust in the broader history of antisemitism and its impact on Jews, they can go a long way to dispelling harmful conspiracy theories, according to new research from the Anti-Defamation League’s Center for Antisemitism Research. “This research is significant in that it features evidence from real classrooms,” stated Matt Williams, vice president of the center. “We now have data showing that a single, well-designed lesson, taught by educators with no special...
In the aftermath of October 7, American trauma surgeon Dr. Anna Goldenberg found herself taking on a role she never expected. A trauma surgeon, educator, and mentor, Goldenberg had spent her career caring for critically injured patients and training other surgeons to do the same. As Israel faced the realities of war, she became determined to bring the American College of Surgeon’s Advanced Surgical Skills for Exposure in Trauma (ASSET) course to Israel. At the same time, her close friend and...
Three-quarters of Jewish young adults in the United States say they do something Jewish regularly, often at home with family or friends, according to new research from Sense Worldwide, commissioned and released by the Jim Joseph Foundation. Known as Project Prism, the research offers a look at Jewish young adults today, including those not involved in Jewish communal life, painting a rich picture of how they express their Judaism, the types of experiences and relationships that impact them...
Submitted by Jewish pavilion Senior Services If a natural disaster like a flood, fire, or hurricane forces you to leave your home quickly, having essential items ready to go can make a big difference in how easily you can recover. Store these items in a backpack or waterproof, zip-top bags to protect them from damage and ensure you’re prepared. 1. Important documents — pack original or photocopied versions of your critical personal documents, including: • social security card • passport • birth certificates • marriage license or...
When you're 23, there's not a whole lot that you would find interesting about your 74-year-old aunt. So, I went for a tried-and-true hook: "Did you know I was at Woodstock?" Daniel looked up from his phone with something resembling curiosity. "Yeh?" Wasting no time (now that I had his attention), I launched into a story that bears repeating during the 57th anniversary of the Woodstock Music and Art Fair from Aug. 15-18, 1969. The six of us (four friends, my sister Tobi and myself, at the ripe...
Oprah Winfrey didn’t ask me for diet advice. Nor did Kirstie Alley, although I had hoped to give some tips to the Cheers actress. TV weatherman Al Roker was also on my radar at one time. Like many people who struggle with weight gain, I went through cycles of losing pounds and gaining them back repeatedly. This column is my first attempt to share my own research and weight-loss success story. Of course, you should check with your doctors for guidance and advice about proper nutrition and...
Kidney Bean, Potato, Onion Stew 6 servings Chayote squash, originally from Mexico, is about the size of an apple. It is a light green and has a mild flavor with usually one small seed. It is good chopped and steamed with your favorite seasonings as a side dish. It is often used in stews and soups. This vegetarian stew has lots of fiber. 1 lb. kidney beans soaked overnight or 3 15- oz. cans, drained 1 cup vegetable broth 1 chayote squash, diced 1/2 carrot, peeled and diced 3 red orange, or...
Larry Uldis Lapins, age 84, a resident of Altamonte Springs, FL, was born on Sept. 20, 1941, in Riga, Latvia and passed away on Aug. 17, 2026. He was a 1960 graduate of Lake View High School in Chicago, IL and graduated from Hunter College in New York in 1962. Larry worked over 50 years with Hertz Corporation, climbing the corporate ladder, finally settling down in Altamonte Springs, Fl, as a regional fleet manager. Coming to the United States from his home country of Latvia, Larry pursued...
Marvin Guttman, 83, of Apopka passed away Monday, Aug. 17, 2026, at AdventHealth Orlando surrounded by his family following a brief illness. Mr. Guttman was born Feb. 3, 1943, in Newport News, Virginia to the late Harry & Annette (Elconin) Guttman. He and his wife moved to the Orlando area in 1982 coming from Cleveland, OH. He is the former owner of Marvin Guttman Furniture Sales. Mr. Guttman is survived by his loving wife of 63 years, Toby (Green) Guttman of Apopka, Florida; devoted children,...
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...
