Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 70
(JNS) — A 2,200-year-old pyramid-shaped structure from the days of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid rulers is being unearthed in the Judean Desert in one of the richest and most intriguing archaeological excavations in the area, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. The mammoth structure discovered just north of Nahal Zohar near the Dead Sea is made of hand-hewn stones, each one weighing hundreds of kilograms, the state-run archaeological body said. Two millennia old historical documents written in Greek on papyrus, bronze coins, w...
(JNS) — The family of freed hostage Yarden Bibas has raised more than $1.7 million via a public fundraising campaign since its launch on Saturday night, exceeding its initial $1,371,086 goal within 24 hours. The campaign, which was launched via the Lehosheet Yad (Lend a Hand) foundation, aims to help Yarden Bibas’s recovery and establish a memorial for his wife, Shiri, and two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were murdered in captivity in the Gaza Strip. As of Monday morning, 30,979 people from all over the world had donated to the cam...
(JNS) — The Tikva Forum of Hostages’ Families on Tuesday called for “all or hell”—meaning the return of all the remaining hostages held by Hamas at once, or the resumption of “massive” Israel Defense Forces pressure on the terrorist group. “The past weeks have proven what we have been saying all along—Hamas will never return all the hostages willingly,” the group said, referring to the terror group’s refusal to agree to a U.S. proposal to extend the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire through Ramadan and Passover. “Only massive militar...
(JNS) — The Israeli-American Council announced on Monday that it had been unanimously voted into the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, calling it a “historic milestone for our community.” “Of the hundreds of Jewish organizations in the United States, fewer than 50 are officially labeled ‘major’ and allowed to sit at that table where policy is fashioned for the entire Jewish world,” stated Elan Carr, the CEO of the Israeli-American Council. “Whether addressing our shared challenges, combating antisemitism or...
(JNS) — Omer Wenkert, 23, described the brutal abuse he endured in the Gaza Strip at the hands of his Hamas captors. “They just hit you like crazy with everything they can find, whether it’s hitting your legs with the barrel of the gun, punching your face, kicking you all over. With each punch you pass out and the next one wakes you up,” said Wenkert in a televised interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News. On his birthday his captor had opened the door and awakened him in a state of “complete madness, insanely aggressively,” he recalled. “That w...
(JNS) — Two Israeli pizzerias made the Top 50 Pizza list in the Asia-Pacific region for 2025, the influential guide recently revealed. The pizza industry guide, which divides its rankings into several categories, such as Europe, America and Asia, held an awards ceremony at the Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Tokyo on Monday. The “New Entry of the Year 2025—Solania Award” went to NeoPolitan in Haifa, ranked at 25th place. Piedra from Jerusalem made the 37th place in the Asia-Pacific list and was awarded the best kosher pizza in the world....
(JNS) — New Yorker Rose Girone, the oldest known Holocaust survivor in the world, died on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at 113. Born in Poland, Girone fled Nazi persecution in 1939 with her husband, who had been incarcerated at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and baby daughter on a chance visa to Shanghai, which opened its doors to nearly 20,000 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and was one of the last open ports in the world. After the war, they immigrated to the United States in 1947. She ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, Queens, a trade t...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump shared a video message to him from American-Israeli Keith Seigel, who was freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Feb. 1, urging further efforts to release the remaining hostages. In the message, Siegel also expressed his gratitude for Trump’s ongoing support. Speaking in front of a ruined home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, from where the 65-year-old was taken during the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, Siegel described the massive destruction caused during the attack. “It’s hard to believe and comprehend what I...
(JNS) - The Empire State Building was lit orange on Wednesday night in memory of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, whom Hamas killed in captivity and who were buried earlier in the day in Israel. Some four-and-a-half miles north in Manhattan, anti-Israel Barnard College students took over an administrative building on campus. Classes were canceled, and a Barnard staff member was assaulted and hospitalized, Jewish Insider reported. Kassy Akiva, a reporter for Daily Wire, wrote that Barnard spokesperson told her that “a small group of m...
(JNS) - Israel on Saturday, Feb. 22, redeemed six living hostages from Hamas captivity in the Gaza Strip: Eliya Cohen, 27, Avera Mengistu, 39, Hisham al-Sayed, 36, Omer Shem Tov, 22, Tal Shoham, 40, and Omer Wenkert, 23. Cohen, Shem Tov, Shoham and Wenkert were all abducted during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, while Mengistu and al-Sayed were taken captive over a decade ago. During the release of the hostages, Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David were forced to watch...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday night ordered the military to conduct a "massive" counter-terrorism operation in Judea and Samaria, after three buses exploded near Tel Aviv and bombs were found on two others in what is being investigated as a coordinated attack. Netanyahu also instructed the Israel Security Agency and Israel Police to step up "preventive activities" against possible additional attacks across the country. Following a situational assessment on...
(JNS) — It is for Israel to decide whether to resume the war in Gaza or continue into the second round of talks with Hamas to free more hostages, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Feb. 21. Asked by Brian Kilmeade on Fox News whether he was “okay either way,” Trump answered, “I am.” Hamas is “so violent and vicious,” the president continued, “it’s a decision that has to be made; it’s a rough decision. One group [of hostages] came in so bad, it looked like [they came out of] a concentration camp in Germany,” Trump said in reference to Eli Shar...
(JNS) — The American comedian Jerry Seinfeld swiftly shot down an anti-Israel activist telling him he doesn’t “care about Palestine” when the online personality attempted to ambush him this weekend with a video, according to a clip posted on social media on Sunday. Instagram provocateur “Subway DJ” requested a selfie with Seinfeld outside an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live.” “Free Palestine,” the activist then said as he flashed a peace sign in the selfie with Seinfeld in the backdrop as the video rolled. “Mayb...
(JNS) — The three latest returnees from Hamas captivity in Gaza reunited on Saturday with their families in heartfelt scenes of elation and relief. American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, met with his wife, Avital, and his parents at the IDF’s Re’im camp just outside the Strip before being flown by helicopter to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan. During the reunion, Avital informed him of their third daughter’s name. She was seven-months’ pregnant when Dekel-Chen was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. “Do you remembe...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that he had instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare a plan to facilitate the voluntary departure of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip. The statement comes in the wake of U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal this week that Gaza’s population be relocated to Egypt, Jordan and additional countries. “The plan will include exit options at land crossings as well as special arrangements for exit by sea and air,” said Katz. “I welcome U.S. President Donald Trump’s bold plan. The res...
(JNS) — Below is the full text of the statement delivered by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Feb. 4, 2025: Thank you, Mr. President. I’m honored that you invited me to be the first foreign leader to visit the White House in your second term. This is a testament to your friendship and support for the Jewish state and the Jewish people. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House. That’s why the people of...
(JNS) — About 65 percent of the structures in the Gaza Strip were destroyed during the year-long Israel-Hamas war, littering the enclave with hundreds of millions of tons of scattered debris, Hebrew media reported on Tuesday. Experts estimate reconstruction would take at least 10 years and cost tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars, according to Israel’s Channel 12 News. The outlet commissioned Adi Ben-Nun, a Geographic Information System specialist and technical manager of the GIS center at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, to ana...
(JNS) - Idit Ohel, mother of Hamas hostage Alon Ohel, 24, gave an emotional interview to Israel's Channel 12 News on Sunday after learning details of her son's captivity, including that he is practically starved and in chains. The family recently discovered the state of Alon's captivity at the hands of Hamas from hostages released on Feb. 8. Eli Sharabi, 52, and Or Levy, 34 were held with him. Their medical condition was described as "poor" by Israeli doctors. Ohad Ben Ami, 56, was also...
(JNS) — Saudi Arabia’s government on Tuesday contradicted U.S. President Donald Trump’s statement that Ryadh may normalize ties with Israel even without the creation of a Palestinian state. Sitting alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Trump addressed Saudi-Israeli ties while answering questions from journalists on the subject. “Well, we’re going to see, and we’re dealing with a lot of people, and we have steps to go yet, as you know. And maybe those steps go forward, and maybe they don’t. We’re dealing...
(JNS) — The Trump White House has asked congressional leaders to approve about $1 billion in weapons sales to Israel, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing U.S. officials. The sales would include more than $700 million in 1,000-pound bombs (4,700 in total), along with armored bulldozers worth more than $300 million, the officials said. The 1,000-pound bombs, referred to as “general purpose bombs,” consist of 4,500 BLU-110s and 200 Mk-83s. Caterpillar D9 armored bulldozers also are part of the sale. Although they are used to defen...
(JNS) — Israel’s cabinet minister in charge of Jerusalem affairs on Sunday asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to increase security in the city ahead of the release of hundreds of Palestinian hostages in exchange for Israeli hostages in Gaza. Minister of Jerusalem Affairs and Jewish Heritage Meir Porush made the appeal in a letter he sent to Netanyahu and other members of the cabinet, Israel National News reported. “The regular deployment is insufficient,” Porush wrote, according to the report. “We must ensure that there is an ade...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump revoked a host of what he called “harmful” executive orders and actions under former President Joe Biden, including Executive Order 14115 of Feb. 1, 2024, which sanctioned Jews living in Judea and Samaria accused of “undermining peace, security and stability in the West Bank.” “The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices within every agency and office of the federal government,” Trump stated on Monday. “The injection of ‘diversity, equity and inclus...
(JNS) — The Israeli passport is the 19th strongest worldwide, according to a global ranking released last week. Israeli passport holders can now enter 170 countries without a visa, according to The Henley Passport Index, which measures the number of visa-free destinations available to holders of a given passport. The Israeli passport increased in strength from last year, when it was ranked 21st. Singapore tops the ranking of nearly 200 passports included in the index, followed by Japan, Finland, France, Germany, South Korea and Spain. The U...
(JNS) — The three Israeli hostages who returned from captivity in Gaza Sunday recalled in testimonies how they helped each other survive for 471 days amid uncertainty and lacking medical care, Israel’s Channel 12 reported. In statements vetted by the military censor and approved by the hostages for publication, they recalled living in underground facilities with little medical attention, tremendous uncertainty and, at times, despair. Emily Damari, who has a leg injury and lost two fingers on her left hand during Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attac...
(JNS) — A unique structure unearthed in Jerusalem’s ancient City of David was used for ritual practices during the time of the First Temple, according to a report published Tuesday. The site was uncovered 15 years ago on the eastern slopes of the City of David compound, just outside the walled Old City of Jerusalem. It includes eight rock-hewn rooms containing an altar, a standing stone, an oil press and a winepress, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Excavation director Eli Shukron wrote in an article published in the sci...
