Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Students Supporting Israel at the University of Central Florida has arranged a walkout/protest on Thursday, Jan. 18, starting at 10:07 a.m. to support the Hostages in Israel. The marchers will meet in front of the library, at 9:30 a.m., hold a moment of silence at 10:07 a.m. and march around the library, through the student union, and along the Memory Mall to the Addition Financial Arena. As of Jan. 18, the hostages will have been held captive for 104 days. Jan. 18 is also the first birthday of...
(JNS) - Israeli forces have completed the destruction of Hamas's military capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, Israel Defense Forces spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said in a press briefing on Saturday night, three months into Israel's war with the terrorist group. "We have completed the dismantling of Hamas' frameworks in the north of the Gaza Strip, and we will continue to deepen the achievement and strengthen the barrier and the defense elements at the border," Hagari said. He added...
(JNS) — Operation Israel, a U.S.-based nonprofit, has provided more than $7 million worth of supplies, medical equipment and protective gear to IDF soldiers since Hamas launched the current war with its massacre of 1,200 people on Oct. 7, the NGO said on Thursday. Since then, the organization has received requests from nearly a thousand IDF units and provided some 10,000 soldiers with a total of more than 50,000 items, including ceramic vests, ballistic goggles and tactical gear together weighing over 66,000 pounds (30,000 kilograms). The group...
(JNS) - Kindertransport survivor Walter Bingham, recognized by the Guinness World Records as the oldest living working journalist, celebrated his 100th birthday in Jerusalem on Jan. 4, 2024. Born Wolfgang Billig in 1924 in Karlsruhe, Germany, Bingham escaped Germany after Kristallnacht in 1939 by way of the Kindertransport, which sent nearly 10,000 unaccompanied children, most of them Jews, from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland and the Free City of Danzig to Great Britain. Bingham...
In mid-December, Central Florida was experiencing a cold snap, and I decided to make chili. I had the canned tomatoes and chopped green chilis and the soy meat crumbles for the recipe, and I had all the ingredients for cornbread, a must whenever I made it. Once I checked my pantry, however, I realized I was out for canned beans. No problem! I had been meaning to use up the dried red kidney beans tucked away for a while. What I quickly realized that the “while” was at least 9 years. Yes, as evi...
“A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” Documentary Screening On Jan. 21, 2024, at 2 p.m. at Shalom Orlando, 851 N Maitland Ave, Maitland, the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center will present its Continuing Discussion Series: Crucial Conversations for a Unified Florida. The film “A Tree of Life: The Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting” delves deep into the lives of survivors, victims, and their families, offering poignant firsthand accounts of a shattered community’s resilience. This documentary sheds light on societal...
Palestinians captured by the IDF in the Gaza Strip are angry about the way Hamas used civilians to protect themselves and would prefer Israeli rule as the soldiers have treated them better, according to recordings of interrogations released by the IDF. “I felt that we are human shields,” said Muhammad Darwish Amara, a terrorist from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad organization. “Why would we protect them? We also want to be saved.” The man, who looked to be in his 20s, said that Hamas forces had forced him and others to go with them instead...
Hearing the inspiring story of Saul Dreier, a Holocaust survivor who worked in Schindler’s Factory and survived three concentration camps, on Jan. 24, 7 p.m., at Chabad Lubavitch of North Orlando, 1701 Markham Woods Rd., Longwood. Also enjoy the melodies of the Holocaust Survivor Band, which Dreier founded. The cost is $25, early bird is $20 by Jan. 16. Space is limited For more information and to RSVP, call 407-636-5994 or visit www.jewishnorthorlando.com/band....
(JTA) – A federal judge in Iowa has blocked much of a state law forbidding school libraries from stocking books depicting “sex acts,” in part because he said it was keeping a classic Holocaust memoir off shelves. U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Locher granted a preliminary injunction against the law, Iowa Senate File 496, on Friday, just before a Jan. 1 deadline for schools to begin enforcing it. The “staggeringly broad” law, he wrote in his opinion, would prevent public schools from stocking “non-fiction history books about the Holocaust....
(JNS) — Israel’s Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked the government’s “recusal law“—an amendment to Israel’s Basic Law: The Government—from taking effect until after new elections are held. In its 6-5 ruling, the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, argued the law was “clearly a personal amendment” meant to shield Netanyahu from the consequences of violating a 2020 conflict of interest agreement, and therefore constituted an illegitimate abuse of the Knesset’s power to pass Basic Laws. The delay was supported by former c...
(JNS) — U.S. spy agencies verified Israeli claims that Hamas and another Palestinian terrorist group used Shifa Hospital in Gaza City as a command center and to hold hostages, The New York Times reported on Tuesday. In late November, the Israel Defense Forces released extensive video evidence of terror tunnels under Shifa Hospital—the Gaza Strip’s largest medical facility—saying it “unequivocally” proves the modus operandi of Hamas, “which systematically operates from hospitals.” The terrorist group held at least three of the estimated 240 h...
(JNS) — In the end, not even the support of former President Barack Obama and one of his former cabinet members was enough to save Claudine Gay from being forced out as president of Harvard University. Nor did the initial support of the Harvard Corporation itself, the endorsement of much of the Harvard faculty or the student newspaper allow Gay to remain in office at one of the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions. After a month of controversy that began with her appalling testimony in front of Congress on Dec. 5, along with the pre...
(JNS) — Forty-five years ago this month, a revolution was underway in Iran. It was called an Iranian revolution but its leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had a more ambitious project in mind: the founding of a new Islamic empire that would project power throughout the Middle East and far beyond. In 1989, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei succeeded Khomeini as “supreme leader” of the misleadingly named Islamic Republic of Iran. Like his predecessor, he has repeatedly and relentlessly vowed “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” And he’s elaborat...
(JNS) — I have a secret that I’ve never told anyone before. For more than 20 years, it’s been too embarrassing and traumatic to revisit. But the time has come to share the story. Believe it or not, the whole situation arose because I was completing a college assignment. I studied at the University of Rhode Island and, for the most part, loved every minute of it. The education was classically liberal, although it seemed that the student body was not as politically motivated as, say, the Ivy League schools. In my senior year, I took a commu...
(JNS) — In his final book, “No Room for Small Dreams,” former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres wrote: “I have spent most of the better part of my life in pursuit of peace, and in doing so I have learned … making peace is not a simple endeavor. It is a constant struggle. But its complexity should not overshadow its purpose.” Today, Israel is at war with the terrorist group Hamas in the pursuit of long-term peace, and Shimon Peres’ words are more important than ever. Though the world expressed its horror at Hamas’s inhuman Oct. 7 massacre...
(JNS) — While antisemitic riots in support of Hamas are breaking out in cities across America, few if any such protests seem to be taking place in the Arab or Muslim world. One does not hear about outbreaks of violence in support of Hamas in the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Jordan. In that part of the world, one can find support for Hamas only among America’s enemies like Iran and its terrorist proxies: Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen and gangs of jihadis in Syria and Iraq. There is a good reason for this: Our all...
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, 9 a.m., 407-647-3...
(JNS) — At least 100 Iranians were killed and scores of others were wounded on Wednesday in two reported explosions at a commemoration ceremony for slain Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in the city of Kerman, some 600 miles southeast of Tehran, emergency services said. Local media cited officials as claiming the blasts were the result of “terrorist attacks.” Several gas canisters exploded at the entrance to the cemetery, according to Nournews, a news outlet with close ties to the regime. The explosions took place 10 minutes apart, accor...
(JNS) - Hamas terrorists murdered about 100 members of Kibbutz Be'eri and visitors on Oct. 7. Of the 30 who were kidnapped from their homes, 19 have been released and the body of Judith Weiss was recovered. As of this moment, 10 kibbutz members are still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip. Members of Be'eri who returned from Hamas captivity, returned to the devastated kibbutz this week to pay their respects to their neighbors and friends who were murdered or are still being held hostage. Oren...
(New York Jewish Week) - Jewish outfielder Harrison Bader is headed back to New York, this time as a member of the New York Mets. The 29-year-old Bronxville native agreed to a one-year, $10.5 million contract with the Mets Thursday, becoming the team's first Jewish player since Kevin Pillar and Robert Stock donned the blue and orange in 2021, according to data compiled by the Jewish Baseball News site. Bader's father, who is Jewish, told the Forward last year that his son is considering...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration condemned calls by two Israeli government ministers for Palestinians to be removed from the Gaza Strip. Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the president of the Union for Reform Judaism, also condemned the call. The criticism comes as gaps remain between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over who will govern Gaza on the day after Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas, the terror group that controlled the territory prior to its Oct. 7 invasion of Israel. While Biden has pushed for the Wes...
(JNS) — Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday reiterated his support for the voluntary resettlement of Gazans, a day after being condemned by the U.S. for taking this stance. “More than 70 percent of the Israeli public today supports a humanitarian solution of encouraging the voluntary immigration of Gaza Arabs and their absorption in other countries, understanding that a small country like ours cannot afford a reality where four minutes away from our communities there is a hotbed of hatred and terrorism where two milli...
Stephen Silver and Sandra Grant of Winter Park, Fla., are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Jordan Paige Silver to Raymond Joseph Levy, son of Dr. Elie and Miriam Levy of Seattle, Washington. The bride-elect, granddaughter of Bert and Nancy Silver, graduated from Stern College/Yeshiva University with a bachelor’s degree in economics and mathematics, and a Master of Science degree in accounting. She is a senior tax associate with Ernst & Young in Manhattan. The groom-elect, g...
Soldiers serving in Gaza are experiencing unusual infections, including severe foot fungus, Yedioth Ahronoth has reported. Long campaigns with soldiers standing sometimes for hours at a time, and the compromised hygiene in Gaza have increased the risk of serious foot and leg conditions. Medical staff report many reservists are suffering from painful lesions on the feet and legs. Soldiers may not take off their shoes or change their socks for many days which also raises the risks of infections. In addition, many soldiers in Gaza complain of...
When a parent needs long-term care or nears the end of life, siblings may argue about a range of caregiving issues. Sometimes these disputes are bitter, and they can break up a family. In these situations, it can be helpful to have an objective professional in the room — someone to diffuse the anger, ask appropriate questions and find common ground. These people are called eldercare mediators, family mediators or adult family mediators. While most seniors face major adjustments when transitioning to an eldercare community, Jewish seniors f...
