Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 39
(JNS) — Menachem Levy says he is “used to death.” A member of Tel Aviv’s chevra kadisha (“sacred society”), he is among a relatively small number of experts in Israel responsible for preparing tens of thousands of bodies each year for Jewish burial. Yet, he says, nothing he has ever seen prepared him for the jarring scenes he encountered in Israel’s south, where he joined with volunteers, led by ZAKA, in collecting the bodies and body parts of victims of Hamas brutality for burial. “Ther...
(JNS) — In an apparent attempt to reassure Gaza City residents after Israeli tanks were seen on Monday on Salah al-Din street, the city’s main highway, Hamas announced that “a number of tanks reached an agricultural area and escaped from the place under the fire of the resistance.” However, the Israel Defense Force’s pressure on northern Gaza continues. The army is still advising residents to move to the south as it continues to strikes Hamas positions and strongholds. In contrast to the initial days of fighting, Palestinian rescue services wer...
Walmart’s philanthropic arm announced Friday that it would be sending Israel’s Red Cross $1 million in response to the “horrific and inhuman” Hamas attack on Israel October 7 that set off the ongoing war that Israel declared in order to destroy the terrorist organization. “As you all know, throughout these horrific and inhuman attacks by Hamas, Magen David Adom has played a critical role in providing medical aid to victims,” said the statement by the Walmart Foundation to is business associates....
Scams After a major storm or hurricane you may get a door-to-door sales person telling you that your roof is damaged and their company can repair it after you settle a claim with your insurance company. Someone may even go on top of your roof and break a few shingles and then try to pass it off as storm damage. Another insurance fraud scenario might be when a contractor disappears. Someone may offer to remove your fallen tree but needs to rent a particular piece of equipment in order to remove it and he may ask you to pay half of the fee...
The rise in hate crimes in the U.S. related to the Israel-Hamas war is deplorable. Jews in this country are asking themselves difficult questions—should they wear a star of David or take down their mezuzah? Still others are asking if it is safe to identify themselves in public. A 6-year-old Muslim boy was killed in Chicago, and a prominent Jewish lay leader in Detroit was stabbed to death outside her home. In our own state, synagogue congregants were faced with shouts of “kill the Jews.” This is unacceptable and we must not tolerate these...
Neal Blaher sent this email out to update what has happened with Noah’s GoFundMe: (1) The GoFundMe Campaign through which you may have made a donation has been cancelled for the reasons previously mentioned, namely, the military purpose of Noah’s fundraiser. Whether this rule is new and a product of what is now happening in Israel I don’t know, and it really doesn’t matter at this point. (2) Those who made donations will receive refunds in 1 to 3 business days. Refunds should include the hefty fee they charge. If not, please let me know so I ca...
The Rosen JCC is full of events for the entire family. November offers: Saturday Night Out — This is the perfect chance for parents to plan a night out as we come up on the busy holiday season. Parents can drop off children on Saturday, Nov. 11 from 6 p.m. -11 p.m. Children get a night full of games, playground time, pizza and a movie. This event does fill up so make sure to book early www.rosenjcc.org/sno. School Out Days — This month OCPS will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. The Rosen JCC School Out Days will offer childcare on Mon...
The Congregation Ohev Shalom Sisterhood is hosting the 11th Annual Mah Jongg Tournament on Sunday, Nov. 19, from noon to 5 p.m. This is a community wide event and all are welcome. The entry fee is $40. There will be prizes won and food available. RSVP by Nov. 15. For information, contact Lila Tinkoff, 703-626-6106 or moraht@cfl.rr.com....
(JTA) — Three Ivy League universities have announced steps to fight antisemitism after weeks of turmoil on their campuses and others. Harvard University has put together a group of advisors to address antisemitism on campus, and both the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University announced that they would convene task forces on antisemitism. The announcements come as those schools and many others have contended with complaints that their administrations have not taken sufficient action to protect Jewish students or condemn Hamas f...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Younger voters are less likely to back Israel, support among Democrats for Israel’s conduct has declined and Americans overall are wary of being drawn into a Middle East war. Those are three takeaways from a series of polls on Israel, the Palestinians and the war in Gaza that have been published in the more than three weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. In that attack, Hamas terrorists killed 1,400, wounded thousands, took more than 200 captives and sparked a war in which Israel’s stated goal is to depose the terro...
(JNS) — Israel does not have the right to defend itself, Russia’s representative to the United Nations said on Wednesday. The United States and its allies are hypocritical for talking “about Israel’s alleged right for self-defense, which, as an occupying state, it does not have, as was confirmed by the [U.N.’s] International Court [of Justice] consultative ruling in 2004,” Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya told a U.N. General Assembly special session on the Israel-Hamas war. Israel declared war on Hamas after thousands of terrorists from Gaza storme...
(JNS) — In the past weeks, anti-Israel protests on college campuses and in the streets of major cities have continued and grown in size. In Europe, the numbers of those expressing “solidarity with Palestine” are even greater as hundreds of thousands marched as Israel began its ground offensive inside the Gaza Strip. The images of massive throngs of individuals waving Palestinian flags and yelling insults about Israel and Jews have been widely published and broadcast. So, too, have accounts of incidents in which Jews were subjected to intim...
(JNS) — On Oct. 7, the Palestinian terror group Hamas committed the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Two of the most prominent and deplorable reactions to the slaughter have been the antisemitic denial of this crime and widespread media bias against Israel. A careful analysis of both phenomena exposes the absurdity of two antisemitic myths: That “all Jews are liars and are not to be trusted” and that “Jews control the world media.” Denial of the crimes seems to stem from the antisemites’ need to disbelieve anything Jews say. They s...
(JNS) — The curtain has finally been lifted on the raging antisemitism that has taken hold of college campuses over the course of decades. While it has festered ever since leftists, Marxists and other Jew-haters took over academia after their stint protesting the Vietnam War and other American transgressions, campus antisemitism is finally being covered by the media. Thus, it is now impossible to ignore. Undeniably and inexplicably, the frequency and number of rabid, protesting Jew-haters on campuses is far greater since Hamas’s genocidal att...
(JNS) — There are regular news accounts of children in Gaza being indoctrinated via United Nations Relief and Work Agency schools to dehumanize Jews, while portraying Israel as completely lacking in legitimacy. The role this played in the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre may well have been decisive. IMPACT-se is the leading organization making this terror indoctrination in Gaza and Palestinian Authority schools accessible to English-speaking audiences. You can find examples on their website. Most Americans I know, when they hear about the brainwashing o...
(JNS) — The concept of proportionality in warfare is well-defined. It measures civilian casualties and collateral damage against military necessity. There are people who don’t like that, who prefer to think that every operation in an ostensibly “civilian” area and every civilian casualty is a war crime, but it isn’t. Anyone who says otherwise is either ignorant of or lying about international law. There is another concept in warfare that is less well-defined: the motivation of the parties to the conflict. It is more of a “you’ll know it when yo...
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) — Antisemitic incidents across the globe, including violent ones and online hatred, increased significantly between Oct. 7 and Oct. 25 compared to that span last year, according to a report from the Israeli Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism, the Jewish Agency for Israel and the World Zionist Organization. In the three weeks since Hamas terrorists attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the number of antisemitic events rose 500 percent compared to the same period in 2022. A third of the new incidents recorded took place in the U...
This past Sunday, Oct. 29, marked Temple Israel’s First Annual Book Fair and Corned Beef Sandwich Day, and whether measuring books, beef, or bucks, the event was a success. Thousands of books were donated over the last several months and up to the day of the event, which was held in Temple Israel’s Roth Social Hall at 50 S. Moss Road in Winter Springs. Organized by fiction, nonfiction, and children’s categories, books filled nearly a dozen tables, including one for miscellaneous media such as ga...
On a train to Auschwitz, 15-year-old Eva made a promise to her brother, Heinz Geiringer. If he did not survive the camps, Eva promised to retrieve the paintings and poetry Heinz hid under the floorboards of his attic hiding place. Heinz Geiringer's story sits in the shadow of the better-known "Diary of a Young Girl." After the war, Eva became the posthumous stepsister of Anne Frank when her mother married Anne's father. While the world knows Anne's story, this film introduces Heinz, his...
This story was produced as part of the JTA Teen Journalism Fellowship program. (JTA) - After her husband left abruptly to join his army unit, Meytal Blumenthal Gordon realized she still hadn't disassembled her sukkah, the temporary structure the family put up during the Sukkot holiday at their home in Jerusalem. She wasn't physically capable of doing so alone. "Two sweet boys, teenagers, came and they took down the sukkah and helped me organize it," Blumenthal Gordon said. "We actually had a...
The Jewish Pavilion's recent online auction, which ran from Oct. 22 to 27, 2023, has proven to be a resounding success, with over 300 bidders coming together to raise a remarkable $30,000+. This achievement is a testament to the incredible dedication and generosity of the Jewish Pavilion's supporters, board members, and donors. What sets this auction apart is that all 375 items featured in the event were generously donated by board members and donors. This unique aspect ensures that every...
(JNS) - The messages kept coming in to Kibbutz Holit's emergency WhatsApp group. "Save us, save us," "Where is the army?" "They are trying to burn down the houses" and "There's gunfire." A 7-year-old girl reported that she was hiding in a closet; a 15-year-old reported that his parents were killed and that he was shot in the stomach; a woman reported that she was suffocating from the smoke in the safe room of her burning house. And a 91-year-old Holocaust survivor huddled in the safe room of his...
(JTA) — Israeli forces rescued an Israeli soldier from the Gaza Strip, the first such successful operation since Hamas invaded Israel on Oct. 7, and the first since the terror group assumed control of the territory in 2007. “Last night, our forces liberated Pvt. Ori Megidish from Hamas captivity,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday in a statement. “Ori was abducted on the black morning of October 7th. Welcome home Ori! I commend the [Shin Bet security service] and the IDF for thi...
Mr. Matthew (Mendel) Greenberg, 35, passed away peacefully Saturday, Oct. 28, 2023, at Advent Health Altamonte Springs following a brief illness. Mr. Greenberg was born May 30, 1988, in Orlando, Florida and a lifelong resident. Mr. Greenberg is survived by his devoted mother, Dawn Robb and stepfather Richard Robb of Altamonte Springs, Florida; brother, Samson Robb of Orlando, Florida; uncles, Allan Ornstein of Altamonte Springs, Florida and Steven Ornstein of Lake Mary, Florida; aunts, Marilyn Greenberg of Lake Worth, Florida and Susan...
