Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - The Israeli military has rescued two hostages in the southern Gaza city of Rafah, the second such rescue since Hamas took hundreds of Israelis captive on Oct. 7. The overnight rescue operation, which was announced in the early hours of Monday morning, Israel time, comes as the Israel Defense Forces are shifting their focus to Rafah, a city on the border with Egypt where there are currently more than a million Palestinians. The rescue operation also comes as negotiations toward a...
When Alon Fishman visited Israel in early January on a group trip, it wasn't his first time in the country. But Fishman, 23, had never seen Israel like this before. When his Birthright Israel group arrived at the Western Wall, they found it uncharacteristically empty, and the plaza featured a new memorial with the names of the 1,200 victims of the Oct. 7 attack. For Fishman, a native of Rockland County, New York, the muted visit was a poignant reflection of the times - and a powerful emotional...
(JNS) — An Israeli army reservist stumbled upon an ancient Assyrian scarab amulet while hiking in northern Israel’s Nahal Tabor Nature Reserve during a day off, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. “I received a two-day leave from the reserves and decided to take advantage of the two sunny days for a trip,” said Erez Abrahamov, 45, a resident of Paduel. “During the trip, I saw something shimmering in the ground. At first, I thought it was a bead or an orange stone. After I picked it up, I noticed that it had engraving...
Director-general of the Ethiopia National Project, Roni Akale, will enlighten the Central Florida community about the Ethiopian-Israeli community and its progress in assimilating into Israeli culture. ENP works to ensure the full integration of Ethiopian-Israelis into Israeli society, in a unique and special partnership with global supporters, the Goverment of Israel and the Ethiopian-Israeli community itself. At informative meeting, Akale will discuss ENP’s endeavors in Ethiopian-Israelis education, empowerment and impact, and wartime r...
Actor and Oct. 7 hero, Yadin Gellman, will be at several Chabads in Central Florida to share his story, "The 12 Longest Hours of My Life." Gellman grew up in Jerusalem during the second Intifada. The difficult experiences he endured, led him to become a combat soldier in the IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal unit. Gellman fought bravely in many battles and special operations until 2019 when he left the army and pursued a career in acting. On Oct. 7, 2023, during the Hamas massacre on Simchas Torah,...
February is the month for love and the Rosen JCC has all the activities adults will love this month! Community Mah Jongg The next date to meet to play Mah Jongg will be Feb. 22 at 11:30 a.m. To register and learn more dates, visit www.rosenjcc.org/mahjongg. Paint & Sip Party The Rosen JCC is offering a Paint & Sip Party. Sign up for Feb. 24, 7 p.m. – 11 p.m. and register www.rosenjcc.org/art. Adult Clay Class The Rosen JCC is now offering an Adult Clay Class on Wednesday’s weekly Feb. 28-April 10, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Learn more and register www...
RAISE employees take a cookie break The RAISE employees aren’t always working and learning. Recently they had a wonderful time at a cookie decorating get together. Over eight families enjoyed working learning proper techniques to create wonderfully decorated cookies. Purple Tulip Artisan Cookies’ co-owner Holly Kluger demonstrated step by step how to make the cookies look professionally decorated. The cookie decorating class gave the RAISE employees and their families an opportunity to pra...
(JNS) — For the United Nations’ point man on the Middle East, all options are on the table when it comes to the future of Israel and the Palestinians. “I am very sure of one thing: The divide and the distrust that has come out of this conflict has made it necessary to look at the options that we thought were dead,” Tor Wennesland, the U.N. special coordinator on the Middle East peace process, told reporters in a rare press briefing on Wednesday. The Norwegian longtime diplomat said that the “one-state reality” that many critics of Israel deem...
(JNS) — Death may be the ultimate fate of us all, but it comes in many forms. In Chicago in recent years, all too often it has come from a bullet amid gangland turf wars and skyrocketing violent crime. In southern Israel on Oct. 7, it came for 1,200 men, women and children on a single day after hours of raping, torture and bodily mutilation at the hands of Hamas and Palestinian terrorists; for the 240 captives dragged back to the Gaza Strip by the invaders, the horror has continued. Brandon Johnson, not even a year into his first term as mayor...
(JTA) — French President Emmanuel Macron presided over a somber ceremony in Paris on Feb. 7 to honor the 42 French nationals murdered during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. France flew relatives of the victims on a special flight to the ceremony, held in pouring rain in the courtyard of Les Invalides, the national memorial where Napoleon is buried. Each victim was represented by a photograph, and three empty chairs were placed to represent the three French nationals who remain hostages in Gaza. The names of each victim appeared on a l...
(JNS) — Israeli leaders are considering the idea of exiling Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar in exchange for the release of all hostages held by the terrorist group and an end to its governance of the territory. Six Israeli officials and senior advisers confirmed to NBC News on Feb. 8 that Jerusalem would be willing to allow the exit from Gaza of the mastermind of the Oct. 7 massacre. Sinwar is believed to be hiding in the vast tunnel systems underneath Khan Yunis and Rafah, surrounded by hostages used as human shields. In addition to S...
Speaking at a press conference in Israel in the midst of another whirlwind Middle Eastern trip to seek a resolution to free the 136 hostages held in captivity by Hamas, Israel’s war on Hamas, and presumably reducing the immediate threat from Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Iran in general, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a series of remarks that were foolish, and not conducive to a resolution of any of these. It’s shocking and embarrassing that the U.S. Secretary of State would do so, not just because it shows his foolishness on full dis...
(MEMRI via JNS) — In two recent articles published by Saudi website Elaph, Palestinian writer Majdi Abd al-Wahhab directs harsh criticism at Hamas, stating that its Oct. 7 attack against Israel brought nothing but disaster upon the Palestinians people. The following are excerpts from the articles, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute: Jan. 9, 2024 article Anyone who sees the destruction in Gaza, in terms of human lives, buildings, and on the economic, financial and psychological levels, cannot but pray to Allah and ask him t...
(Gatestone Institute) — The Associated Press recently made headlines by falsely claiming that the Israeli campaign against Hamas “sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history” and was even worse than “the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II.” The Washington Post argued that “Israel has waged one of this century’s most destructive wars in Gaza,” while The Wall Street Journal contended that it was “generating destruction comparable in scale to the most devastating urban warfare in the modern record.” That’s all the more...
President Biden should be thanked for his executive order to sanction four settlers because, in doing so, he essentially undercut its premise, that there are “particular high levels of extremist settler violence.” He has recognized that only .001 percent of the 517,406 Jews living in the West Bank are engaged in such violence. This gives a better indication than media reports of the true extent of the problem. More names may be added, but it will still represent an infinitesimal fraction of the people his administration has demonized. More imp...
(JNS) — International Holocaust Remembrance Day has perhaps never been more difficult to observe. It should be a day to contemplate the antisemitism that murdered six million Jews. It should be a moment to reject viewing history through an opaque glass. It is a moment when we must embrace the moral clarity that prevent us from repeating the atrocities of the past. Instead, we are faced with a world that refuses to learn. Since Oct. 7, antisemitism has exploded despite the images of the atrocities that are now seared into our memories: The c...
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) — Israel Defense Forces soldiers operating in the heart of Khan Yunis in southern Gaza discovered a large tunnel, one where Hamas had held a around a dozen hostages, the military revealed on Wednesday. Troops from the IDF’s 98th Division, working alongside combat engineers from the elite Yahalom unit, located the approximately 1,000-yard-long tunnel while exploring an underground labyrinth composed of numerous branches. On Jan. 21, the IDF announced that the 98th Division unearthed and destroyed a nearby tunnel branch of similar size. The...
(JNS) - As the Good Book says ... The musical "Fiddler on the Roof" first proclaimed Shalom Aleichem to Broadway audiences in 1964, with Zero Mostel belting out the iconic "If I Were a Rich Man" song as Tevye the Dairyman, the father of seven daughters (five of whom have roles in the play). Bea Arthur played Yenta in the production, whose Boris Aronson-designed sets evoked Marc Chagall's shtetl paintings. Sixty years later, Tevye's misquotations muddying the Torah, coupled with his witty...
(JNS) - During a fundraising trip to New York City on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden encountered protesters brandishing "Genocide Joe" placards who disrupted traffic and at one point stalled his motorcade. Biden attended a meeting of nearly 20 business leaders at the home of Larry Linden, who previously worked as a partner at Goldman Sachs, where he warned that former President Donald Trump would "undo everything we've done" and "we can't let that happen." The president reportedly also...
(JNS) - Mosab Hassan Yousef, also known as "The Green Prince," the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, has joined Israel's public diplomacy campaign amid Israel's war against the terror group. Yousef, who rejected terrorism and went to work helping fight against it, arrived in Israel and toured the areas of the Oct. 7 massacre in the Western Negev. Referring to Hamas's Charter calling for the genocide of Jews, he said, "The people that wrote the Hamas Covenant are a bunch of...
Palestinian terrorists in northern Samaria opened fire on Tuesday on the northern community of Kibbutz Meirav, located inside pre-1967 Israel. There were no injuries in the attack, but one home was damaged when a bullet penetrated a window. Israeli forces in the area returned fire, and troops launched a manhunt for the terrorists. “They fired a burst. One bullet hit our house,” kibbutz resident Oren Henig told JNS. Henig, who is director of the Liba Center, a group seeking to strengthen the Jewish identity of the state, has been serving for...
Encourage caregivers to familiarize themselves with some basic tips to help maximize the safety of the seniors in their care while minimizing the risks associated with electricity. Electrical accidents are a leading cause of home fires every year. Electrical fires are more common in older homes with aging electrical systems. Tips: 1. Verify that the home’s electrical system is in compliance with the most up to date electrical codes. Contact a licensed electrician to conduct a quick home electrical safety inspection. The electrician should d...
Jared Genser, a Washington, D.C.-based international human rights lawyer, has extracted hostages and political prisoners from some of the world's worst dictatorships - usually in one-off deals following years of negotiation and on a rare occasion involving large sums of money. But he's concerned that piecemeal dealmaking with rogue actors encourages more kidnappings. So, Genser is proposing a new multilateral approach to fighting hostage-taking by nations like Iran, Russia, China, Venezuela,...
(JNS) - Friends, family and supporters gathered on Feb. 7 at the Nahum Gutman Museum of Art in Tel Aviv to mark what would have been Shani Louk's 23rd birthday with an exhibition of work that runs through Feb. 21. On Oct. 7, Louk became a symbol of Hamas's unfolding atrocities as terrorists paraded her lifeless body on a pickup truck through the streets of Gaza, with crowds cheering and spitting on her lifeless body. "We wanted to keep Shani's memory alive through her passion for dancing and...
