Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - Hamas has returned bodies of four Israeli hostages who were killed in captivity in Gaza - the final group of hostages to be released under the terms of the first phase of a ceasefire that began last month. The four hostages, all men 50 or older, were abducted in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Unlike previous hostage releases under the current ceasefire, their bodies were handed to Israel quietly, without a public ceremony early on the morning of Feb. 27. That stipulation came after Hamas...
(JTA) - "No Other Land," which chronicles Israel's demolitions in Judea of Masafer Yatta, won the Academy Award for best documentary feature. Taking the stage at the Oscars on Sunday night, two of the film's four co-directors - an Israeli and a Palestinian - used their acceptance speeches to call for Palestinian rights and a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "About two months ago I became a father, and my hope to my daughter: that she will not have to live the same life I...
(JTA) - Adrien Brody nabbed an Academy Award Sunday for his portrayal of an architect in "The Brutalist," marking the second Oscar for the Jewish actor. Mikey Madison, who is Jewish, also won best actress for her role in "Anora," which won best picture. Both of Brody's best actor wins came for portrayals of Holocaust survivors. In 2003, he received the best actor for his performance in "The Pianist," in which he played Władysław Szpilman, who was among a handful of Jews to survive the Warsaw g...
(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...
Shalom Orlando Come in costume to the Orlando Solar Bears hockey game on March 9. The Solar Bears will take on the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at the Kia Center, 3 p.m. Schedule of events include: 1:30 – 2:50 p.m., snacks and children’s activities; 2 p.m., doors open, 3 p.m. the game begins, and at 5:40 p.m. the Jewish Academy of Orlando Choir will perform and there will be a parade on the ice. Tickets are $22 each. For more information email Zipporah.Hruby@shalomorlando.org Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation Shushan Casino, March 8, at 7:1...
The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will host the annual Bunny Rosen Women’s Heart Health luncheon and fashion show at the Hilton Altamonte Springs, 350 Northlake Blvd, in Altamonte Springs, on Mar. 30 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. The luncheon benefits the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.The fashion show will feature clothing and accessories by Dillards of Altamonte Springs. The cost is $54 per person and sponsorships are available. Register for the event at https://hwzoa.networkforgood.com/events/81040-fl-fbr-orlando-bunny-ros...
In the Feb. 28 issue, the wrong caption was used with one of the pictures in the article. This is the photo with the correct caption....
(JNS) — Eighty years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lifted the immigration quotas for the only time during World War II and allowed almost 1,000 European refugees to enter the United States. The 982 men, women and children—874 of them Jewish—were housed behind barbed wire in Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y., about 40 miles north of Syracuse. They remained there for 18 months until Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, allowed them to become American citizens after first crossing into Canada and then returning to the United States. Now leg...
(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) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday hailed the island nation of Fiji’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem. “I commend the Republic of Fiji’s government for its historic decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Thank you, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, friend of Israel. Thank you, Fiji! tweeted Sa’ar. I commend the Republic of Fiji’s government for its historic decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Thank you, Rabuka had confirmed...
(JNS) — Legislation to fund an account that pays compensation to American victims of terrorist attacks was reintroduced Tuesday. The American Victims of Terror Compensation Act, which has Democratic and Republican sponsors in both houses of Congress, is designed to guarantee that victims who win judgments against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria and other state sponsors of terror can be compensated. “While we can never bring back the loved ones lost in state-sponsored terror attacks like 9/11, we must ensure they have the support they need to...
(JNS) — “Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief convert to anger. Blunt not the heart, enrage it.” — “Macbeth,” Act 4, Scene 3 The holiday of Purim is the most joyous of Jewish holidays and therefore our sages teach that when the month in which occurs, Adar, begins, joy increases. But given recent events, this year the joy of Adar may feel palpably less than in previous years. Many Israelis kidnapped on Oct. 7, 2023, are still hostages, continually brutalized and mocked, and the three that became the faces of that day’s treachery — S...
(JNS) — It was interesting to watch the bemused look on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s face during a Washington press conference as President Donald Trump floated his harebrained idea of deporting all Gazans. Yet the man who insists he is “not a vassal” quickly pivoted to praise Trump for an idea “that could change history.” Trump deserves credit for apparently abandoning the two-state solution embedded in his first-term Mideast peace plan. Some praised him for thinking outside the box, but creativity alone doesn’t make an idea...
(JNS) — The bodies of Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas, her young sons Kfir and Ariel, and octogenarian Oded Lifshitz were displayed by Hamas terrorists on a newly erected “stage” in the Gaza Strip, paraded around like trophies before a crowd of Palestinian Arabs, and handed over to the International Red Cross while music blared from loudspeakers. We have come to expect awful scenes like these by Hamas. Jewish hostages (living or now dead) have been marched through the streets of Gaza and handed over to the Red Cross. Some hostages were force...
(JNS) — Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that the last few weeks have been some of the most difficult since the trauma of the terrorist attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. For a split second, it seemed like the anti-Israel news cycle might calm down — and it felt like we were finally going to get a bit of a breather. But then the hostage swaps began. These exchanges shifted in nature when the terrorists could no longer parade our kidnapped civilians around, draped in green fatigues, as if they were captured soldiers. Muc...
(JNS) — Did you know that moving a few miles to temporarily get out of the way of gunfire constitutes an “exodus”? I didn’t either until I read the appalling headline on the front page of The New York Times on Feb. 18: “In West Bank, Israel’s Tactics Cause Exodus.” This was a thinly disguised attempt to invert Jewish history by headline writers. Look, it says, the Jews are doing to Arabs what Pharaoh did to the Jews! But while the Jews experienced an actual exodus in ancient Egypt, the Palestinian Arabs of today are undergoing nothing of th...
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) — The surviving member of the Bibas family, Yarden, shared a poignant eulogy at Kibbutz Nir Oz for the burial of his wife, Shiri, and their two children, Ariel and Kfir who were murdered by the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Yarden recalled his deep love for Shiri, remembering their first moments together and their bond as best friends, a wife, and a mother. He expressed deep sorrow and regret for not being able to protect them, especially during the tragic events on Oct. 7 when Gazans snatched them from their home. “I remember the...
Named after the villain, Haman, of the Purim story about Queen Esther saving the Persian Jews from extermination, the pastry now comes in many forms. Originally, it was named from the medieval poppy-filled pastry "mohntaschen," in German, poppy is "mohn" and "tash" is pocket. The name for German Jews became "hamantaschen," close to Haman's name. The triangles were supposed to represent Haman's hat, or some people say his ears, but Tirso De Molina's play, "El Sombrero de Tres Picos," talks about...
(JNS) - This year, as we have done for decades, my husband and I will celebrate Purim with a sumptuous meal and copious amounts of good drink. It'll be nothing compared to the 180-day banquet that Queen Esther is said to have hosted after the Jews of Persia were saved from Haman's evil plans, but it will be festive. And keeping with today's exhaustive list of medical advisories about food, it will probably be heart-healthy. Purim isn't exactly the time when we look forward to reshaping our diet...
Purim is a time for spiels, hopefully funny productions that recount the tale of the disobedient Vashti, the wise Mordecai, the nefarious Haman, the beautiful Esther, and the misogynistic Ahasuerus. As always, it will have a happy ending with the villain (BOO!) getting his due and the heroine saving the Jews as well as her marriage (Yay!) I've had the privilege of being in several spiels over the years, but the most life-changing occurred on March 18, 1973. A group of girlfriends and I attended...
(JNS) - "Looking at their scared frightened faces, begging to come out, wanting to be like their friends who got released, it is very hard to see your son begging for his life, asking to come out," Ilan Dalal, the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal, told JNS. On Saturday, Hamas published a propaganda video showing Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David at their friends' release ceremony from captivity in Gaza. Hamas compelled the two to watch the ceremony from inside a vehicle as Israel...
Rebekah McNarney, daughter of Lauren Roth and Michael McNarney, both of Orlando, was called to the Torah as a bat mitzvah on Saturday, Feb. 15, 2025, at Congregation Ohev Shalom in Maitland. Rebekah, 13, read the Haftarah and a Torah portion from Parasha Yitro. Her bat mitzvah project was to take over an annual project her brother started for his bar mitzvah in 2020. They collect stuffed animals and donations from the community, repair and clean the stuffed animals and match them with new...
(JNS) — The Oscar-nominated documentary “No Other Land” portrays the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through the microcosm of a collection of Palestinian Arab settlements called Masafer Yatta. In that cluster of makeshift villages, the film gives the impression that impoverished Palestinians confront the oppression of Israeli military demolition crews in an existential struggle to prevent the destruction of Palestinian homes, the displacement of their people and the theft of their land. But ultimately, we are told, the righteous Palestinian resis...
