Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 32
(JTA) - Tens of thousands of Jews around the world joined in a collective recitation of the Shema prayer on Thursday that was broadcast from Jerusalem's Western Wall to support the more than 130 hostages still held by Hamas. The event was organized by the Hostage and Missing Families Forum along with Aish HaTorah, a haredi Orthodox yeshiva and outreach movement. They timed it to the Fast of Esther, which commemorates the threat the Jews of Persia faced from their persecutor, Haman, during the...
(JTA) — In Jerusalem, a service omitted the loud noise-making associated with the holiday in order to accommodate soldiers traumatized by months of war. In Tel Aviv, bakeries peddled a triangular treat renamed for a contemporary villain, the leader of Hamas. And in Jewish communities around the world, costumes and holiday gifts paid homage to the more than 130 Israeli captives who remain in Gaza. Those adjustments marked some of the many ways that Purim, a generally whimsical Jewish holiday that celebrates an ancient victory over a t...
(JNS) - As part of truce talks taking place in Doha, Qatar, Israeli officials have agreed to release between 700 to 800 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for 40 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to various media reports. The inmates include 100 serving life sentences for murdering Israelis, Axios journalist Barak Ravid reported on Sunday, citing two Israeli officials. Ravid reported that the number stands at 700, while an Israeli official briefed on the Doha...
(JNS) — Hamas terrorists are regrouping at Gaza hospitals, forcing the Israeli military to conduct operations to eliminate these insurgencies, Channel 12 reported on Monday. An operation at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City has been going on for over a week and is expected to last another two days. According to the Israel Defense Forces, 170 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists have been killed in firefights in and around the compound and another 500 have been apprehended so far. A large amount of weapons have also been confiscated, many of which were...
The Jewish Heritage Festival, taking place April 7, is a phenomena in itself. Who knew it would be so successful from the get-go? What began in 2007 as a suggestion by 80-year-old Murray Steinberg to the Temple Presidents' Council for Volusia and Flagler counties that Volusia County should have a Jewish festival similar to the ones he went to in Richmond, Va., became the largest Jewish heritage and cultural event in the state. The ball to research this project was handed to Jeff Bigman, who...
On Thursday, March 14th, Oakmonte Village in Lake Mary echoed with the warm laughter and camaraderie of the Jewish Pavilion's annual Spring Breakfast. The event, sponsored by the Jewish Pavilion, brought together a diverse array of individuals, including staff, sponsors, and board members, in a celebration of community and connection. One of the highlights of the morning was the opportunity for everyone to introduce themselves and share their unique connection to the Jewish Pavilion. From...
(New York Jewish Week) – An Israeli hostage who was released from Hamas captivity said the support of New York’s Jewish community “gives us strength” as thousands of demonstrators gathered in Central Park on Sunday morning to mark 150 days since the captives were taken in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel. “This support is really moving,” said Keren Munder, who was taken from Kibbutz Nir Oz with other members of her family. She was released in November, during a temporary ceasefire, with her 9-year-old son, Ohad, and her mother, Ruti, 78. Her father,...
(JNS) — The pro-Israel writer who uses the pseudonym “Elder of Ziyon,” had the sense that Jewish community centers were downplaying Israel programming compared to what they had done in the past. So, he started looking at JCC websites at random to see if his impression was correct, the writer told JNS. “I saw lots of progressive-friendly events and very few Israel-centered events,” he said. “Then I decided to look at the mission statements.” “Most of them never had any mention of Israel, although the programming from 20 years ago was definit...
(JNS) — More than 450 Jewish executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing the speech film director Jonathan Glazer gave at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 10 when accepting his Oscar for Best International Feature Film, “The Zone of Interest.” “We refute our Jewishness being hijacked for the purpose of drawing a moral equivalence between a Nazi regime that sought to exterminate a race of people, and an Israeli nation that seeks to avert its own extermination,” the letter states, according to Variety....
(JTA) — Israel has killed Hamas’ third-in-command in the Gaza Strip, the United States confirmed on Monday. The killing earlier this month of Marwan Issa, alleged to be a mastermind of Hamas’ Oct. 7 invasion of Israel, is a significant achievement for Israel in its war on the terror group in Gaza, which is approaching the six-month mark. Issa served under Hamas militant leader Mohammed Deif and Yahya Sinwar, the terror group’s chief in Gaza. Israeli officials had said for more than a week that they were working to confirm that Issa had been ki...
(JNS) — The United States has a law called the Taylor Force Act that forbids the United States from transferring money to the Palestinian Authority so long as the P.A. transfers money to terrorists. Since 10 percent of the P.A.’s budget is used to reward terrorists and their families for the Jews the terrorists murdered in terror attacks, the United States has been unable to transfer money to the P.A. for the past few years. Unfortunately, even though the Biden administration knows that the P.A. pays terrorists, it still considers them a pea...
(JNS) — It’s been more than 160 days since Hamas terrorists invaded my homeland, Israel, the only home for the Jewish people, leaving behind a trail of blood, devastation and destruction. It’s been more than 160 days since innocent Israeli families have been torn apart, loved ones murdered, brutalized and taken from their homes. It’s been more than 160 days since husbands, wives, children, grandparents, family and friends have lived in agonizing uncertainty, not knowing whether their loved ones are still alive. It’s been more than 160 days sinc...
(JNS) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) has never been a friend of Israel. But her recent blood libel that Israel is committing an “unfolding genocide” in Gaza puts her squarely in the Jew-hating camp. AOC needs a refresher course on the Bible. God says, “I will bless those who bless you and him who curses you I will curse.” Evangelical Christians understand this better than any other group. I doubt AOC has ever heard it before. It’s a shame that AOC was educated by a self-hating Jew—Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). I missed my chance to...
(JNS) — As some of us have long feared and that has now become undeniable, Israel is fighting not one but two wars of defense against a malevolent foe. The first is against the axis of Iran and its proxies: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis of Yemen. The second is against America. The Biden administration is to construct a pier off the Gaza shore to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid. This week, Israeli TV’s Channel 14 reported that, astoundingly, the Americans have handed over the financing and management of this pier to Qatar, the...
(JNS) — Starting in the 1920s, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union pioneered the art of dezinformatsiya. A hundred years later, the Communist Party of China has developed disinformation into a high-tech science. You probably know how the Kremlin did propaganda: Thousands of KGB operatives would feed false information to journalists in dozens of countries to advance Moscow’s goals. Increasing anti-Americanism and anti-Israelism were high on the list. Some of those journalists were fellow travelers. Others were what the Soviets called “us...
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 the request of Germany, Israeli authorities transferred some 70 Palestinian orphans between the ages of 3 and 15 from the Gaza Strip to Bethlehem in Judea on Monday. The National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office reportedly approved the move without informing the Security Cabinet. Israel Defense Forces soldiers escorted the convoy of buses with Gaza orphans and their companions, which passed through the outskirts of Jerusalem on its way to Judea, Channel 12 News reported. The move was said to have been authorized follow...
(JNS) - The Hamas terrorist organization is disseminating fictitious figures for casualties in the current war in Gaza. That's the conclusion of a deep dive into the data published in Tablet magazine in a March 7 report titled "How the Gaza Ministry of Health Fakes Casualty Numbers." "The numbers are not real. That much is obvious to anyone who understands how naturally occurring numbers work. The casualties are not overwhelmingly women and children, and the majority may be Hamas fighters,"...
(JNS) — The 19th-century English novelist Charlotte Brontë is best known for her 1847 novel “Jane Eyre,” which is a staple of many U.S. middle and high school curricula. A new journal article addresses a different side of the Victorian writer—her focus throughout her career on Queen Esther, the heroine of the Purim story. Brontë had “a prolonged intertextual relationship with the ‘Book of Esther’” throughout her career, reaching a peak in her 1853 novel Villette, Channah Damatov, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Bar-Ilan Universi...
(JNS) - Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz sent a sharply worded letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday, charging him with a blatant disregard for the atrocities committed by Hamas against the Jewish people on Oct. 7. "Your dismissal of the heinous acts as documented in the recent U.N. report-acts which are still being perpetrated-is not only inadequate but also offensive," wrote Katz. "The world has been waiting five months for your actions. The necessity to declare...
(JNS) — The White House will present alternative plans designed to dissuade Jerusalem from carrying out a full-scale military operation in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah when an Israeli delegation visits Washington early next week, Axios reported on Tuesday. According to U.S. and Israeli officials, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was surprised when President Joe Biden proposed the visit. “The fear was that the negotiations over the hostage deal could collapse and then the Israelis will just go ahead with a Rafah invasion, which...
The scientific definition of laughing is a “successive, rhythmic, spasmodic expiration with open glottis and vibration of the vocal cords.” That doesn’t begin to tell the story of what laughing does for us. The bottom line is that laughing is medically beneficial. Laughter restores a positive emotional climate and a sense of connection between two people. Some researchers believe that the major function of laughter is to bring people together — the more social a person is, the more social support a person receives. Laughter corresponds to soci...
(JTA) - The 2023 MLB season represented a watershed moment for Jewish players and fans, as a record 19 Jewish players appeared in at least one big league game. That record, topping the previous high of 17 in 2022, is likely to be broken yet again this year. The new season begins in earnest March 28, following a two-game series in Seoul Wednesday and Thursday between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres. As Opening Day draws near, there are plenty of Jewish storylines to keep an eye...
(JNS) - Tel Aviv's bustling Dizengoff Street was lined with people garbed in Purim costumes on Sunday, even as the celebrations were noticeably muted compared to years past due to the ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. "This year feels different with everything that has been happening. There are people who aren't celebrating with us because they can't and there are those who will never celebrate again," Zach Blank, 28, who immigrated to Tel Aviv from the United States 10 years ago,...
(JNS) — Despite heightened tensions five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, Jerusalem remains committed to upholding freedom of worship, Israeli officials told foreign press at a special Ramadan briefing in Jerusalem on Tuesday. “We take pride in being a nation that welcomes all faiths and protects freedom of religion and worship,” said Tal Heinrich, spokeswoman for the Prime Minister’s Office. While Israel hasn’t placed any restrictions on Arab-Israeli Muslims who wish to visit the Temple Mount during the month-long holiday, age restriction...
