Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 16 of 16
A delegation from Orlando will join thousands of proud American Zionists at the Global Conference for Israel for a weekend filled with camaraderie, inspiration, and riveting speakers who exemplify Israel's positive contributions to the world. The annual multi-day spectacular event, best known for showcasing the pride and beauty of Zionism, providing attendees with practical tools to be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to antisemitism, and sharing first-hand accounts about the...
In a landmark agreement for both institutions, the Jewish Capital Alliance of Central Florida, Inc. and the TOP Jewish Foundation, Inc., announce the execution of a Memorandum of Understanding to expand the mission of providing low-cost Impact Loans to local Jewish institutions. The MOU establishes an outline to jointly market, manage, and fund loans to Jewish organizations throughout greater Central and West-coastal Florida. In addition, TOP will provide investment management of JCA’s $3.2MM capital portfolio. Both JCA and TOP contribute d...
The Holocaust Memorial Resource & Education Center of Florida announced that it has hired Emily Sterling as its interim CEO. Sterling's first day at the Holocaust Center was July 22. Sterling replaces HMREC Chief Executive Officer Talli Dippold, who accepted a leadership position at an out-of-state nonprofit organization and stepped down at the end of June. Leading the organization since 2022, Dippold expanded the reach of the Holocaust Center's educational offerings - solidifying core programs...
MILWAUKEE - Shabbos Kestenbaum remembers the first time he felt lonely because he held an unpopular political opinion. The year was 2008, and Kestenbaum was 9 and a student at a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, where he lived. In a school journal, he decried the Iraq War and extolled a young senator running for president on a platform of opposing it. "I remember with my dad, we bought a yard sign saying 'Barack Obama' in Hebrew," Kestenbaum recalled in an...
Tisha B’Av is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. On this day, both the first and second Holy Temples which stood in Jerusalem were destroyed: the First Temple by the Babylonians in the year 423 BCE, and the second by the Romans in 69 CE. In honor of this day, Chabad of North Orlando will present a lecture titled “The Archaeological Claim to Jerusalem.” The talk will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 7 p.m., in Nate’s Shul 1701 Markham Woods Road in Longwood. It will be a multimedia present...
Since 2007, Dan Pollak has been directing operations for the Zionist Organization of America at their Washington, D.C. office where his role is to help educate members of Congress, their staff, and other government officials on the relationship between the United States and Israel as well as on policy issues relating to the Middle East. Pollak is coming to Orlando on Sunday, Aug. 11, to present two topics at two different synagogues. At 1:30 p.m. he will be at the Southwest Orlando Jewish Congre...
(JNS) — The Knesset plenum voted overwhelmingly on Wednesday in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state. The resolution, put forward by MK Ze’ev Elkin of the New Hope-National Right party with support from the Yisrael Beiteinu Party and the Land of Israel Caucus, passed by 68 to 9. The Land of Israel Caucus, the mission of which is to strengthen Israeli control of Judea and Samaria, includes members from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition as well as Benny Gantz‘s centrist National Unity P...
(JNS) — Israel’s new “Air Force One,” dubbed Wing of Zion, took off for the U.S. Tuesday on its first official flight, but will have to return to the Jewish state to pick up the prime minister. The double transatlantic round trips on the $200,000 flights come amid a reported tiff between the Prime Minister’s Office and Israel Aerospace Industries over the size of the new plane, which can sit 60 passengers, fewer than the expected entourage of aides, security detail and journalists accompanying the premier. It was not immediately clear why...
(JNS) — Activist groups with ties to the Chinese Communist Party have disrupted U.S. Senate hearings and “have engaged in violent, antisemitic riots in many cities across the United States,” Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wrote last week to Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general. A U.S. citizen living in Shanghai with ties to the CCP has funded many far-left and pro-Hamas organizations across America, according to reports in The New York Times and Washington Free Beacon. They apparently did not register under the F...
(JNS) — Minouche Shafik, president of Columbia University, should either step down or be fired by the school’s board, the Coalition for Jewish Values says. The group, which represents 2,500 Orthodox rabbis, noted that Shafik allowed a dean to remain in his role after exchanging text messages mocking the panelists during an event on Jew-hatred. Three other Columbia officials involved lost their administrative roles, but remain on the payroll and the faculty. “The bigotry and double standards are blatant, and entirely at odds with the exper...
(JNS) — At what point does angry political discourse cross the line between legitimate impassioned advocacy and direct incitement to violence? It’s a question that’s been all too common in both the United States and Israel for the past generation. That is why acts of political violence—such as the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump this past weekend—can just as easily exacerbate the tensions within societies rather than help heal them. In seeking to understand how Americans can transcend their political divisions...
(JNS) — “The week that was” started with an assassin’s bullet missing former President Donald Trump. As Trump said: “It was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.” In his speech at the Republican National Convention, he asserted: “I’m not supposed to be here, I’m supposed to be dead.” Trump has not only internalized the profound and unmistakable providential intervention that saved him but has been brave and courageous enough to bring God back into the world. Unlike most politicians, who rarely if ever speak about God, Tr...
(JNS) — In the wake of the Hamas hostage crisis, a central and often-heard rallying cry has emerged from the Israeli and Diaspora Jewish communities: “Bring them home.” While this phrase is rooted in the profound desire to see our Jewish brothers and sisters safely returned, it inadvertently misplaces the onus of responsibility. Instead, the call should be: “Let them go.” This nuanced difference is critical, as it rightly places the burden on Hamas, the terrorist organization that took the hostages, rather than on the Israeli governmen...
It makes no sense. Why would Donald Trump pick as a running mate a white man from Middle America who’s just like him? Wasn’t Trump supposed to broaden his base to increase his chances of winning in November, and pick someone like a woman or a person of color or a more classic conservative? Instead of expanding his reach, Trump has doubled down on his ideology, choosing J.D. Vance, someone who once called him “cultural heroin” for Middle America while musing that he may be “America’s Hitler.” Evidently, Trump must have been so eager to buil...
(JNS) — One of the ways to tell apart moderates and extremists is checking the brakes. The other is the constant infighting. And the two are connected. Extremists have no brakes so their movement is always going to new extremes. In my book “Domestic Enemies: The Founding Fathers’ Fight Against The Left,” I quote a telling line about the French Revolution. “‘As the revolution becomes radical, the Right disappears, and the Left of one assembly becomes the Right of the succeeding assembly,’ Mignet explained, describing how each new political inc...
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., 407-298-465a0. 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...
