Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - The 2024 Paris Olympics conclude on Sunday, and at least 21 Jewish athletes from the United States, Australia and Israel will return home with some new hardware: The tally includes six golds (with one athlete winning two), seven silvers and five bronzes. The medal total of 18 is more than all but 15 countries. Israel in particular has racked up a historic medal collection, with seven total medals, its most ever in a single Olympics. Israel won three medals on Aug. 3 alone, its most...
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologized for the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas in which more than 1,200 Israelis were killed and more than 250 were taken hostage. “I am sorry, deeply, that something like this happened,” he told Time Magazine during an hourlong interview this week in Jerusalem. The interview, which Time published in full, was Netanyahu’s first major one with any news organization since Oct. 7. Eric Cortellessa, Time’s national political correspondent, interviewed the prime minister shortly after his visit to...
(JNS) — “Hezbollah and Iran have taken you, the residents of Lebanon, as their hostages.” This was the message Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant sent to the Land of the Cedars on Thursday. Gallant, a former IDF major-general, published the message in Arabic, saying, “Hezbollah and Iran have taken you as hostages for their narrow interests. If Hezbollah does not cease its aggression in the north, Israel will enter into a harsh war.” The minister in his missive called the 2006 Second Lebanon War an “adventure” that Hezbollah undertook. Be...
Starting in September, the Jewish Chamber of Commerce is excited to announce a new opportunity for professionals to connect and grow their networks. Held on the first Tuesday of every month from September through December, the Chamber will host a free monthly networking breakfast at One Senior Place in Altamonte Springs. The event will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 9:30 a.m. The breakfast gatherings aim to bring together members of the Jewish community and beyond, offering a relaxed...
From Sept. 22-27, the Jewish Pavilion Senior Services will host its 5th annual online charity auction, featuring an array of fantastic items. Bid on luxury hotel stays, fitness packages, sports memorabilia, gift baskets, event tickets, restaurant gift cards, homemade meals, self-pampering experiences, wine tastings, one-of-a-kind items, and much more. This auction is an excellent opportunity to treat yourself while supporting a wonderful charity and finding unique gifts. Easy Online Registration Registering for the auction is simple and does...
Aug. 17-18, Florida Kids & Family Expo — Join the Holocaust Center from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. at the 9th Annual Florida Kids & Family Expo on Aug. 17 & 18 at the Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Dr., Orlando. The Holocaust Center will be part of the largest kids and family expo in the United States. The Center will present the all-new VR tour of Anne Frank’s annex and Holocaust Center educators will be on hand to chat with. Sept. 14, Holocaust Center Benefit Concert — Opera Orlando will present the premiere of “Defiant Requiem:...
(JTA) — Pennsylvania’s Jewish governor, Josh Shapiro, hasn’t had the easiest week when it comes to, well, being Jewish. So, when it came to speaking publicly about Vice President Kamala Harris and the man she chose over him to be her own running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Shapiro had a point he wanted to make. “I lean on my family and I lean on my faith which calls me to serve,” Shapiro said at a rally Tuesday in his hometown, Philadelphia. “And I am proud of my faith!” Shapiro was among the top two or three contenders that Harris, the D...
(JTA) — J.D. Vance, the Ohio senator who is Donald Trump’s running mate, said he “feels bad” that Josh Shapiro, the Jewish Pennsylvania governor who was in contention to be Kamala Harris’ running mate, has to “run” from being Jewish to get the job. Harris, the vice president who is the Democratic presidential nominee, on Tuesday named Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate. Shapiro was in the top two or three in contention and was also subject to a campaign from the progressive left to keep him off the ticket because of his views on Isra...
(JNS) — Three deans at Columbia University, who the university’s president said exchanged messages that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes,” have resigned, the New York Times reported on Thursday, adding that a fourth, who participated “to a lesser extent,” remains in his job. “About time. Actions have consequences, and Columbia should have fired all four of these deans months ago,” stated Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee. “Instead, the university continues to send mixed sig...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — The White House condemned as “inflammatory” a pledge by Missouri Rep. Cori Bush to AIPAC that she would “tear your kingdom down,” implying that heated rhetoric like hers could inspire political violence. Bush, a member of the “Squad,” the group of far-left Democrats that is harshly critical of Israel, lost a costly primary on Tuesday to St. Louis County prosecutor Wesley Bell. Political action committees allied with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee spent more than $9 million against Bush, making the election th...
(JNS) — On paper, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro looks like a more or less perfect Democratic vice-presidential candidate: He is a generally well-liked moderate from a swing state and, following the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, displayed remarkable gravitas and compassion on a national stage. Shapiro is also Jewish, meaning he might help the Democrats shore up its Jewish support, which despite the conspiracy of silence imposed on the issue is fraying. However, many of us feel there was little to no chance t...
(JNS) — As a lawyer who spends his days defending the civil rights of Jews in education—usually public education, sometimes private schools or universities, but never Jewish institutions—reading about the triumph of anti-Zionism at the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College is in some sense an unsurprising experience. I see in these accounts all of the same hateful rhetoric I see from pro-Hamas agitators everywhere else—that Israel “is committing apartheid, ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism,” that the urban combat in Gaza is really “gen...
The fundamental theme of the Democratic Party throughout the now concluded primary electoral season was that the former president Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party under his leadership, presented a great danger to our freedoms and the democratic process. Therefore, Trump had to be defeated in the 2024 presidential election in order for our Republic to survive as a democracy. According to the Democratic Party’s electoral playbook only Joe Biden, and now Kamala Harris and the Democrats could save the nation from this alleged potential d...
(JNS) — With the dramatic assassination of Hamas political chieftain Ismail Haniyeh while a “guest” of Ayatollah Khamenei in Tehran; preceded by the assassination 12 hours earlier of Hezbollah kingpin Faud Shakr in Beirut; the confirmation of the death of Hamas military strategist Muhammad Deif from Khan Younis; the death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps commander Amir Hajizadeh near Damascus; and the attack on the Houthi stronghold at the port of Hodeida, Yemen, the world has learned that there are no limits to the long arm of...
(JNS) — The killing of senior Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh on July 31 is just another in a long line of anti-terror activities that take place outside the borders of Israel. For a country that struggles to manage mail delivery within its borders, delivering a concealed bomb to a hotel 1,000 miles away in Tehran didn’t seem to be a problem. Haniyeh’s and other recent assassinations are not one-off events, as Israel’s long arm of retribution for harm against its citizens has been seen before. Following the massacre of 11 members of the Israeli ath...
(JNS) — There have been several moments of celebration for Zionists over the past 150 years. The first Zionist Congress held in Basel, Switzerland in 1897 showed Zionists that their movement had fire in it. The Balfour Declaration signed in England in 1917 was one of the first public declarations of the right of the Jewish people to their own homeland. The United Nations’ Partition Plan vote in 1947 gave international validation to the establishment of a Jewish state. On May 14, 1948, Israel declared its independence. On June 10, 1967, the Six...
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) — As some 10,000 people braved the summer heat and rain in line to enter Temple University’s Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon for Vice President Kamala Harris’s first event with her newly-announced running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, half a dozen protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” and “Kamala, Kamala, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide.” The protesters, some of whom were clad in keffiyehs and masked, used bullhorns and yelled for hours in front of an essentially...
O mermaid bold, long may you hold the wreath you've won by swimming, And spoil for gents their arguments Regarding Votes for Wimmen! - "To a Lady Swimmer," William F. Kirk 1914. I love to swim. So, it is no surprise that I spent much of the first week of the 2024 Paris Olympics watching the swim competition. I cheered on Team USA as they won 25 medals in the 39 events in the Paris La Défense Arena. As I yelled "Go! Go! Go!" at the screen during the 1500 freestyle, Katie Ledecky's last race, my...
(JNS) - A medical opinion submitted in the case of the Hamas terrorist who was allegedly raped at the Israel Defense Forces' Sde Teiman detention center suggests that the IDF reservists suspected of attacking him could be innocent, Israel's Channel 14 News broadcaster reported on Thursday. The expert opinion-written by Professor Alon Pikarsky, director of general surgery at Jerusalem's Hadassah-University Medical Center and a board-certified general surgeon specializing in colorectal...
(JTA) - One of the most intriguing storylines for Jewish fans at the 2024 Paris Olympics has been the resurgence of Jewish excellence in fencing. Of the 20 fencers on the U.S. team, six are Jewish or come from Jewish families, and three have won medals. The success of gold medalists Jackie Dubrovich and Maia Weintraub and bronze winner Nick Itkin brings to mind a trio of Jewish fencers who medaled at the same Olympics nearly a century ago - at the so-called "Nazi Olympics." Ilona...
(New York Jewish Week) - Some of the most iconic American folk singers of the 1960s and '70s were Jewish: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, "Mama Cass" Elliot. But what if there had been an entire Jewish family of folk royalty, whose descendants became stars of their own respective eras? In her debut novel "The Singer Sisters," which was published on Tuesday, writer and native New Yorker Sarah Seltzer dreams up this fantasy and fills it with rock music history, family drama and lots of Yiddishkeit. Singer...
(JTA) - TEL AVIV - As she read the news about a looming attack from Iran and its proxies, Adi Tamir faced a series of dilemmas: Should she go ahead with her weekend vacation on the banks of the Jordan River? Living in a town near Israel's northern coastline - well within reach of Hezbollah's rockets - should she leave her house at all? She settled on a compromise: She wouldn't go on the vacation to Israel's border with Jordan - but she also wouldn't remain hunkered down at home. "I'm not going...
(JNS) — The United Nations announced Aug. 5 that nine staff members of the scandal-plagued UNRWA organization “may have been involved” in the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks in southern Israel, as its internal investigation into Israeli allegations came to a close. The U.N. Internal Oversight Services handled the months-long fact-finding investigation in the wake of Jerusalem’s stunning allegations that a number of UNRWA employees had taken part in the atrocities of Oct. 7. The contention had led to 16 countries suspending assistance to UNRWA,...
(Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. via JNS) — On May 15, 2024, the Israel Defense Forces announced that a Hezbollah drone had hit the Israeli Air Force facility that operated the “Sky Dew” High Availability Aerostat System. This strike was unusual in that it took place far from the Israel-Lebanon front. It drew Israel’s attention, and not only because it represented a gradual escalation in the reaction equation. The fact that the aircraft accurately hit its target was not, in itself, the worst aspect of the incident. Hezboll...
