Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Mrs. Barbara Ina Smith, 94, Orlando, Florida passed away peacefully Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, at Court Yard Care Center following a brief illness. Mrs. Smith was born Nov. 17, 1928, in Bronx, New York to the late Bernard and Etta (Friedman) Gerstman. Mrs. Smith moved to the Orlando area in 1978 with her late husband of blessed memory and were the owners of CNA Restaurant in downtown Orlando and then Smitty’s Restaurant. She closed Smitty’s after the passing of her husband in 1992. She then wor... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Biden administration is aiming to counter antisemitic discrimination in federally-funded transit systems, housing, food programs and other areas — one of the most major actions the White House has taken since it unveiled a far-reaching strategy to combat antisemitism in May. On Thursday, the administration announced that it is instructing eight cabinet departments to extend civil rights protections to victims of antisemitism and other forms of religious bigotry. The decision marks a broad expansion of the 1964 Civil Rig...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — As of November, Israelis will be able to enter the United States without a visa, a major change that Israel has long sought and that will ease travel for hundreds of thousands of its citizens. Israel’s entry into the Visa Waiver Program, which now includes 41 countries, means that Israelis traveling to the United States will no longer have to go through a months-long visa application process that carried the threat of denial. It also means that Palestinian-Americans living in the West Bank and Gaza will be able to enter Isr...
Israeli forces evacuate Samaria outpost; Four arrested (JNS) — Members of Israel’s coalition expressed anger on Wednesday after Israeli security forces evacuated a Jewish outpost erected near the community of Ma’ale Michmash in Samaria. Four Jews were arrested during the evacuation. Dozens of police and Civil Administration inspectors cleared out residential structures and an animal pen built on the hill. The outpost, Givat Sde Yonatan, established a few months ago in the Binyamin region of southern Samaria, sits on private Palestinian land....
(JNS) — In a television program this past July, Palestinian cleric Mahmoud al-Habbash asserted that Jews follow Satanism and “have left the path of humanity.” Indeed, he claimed, Jews are Satan himself. In an earlier broadcast, Habbash had called Jews “creatures that Allah created in the form of humans. They are cursed descendants of apes and pigs.” These gems and more have been documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Habbash also denies that Jews have any historical connection to the Land of Israel. He maintains, “There was no First Templ...
(JNS) — U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is facing criticism following his testimony for a Judiciary Committee hearing on Sept. 20 titled “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice” during which he was visibly emotional on several occasions. The committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), sought in the hearing to examine how the U.S. Justice Department “has become politicized and weaponized under the leadership of Attorney General Merrick Garland.” Garland noted his Jewish ancestry in his opening statement. “My family fled religi...
(JTA) - Germany has banned a neo-Nazi group after raiding the homes of its leaders across the country, in a move the government said "sends a clear signal against racism and antisemitism." The Hammerskins, a local spinoff of a group founded in the United States in the late 1980s, are accused of promoting criminal activities and of opposing the German constitution. According to a recent report from Germany's Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the group was the only the only re...
By Jackie Hajdenberg (JTA) — More than 80 years after one of Germany’s most prominent synagogues was destroyed on Kristallnacht, the Jewish community of Hamburg has taken ownership of the building’s site and is set to begin rebuilding it. The site of the Bornplatz Synagogue, a neo-Romanesque building dedicated in 1906 that had a 1,200-seat sanctuary and was once the largest synagogue in northern Germany, was officially handed over to leaders of the city’s Jewish community on Wednesday. At the ceremony marking that restitution, officia...
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old tomb of a courtesan, including among other things a well-preserved bronze mirror, has been uncovered on a major Jerusalem thoroughfare, offering rare evidence of the Hellenistic period in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The burial cave, which was discovered on a rocky slope aside Hebron Road and near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, included the cremated remains of a young woman alongside a box mirror in a perfect state of preservation, the...
This story will be updated. (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Le... Full story