Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 29
(JTA) — In 2001, Yom Kippur fell on Sept. 26, two weeks after the terror attacks that brought down the World Trade Center. By then, the major denominations had already written special prayers to be said during Yizkor, a prayer service in memory of the dead. The Reform movement posted a prayer in the style of the liturgy said for Jewish “martyrs” and Holocaust victims during the traditional service. “Remember all those who were lost in the terror of that day,” it read. “Grant their families peace and comfort for Your name’s sake.” Yom Ki...
(JTA) — It’s been days since Hurricane Helene struck her community, and the CEO of Jewish Greenville still doesn’t know who is OK and who still needs help. “It’s very much a crisis situation for many people here,” Courtney Tessler told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, about the Jewish community she serves in South Carolina’s upstate region. “Our focus right now is just confirming the safety and identifying the immediate needs,” she said. “Without power and without Internet, and with spotty cel...
(JNS) - A readout of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's address at the start of the Security Cabinet meeting on Oct. 1 (translated from Hebrew): "Citizens of Israel, at the start of my remarks, I send condolences to the families of those who were murdered in the abhorrent terrorist attack in Jaffa and my best wishes for a quick recovery to the wounded. As in the missile attack, there was also a murderous guiding hand behind this terrorist attack-it came from Tehran. This evening, Iran...
(JTA) — Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz both expressed unstinting support for Israel during a vice-presidential debate that took place just after Israel came under Iranian assault. But the two men tussled over whether Donald Trump, the former president who is the Republican presidential nominee, would be as reliable a steward of the U.S.-Israel relationship as President Joe Biden has been. On Tuesday, Biden sent in reinforcements to help counter the Iranian onslaught and warned of “severe consequences” for Iran. In their first...
On Oct. 1, over 25 participants gathered for the Jewish Chamber's monthly networking breakfast, which was themed to celebrate Rosh Hashanah. The event offered a mix of professional networking and cultural enrichment. Jewish Pavilion Senior Services helped set the festive atmosphere, providing traditional high holiday decorations, including items like apples and honey. Attendees enjoyed round raisin challah, honey cake, homemade apple kugel, baba ganoush, lox for bagels, and other traditional...
Jewish Pavilion Senior Services is thrilled to announce the success of its 2024 online auction, which raised over $32,000 — the highest amount in its history! With nearly 400 people registering to participate, this year’s auction not only exceeded its fundraising goals but also set new records for community engagement. The funds raised will directly benefit seniors and their families, helping JPSS continue to provide essential services, enrichment programs, and support that makes a meaningful difference in the lives of so many. From social eve...
The Kristallnacht Commemorative Program will be observed on Sunday, Nov. 3 from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. The Center will present “Silent Witness: The Ten Commandments Stone of Egelsbach,” and will include the unveiling of the newly acquired original 800-lb. sandstone Ten Commandments tablet from the old synagogue of Egelsbach, Germany. This tablet stands as a powerful symbol of resilience amidst the persecution faced by the Jewish communities of Germany, from the stone’s installation in 1903 to its final journey from Germany to Florida in 2000. The exh...
(JTA) — After last school year’s pervasive anti-Israel protests, spring encampments, and an unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents on campus, Hillel International and campus Hillels have been working overtime to ensure that college and university campuses this fall are safer, more welcoming, and more inclusive for Jewish students as the new school year begins. “We know Jewish students are coming back to campus with hope and excitement, but also with real concerns and fears,” said Adam Lehman, Hillel International president and CEO. “The me...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden said he would speak with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about Israel’s intensifying conflict with Hezbollah in Lebanon, adding that a full-blown regional war must be avoided. “It has to be,” Biden said as he boarded Air Force One for Washington, D.C. “We really have to avoid it.” Biden on Saturday praised Israel’s targeted killing of Hezbollah terror master Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, saying the development had brought justice to his thousands of victims. “Hassan Nasrallah and the terrorist group he led, H...
(JNS) — On the same day that Iran fired some 200 ballistic missiles at the Jewish state and two Palestinian terrorists killed seven people in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, the U.S. State Department announced sanctions against two Israelis in Judea and Samaria whom Foggy Bottom accused of “undermining peace, security and stability In the West Bank.” The State Department said that the two are “a violent Israeli settler and the CEO and director of U.S.-designated Hashomer Yosh.” “The actions of these individuals have contributed to creating an environment...
(JNS) — On the eve of the Jewish year 5785, the Jewish population worldwide numbers 15.8 million, an increase of about 100,000 compared to 5784, according to data published by The Jewish Agency. Israel is home to 7.3 million Jews, compared to 7.2 million at the beginning of 5784, while 8.5 million Jews live outside of Israel—including 6.3 million in the United States and 2.2 million in other countries, according to the data based on research by demographer professor Sergio Della Pergola from the Hebrew University. “The existential relat...
Yeah, I’m celebrating. For the past two weeks, Israel (including the Mossad, IDF, and military intelligence) have shown unparalleled prowess and success in the global war on terror. First, thousands of Hezbollah beepers exploded on command. Then their walkie talkies. This is recognized as the most precise anti-terrorist operation ever. Before and after, Israel took credit for the targeted assassination of nearly all the top Hezbollah leaders. Israel targeted and destroyed countless Hezbollah missiles and launchers, along with other weapons a...
(JNS) — Hey, does anybody still make New Year’s resolutions? Maybe you do, and yours goes something like mine, “My New Year’s resolution this year is to keep the resolutions I made last year!” My friend said that his goes like this, “My New Year’s resolution is to have a fat bank account and a skinny body. Last year, I got mixed up.” Most people I know have long stopped making New Year’s resolutions because they know it doesn’t work. They just go “in one year and out the other!” In much of the world today, especially for us Jews in Israel a...
(JNS) — Starting with the explosion of thousands of beepers and pagers of Hezbollah members in Lebanon on Sept. 17 and with the elimination of Hezbollah senior leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sept. 27 along with practically all of the highest-ranking members of Hezbollah’s Radwan Force, Israel is once again reclaiming its vaunted military might that seemed to have atrophied on Oct. 7. This might constitute a sea change in the Iranian grip on the Lebanese political landscape and could have ramifications for the Islamic Republic of Iran, thr...
(JNS) — At almost the exact moment that Israeli forces were eliminating Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon—one of the world’s most notorious mass murderers of Israelis and Americans—left-of-center American Jewish groups were delivering a letter to Israel’s ambassador in Washington, demanding that Israel make more concessions to Hamas. The juxtaposition of the two developments shines a light on the extreme tone-deafness that has overtaken many on the U.S. Jewish left. The letter that the liberal groups delivered to the Israeli e...
By (JNS) — Despite all that’s happening in Israel, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, three U.S. senators—the chairs of important senate committees—are outraged over the behavior of some Jewish residents of the Shomron and Yehuda. The three—Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the committee; Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence—sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen expressing their growing...
(JNS) — Among many journalists who seem to know little about Jewish history or international law, New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Patrick Kingsley and unrelenting critic of Israel Thomas L. Friedman (among others) share a common misnomer. They repeatedly refer to Israel’s “occupied territory,” located in what became known as Jordan’s “West Bank” after Israel’s war of independence in 1948. Two decades later, following its stunning victory in the Six-Day War, Israel regained the biblical homeland of the Jewish people in Judea and Samar...
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...
(JTA) — A Jewish student at the University of Pittsburgh was assaulted off campus early Friday morning by a group of six to eight men who used antisemitic and anti-Israel language during the attack, according to the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. A police report posted on Friday said the student told police that the group saw his Star of David necklace and then began making derogatory comments about Israel. The men and the student then began arguing, the report says, at which point at least three of the men “began punching and kicking him, causin...
(JTA) - At this point, Gabi Hasin had grown used to fleeing his home ahead of missile fire from Lebanon. A resident of the northern border city of Kiryat Shemona, Hasin has spent the past year on the move, relocating seven times to keep himself and his family out of harm's way. So when he packed his bags and moved south again over the past couple weeks - this time from the northern city of Tiberias to Jerusalem - it was the least of his problems. He's taking sleeping pills for the first time in...
(JTA) - A Jewish nonprofit that distributes mezuzahs has been deluged with thousands of requests after a Catholic sitcom actress launched a campaign encouraging people to put up the ritual object in support of the Jewish community. Patricia Heaton, known for her starring roles in "Everybody Loves Raymond" and "The Middle," announced the campaign Monday as part of her nonprofit, The October 7 Coalition, a Christian group founded after the Hamas attack in Israel last year to support the Jewish...
During the 2023 Daytona 500 race, a group of Nazi wannabees called the Goyim Defense League displayed antisemitic messages from the “Welcome to Daytona Beach” walkway, drawing attention to themselves standing on the bridge, waving to cars passing below. They also projected vile antisemitic messages on the Daytona International Speedway façade. Shortly after this event, residents in Ormond Beach awoke to find plastic baggies by their front doors, which held wood chips that were supposed to repr...
It’s genetic. It’s a life-time achievement award. It’s inevitable. Choose all or some or one of the above. Along with cataracts, high cholesterol, worn-out knees, and numerous aches and pains that come with age, we can add hearing loss. According to a 2021 study by the National Institute for Deafness and Other Communication Disorder, approximately 28.8 million American adults need hearing aids. Unfortunately, only one in six does something about it. My husband decided to be one of them. Larry’s problems began a few years back. His inabili...
(JNS) — An Islamist insurgency in Mali may destroy the country’s Christian communities. Recently, Islamic militants there told Christians that they must support the militants’ activities through money or soldiers—or flee their homes. In August, the organization Open Doors, an organization that monitors Christian persecution on a global scale reported that: Christians in central Mali have been given an ultimatum by terrorists, either help in their fight against the country’s military power or leave their homes and communities. Pastors in the Mo...
