Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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Chabad of Altamonte Springs continues to actively stand in solidarity with Israel, reinforcing its commitment to the Israeli people through a remarkable series of initiatives that engage the local community. This coordinated effort is a testament to the power of unity, compassion, and shared values that Chabad of Altamonte Springs, like the rest of the Chabad centers in Orlando, embody. On Oct. 9, Chabad of Altamonte Springs hosted an “Evening of Prayer and Solidarity” that brought together the...
(JNS) - The Hamas terrorist group may release 50 hostages with dual citizenship it holds in the Gaza Strip, "separate from any broader deal," The New York Times reported on Monday, citing an Israeli military source. Qatar and the United States are negotiating the release of abductees with dual nationality separately from those who have only Israeli citizenship, the report claimed. Israeli senior officials have previously said that Israel is not involved in any kind of negotiations related to...
(JNS) - U.S. President Joe Biden praised the Israeli people's wartime posture upon his arrival to the Jewish state on Wednesday. "To the people of Israel, your courage and commitment is stunning. I'm proud to be here," the American president said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greeted Biden at the Ben-Gurion Airport tarmac along with President Isaac Herzog and other senior officials, before heading to the Kempinski Hotel on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to speak to the media. "...
Heritage received word from Keith Dvorchik as to his “next steps” moving on from being CEO of Shalom Orlando. “After seven incredible years at The Roth Family JCC, The Jewish Federation of Greater Orlando, and Shalom Orlando ... ” he wrote, he accepted a position as a partner with New York-based Amplify Partners, a company that offers consulting services in the area of Development, Organizational Development, and Family Philanthropy. “I have the opportunity to work with friends and colleague...
Jewish residents all around Central Florida had the opportunity to participate in the celebration of Sukkot. Jewish Pavilion program directors took lulavs and etrogs into the communities so the residents would have an opportunity to say the blessing and give it a shake. While not every Jewish person grew up having this in their home each year, the joy and familiarity it brings to the faces of our eldest population is pure magic. — Lauren Sharfstein, program director...
The St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society will mark Veterans Day on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023, 11 a.m. at the St. Augustine National Cemetery, 104 Marine St, St. Augustine, FL 32084. A brief ceremony discussing the Jews who have been identified in the cemetery will be followed by gravesite visitations to those who are known to be Jews and others who are likely to be Jews including burials from the Spanish-American War era. All are welcome to this event. There is no charge. No advance arrangements...
Caregivers have must dispense medication in a safe and timely fashion. Navigating the different pill sizes, colors and dosages can be an intimidating experience. Elderly and infirmed clients may take a slew of pills that need to be doled out on a regular basis. Most medications are taken once or twice a day. It is a good idea to keep medications in a safe and secure place. Some medications have to be refrigerated, but most can be safely stored in a secure cupboard. Pharmacies have developed blister packs that link the pills with specific days...
(JNS) — Foreign Minister Eli Cohen will speak about the Hamas atrocities of Oct. 7 and Israel’s response at Tuesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting in New York. The minister will bring with him relatives of Israelis the terrorist group abducted and took to the Gaza Strip, the Foreign Ministry said. On Monday, the IDF said it had contacted the families of 222 hostages held by Hamas. Cohen will also participate in events in New York with the families of those kidnapped. He is also expected to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Antón...
(JNS) — A tent city is being built in Ramat Gan to house some of the more than 200,000 Israelis internally displaced by the war with terrorists from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. The Tel Aviv suburb’s Kfar Maccabiah resort complex will provide temporary shelter for 1,000 people evacuated from northern communities under fire from the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group in Lebanon, Amir Gissin, the CEO of Maccabi World Union, told Israel’s Channel 12. Families that evacuated southern Israeli communities close to the Gaza border are already stayi...
(JNS) — More than 2,000 ultra-Orthodox Israelis have asked to be enlisted in the IDF, in an unprecedented mobilization in the haredi sector. The volunteer recruitment follows Hamas’s murder of more than 1,400 Israelis and wounding of thousands of others on Oct. 7, the bloodiest one-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. About 150 haredim arrived at the IDF recruitment office at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan on Monday as the military begins to draft them as volunteers. Most of the volunteers, who ranged in age from their mid-20s to...
(JNS) — Capitol police took into custody more than 300 people under charges of illegally protesting, with three also accused of assault, on Oct. 19 after a rally in the U.S. Capitol building led by far-left groups. Participants wore black shirts and chanted “Jews say ceasefire now” and “Let Gaza live” while sitting in the Cannon Rotunda waving banners. Organized by IfNotNow and Jewish Voice for Peace—two of the most prominent leftist anti-Zionist Jewish groups—the activists received warnings about the criminality of Capitol protests. Aft...
It was one of the best, most clear and resolute speeches calling out the evil of Hamas, clearly branding them as terrorists, and making the case why Israel needs to defeat this Islamist enemy. “Hamas does not stand for the Palestinian people’s right to dignity and self-determination. (Hamas’) stated purpose is the annihilation of the state of Israel and murder of the Jewish people. They use Palestinian civilians as human shields. Hamas offers nothing but terror and bloodshed (with) no regard who pays the price.” At a time of war, one would e...
I wrote this originally in June of this year...it seems more appropriate now than ever When the Second Jewish Commonwealth was declared in 1948, there were Jews in America who were not sure whether to cheer or pretend not to care. 1948. What I call the “Sha Still Generation.” It was a time of meekness in the American Jewish psyche. A time when Jewish parents would take their young daughters to get their noses bobbed so they “wouldn’t look so Jewish.” When families changed their names from Cohen to Kane so they could more easily “fit in....
On Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, I sent the following e-mail [edited] to the White House: “Dear Mr. President, Your decision to unambiguously support Israel and the Jewish people in their hour of need after the horrendous, barbaric, and totally immoral invasion into Southern Israel by the Hamas terrorists this past weekend is deeply appreciated. Unquestionably, this decision is in the best interest of both the U.S. and the State of Israel. Terrorism, especially against the Jewish people and antisemitism at home and abroad must be vigorously c...
(JNS) — Let’s state a few things at the outset. Many Palestinians oppose Hamas and violence. Every possible effort should be made to protect civilians in the Gaza Strip. No one residing in Gaza would be in danger if Hamas had not launched rockets into Israel and committed a massacre of Jews not seen since the Holocaust. What else do we know about the people of Gaza? The people elected Hamas in the last election held in the Palestinian Authority, and surveys consistently have shown that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than P.A. hea...
Israel’s heart has been broken. At war once again against genocidal enemies, its people are shattered by shock, grief and horror. At time of writing, the number of those murdered has risen to 1300, with at least 2,315 wounded and more than 100 being held hostage in Gaza. The images of what happened will stay with us forever. Dozens of Israelis were gunned down in their homes and their cars. Elderly people and small children were slaughtered; women were raped; bodies taken into Gaza were paraded and desecrated; mothers with children in their a...
(JNS) — I have so many unanswered questions. I am free to ask them because I am not an Israeli being held hostage in Gaza. I am not one of the half-million Israeli refugees in internal exile in their own country. I’m not in a stalled-at-the-border IDF fighting unit (I only wish I were). And so I wonder: Have Israeli leftists finally been “mugged by (a terrible) reality?” Does anyone realize that their/our problems may be far greater than the mere presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? Are any of the chanting, drumming, “in your face...
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) — Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that Muslims and the “resistance forces” will “lose patience” if Israel continues to prosecute its war against the Hamas terror group. “If these [Israeli] crimes continue, the Muslims will lose patience. The resistance forces will lose their patience. No one will be able to stop them at that point…. This is a reality,” Khemanei said in a video address later posted to X. In separate posts, Khamenei called Israel an “evil monster” and described the “Palestine and Gaza” as “manifestati...
(JNS) - Excerpts from a recent CNN interview with Nikki Haley are being shared on social media with the claim that the Republican presidential candidate endorses a "plan to house up to one million Palestinians from Gaza." Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis said that Haley "shows an instinct on her behalf" to "cater to elite opinion," per his presidential campaign, which cited Haley's supposed "openness to admitting Gaza refugees to the United States. "I do think she's still suffering under the...
In addition to the community event at Lake Eola, which several Chabads hosted, Chabad of Altamonte Springs held a Challah bake, Torah study, fund raising and letter writing to show support for Israel....
(JNS) — A 73-year-old grandmother, her 43-year-old son and barely 10-month granddaughter. Three generations of one Israeli family brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 were laid to rest Sunday side by side, the infant sharing the same coffin as her father. In ceremonies across the country, a nation in mourning was burying its dead from the worst assault on Israel in half a century, and the most deadly one-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In many cases, the c...
(JNS) - Hamas rocket fire targeting Jerusalem interrupted the opening session of the Knesset's winter session on Monday afternoon, Oct. 16. The legislators exited the plenum for the parliament's hallway during the attack. MK Merav Ben-Ari of the Yesh Atid Party was at the podium when air raid sirens sounded in the distance. "I think there's a siren," Ben-Ari told Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who told everyone to go to the hallway. The second session of the 25th Knesset opened with a minute of...
(JNS) — “I came to Israel with a single message: You are not alone,” U.S. President Joe Biden posted on social media on Wednesday. As Air Force One returned stateside, some critics say the president should have left well enough alone, even as America’s close ally is at war. Biden’s several hours in Israel proved “a missed opportunity to show strength and secure the release of American hostages,” wrote the Republican National Committee. Biden barely mentioned the kidnapped Americans but did announce $100 million in new funding for Gaza, “shower...
(JNS) — The United Nations Security Council was scheduled to hold an emergency session on Wednesday morning following an explosion at a Gaza hospital that has set the Middle East on edge. Russia and the United Arab Emirates called for the open meeting shortly after the explosion, in the courtyard of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City, which according to Hamas sources killed some 500 Palestinians. The explosion rocked the hospital as Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired heavy barrages of rockets at southern and central Israel. Alarms sounded i...
