Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 26 - 34 of 34
(JNS)—In a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, 69 organizations asked for assurances that taxpayer dollars will not be used toward supporting the BDS movement. The letter was prompted by two pro-BDS events recently hosted by academic departments at the University of Michigan and New York University that are part of the Department of Education-designated Middle East Studies National Resource Centers. The event sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies at Michigan was held 48 hours after a gunman shot a...
(JNS)—A man was killed and two women were seriously injured when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip struck an apartment building in Ashkelon in southern Israel by the Mediterranean. United Hatzalah volunteer EMS teams and ambulance crews helped evacuate and treat a woman in her 40s who was seriously injured as a rocket hit her apartment building late Monday. A man, believed to be in his 40s, was also found dead in the rubble. The death is the first reported fatality in Israel since the rocket barrage began. “When I arrived at the scene of the...
William S. Epstein, age 84, of Fern Park, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, at Cornerstone Hospice at Orlando Regional Medical Center. He was born on May 8, 1934, in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of the late Aaron and Clara Porten Epstein. Bill was a graduate of the University of Maryland and worked as a statistician for the U.S. Department of Labor. He was an Orlando area resident since 1998, and is survived by his niece Karen M. Berlin (Alan Fischler) and nephew Gregory (Robin) Berlin and his brother-in-law Donald (Dorothy) Berlin. He...
Shelley Weissman, age 86, of Apopka, passed away on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2018, at Hospice of the Comforter in Altamonte Springs. Born in Randolph, New York, on Feb. 11, 1932, she was the daughter of the late John and Euphee Brooke Porter. Shelley was a high school graduate and worked as legal stenographer. On Aug. 17, 1972, in New York, she married Herbert Weissman, her husband of more than 46 years who survives her. In December 1979, Shelley and Herb relocated to the Orlando area from New York. They were members of the Congregation of Reform...
By Ben Sales NEW YORK (JTA)-After a mass shooting in a heavily Jewish area shocked the nation, Rabbi Yakov Saacks felt like his Long Island congregation was at risk. So the rabbi installed 17 cameras on the synagogue's exterior that can zoom in to read numbers on license plates, as well as indoor cameras at each entrance. He began covering the windows with Kevlar, at around $800 each, making them shatterproof in case vandals hit them with rocks. And he hired armed security guards to protect the...
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled that he supported a Palestinian “state-minus,” wherein Israel would maintain a military presence across Israel and the West Bank. Netanyahu also said in a question-and-answer session Wednesday at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America that he suspended the compromise over the egalitarian section at the Western Wall last year because otherwise it would have meant the collapse of his government. Near the end of his remarks, he cited an op-ed publi...
Early elections in Israel? (JTA)—Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday that he is confident his coalition partners would not topple his government. Netanyahu’s office issued a statement amid early election talk within the Jewish Home party, which can force Israel to go to the ballots a year earlier than planned by leaving the country’s governing coalition. The prime minister “has confidence in the sense of responsibility of cabinet ministers not to make the historic error of toppling a right-wing government,” the statement said,...
(JNS)—As the latest attacks against Israel from Hamas have taken place in Gaza, the U.S. State Department condemned the terrorist group and reaffirmed that Israel has the right to defend itself. “We are aware of reports of ongoing rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza against targets in Israel,” a State Department official told JNS on Monday. “We condemn these attacks and call for their immediate halt. We stand with Israel as it defends itself against these attacks.” According to the Israeli D...
(JNS)-Jewish and pro-Israel groups are reacting to the latest round of violence in Gaza after Hamas launched nearly 400 rockets into Israeli civilian areas since Sunday, following the death of an Israeli special-forces soldier. On Monday night, one man was reported killed and two women injured in the city of Ashkelon when a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit their apartment building. In response, the Israel Defense Forces reacted by striking 20-plus Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets...