Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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The Wilfrid Israel Memorial was never intended to be an interpretive memorial for the Gaza War. Yet, for some, it has become just that, the first De-Facto Gaza Memorial in Israel. The Gaza War — an unwanted, terrible war that necessitated Jews to rush into the fire to save Jews. The Wilfrid Israel Memorial, adjacent to the ancient Levite City of Tel Yokneam, was conceived and funded by the Jewish American Society for Historic Preservation. It is the creative work of noted Jerusalem artist Sam Ph...
By Ben Sales (JTA) — On Oct. 6, JTA led its morning newsletter with an article that had long been in the works — and that we expected to drive conversation in the days ahead: It was a profile of a Jewish dad in Florida who had pushed to ban hundreds of books — including Anne Frank’s diary — from school libraries. The ongoing saga of book bans in school libraries, and how they ensnared works about the Holocaust and other Jewish topics, is a story our reporter Andrew Lapin, and JTA more broadly, had focused on all year. For much of 2023, book ban...
(JNS) - Iris Haim on Wednesday told the Israeli soldiers who accidentally killed her son in the Gaza Strip on Oct. 15 that she doesn't blame them for the tragedy. "I wanted to tell you that I love you very much and I know that what happened is not your fault, it is the fault of no one except Hamas, may their names and memory be erased from the earth," she said in an audio message which has been distributed on social media. Her 28-year-old son, Yotam, along with Alon Shamriz and Samer Fouad...
(JTA) — Birthright Israel on Tuesday announced that it would resume its free, 10-day educational trips to Israel in January after suspending them amid the ongoing war with Hamas. Around 350 participants, students and young adults primarily from the United States, are expected to travel to Israel beginning the week of Jan. 5, 2024, the organization said in a statement. The 350 participants are a small fraction of the 23,000 Birthright had planned to send to Israel this year. Still, the resumption of the programs is a powerful symbol of a p...
School Out Days When schools close for the holidays it can be a magical time. But the school schedule doesn’t work for some working families. The Rosen JCC offers School Out Days. When OCPS schools close, School Out Days give families a place where kids can have a day of fun. Kids get games, playground time and other activities. The new year will kick off with School Out days on Jan. 3, 4, 5 and 8. Kids can be dropped off at 9 a.m. and picked up at 4 p.m. Extended hours are available. To learn more and to register, visit www...
Senior Program Director Susan Bernstein and Jewish Pavilion volunteers were busy celebrating Chanukah with senior residents of 10 assisted living facilities....
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The U.S. House of Representatives called on the presidents of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to resign after they declined to say clearly in a congressional hearing that their schools would take action against those calling for the genocide of Jews. The vote Wednesday night was 303-126, with three voting “present.” All but one of the votes against the resolution were by Democrats, including seven of the caucus’ 24 Jewish Democrats. The three voting “present” were likewise Democrats,...
(JNS) — Hamas should be removed from power when the conflict in Gaza ends, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a year-in-review press briefing at the State Department on Wednesday. “Everyone would like to see this conflict end as quickly as possible, but if it ends with Hamas remaining in place and having the capacity and the stated intent to repeat Oct. 7 again and again and again, that’s not in the interest of Israel,” Blinken said. “It’s not in the interest of the region,” he added. “It’s not in the interest of the world.” It...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces soldiers have recovered the body of hostage Elia Toledano, the IDF announced on Friday morning. The body of the 28-year-old Toledano was identified by medical and rabbinical officials as well as the Israel Police. The IDF did not indicate how or when he died. Hours later, the military announced that forces operating in Gaza retrieved the bodies of two more Israeli hostages: Cpl. Nik Beizer, 19, and Sgt. Ron Sherman, 19. Toledano was taken captive at the Supernova music festival at Kibbutz Reim. More than 360 p...
(JTA) — The Lincoln Memorial closed temporarily on Wednesday after its steps were vandalized with graffiti reading “Free Gaza” in multiple places. U.S. Park Police are investigating the graffiti, which was discovered Wednesday morning at the Washington, D.C. monument, according to ABC News. Crews were dispatched to clean up the vandalism. The steps of the memorial were splattered with red paint and pro-Palestinian messages, which the National Park Service said could take some time to complete. “National Park Service conservators have begun t...
There are reports circulating Israel of high-level talks involving negotiations to release more of the hostages brutally kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 and held captive in Gaza since. Reports of the hostages’ conditions from the 100+ who have been released are horrifying. They have suffered physical and psychological torture, starvation, held in underground cages in complete darkness, and suffered violent sexual assaults including gang raping women. Speculation is that many are dead, as some of the hostages’ bodies have been fou...
By 5 p.m. EST., on Tuesday, Dec. 19, the U.N. Security Council was supposed to vote on a resolution to stop the war in Gaza to deal with the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. By 3:45 p.m., word came out the vote was delayed for a day and is expected today, on Wednesday, if consensus is achieved. The reason for the delay is simple: the draft demanded a “cessation” of the war, effectively blocking Israel’s stated objective to decimate Hamas terrorist organization. And ignored Israel’s right to self-defense. The clearest indication that such a...
(JNS) — An Israeli mental-health professional shared with a small group of visiting Americans how the remains of those who were savagely murdered on Oct. 7 were lovingly handled. Breathing slowly, she described how ZAKA, the volunteer organization that handles victim identification after disasters and terrorist attacks, diligently goes about collecting body parts, and then arranges refrigerated transportation and ritual observances for the dead. She humbly said that when a deceased person was inappropriately handled, maybe bumped, the worker w...
I suddenly woke up this morning at 3:16 a.m., and knew I had to write this article. I recently went on a trip to Israel. The country is in the middle of a war and the people are grieving. I went with a Christian organization, CityServe, and also with the support of another Christian ministry. When I boarded the EL AL plane, a woman said “you know there is a war going on there, right?” The trip changed my life. I am a neurosurgeon in Orlando, and I have lived here since 1999. As I get older, I am constantly looking for a purpose to justify my...
(JNS) — Recently, I attended a dinner given by a major pro-Israel organization. It was the first since COVID and the turnout was great. There were old and new friends, Jews and non-Jews, Democrats and Republicans. It was wonderful and uplifting in a time of worry, sorrow and love for Israel and its supporters around the world. Until several speakers said that thing about supporting “Israel’s right to exist.” No. Stop. Please. Stand up straight. The fact that anti-Israel and antisemitic forces say Israel has no right to exist is not a reason...
Dear Editor: The United Nations was formed with the idea, after defeat of the Nazi savages, that the peoples of the world would get together to stop or preferably prevent organized acts for mass murder anywhere in the world. This has not happened. Instead, that organization has repeatedly issued condemnation of the one country, whose people include many victims and survivors of the Nazi murderers, for sins that Israel never committed. Now that Israel fights a defensive war that was forced upon it by the most inhuman group anywhere, the U.N....
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) — On Dec. 16, our rabbi announced that Avi Lulu of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, who spent Chanukah with us in Palm Beach, Florida and returned to Israel on Dec. 11, had telephoned him the previous day to tell him that his son Alon Shamriz had been one of three hostages mistakenly killed by IDF soldiers. The congregation roiled with anguish. We had gotten to know Avi. He spoke at menorah lightings, Shabbat services, parlor meetings and before the Jewish Federation. Kfar Aza is located near the Gaza border. On Oct. 7, 80 of its more than 700 r...
There is a petition circulating, initiated by Defenders of Free Speech, to stand with Dr. Darren Klugman, who is a doctor and professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. On Oct. 7, Dr. Klugman spoke out about the atrocities committed by Hamas that day. As a result of speaking out on social media, he has been suspended by Hopkins with possible termination, and the American Board of Pediatrics has begun the process of revoking his board certifications. His family has received death threats, requiring round-the-clock security. Why...
(JNS) — The city of Sderot is located less than a mile from the Gaza Strip. Some 90 percent of the town’s 30,000 residents fled on Oct. 7 after Hamas invaded southern Israel. My wife’s cousin Ilan is currently stationed with his IDF infantry unit in what was until recently a Sderot elementary school. The happy, high-pitched yelping of children has been replaced by the metallic sounds of assault rifles being taken apart, cleaned and reassembled by soldiers. We were visiting Ilan’s family in Nahariya, Israel’s northernmost coastal city, whe...
(JNS) - David Wolpe, rabbi emeritus of Sinai Temple, a conservative synagogue in Los Angeles, joined Harvard University's Antisemitism Advisory Group in the hopes that he could persuade the school to make some serious changes. "I wanted immediate, visible action," he told JNS. "In fact, what I saw was that the anti-Jewish agitation on campus was getting worse, not better." Earlier this month, the Anti-Defamation League's inaugural rabbinic fellow, named by Newsweek as the most influential rabbi...
(JNS) — Israeli ground, air and naval forces struck more than 300 targets in the Gaza Strip over the past day, causing heavy Hamas casualties and destroying terror infrastructure, the Israel Defense Forces reported on Wednesday morning. Paratroopers from the 55th Brigade raided a Hamas “military” headquarters in the terror group’s stronghold of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip, according to the military. During the search, many weapons were found as well as ammunition and explosive charges, including 20 mortar shells. Also in Khan Yunis, soldie...
Sometimes, your loved one is going to be discharged from the hospital, and you feel that person is not ready to come home. You can refuse discharge. Every state has a quality innovation network quality Improvement Organization. These government agencies help people with Medicare and Medicaid. See www.tiny.cc/QINmap. KEPRO handles Florida, Georgia, etc. Kepro, 844-45-9708. It is a beneficiary and family centered family quality improvement organization that can help you. Quite simply, this is how it works and I tried it with my mother a few...
(JNS) — Since Oct. 7, the International Red Cross has been helping imprisoned Palestinian terrorists receive controversial stipends from the Palestinian Authority, according to Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch. According to PMW, incarcerated Palestinians fill out forms to receive the stipends, and the Red Cross delivers the paperwork to Ramallah. “The role of the International Red Cross in this process is central,” explained PMW director Itamar Marcus. “The international health organization is involved in this because as they visit prisone...
(MEMRI via JNS) — The Jews “who came to Palestine” are pagan Khazar converts, not the Children of Israel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Dec. 18 speech posted online by the official Syrian Arab News Agency and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The Syrian dictator went on to state there is “no evidence” that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and that the Nazis did not employ any special methods of torture or killing for Jews, who he said were killed just like other victims of World War II. The Holocaust...
