Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Some 3,500 Jewish teens from 50 countries gathered in Denver on Thursday night for the opening ceremony of the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization International Convention, kicking off the youth movement's annual weekend-long retreat. Organizers told JNS that it is the largest annual gathering of Jewish teen leaders worldwide. The event includes leadership training, cultural programs and guest speakers, bringing together thousands of teens to connect, learn and celebrate their Jewish...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump held a telephone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in which the two leaders agreed to hold talks to end the war in Ukraine. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump described the call as “lengthy and highly productive.” “First, as we both agreed, we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the war with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote. “We agreed to work together, very closely, including visiting each other’s nations. We h...
There is a dilemma for Jewish students who attend Lake Mary and Lyman high schools in Seminole County. Both schools scheduled their senior proms for April 12, the first night of Passover. Noelle Rivers, parent of a Lake Mary student, said her daughter came home upset, saying she has to weigh going to prom or being home with the family for Passover. Karin Barth, mother of a Lyman freshman, said “no student should have to choose between celebrating their faith and enjoying an important event like prom. Teenagers look forward to prom as a c...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump might be surprised to learn that long before he proposed moving Arabs from Gaza to Jordan, Yitzhak Rabin recommended the exact same thing. It happened in 1973. Rabin, a former chief of staff of the Israeli army, was serving as Israel’s ambassador in Washington. In an interview with the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, on Feb. 16, Rabin discussed the question of what should be done about the large number of Palestinian Arab refugees residing in the Gaza Strip. Much of Gaza’s population consisted of Arabs who had set...
(JNS) - Three Israeli men regained their freedom on Saturday, after 498 days of captivity in the Gaza Strip. The hostages were handed over to representatives of the Red Cross at a staged event in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, shortly after 10 a.m., and to the IDF and the Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) at approximately 10:30, and were being escorted to Israeli territory for an initial medical examination. Alexandre ("Sasha") Troufanov, 29, who has dual Russian citizenship, had been...
(JNS) — During a meeting with European Union ambassadors in Israel on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar warned that Jerusalem would resume military actions in Gaza if Hamas does not release the hostages. “We discussed today Hamas’s announcement of its intention to violate the framework for the release of the hostages. A decision by Hamas not to release the hostages is essentially a decision to return to war. So far, we have not taken any unilateral actions,” Israel’s top diplomat said. FM Gideon Sa’ar to EU ambassadors: “If Hamas doe... Full story
(JNS) — Jewish groups have expressed outrage after a man was sentenced on Wednesday to community service for hassling New York City subway riders last summer. “A mere four hours of community service and an anti-bias course for blatant antisemitic harassment? This is not justice—it’s a disgrace,” Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, a grassroots watchdog organization, told The New York Post. “Anas Saleh’s threats against fellow passengers on the NYC subway warranted real consequences, yet he walks away with a slap on the wrist. Th...
(JTA) — The Palestinian Authority will no longer pay stipends to the families of convicted terrorists and other prisoners, in a gesture to President Donald Trump. The longstanding program determined the size of the stipend based on the length of a prisoner’s sentence, meaning that those who were convicted of the worst offenses often received the largest stipends. While Palestinians often view the thousands of prisoners with admiration as the front line of resistance against Israel, the payment program had been maligned for years by Israeli and...
(JNS) — A bipartisan group of senators, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), introduced a resolution affirming that Hamas should no longer be allowed to exercise political or military control of the Gaza Strip. “One of the defining moments for the future of the Middle East and the world at large is to state directly and with moral clarity that Hamas—a terrorist organization—will no longer have political or military control of Gaza at the end of this conflict,” Graham stated in a press release announcing the measure. Besides launching the terro...
(JNS) - For the first time since being released on Feb.1 as part of the ceasefire deal, former hostage Keith Siegel, an American-Israeli, released a video on Friday detailing his experience in captivity. "My name is Keith Siege,l and I am a 65-year-old American citizen," the video began, featuring Siegel in a blue sweater with a yellow hostage pin. "I love country music, and I love pancakes on Saturday morning. But that was my previous life. Since Feb. 1, I am a newly released Hamas hostage. I...
(JTA) — An American-Israeli released from Gaza during the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire is exhorting President Donald Trump to press for the release of the remaining hostages. “President Trump, you are the reason I am home alive. You are the reason I was reunited with my beloved wife, four children and five grandchildren. Thank you,” Siegel says in a video released by his family and hostage advocacy groups. “Thank you for your continued fight against terror and for your bold leadership that has brought me and many others back home, to our fam...
(JNS) — The three latest returnees from Hamas captivity in Gaza reunited on Saturday with their families in heartfelt scenes of elation and relief. American-Israeli Sagui Dekel-Chen, 36, met with his wife, Avital, and his parents at the IDF’s Re’im camp just outside the Strip before being flown by helicopter to Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan. During the reunion, Avital informed him of their third daughter’s name. She was seven-months’ pregnant when Dekel-Chen was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023. “Do you remembe...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — A recently released hostage has provided the first confirmation in months that Omri Miran, 47, held captive in Gaza, was alive and in relatively stable condition as of July. “We received confirmation of Omri’s condition through one of the returned hostages,” his brother Boaz revealed on Tuesday, speaking about Omri, who has now been in captivity for 495 days. “They shared that his condition was generally stable during their time together, when they were being held in b...
Three more Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for 491 days were released last week. The three men returned home emaciated, gaunt, and with signs of suffering from severe malnourishment including complex cardiac issues and infections. Seeing them paraded by Hamas in a dehumanizing public spectacle before thousands of armed terrorists and jeering “innocent civilians,” it was impossible to avoid the analogy that they looked like people who had survived Nazi concentration camps 80 years ago. In addition to deliberate starvation, there are mul...
(JTA) — After Oklahoma approved a request by the Catholic Church to open a charter school in 2023, lawsuits quickly followed. Courts at both the state and federal levels ruled against the church, finding that a publicly funded school promoting religion would be unconstitutional. Now, the U.S. Supreme Court has taken up the case, signaling that the justices are willing to consider overturning a longstanding legal precedent protecting the separation of church and state. If the court allows St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School to become...
(JNS) — Alexandre (“Sasha”) Troufanov, who was released yesterday from Hamas captivity in Gaza, put on tefillin for the first time on Sunday, with the help of Russian Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar. Lazar gave Troufanov, who is a dual citizen of Israel and Russia, a tefillin set and a Chumash—a copy of the Torah in book form—the Charedim 10 news site reported. In a video conversation on Sunday, Troufanov thanked Lazar for working to free him and other hostages. “I truly appreciate everything you have done. You are wonderful people, you have a huge...
Take 5% of Gaza for every hostage injured in captivity By JNS Staff (JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister and Security Cabinet member Bezalel Smotrich on Tuesday urged the government to issue an ultimatum to Hamas, warning of severe consequences if the terrorist group delays hostage releases. Speaking at the Haredi Strategy and Policy Institute conference, the Religious Zionism Party leader called on the government to cut off electricity, water and humanitarian aid to the Strip, and “to open the gates of hell” with intensifying military actio...
By Yaakov Lappin (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces stands ready to redeploy throughout the Gaza Strip, should the Cabinet give the order, according to military sources, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu set an ultimatum for Hamas to release hostages by noon on Saturday. The timeline for such a redeployment would be very rapid, according to the sources, and the IDF’s presence in Gaza can be re-established in very little time, similar to the speed with which the Israeli military withdrew, military sources told JNS on Tuesday. The Netzarim Cor...
(JNS) — The Cleveland Jewish News Foundation’s “Educate the Educators” initiative aims to combat antisemitism and misinformation spread on college campuses around Ohio by sending a free copy of the award-winning Cleveland Jewish News each week to top college officials. Mark Bogomolny, board chair of the foundation, said the first round of newspapers was sent the week of Nov. 19, 2024, to 92 schools and universities, including public, private and technical schools across Ohio. Some of the recipients include Oberlin College, Case Western Reserve... Full story
(JNS) — The Oct. 7, 2023, attacks marked the end of the two-state solution, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana told visiting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola in Jerusalem on Thursday. Ohana, a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and ruling coalition, blamed Gaza’s education system for inciting violence and suggested that only the approach proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump offers a fresh perspective. The American president’s plan includes the resettlement of Gazans to other countries while the war-torn coastal...
Shalom Orlando received a grant for $17,400 at the Orange County ACT Awards. Shalom Orlando was one of five new recipients this year. The money will be used for cultural arts programming in the upcoming year. Shown here are (l-r) Ashley Samuels, Jason Venning, Rachel Greenspan, Samantha Taylor, and Stan Rubins....
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - Negotiations on the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and of hostage deal began in Washington with a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff. As stipulated in the initial agreement, talks on the second phase were set to begin on the 16th day of the deal and it now appears that this is about far more than just another stage in a temporary agreement. Israel seems to be on the path to...
At the recent Jewish Chamber Breakfast on Feb. 6, a brief news clip was shown highlighting the opportunities available to Jewish business owners, including newly available minority grants. The news clip explained that the U.S. Department of Commerce has now officially recognized Jewish-owned businesses as minority business enterprises. This designation will enable Jewish entrepreneurs access to federal programs, contracts, loans and grants that previously were not available to them. In the past, Jewish businesses were not eligible for minority...
IDF unveils portable Torah scrolls for field conditions (JNS) - Israel's Military Rabbinate this week unveiled a portable Holy Ark containing a Torah scroll that army rabbis designed to be worn like a backpack and which 0can be converted into a small podium, or bimah, for reading scripture. The rabbinate developed the gadget for use in field and combat conditions in connection with the outbreak of war on Oct. 7, 2023, the news site Srugim reported on Sunday. "When it comes to transporting a...
On the morning of Feb. 6, the Jewish Chamber of Commerce hosted a free breakfast at One Senior Place. The event, led by Board President Harrison Shames, who also serves as the executive director of the Jewish National Fund, celebrated the holiday of Tu B'Shevat, a time for reflection on nature and growth. Guests were treated to a delicious breakfast prepared by Chris Shepherd, manager of One Senior Place. The spread included fresh fruit, bagels with cream cheese, muffins, and yogurt. A special...
