Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(New York Jewish Week) — Three hundred and seventy years ago this week, a group of 23 Sephardic Jews arrived on the shores of New York — then called New Amsterdam — and created the first organized Jewish community in the city. What a difference a few centuries make: Today, New York City is home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world. On Thursday, the City Council will vote on a resolution to honor both, turning Landing Day from an event marked by a few Jewish leaders into an official date on the city’s calendar. The resolut...
(JNS) — The Israel Innovation Authority announced on Wednesday a $9.5 million fund aimed at encouraging high-tech companies to expand into Israel’s war-battered northern and southern regions. This funding, part of the “Leap to High-Tech” program, will support companies in opening new branches and hiring local talent, fostering economic growth and reducing disparities across the country. The program is being launched in collaboration with the Ministry of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience, the Ministry for Social Equality and the Tek...
Chabad of Greater Orlando caught on fire on Sunday, Sept. 22. The fire started around 11 a.m., less than a half hour after Shachrit davening had ended. No one was injured. A security guard noticed smoke coming from the roof and called the Fire department. It took 60 firefighters and seven firetrucks over an hour to get the fire fully under control, according to Rabbi Dovid Dubov. More than 50 percent of the building was destroyed. “Gaping holes burned through the roof and the ceiling c...
A landmark diner since 1967, Kappy's is closing on Saturday, Sept. 14, at 4 p.m. "or until they run out of food," said Executive Chef Adam Milsom. Located at the intersection of Sybelia Ave. and 17/92 in Maitland, this small drive-up deli has been serving Philly cheese steaks, burgers, N.Y. hot dogs, subs and the best root beer floats in town for 57 years. Kappy's also was recognized in "Kehillah: A History of Jewish Life in Greater Orlando," under the Growth: Hospitality section, where it fit...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — American Jews plan to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris by a wide margin, according to a new survey by a Jewish Democratic group. The survey also found that 87 percent of American Jewish voters support the Biden administration’s efforts to reach a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war that would release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza. The survey, released Monday by the Jewish Democratic Council of America, shows 68 percent of Jewish voters planning to vote for Harris, the Democratic nominee, and 25 percent plann...
(JNS) — The U.S. Justice Department announced terrorism charges against senior leaders of Hamas for carrying out the Oct. 7 massacre. Merrick Garland, the U.S. attorney general, announced the charges on Sept. 3 in a recorded message. He said that Yahya Sinwar and other Hamas leaders oversaw “a decades-long campaign to murder American citizens and endanger the national security of the United States.” “On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists, led by these defendants, murdered nearly 1,200 people, including over 40 Americans, and kidnapped hundreds of civi...
Dr. Kenneth Hanson’s powerful documentary about the Oct. 7 massacre of 1200 innocent Jewish men, women and children, will be shown on Sept. 18 at noon at the UCF Hillel Center. The documentary reveals without question the who, what, where and why of the attack by Hamas on innocent Israelis. Disgustingly, the atrocities committed on Oct. 7 were almost immediately denied. This video will equip viewers the ammunition needed to “deny the deniers.” Central Florida Hillel is located at 3925 Lockw...
Sept. 19, 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. — Exhibit Opening: The Holocaust by Bullets The Holocaust Center will host the opening night of “The Holocaust by Bullets.” Based on a decade of meticulous research by the French organization Yahad-In Unum, Holocaust by Bullets illuminates a lesser-known aspect of the Holocaust: the brutal execution of over 2 million Jews and Roma, who were shot and buried in unmarked graves across Eastern Europe. This exhibition delves into the heinous crimes committed by the Nazi mobile killing units and its collaborators, as uncov...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and senior advisers met in the White House Situation Room on Sept. 2, a U.S. federal holiday, to discuss “next steps in the ongoing effort to secure the release of hostages, including continuing consultations with co-mediators Qatar and Egypt,” per a White House readout. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, CIA director Bill Burns, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Brett McGurk, National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, also took part...
(JNS) — Asked by a reporter if he has plans to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, U.S. President Joe Biden said “eventually.” Asked if it would happen this week or next, the U.S. president said “eventually,” per the White House pool report. Earlier on Sept. 2, Biden said that Netanyahu wasn’t doing enough to free the hostages. The Israeli prime minister responded to a similar question from a reporter during a speech, in which he said that “I was asked whether I am not doing enough to the release of hostages. Well, I want...
(JNS) — An international organization of Islamic scholars and faith leaders has issued a blistering condemnation of the murder by Hamas of six Israeli hostages last week in Gaza. The Iraqi-based Global Imams Council called the executions, carried out in a tunnel under Rafah in southern Israel, “barbaric” and “a violation all principles of humanity, religious teachings, and international law.” In a statement on its website, the organization said, “The targeting and brutalization of civilians, especially those who are defenseless and held agains...
(JNS) — The Jerusalem District Court issued a provisional order on Wednesday allowing a group of Israeli families who have lost members to terrorism to seize 160 million shekels ($43 million) in Palestinian Authority funds frozen by Jerusalem pending proceedings against the P.A., according to Ynet. If the families win the lawsuit, the funds will be distributed among the dozens of plaintiffs, amounting to 10 million shekels ($2.7 million) per family. The 210 million-shekel claim was filed in early July by dozens of Israeli families whose r...
(JTA) - LAS VEGAS - Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Jewish Harvard alumnus who is suing the school over its response to antisemitism, announced that he has broken with the Democratic Party and will be voting for Donald Trump. Kestenbaum made the declaration during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition's annual convention here on Sept. 5. He said that he had become disillusioned with Democratic leaders and their policies during his push for action against campus antisemitism. "I did not support Trump...
(JTA) — As Israeli Paralympic rower Shahar Milfelder won her first career medal on Sunday, she was thinking about the families of the six newly confirmed dead hostages. “We had in mind to give pride to the country,” Milfelder said, according to the Israeli news site Mako. “I cried in the morning from the hard news and now I cry from the good news and send the biggest hug I can to the families of the abducted and to all the citizens of the State of Israel.” Milfelder and her rowing partner,...
(JNS) - Hundreds of Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria gathered in protest at intersections throughout the territory on Sept. 3, demanding that the army launch a broad operation against Palestinian terrorism. The rallies, called by the Yesha Council that represents the interests of the 500,000 or so Jews of Judea and Samaria, marked the first time that the group led mass protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government since its inception in December 2022. "The...
(JTA) — The University of Maryland has revoked a permit for pro-Palestinian groups to hold an event on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, following concerns from Jewish groups that such an event could glorify the Hamas killings. According to the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, the planned event was a “vigil” to be held jointly with the school’s chapter of the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace. University President Darryll Pines announced the change in a letter to the school on Sunday, writing...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Recent events have reportedly triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to Judea and Samaria. Designated a “secondary arena” since the onset of the war with Hamas on Oct. 7, the recent increase in terror attacks in the area have convinced top officials that this stance is no longer tenable. The Israel Defense Forces now considers Judea and Samaria as the country’s most critical front after the Gaza Strip. While this directive is still in its initial stages, with substantial changes on the ground expected...
(JNS) — The Palestinian Authority is circulating a draft resolution asking the United Nations General Assembly to urge Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria and remove some 500,000 Israeli citizens living in the territory within six months. According to a report by Israel’s Channel 12 on Sunday, the resolution, which cites a July 19 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is expected to be brought to a vote next week. The 79th Session of the U.N. General Assembly was scheduled to open on Sept. 10. In add...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — In a poignant testimony, 12-year-old Erez Kalderon, kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 onslaught, has shared his harrowing story of captivity in the Gaza Strip. Erez, whose father, Ofer Kalderon, remains in Hamas captivity, bravely opened up about his traumatic experience, saying, “It’s difficult for me to speak on camera, but if this reaches my dad—it’s worth everything.” Erez recounted the terrifying moments when attackers breached their home: “They simply broke the handle and entered. My dad quickl...
UNSC to convene for first talks on Gaza hostages since Oct. 7 (JNS) — The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on Wednesday to discuss the hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, following an “urgent request” by Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon. According to the envoy, it will mark the first time since the Oct. 7 attack that the Security Council has convened for an official deliberation on the issue. Hamas currently holds 101 hostages, including 97 of the 251 captured on Oct. 7. “It is a disgrace that it has taken the...
(JNS) — Some 120 protesters gathered near the Columbia University campus on Tuesday evening to call on U.S. universities to ban people from protesting on their campuses with face coverings masking their identities. Columbia was one of many sites of anti-Israel encampments that spread across campuses. In April, school’s president Minouche Shafik, who has since resigned, called police to campus to remove anti-Israel vandals who occupied the school’s Hamilton Hall. Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, largely dropped charges again...
(JNS) — The Israel Police has criticized the country’s State Attorney for having failed to produce indictments against Hamas leaders, after the U.S. Department of Justice announced such indictments on Sept. 3, Kan News reported on Tuesday, Sept. 4. “The indictment filed in the United States is based, among other things, on evidence compiled in Israel and given to the American investigators, while 11 months have passed and [in Israel] there are no indictments,” a source in the police’s special crimes unit, Lahav 433, told the Israeli public br...
(JTA) — The family of an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor in Virginia has sued Boar’s Head, claiming that listeria from the meat company’s products is responsible for his death. The filing is the first wrongful death lawsuit to stem from the Boar’s Head listeria outbreak. So far, more than 50 people have fallen ill in connection with the outbreak and nine have died, including Günter “Garshon” Morgenstein, who survived the Holocaust as a child. “We’re all still in shock, for all of the things you know that he’s seen and been through in his lif...
(JNS) - Israeli Cabinet ministers on Sunday night were presented with video footage of the tunnel in Rafah where the six murdered hostages were held, footage they described as "stomach-churning" and "horrific." IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi showed the visual documentation from southern Gaza at the request of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Ministers did not see the hostage's corpses but rather the inhumane conditions in which their Hamas captors forced them to live. The bodies of...
(JNS) - Members of the Gvura Forum converged on the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on Monday to protest against a general strike called by the Histadrut labor federation following the IDF's recovery over the weekend of six hostages' bodies from the Gaza Strip. "We call on the prime minister not to give up to [Hamas terror chief Yahya] Sinwar and instead to keep up military pressure to achieve total victory," Yehoshua Shani, a member of the forum whose son IDF Capt. Ori Shani was killed in...
