Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — During Barack Obama’s presidency, Thomas Nides attended foreign policy meetings as U.S. deputy secretary of state for management and resources. Just as he saw Obama include Joe Biden, then the vice president, Nides has seen President Biden consult with Vice President Kamala Harris. “I sat in the Situation Room for hundreds of meetings with President Obama and the vice president, and the vice president was included on almost every major foreign policy decision,” Nides told JNS on the sidelines of the Democratic National Convent...
(JNS) - The secrets of the Jewish kitchen dating back two millennia to the time of the Biblical Second Temple are being uncovered in Jerusalem's ancient drainage channel, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Tuesday. Items such as expensive oils, grape seeds and 2,000-year-old eggshells were unearthed during an excavation-outside the Old City walls-in the drainage channel that ran under Jerusalem's main street during the Second Temple period. The ancient drainage channel ran under the...
(JNS) — As tensions between Israel and Iran escalate, a group of American military veterans is preparing to evacuate U.S. citizens from the region for the second time since Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught on southwestern Israel. “Our ambition is for every American who travels to know that Project DYNAMO is there to help them if the need were to arise,” Mario Duarte, president and CEO of the Florida-based organization, told JNS on Sunday. Project DYNAMO was created in 2021, as the United States pulled forces out of Afghanistan. After the withdrawal, th...
(JNS) — HAIFA—The rows of hospital beds with adjacent oxygen units line the underground parking lot. Four operating rooms, a maternity ward and a dialysis center are among the facilities that Haifa’s Rambam Health Care Campus, aka Rambam Medical Center, has set up three levels down in its parking garage. The largest hospital in northern Israel has created the biggest underground hospital in the world, and is gearing up for what could be an all-out war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. The three-floor, $140 million Sammy Ofer Fortified Under...
(JNS) — Iranian officials are signaling this week that an attack on Israel may not be imminent, nearly a month after the targeted killing in Tehran of Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh. Despite Jerusalem not claiming responsibility, the Islamic Republic vowed to avenge the assassination on its soil with a strong response against Israel. However, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that Tehran is tamping down its urgent rhetoric. Examples of this potentially different approach cited by the newspaper include a Wednesday statement by t...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) — Bullet fragments were discovered in at least some of the corpses of six Israeli hostages retrieved from Khan Yunis in Gaza last week, according to information shared with their families. This finding lends credence to the theory that some hostages were killed by their captors shortly before an aerial assault that preceded Monday’s IDF and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) rescue operation. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called it a “daring and dangerous operation in the Hamas tunnels in Khan Yunis.” Haim Peri, Y...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces recovered the bodies of six hostages kidnapped on Oct. 7 and murdered in captivity from a tunnel in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning. In an operation involving the IDF and Israel Security Agency, the bodies of Avraham Munder, Yoram Metzger, Nadav Popwell, Yagev Buchstat, Alex Dancyg and Haim Perry were located after over 10 months in captivity. The total number of hostages remaining in the hands of Hamas in Gaza now stands at 109. M...
(JTA) — CHICAGO — Doug Emhoff talked about Passover brisket and riding the bus to Hebrew school. And Chuck Schumer wore a blue-square pin below the American flag on his lapel, symbolizing the struggle against antisemitism. The second night of the Democratic National Convention was intensely Jewish: Along with Emhoff and Schumer directly discussing their Jewish identities, two other prominent Jewish elected officials — Bernie Sanders and J.B. Pritzker — took the stage, while the night opened with an invocation by Rabbi Sharon Brous. Jewish herit...
(JNS) — Gilad Erdan, the outgoing Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, has called out the United Nations for a new display that fails to include Israeli victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks. In an 85-second video posted Tuesday to his X account, Erdan identified himself as standing inside at the visitor’s entrance to the United Nations. “Tomorrow the U.N. will mark the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism with high-level discussions taking place,” he said in Hebrew with an English transla...
RJC to plant 1,800 trees per DNC speaker who publicly praises Israel (JNS) — The Republican Jewish Coalition has announced a new initiative during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago to monitor speakers and see who, if any, advocate for the Jewish state. “Last week, the RJC officially challenged every speaker at the Democratic Convention in Chicago to ‘Praise Israel,’” the group wrote on X on Sunday. “If any speaker from the main stage asks the crowd to cheer if they support Israel, the RJC will donate to plant 1,800 trees in Is...
(JTA) — CHICAGO — In a speech on the Democratic convention floor, President Joe Biden vowed to “end this war” in Gaza and free hostages. But he did not mention Israel by name and gave a nod to protesters outside the convention hall, where pro-Palestinian demonstrators had gathered. “We’ll keep working to bring hostages home and end the war in Gaza, and bring peace and security to the Middle East,” he said. “We’re working around the clock — my secretary of state — to prevent a wider war and reunite hostages with their families, and surge humanit...
(JNS) — The parents of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, along with those in attendance on Wednesday evening at Chicago’s United Center, provided the Democratic National Convention with one of its most memorable moments. Entering to chants of “Bring Them Home,” Jonathan Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin brought tears to the eyes of many in attendance with the gut-wrenching story of their son and Chicago native, and their broader thoughts on the hostages held in the Gaza Strip. Speaking with reporters Wednesday night, Hersh’s...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared on Aug. 21during a visit to the Gaza-Egypt border that the IDF has achieved victory over Hamas’s Rafah brigade. “I came here first and foremost to express my appreciation [to the soldiers]. The Rafah brigade was defeated by the IDF’s Division 162,” Gallant said at the Philadelphi Corridor, the 9.7-mile-long buffer zone captured by Israeli forces in May. Since taking control of the area, the IDF has located and destroyed 150 terror tunnels, and Gallant instructed the forces to finish th...
(JNS) - In a sign of the times, billboards have been placed along highways in Los Angeles and Philadelphia to address the rising tide of antisemitism in the United States. "Who's behind this chaos?" reads one. Another says, "Did you miss your flight when this airport was shut down by an anti-Israel mob?" Three billboards were put up in Los Angeles during the last week of July, and two in Philadelphia were erected the first week of August. Both are scheduled to stay in place through most of the...
(JNS) - When we discuss Israel's history, we often speak in terms of geography: the partition plan, the 1948 border, the pre-1967 armistice lines, the post-1967 borders and the post-1973 boundaries. Now, we must add the pre- and post-2023 borders. The major difference is that instead of expanding the size of the Jewish state, it has shrunk since Oct. 7 because of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's failure to protect northern Israel. For roughly a decade, he avoided direct confrontation...
Sam Friedman, Shalom Orlando's chief development officer, left the Central Florida Jewish community on Aug. 2 to begin a new position as the executive director & CEO of the Jewish Educational Alliance and Jewish Federation in Savannah, Ga. He will begin his new job Aug. 26. Friedman moved to Central Florida in 2014 to take the position of director of community relations at Central Florida Hillel, under the leadership of Aaron Weil. In this capacity, Friedman built relationships with off-campus...
Two years ago, the two towers comprising Kinneret Apartments were sold to a private developer and manager of low-income housing projects. Having been built 50 and 40 years, respectively, earlier, the apartments needed a more complete renovation. The trustees studied the issue extensively and determined that this transaction represented the best option for financing such a project and thus maintaining the residents’ quality of living. Not long after completion of the Kinneret Two tower at the end of the 1970s, the building’s trustees formed the...
Congregation Ohev Shalom is pleased to offer an outstanding opportunity for schools seeking a well-maintained, move-in-ready educational space in Maitland. This shared space is available for lease, ideal for private, charter, or special needs schools, and is located within a vibrant, active community. COS continues to operate in this space, holding classes on Wednesday afternoons and Sunday mornings for their successful Hebrew School. This means the space is shared, providing a unique opportunity to occupy the space exclusively during the...
The Jewish Chamber of Commerce has announced a new partnership with One Senior Place, located at 715 Douglas Ave., Altamonte Springs, is a vibrant community hub dedicated to serving the needs of seniors. This collaboration aims to strengthen ties within the business community and foster a supportive environment for local enterprises. Monthly breakfasts to kick off in September As part of this partnership, One Senior Place will host the Jewish Chamber of Commerce’s monthly breakfast meetings, beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 8:30 a.m. These b...
(JNS) — An Iranian attack on the Jewish state “could be this week,” but U.S. President Joe Biden “is confident that we have the capability available to us to help defend Israel should it come to that,” John Kirby, the White House national security communications advisor, told reporters on Monday. The White House shares Israel’s “same concerns and expectations” about the potential timing of Iran’s reaction to the July 31 assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in a heavily-guarded Tehran guest house complex. Israel has neithe...
(JNS) — The Defense Security Cooperation Agency, part of the U.S. Department of Defense, notified Congress on Tuesday that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had approved five potential sales to Israel—collectively worth up to $20.3 billion—of tactical vehicles, mortar and tank cartridges, missiles and F-15 fighter jets. The sale of F-15IA and F-15I+ aircraft “and related equipment” costs up to $18.82 billion, according to the agency. Israel has requested to buy 50 new F-15IA jets, which are made by Boeing, the agency said. “The United Stat...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces said on Monday night that it was investigating a claim made by Hamas that a hostage was executed and two others wounded in separate incidents in Gaza. Al Qassam Brigades spokesman Hudayfa Samir Abdallah al-Kahlout, known by the alias Abu Obeida, published a statement on Telegram on Monday claiming that one Israeli male captive had been executed and two female abductees seriously wounded by their Hamas captors. “In two separate incidents, two [Hamas] soldiers assigned to guard enemy prisoners fired at a Zio...
(JNS) — Tehran is advancing its secret nuclear program, bringing the Islamic Republic closer to building atomic bombs, Iran International reported on Wednesday. Three independent sources in Iran told the London-based opposition media outlet that the regime is moving forward with its nuclear weapons program “by restructuring the Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND), retaining Mohammad Eslami as the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, and resuming tests to produce nuclear bomb detonators.” The Biden admin...
(JTA) — A group of 99 Jewish clergy from across the United States signed a statement calling for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire deal that would free the remaining hostages held by Hamas. The signatories of the clergy statement include well-known rabbis spanning the country and the Jewish denominational spectrum. The list includes Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, Reconstructionist, Renewal and Secular Humanistic leaders. The statement comes as a new round of negotiations is set to begin Thursday in Qatar u...
(JTA) - Kamala Harris' presidential campaign has named Ilan Goldenberg, an Israeli-born former peace negotiator, as its liaison to the Jewish community, sources say. Three people with close ties to the organized Jewish community and the Harris campaign confirmed the pick to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. The campaign did not return a request for comment. Goldenberg, who has served as Vice President Harris' adviser on Middle East issues, has previously been an acerbic critic of both Israeli...
