Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 26 - 50 of 10475
(JNS) — The wave of impending U.S. government layoffs has touched cities, suburbs and rural areas across the country. One demographic, in particular, is bracing for impact: Jewish day schools in and around Washington, D.C. Jewish Insider reported that “local schools, synagogues and social-service agencies are making plans to support laid-off community members and their families,” and wrestling with how fewer students and dues-paying members will upend their bottom lines. “It’s day schools, it’s camps, it’s early childhood, JCC memberships,...
(JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces’ Military Rabbinate distributed almost half a million hamantaschen, or oznei Haman (“Haman’s ears”) cookies, the army said ahead of the holiday of Purim, which starts Thursday night. Approximately 460,000 hamantaschen in the flavors of chocolate, poppy seed and date arrived at army bases across the country, according to the IDF announcement. Vegan and gluten-free options are also provided. Around 5,000 Purim gift baskets were distributed to various units. In keeping with the religious commandment of hearing M...
(JNS) — A group of American Christian leaders are publicly reaffirming the Jewish people’s right to the biblical heartland of Israel, ahead of a key U.S. decision on Israeli sovereignty over the territory. The move comes weeks before U.S. President Donald Trump is slated to announce whether or not he supports the Israeli annexation of Judea and Samaria—a goal backed by many evangelicals including some administration officials—amid international plans to rebuild post-war Gaza. The declaration will be made public on Tuesday at the annual National...
(JNS) — A Spanish-language documentary on the Hamas-led terrorist attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, told through the eyes of Latino immigrants who were targeted in the country’s south that day, premiered in Los Angeles in February. The four-part series, “7/O: Testigos del Terror” (“10/7: Witnesses of Terror”), tells the story of the largest single-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust by focusing on Latin Americans living in kibbutzim and other farming villages on the border with Gaza, the largest immigrant group that came u...
(JNS) - "When I stood at the Gama junction next to Re'im, the first place whereas Israelis we could see the trucks with the coffins pass, it was very emotional. I understood why they had to come back," Daniel Lifshitz told JNS. The remains of his grandfather Oded Lifshitz were returned to Israel from the Gaza Strip last month as part of a ceasefire agreement with the Hamas terrorist organization. Oded was laid to rest in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Feb. 25. "It would have been like a very strong voice in...
(JTA) — The case of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian protester arrested by ICE officers at Columbia University over the weekend, has divided Jewish groups: Right-wing pro-Israel voices are praising the arrest as a blow to a terrorist sympathizer, while a range of liberal and progressive Jewish groups are slamming it as authoritarian and unconstitutional. On Monday, one more Jewish voice said Khalil should not be deported, at least for the time being: Judge Jesse Furman of the Southern District of New York. Furman, on the bench at a federal d...
(JNS) — A new study from the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., highlights the impact of Birthright Israel across the generations, revealing how the effects extend beyond participants to their children as opposed to those who applied to the program but did not go. The study, which tracks long-term outcomes of Birthright participants, found that children of participants are more likely to be raised as Jews, more likely to have had a Jewish circumcision or a baby-naming ceremony, and more likely to b...
(JNS) — Omer Wenkert, 23, described the brutal abuse he endured in the Gaza Strip at the hands of his Hamas captors. “They just hit you like crazy with everything they can find, whether it’s hitting your legs with the barrel of the gun, punching your face, kicking you all over. With each punch you pass out and the next one wakes you up,” said Wenkert in a televised interview with Israel’s Channel 12 News. On his birthday his captor had opened the door and awakened him in a state of “complete madness, insanely aggressively,” he recalled. “That w...
Some Columbia classes reportedly canceled in solidarity with anti-Israel activist By Izzy Salant (JNS) — The Washington Free Beacon reported on Monday that at least three professors at Columbia University canceled in-person classes in solidarity with the anti-Israel activist Mahmoud Khalil, whom federal agents arrested on March 8. “Given that the college and Columbia University has neither issued a public statement with any clear explanations as to why or how this arrest was allowed nor offered any serious reassurances for international stu...
(JNS) — A group of Judea and Samaria leaders made history last week by visiting Abu Dhabi on the first-ever organized trip by the Yesha Council to a Muslim country, the umbrella organization announced Thursday. Yesha Council chief Israel Ganz and CEO Omer Rahamim, as well as Hebron Hills Regional Council head Eliram Azulay, returned on Wednesday from their first visit to the United Arab Emirates. They were accompanied by Rabbi Matanya Yedid, who heads the Sifra Institute. During the visit, the three met government officials, business l...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump revealed on Friday that he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, urging him to negotiate a new nuclear deal with Washington or face possible military action. “I said: ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate, because it’s going to be a lot better for Iran,’” Trump said in an interview with the Fox Business Network channel. The missive was sent on Thursday, he added. “I think they want to get that letter,” Trump said. “The other alternative is you have to do something, because Iran cannot h...
(JTA) - Isaac Henrion makes and sells bagels for a living. But when he spent Sunday afternoon at the local Jewish food festival in Durham, North Carolina, he didn't bring any of his own fare. It's not that he hadn't signed up as a vendor. It's that he had abruptly pulled out his store, Isaac's Bagels, after facing criticism over his cooperation with the festival organizer, a Jewish group that supports Israel. Then, that decision set off another round of criticism from Jewish customers and...
(JTA) - Hamas has returned bodies of four Israeli hostages who were killed in captivity in Gaza - the final group of hostages to be released under the terms of the first phase of a ceasefire that began last month. The four hostages, all men 50 or older, were abducted in Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Unlike previous hostage releases under the current ceasefire, their bodies were handed to Israel quietly, without a public ceremony early on the morning of Feb. 27. That stipulation came after Hamas...
(JNS) — New Yorker Rose Girone, the oldest known Holocaust survivor in the world, died on Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at 113. Born in Poland, Girone fled Nazi persecution in 1939 with her husband, who had been incarcerated at the Buchenwald concentration camp, and baby daughter on a chance visa to Shanghai, which opened its doors to nearly 20,000 Jewish refugees during the Holocaust and was one of the last open ports in the world. After the war, they immigrated to the United States in 1947. She ran a knitting shop in Forest Hills, Queens, a trade t...
Shalom Orlando Come in costume to the Orlando Solar Bears hockey game on March 9. The Solar Bears will take on the Greenville Swamp Rabbits at the Kia Center, 3 p.m. Schedule of events include: 1:30 – 2:50 p.m., snacks and children’s activities; 2 p.m., doors open, 3 p.m. the game begins, and at 5:40 p.m. the Jewish Academy of Orlando Choir will perform and there will be a parade on the ice. Tickets are $22 each. For more information email Zipporah.Hruby@shalomorlando.org Southwest Orlando Jewish Congregation Shushan Casino, March 8, at 7:1...
The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will host the annual Bunny Rosen Women’s Heart Health luncheon and fashion show at the Hilton Altamonte Springs, 350 Northlake Blvd, in Altamonte Springs, on Mar. 30 from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. The luncheon benefits the Women’s Zionist Organization of America.The fashion show will feature clothing and accessories by Dillards of Altamonte Springs. The cost is $54 per person and sponsorships are available. Register for the event at https://hwzoa.networkforgood.com/events/81040-fl-fbr-orlando-bunny-ros...
In the Feb. 28 issue, the wrong caption was used with one of the pictures in the article. This is the photo with the correct caption....
(JNS) — Eighty years ago, President Franklin D. Roosevelt lifted the immigration quotas for the only time during World War II and allowed almost 1,000 European refugees to enter the United States. The 982 men, women and children—874 of them Jewish—were housed behind barbed wire in Fort Ontario in Oswego, N.Y., about 40 miles north of Syracuse. They remained there for 18 months until Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, allowed them to become American citizens after first crossing into Canada and then returning to the United States. Now leg...
(JNS) — U.S. President Donald Trump shared a video message to him from American-Israeli Keith Seigel, who was freed from Hamas captivity in Gaza on Feb. 1, urging further efforts to release the remaining hostages. In the message, Siegel also expressed his gratitude for Trump’s ongoing support. Speaking in front of a ruined home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza, from where the 65-year-old was taken during the Hamas-led massacre on Oct. 7, 2023, Siegel described the massive destruction caused during the attack. “It’s hard to believe and comprehend what I...
(JNS) — Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Tuesday hailed the island nation of Fiji’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem. “I commend the Republic of Fiji’s government for its historic decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Thank you, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, friend of Israel. Thank you, Fiji! tweeted Sa’ar. I commend the Republic of Fiji’s government for its historic decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people. Thank you, Rabuka had confirmed...
(JNS) — Legislation to fund an account that pays compensation to American victims of terrorist attacks was reintroduced Tuesday. The American Victims of Terror Compensation Act, which has Democratic and Republican sponsors in both houses of Congress, is designed to guarantee that victims who win judgments against Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria and other state sponsors of terror can be compensated. “While we can never bring back the loved ones lost in state-sponsored terror attacks like 9/11, we must ensure they have the support they need to...
(JNS) — The surviving member of the Bibas family, Yarden, shared a poignant eulogy at Kibbutz Nir Oz for the burial of his wife, Shiri, and their two children, Ariel and Kfir who were murdered by the hands of Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Yarden recalled his deep love for Shiri, remembering their first moments together and their bond as best friends, a wife, and a mother. He expressed deep sorrow and regret for not being able to protect them, especially during the tragic events on Oct. 7 when Gazans snatched them from their home. “I remember the...
(JNS) - "Looking at their scared frightened faces, begging to come out, wanting to be like their friends who got released, it is very hard to see your son begging for his life, asking to come out," Ilan Dalal, the father of Guy Gilboa-Dalal, told JNS. On Saturday, Hamas published a propaganda video showing Israeli hostages Guy Gilboa-Dalal and Evyatar David at their friends' release ceremony from captivity in Gaza. Hamas compelled the two to watch the ceremony from inside a vehicle as Israel...
(JNS) - The Empire State Building was lit orange on Wednesday night in memory of Shiri Bibas and her sons Ariel and Kfir, whom Hamas killed in captivity and who were buried earlier in the day in Israel. Some four-and-a-half miles north in Manhattan, anti-Israel Barnard College students took over an administrative building on campus. Classes were canceled, and a Barnard staff member was assaulted and hospitalized, Jewish Insider reported. Kassy Akiva, a reporter for Daily Wire, wrote that Barnard spokesperson told her that “a small group of m...
Winter storm Coral: Hermon turns white, rare snow in Mount Carmel (JNS) — The winter storm “Coral” peaked in Israel on Monday morning, covering Mount Hermon in snow and bringing light snowfall to northern and central Israel. Light snow fell in the Galilee, the Jerusalem area, and, for the first time in nine years, Mount Carmel. The last time Israel’s capital saw the white stuff was in January 2022. Unusually cold temperatures were recorded nationwide, dropping below freezing in the north and reaching 32 degrees Fahrenheit in Jerusalem. The coa...
