Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Monday that the Israel Defense Forces would "keep going until the end" to defeat Hamas, as the Jewish state marked its first Memorial Day since the Oct. 7 massacre. "Pain is everywhere, but so is light. A fighter whose two legs were amputated told me: 'It is important for us to know that we are going to defeat them,' not to give up...keep going until the end, until victory," said Netanyahu at the ceremony on Mount Herzl. "This is a...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Twenty-six Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives have asked the White House for a briefing on why President Joe Biden suspended the delivery of large bombs to Israel, the latest sign of fractures in the party over Israel policy. “We are deeply concerned about the message the Administration is sending to Hamas and other Iranian-backed terrorist proxies by withholding weapons shipments to Israel, during a critical moment in the negotiations,” said the letter sent Friday to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national securit...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared Thursday to defy President Joe Biden's warning that the U.S. would impose a sweeping arms embargo against the Jewish state if the IDF carries out its planned ground operation in Rafah. In a statement released May 9, the Israeli premier vowed that Israel would "stand alone" if necessary in its current war against the Hamas terror organization, alluding to the Biden administration's suspension of weapons sales to Israel and threat May 8 of a full...
Hundreds of curious Jews will be streaming into Miami, Florida, for the 18th National Jewish Retreat, which will run at Miami's Doral Hotel from Aug. 14 to Aug. 18. Seventy speakers will deliver 150 talks on intriguing Jewish topics over five days. "Every year we bring a group from Orlando to this meaningful vacation and they always love it," says Rabbi Yanky Majesky of Chabad North Orlando "While they decompress and network, they're soaking up gobs of knowledge and inspiration." Coordinated by...
On Sunday night, Shalom Club held its annual Holocaust Remembrance Day event as planned. When I took over chairing this event around four years ago, we had 25 people in attendance. Tonight, there were between 130 and 150 people in a room meant to be at capacity at 108. Fortunately, it was a first-story room, and several stood outside the doors as we had too many for the fire code. Lou Ziemba's story was read by his wife Beth Landa. Two musicians provided musical interludes. Julia Wood sang...
In Life Care Altamonte, a skilled nursing facility, a moment of tranquility and spiritual connection takes place one Friday a month. A Shabbat service, designed to honor Jewish traditions and bring comfort to the residents, becomes a cherished event for those of mixed faiths residing in the facility. The service is led by a dedicated volunteer who ensures that the rituals of the Shabbat are followed with utmost care and respect. It begins with the lighting of the candles, symbolizing the start of the Sabbath and the separation from the...
(JNS) — The decision by Israel’s War Cabinet to order the Israel Defense Forces to seize Rafah Crossing is strategically significant, as it will negatively impact Hamas’s ability to smuggle weapons and people back and forth from neighboring Sinai. The crossing is part of the wider Philadelphi Corridor running along the Gaza-Egypt border, which has for years been a central supply line for Hamas smuggling. The IDF’s entry into Rafah also puts pressure on Hamas’s leadership in the tunnels under the city, demonstrating that Israel is not deterred...
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Bernie Sanders, the two-time presidential candidate and leading progressive senator, has announced he will run for a fourth term. Sanders, 82, an independent from Vermont, made history in 2016 as the first Jewish candidate to win a major party’s presidential primary, and ran again in 2020. In both primaries, he finished in second to the Democratic nominee. He is considered the de-facto leader of progressives in the Senate. In an eight-minute campaign launch speech posted online Monday, Sanders called to suspend U.S. mil...
(JNS) — As Jewish comedian Jerry Seinfeld received an honorary degree during Duke University’s commencement celebration in Durham, N.C. on Sunday, anti-Israel protesters marched out, chanting “Free, free Palestine.” Many students booed the protesters. Outside the stadium where the ceremony took place, graduates walked around campus, chanting “Disclose. Divest. We will not stop. We will not rest,” The New York Times reported. “We understand the depth of feeling in our community, and as we have all year, we respect the right of everyone at D...
(JNS) — Some 24 hours after U.S. President Joe Biden told CNN that he would withhold military aid from the Jewish state if Israel attacked Rafah, the Jewish Federations of North America stated that “in threatening to withhold military aid from Israel, President Biden is wrong.” “Daylight between the United States and Israel on military matters emboldens Hamas and other Iran-backed forces in the region, encourages their delay tactics and endangers the hostages by weakening Israel’s negotiating hand at a critical juncture,” it said. JFNA added...
(JNS) — Hamas’s unilateral ceasefire proposal failed to thwart the Israel Defense Forces’ operation against the terror group’s last bastion of Rafah, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday evening. “Hamas’s proposal was intended to torpedo our forces’ entry into Rafah. It did not happen,” the premier stated in remarks shared by his office. “Last night, with the approval of the War Cabinet, I gave the order to operate in Rafah. Within hours, our forces raised Israeli flags at the Rafah Crossing and took down the Hamas banners...
(JNS) - Families of deceased hostages whose bodies are still being held by Hamas in Gaza carried an empty coffin through Jerusalem on Thursday to raise awareness of their plight and call for the return of their loved ones. "I am attending this rally because we, the families of deceased hostages, are a unique group," Ruby Chen, the father of American-Israeli dual citizen Sgt. Itay Chen, 19, told JNS on Thursday. Itay, from Netanya, was stationed at the Nahal Oz army base as part of a tank unit...
(JTA) - Israeli police arrested Ayelet Waldman, a Jewish American author, while she was with a group trying to deliver relief to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Waldman, who is Israeli-born, was one of seven people arrested Friday morning at a protest action organized by Rabbis for Human Rights, and one of five Americans. Two were released before Shabbat, organizers said, but Waldman was still in custody at the police station in Ashkelon, a city near the Gaza border. Her husband Michael Chabon,...
(JNS) — It’s appalling to watch students at prestigious institutions shout in support of terrorism and a place that doesn’t exist: “Palestine.” How did young people become so delusional, misinformed and morally bankrupt? The seeds are sown at our once-venerable academic institutions. Since students don’t know what they don’t know, they are vulnerable to propaganda and manipulation by faculty with a political agenda. Duke University is an excellent example. In response to “the violence in the Middle East,” Duke’s provost Alec Gallimore esta...
(JNS) - Israel Bonds has surpassed $3 billion in global sales in the seven months since Hamas's Oct. 7 massacre, a sum almost three times greater than the company's recent annual average. "On Oct. 7, we initiated what is the most powerful and successful campaign in support of the state of Israel in the history of Israel Bonds since 1951," Israel Bonds president and CEO Dani Naveh told JNS. "My managerial task, in collaboration with my amazing team, was to elevate Israel Bonds sales to a much hig...
A Republican senator has called on the House of Representatives to launch impeachment proceedings against President Joe Biden over the president's decision to halt military sales to Israel in a bid to prevent the IDF from destroying Hamas battalions in Rafah. Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton took to Twitter Thursday to urge the Republican-held House of Representatives to impeach Biden, comparing the president's decision to withhold arms from Israel with then-President Donald Trump's impeachment for...
(JTA) — Pulitzer Prizes were awarded to reports on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that have become steeped in controversy since their publication, including a nonfiction book by Jewish author Nathan Thrall and breaking-news reporting and photography of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attacks by Reuters and The New York Times. The Pulitzer board also presented a special citation to journalists covering the war from Gaza, noting that “an extraordinary number have died” while doing so. Thrall, a Bard College professor based in Jerusalem whose work is often h...
(JNS) - Israeli Lior Rudaeff was declared dead on Tuesday night, exactly seven months after he was presumed to have been abducted by Hamas terrorists during the Oct. 7 massacre. A statement from Kibbutz Nir Yitzhak did not provide additional details. Rudaeff, an ambulance driver and volunteer medic, fought alongside the kibbutz's security team during the Hamas invasion. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum said that Rudaeff was killed on Oct. 7 and his body is being held in the Gaza Strip,...
(JNS) — Israel remains committed to destroying Hamas in Gaza, including its remaining battalions in Rafah, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call overnight Sunday. Gallant, according to the Defense Ministry’s readout of the call, emphasized that the IDF is conducting a “precision operation” in the city along the border with Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, including securing the Gaza side of the Rafah Crossing, which Israel’s military took operational control of last week. For its part, the Biden a...
(JNS) — Members of Congress grilled education officials from New York, California and Maryland on Wednesday about “pervasive” antisemitism in K-12 schools. Members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce’s subcommittee on early childhood, elementary and secondary education repeatedly asked David Banks, the chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, about a student-led rampage at Hillcrest High School in the borough of Queens that targeted a Jewish teacher. “We suspended students. We removed the principal of the school. W...
At Yeshiva U, ‘accelerated transfer’ for students who feel threatened (JNS) — Yeshiva University has reopened its admissions cycle for undergraduate applicants who feel threatened on other American campuses, including for its honors program. Those applicants have until May 31 to apply. The admissions cycle “has seen students choosing YU over other elite institutions. This trend is expected to continue among transfers,” Yeshiva stated. It added that it is creating new faculty positions to accommodate that growth and is “in active discussions...
(JNS) — House and Senate Republicans slammed U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and demanded that the administration explain why it failed to notify Congress. Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Ted Budd (R-N.C.) wrote to the Biden administration asking for answers about the frozen arms deal. “We are shocked that your administration has reportedly decided to withhold critical ammunition to Israel,” the senators wrote. “You promised your commitment to Israel was ironclad,” they added. “Pausing much-needed m...
(JNS) — Half a dozen Middle East experts indicated that it was news to them when JNS drew their attention to a recent phrase that the U.S. Defense Department has published on its website referring to the Gaza Strip as “entirely inside Israel.” “The Gaza Strip, which is about 25 miles long, lies entirely inside Israel and shares a border to the south with Egypt,” C. Todd Lopez wrote on the Pentagon website on Tuesday. “There are three locations along its border where humanitarian supplies could move into Gaza from either Egypt or Israel.” Th...
(JNS) — Israel Defense Forces ground troops on May 8 continued the offensive against Hamas in the Gaza terrorist bastion of Rafah. Soldiers killed an unknown number of gunmen and located tunnel shafts and other underground infrastructure on the 215th day of the war, the army announced. “IDF forces led by the 162nd Division and under the intelligence guidance of the Shin Bet and the Military Intelligence Directorate continue targeted operations in eastern Rafah against Hamas terrorists and the group’s terrorist infrastructure,” the army said. I...
(JNS) - The head of South Africa's second-largest church visiting Israel in solidarity with the Jewish state said Sunday that the South African government is out of sync with the people in its stance on the war with Hamas by supporting a terror organization. The unequivocal remarks by the South African Christian leader against the ruling African National Congress come just weeks before general elections in South Africa, which has emerged as one of Israel's most vocal critics in the world over...
