Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 76 - 100 of 10232
(JNS) - Majed El Shafie, founder and president of the Canadian nonprofit One Free World International, didn't mince words when he spoke about Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, at a "Rally for Humanity" at the Toronto-area synagogue Sephardic Kehila Centre on Sunday evening. "Let me not sugar coat it. We have an idiot of a prime minister. The only prime minister who didn't go to Israel of the G7," said Shafie, whose nonprofit supports persecuted religious minorities. "The only one who...
(JNS) — “She’d rather sleep anywhere else than inside a bomb shelter, because that’s where she was kidnapped from. That’s where Hamas burst in and took her and Hila,” Tom Hand, the father of former captive Emily Hand, told JNS on Thursday. On Oct. 7, 2023, Emily Hand was sleeping over at her friend Hila Rotem Shoshani’s house in Kibbutz Be’eri, five miles from the Gaza Strip, when Hamas launched its assault, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251 hostages including 40 children, among...
(JNS) — Leaders of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement hosted a special reception honoring the president of the Berlin state parliament on Monday night at the Jewish Learning Institute headquarters in Brooklyn, N.Y. About 50 guests gathered to honor Cornelia Seibeld, president of the Berlin State Assembly, and other German representatives to express gratitude for the government’s support of Israel and commitment to combating rising Jew-hatred throughout Europe. Yehuda Teichtal, chief Chabad rabbi in Berlin, presented Seibeld with an award in rec...
On Nov. 14, Jewish Pavilion Senior Services brought the holiday spirit to over 50 attendees from the Maitland Chamber of Commerce at New Hope for Kids in Maitland. The Pre-Hanukkah Breakfast, prepared by dedicated Jewish Pavilion staff and volunteers, offered a unique and engaging celebration, complete with festive décor and a menu of delicious homemade holiday foods. The highlight of the morning was an interactive presentation by Jewish Pavilion's CEO, Nancy Ludin, who captivated the audience...
(JNS) — More than 60 members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine were arrested during a recent counter-terror operation in Judea and Samaria, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Defense Forces announced in a joint statement on Tuesday. Local district heads and ground-level operatives were detained, along with university students active in PFLP cells, according to the statement. Among those detained were leaders of the PFLP-affiliated Union of Women’s Committees, including Abla Sa’adat, wife of the organ...
(New York Jewish Week) - Donald Trump picked Lee Zeldin, a Jewish Republican and former congressman from New York, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump announced Zeldin's appointment on Monday in a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying Zeldin "has been a true fighter for America First policies." "He will set new standards on environmental review and maintenance, that will allow the United States to grow in a healthy and well-structured way," Trump said. Trump, who...
(JNS) - President-elect Donald Trump announced that the "great public servant, governor, and leader in faith for many years" and "highly respected" Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, will be the U.S. ambassador to Israel during the next administration. Huckabee "loves Israel and the people of Israel and likewise, the people of Israel love him," Trump stated. "Mike will work tirelessly to bring about peace in the Middle East." A Southern Baptist pastor and governor for more than a decad...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump is filling out his national security team with pro-Israel hawks who favor maximum pressure on Iran to stand down from its belligerence in the region. Reports Monday said Trump planned to name two Floridian allies to top jobs: Sen. Marco Rubio will be tapped to be secretary of state, and Rep. Michael Waltz will be his national security adviser. Both men have said Israel should not be prevented from staging a direct attack on Iran’s nuclear weapons program. That stance echoes Trump who, before the...
(JTA) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Matt Gaetz as his nominee for attorney general. As attorney general, Gaetz would head the government department responsible for investigating and prosecuting hate crimes, including antisemitism. Gaetz, 42, was elected to Congress in 2016, where he has represented a district in the Florida Panhandle. Senators from both parties appeared surprised by the nomination, potentially imperiling Gaetz’s chances of securing the job. If he is confirmed to the role by the Senate, he would succeed Merrick Gar...
(JNS) — U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated Army veteran and Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as the nation’s next defense secretary, his transition team announced on Tuesday. “Pete has spent his entire life as a Warrior for the Troops, and for the Country. Pete is tough, smart and a true believer in America First. With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice—Our Military will be Great Again, and America will Never Back Down,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform. Hegseth, 44, has served in Guantanamo...
(JNS) — The State Department waived terrorism sanctions on the Palestinian Authority just before the American election on Nov. 5, even as it admitted that the P.A. continues to fund terrorism in violation of U.S. law. The waiver enables the P.A. to skirt American sanctions for another 180 days, until it comes up for renewal under a Trump White House, The Washington Free Beacon reported. The State Department, in a non-public notice to Congress, said that the P.A. and the PLO, the dominant force in the P.A., are not complying with agreements t...
Kushner returns to advise Trump on administration By Ariel Kahana (Israel Hayom via JNS) — New details emerged Sunday morning about Donald Trump’s developing administration. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, has returned to closely assist the president-elect in preparations for building the new administration. Kushner, 43, was among the key figures in Trump’s first administration and led many of its successes. Since the 2020 election, he and his wife, Ivanka, Trump’s daughter, have avoided public and political activity, partly to provide t...
(JNS) — The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis told JNS exclusively that it has released a new “teacher-friendly curriculum,” which addresses “the history of the Jewish people in the land of Israel from ancient to modern times.” “This state social-studies-aligned curriculum situates Jewish history in the larger context of Middle Eastern and world history,” the media watchdog told JNS. “Students learn how geography and the development of religious, cultural and political movements from ancient to modern times have crea...
(JNS) — Argentine President Javier Milei on Tuesday officially appointed Geraldo Werthein, a Jewish businessman and former ambassador to the United States, as the country’s foreign minister. Werthein is a former Argentine ambassador to the United States whose ancestors escaped Jewish persecution in Russia in the early years of the 20th century. He took office at an inauguration ceremony at the Buenos Aires headquarters of the Argentine Foreign Ministry, known as the Cancillería. Unusually for the predominantly Catholic country, the inau...
(JNS) — At a press conference on Wednesday outside the United Nations National Security Council in New York, a former hostage of Hamas in Gaza delivered a scathing indictment of the international body’s failure to intervene on her behalf. “Not a single humanitarian agency saw me or treated me,” said Mia Shem. “Where was the Red Cross? Where was the U.N. demanding that they have access to us?” Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon, also spoke at the press conference, describing the U.N.’s “complete moral failure” as “unforgivable.” Whi...
(JNS)- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at about 4:30 a.m. local time that he was dispatching two rescue planes to Amsterdam following a "very violent incident against Israeli citizens." "The harsh pictures of the assault on our citizens in Amsterdam will not be overlooked," Netanyahu's office stated, adding that he "views the horrifying incident with utmost gravity and demands that the Dutch government and security forces take vigorous and swift action against the rioters, and...
(JNS) - Amid a sharp increase in Jew-hatred after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack in southern Israel, many elected officials and university presidents stood silent. That's why Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center gathered Jewish groups to "find ways to start fighting back," Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the Israeli nonprofit's president, told JNS. Shurat HaDin aimed "to retake the streets, to retake the campuses, to retake the social media, to combat antisemitism in a way that we haven't,"...
(JTA) — WASHINGTON — As midnight arrived on the East Coast, it appeared increasingly likely that Donald Trump would retake the presidency — a victory that would reshape the United States and that could change its relationship with Israel while ushering in an administration whose domestic priorities do not match those of most American Jews. That victory was confirmed early Wednesday morning when news agencies called Wisconsin for Trump, confirming that he had passed the 270 electoral vote threshold needed to win. The tally made clear that Trump...
(New York Jewish Week) — Republican Rep. Mike Lawler retained his seat in New York’s 17th Congressional District in a race that saw both candidates vie for the area’s large Jewish vote and spar over support for Israel. The race was one of several swing districts in New York State that could sway control of the House. Lawler defeated Democratic challenger Mondaire Jones in the district, which covers territory north of New York City in Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester counties. Lawler won around 57 percent of the vote, 16 points ahead...
(JTA) — California voters did what was widely expected and elected Rep. Adam Schiff, a Jewish Democrat, in the senate race to replace the late Dianne Feinstein, another Jewish Democrat, who died while in office last year after serving in the role for more than 30 years. Schiff, who currently represents parts of greater Los Angeles in the U.S. House of Representatives, defeated Steve Garvey, a former star baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had hoped to beat the odds and become the first Republican to be elected to a statewide o...
(JNS) — Amsterdam police detained 62 people in connection with a series of antisemitic assaults against Israeli soccer fans, which resulted in five moderate injuries and about 20 to 30 minor ones, in the Dutch capital, the city’s prosecutor René de Beukelaer said at a Friday press. The five injured people were treated in the hospital and discharged, De Beukelaer said during the briefing with Femke Halsema, the Amsterdam mayor. Witnesses described about 100 men, whom they described as Arabs, assaulting Israelis in a coordinated manner on Frid...
(JNS) — An Israeli low-cost airline is planning to launch flights between Israel and New York this winter, ending the wartime monopoly on the popular route by Israel’s flagship carrier El Al, the Israeli Ministry of Transportation said on Wednesday. The move, which envisions four weekly flights on Israir from Tel Aviv to Newark Liberty International Airport, comes at a time when flights on U.S. carriers to and from Tel Aviv remain suspended due to the security situation, and as El Al is facing an investigation for price gouging on tickets due...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated at about 4:30 a.m. local time that he was dispatching two rescue planes to Amsterdam following a “serious incident of violence against Israeli citizens.” “The prime minister takes the horrific event very seriously and demands that the Dutch government and the Dutch security forces act firmly and quickly against the rioters and ensure the peace of our citizens,” Netanyahu’s office stated, in Hebrew. Earlier in the day, Maccabi Tel Aviv lost 5-0 to Ajax Amsterdam in a Europa League socc...
(JNS) — The United Nations said in a letter Tuesday that finding a replacement for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which Israel banned for its terror ties, was Jerusalem’s responsibility. “If UNRWA is no longer able to operate it would be the responsibility of the Israeli authorities to replace its services that it delivers to civilians, in education, in health, and all sorts of other areas,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ chef de cabinet, Courtenay Rattray, wrote to...
(JNS) — El Al flew about 2,000 passengers to Ben Gurion-Airport over the weekend on eight emergency flights from Amsterdam, the Jewish state’s flag carrier said, following a coordinated assault on Israelis there on Thursday night. Most of the emergency flights left on Friday and two flew on Saturday with special permission from the chief rabbis of Israel, who determined that the circumstances justified this violation of observing the Shabbat. “All passengers have boarded the flights free of ch...
