Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 76 - 91 of 91
(Israel21C via JNS) - "I saw in the news that you were coming from Israel for us, and I was waiting for you," said a tearful young woman in Surfside, Florida, to members of the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit from United Hatzalah of Israel. "People kept coming up to us and saying how happy they were that we arrived," said Batya Jaffe, who was on the scene with her therapy dog, Lucy. They were part of the six-person PCRU team that landed in Miami Sunday morning, along with a search-and-resc...
(JNS) - A rescue delegation from the Israel Defense Forces Home Front Command is using visual intelligence techniques and information received from families of the victims to precisely map out the wreckage of a condo that crashed in a Miami suburb last week. This mapping-out method is enabling rescue teams to more quickly reach the remains of victims and identify them accurately, military representatives said on Wednesday. In recent days, additional members of the Home Front Command joined the...
(JTA) - As the United States woke up to news of the building collapse in Surfside, Florida, it quickly became clear that the disaster is an American Jewish tragedy. The 12-story building in the heavily Orthodox enclave near Miami Beach collapsed just before 2 a.m. Thursday, as families slept in its 55 apartments just blocks from the beach. As of Thursday evening, almost 100 people are believed missing, and even as rescue efforts continue, officials fear that many of them are dead. At least one...
An apartment building in Surfside, Fla., partially collapsed early this morning, killing at least one resident and injuring others. The incident also sent first responders from Hatzalah of South Florida racing to the scene, some of whom received training from Magen David Adom specifically about responding to multi-casualty incidents like this morning’s disaster. Michael Strongin, an MDA paramedic currently volunteering for Hatzalah of South Florida until he returns to Israel next year, described a scene of utter devastation. “Half the bui...
(JTA) - Among Rabbi Mayer Berger's first thoughts on seeing the 12 stories of the Champlain Tower South pancaked upon themselves: This is like Sept. 11. Then as now, destruction of unimaginable proportions claimed many lives without warning in a manner that rendered traditional practices for burying the Jewish dead impossible to perform. Those practices call for bodies to be buried as soon as possible following death after undergoing a purification ritual called tahara. But with both Jewish and...
Tampa, FL — Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,200 people participated in a Town Hall Briefing on antisemitism organized by seven Florida Jewish federations (Orlando, Tampa, Gulf Coast, Sarasota/Manatee, Lee/Charlotte, Greater Naples and AJC West Coast Florida). This was assembled in response to the recent vandalizing of the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg on May 27. St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony Holloway said, “The Florida Holocaust Museum was vandalized by a person or group on May 27, 2021 with antisemitic /racially biased gra...
(JNS) — One week to the day after the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg was vandalized, hundreds gathered on Thursday to say no to anti-Semitism and stand up for the Jewish community. It was back on May 27 that graffiti, including a swastika and the words “The Jews are guilty,” was discovered painted on the outside of the museum. It came amid an upswing in anti-Semitic incidents worldwide — many related to Israel’s recent conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip — and St. Petersburg...
After a successful career in the world of finance, Boynton Beach, Florida, resident Jerry Klinger has become a "professional rememberer." Klinger, 73, started this endeavor as a result of trying to locate the first Jewish house of worship in New Mexico, Temple Montefiore, Las Vegas, N.M., established 1884. Instead, he found a Catholic church. At that location, he established the first of many markers, plaques and monuments he has placed across the United States. The list includes the first...
Laurie Cardoza-Moore, president of Proclaiming Justice to the Nations, is asking Florida citizens who want Holocaust education in public schools to support the importance of teaching about the Holocaust and the ramifications of antisemitism. The Florida Department of Education invited PJTN to draft K-12 Holocaust Standards for consideration for adoption. Cardoza-Moore’s team of Holocaust experts worked diligently for four months to draft Holocaust Standards that address the rising threat of antisemitism. (See Heritage article “Laurie Car...
The Eighth Annual Commemoration of the largest mass arrest of rabbis in U.S. history will take place outdoors at the Hilton Garden Inn, Bayfront, 32 Avenida Menendez, St. Augustine, at noon, Friday, June 18. This 30-minute event sponsored by the St. Augustine Jewish Historical Society, is free and all are welcome. The wearing of masks is requested. The event will be available on Zoom. On June 18, 1964, 16 rabbis and a Reform Jewish administrator were demonstrating in St. Augustine, at the...
(JNS) — A bill passed on Thursday by the Florida Senate will significantly increase state-provided scholarships for private-school students in kindergarten through 12th grade. Senate Bill 48 was passed in a 24-15 partisan vote and now goes to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to approve it. If put into effect, as of July 1, private-school students from working- and middle-class families with incomes that amount to 375 percent of the federal poverty level will be eligible for the same scholarships that public-school students can r...
(JNS) — The student senate at Florida State University rejected a series of resolutions that supported the anti-Israel BDS movement and rejected the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition on anti-Semitism. The resolutions were authored by former Student Senate President Ahmad Daraldik, who repeatedly used his position to promote antisemitism in 2020. After being removed and later reinstated as a senator, he introduced three resolutions that were harmful to the Jewish community. Two of them attacked the IHRA Def...
January is Florida Jewish History Month, designated by the Florida Legislature in 2003. It is a time to teach and celebrate the contributions of Floridian Jews to the development of the Sunshine State. Since my seminal book, "Jews of Florida: Centuries of Stories," was released in January 2020, I am pleased that many organizations throughout the state and nation have invited me to present my PowerPoint book talk highlighting some stories with about 100 photographs selected from the 716 in the...
(JNS) - In addition to Kat Cammack being one of a record number of Republican women elected to Congress this past election, she will serve as the youngest Republican woman on Capitol Hill when the 117th Congress begins on Jan. 3. She easily defeated Democrat Adam Christensen, 57.1 percent to 42.9 percent, respectively, in the Nov. 3 U.S. House of Representatives race in Florida's 3rd Congressional District to succeed retiring Republican Rep. Ted Yoho, whom she served as his deputy chief of...
(JTA) — Weeks after voting to rehire a principal who told a parent he “can’t say the Holocaust is a factual, historical event,” a Florida school board has reversed course. The Palm Beach County School Board voted a year ago to fire William Latson, who had been removed from his post after the 2018 comments came to light. Latson sued, saying he had been wrongfully terminated, and in August, a judge concluded that he should have been reprimanded but not fired. The board voted earlier this month to rehire him rather than face a protracted and cos...
(JNS) — The principal of a high school in the heavily Jewish city of Boca Raton, Fla., who was fired last year after he declined to recognize that the Holocaust occurred, has been reinstated. The Palm Beach County School Board voted 4-3 on Wednesday to rehire Spanish River High School principal William Latson, despite hearing 96 minutes of voice recordings, mostly objections from school board members, Holocaust survivors, family members and others ahead of the vote. A state administrative judge ruled in August that Latson should be rehired, t...
