Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(MEMRI via JNS) — The Jews “who came to Palestine” are pagan Khazar converts, not the Children of Israel, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said in a Dec. 18 speech posted online by the official Syrian Arab News Agency and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute. The Syrian dictator went on to state there is “no evidence” that six million Jews died in the Holocaust, and that the Nazis did not employ any special methods of torture or killing for Jews, who he said were killed just like other victims of World War II. The Holocaust...
IDF drills for Oct. 7-type attack in Judea and Samaria (JNS) — The Israel Defense Forces this week carried out a drill simulating an Oct. 7-style attack in Judea and Samaria and northern border communities, according to Israeli media reports. The exercise was one of various scenarios the IDF is preparing for in Judea and Samaria following the invasion by Hamas terrorists from the Gaza Strip, in which 1,200 mostly civilians were murdered, thousands more wounded and 240 people kidnapped. IDF released report on capture of Nahal Oz base (JNS) ...
(JNS) — Several Hamas leaders recently left Qatar together with their entourages, cutting off communications including cellphones. The leaders left for Algeria, Lebanon, Iran and other countries, according to sources cited by Kan News’s Arabic channel. Among Hamas leaders living in Qatar are Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzook and Khaled Mashal. They live a life of luxury in the Gulf state even as most Palestinians in Gaza live in abject poverty. Officially a major non-NATO ally of the U.S., Qatar...
(JNS) - More than 130 gatherings on Dec. 8 and Dec. 9 through BBYO's "Global Shabbat" initiative drew more than 16,000 teens from 30 countries. "This historic teen-led movement-wide initiative has been anchored in BBYO culture since it first launched in 1928," per the nonprofit, which was formerly called the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization and which split from B'nai B'rith International more than 20 years ago. The recent event had two themes-"forever young" to mark BBYO's centennial year and "re...
BERLIN (JTA) — Recognizing Israel’s right to exist is now mandatory for those who want to become German citizens in the former East German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Applicants living in the state will have to confirm in writing “that they recognize Israel’s right to exist and condemn any efforts directed against the existence of the State of Israel.” Saxony-Anhalt’s interior minister, Tamara Zieschang, a member of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party, said Tuesday that the rule went into effect at the end of November. The new sta...
Maccabi World Union unveils memorial to victims of Oct. 7 By Rolene Marks (JNS) — Maccabi World Union unveiled a memorial to the 1,200 victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre at the Kfar Maccabiah hotel and sports club complex in Ramat Gan on Wednesday. Since the onset of Israel’s war against Hamas, MWU has been active in helping tens of thousands of residents from the south who evacuated their towns and kibbutzim on the border with Gaza. MWU turned Kfar Maccabiah into a small village to accommodate evacuees from Sderot, a city on the Gaza bor...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Following last month’s historic March for Israel that brought nearly 300,000 people to the National Mall, the nation’s most prominent American Jewish organizations have today joined forces to launch The 10/7 Project — a new centralized communications operation. The 10/7 Project is designed to promote continued U.S. bipartisan support for Israel by working to ensure more complete and accurate information about the Israel-Hamas war in real time for policymakers and the American public. The 10/7 Project is led by the America...
(JNS) — Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Tuesday accused Israel of the “systematic and deliberate” killing of Palestinian civilians. At the same time, he claimed to be working to restore the collapsed hostages-for-ceasefire deal between Israel and the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. “It is shameful for the international community to allow this heinous crime to continue for nearly two months, during which the systematic and deliberate killing of innocent civilians continues, including women and children,” Qatar’s ruler told Gu...
(JNS) — Chabad’s CTeen International conducted a conference in Barcelona, Spain, that brought together Jewish youth from across Europe. Some 300 Jewish teenagers gathered from Nov. 24-26 for “Shabbat Across Europe,” which Chabad described as “a weekend of togetherness, belonging and Jewish pride.” Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, chairman of CTeen International and vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubatich movement—said the event “gave teens a space where it’s safe to express your Judaism fully.” And he remind...
(JTA) — Police estimated that 50,000 people showed up for a march against antisemitism on Sunday in what reports are calling the largest such gathering in London since before World War II. Organizers estimated that 60,000 attended the march, which was planned in reaction to the spike in antisemitism around the world that has accompanied the Israel-Hamas war that began on Oct. 7. Speaking at the march, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said Jews “will not be intimidated.” “We must teach our children that the superheroes of our society are tho...
(JNS) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday called Argentinian President-elect Javier Milei "a true friend of Israel" and invited him to visit Jerusalem. The Israeli leader congratulated Milei on his election victory in a "friendly" telephone call and thanked him for supporting Israel in its war against Hamas as well as for his pledge to move Argentina's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, according to the Prime Minister's Office. In a major foreign policy shift, Milei has said...
Herzog honors Kibbutz Be’eri heroes by inscribing Torah scroll (JNS) — Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid tribute on Sunday to the more than 100 residents of Kibbutz Be’eri who were murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, as he inscribed a letter in a Torah scroll that will be used in the community’s rebuilt synagogue. Herzog dedicated the scroll “to all those slaughtered in Your holy name, the defenders of the land who stood up as heroes to fight against the evil terrorists who came to destroy us on the day of the joy of our Torah.” ...
(OFAKIM, Israel, JNS) — A reverential silence fell on the room as the four American-Muslim women bowed their heads in prayer on Friday for the victims of the Hamas attack on Israel. Moments earlier, the interfaith crowd in the apartment in this western Negev city, which included Muslims, Jews, a white-turbaned Sikh, a mixed Israeli family and Mayor Yitzhak Danino, stood mesmerized as the Arabic words of supplication for the Israelis murdered in the massacre were intoned. “The Muslim world was...
(JTA) - Javier Milei, a colorful right-wing "anarcho-capitalist" who has said he would like to convert to Judaism, was elected president of Argentina. Milei's passionate love of Judaism and Israel has been one of the several unexpected qualities that Argentines and political analysts have become accustomed to during his rapid rise over the past year. Milei, 53, throughout his campaign blamed the outgoing government for soaring inflation and poverty rates. That government included Cristina...
(JNS) — Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas’s original founders, on Tuesday called on Israel to set a time limit for the terror group to release all Israeli hostages, and to assassinate his father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, and other Hamas leaders if they don’t. “Hamas must have a timeframe—a month or two or six months—to return the hostages, and if they don’t return the hostages within the time frame, Israel must execute top Hamas leaders in prison, especially the mass murderers,” said Yousef in a video message posted online. “When I...
(JTA) — Jewish groups are criticizing Pope Francis for appearing to accuse both Israel and Hamas of “terrorism” in their ongoing war that started Oct. 7. “This is what wars do,” the pope said at his general audience in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday. “But here we have gone beyond wars. This is not war. This is terrorism.” Francis’ comments followed separate meetings with Jewish relatives of hostages held by Hamas and Palestinians with family in Gaza on Wednesday. His remarks come a month after he called on Hamas to free the hostages being he...
(JNS) - Chinese naval vessels ignored repeated distress calls from an Israeli-owned commercial tanker that was under attack by suspected Somali pirates on Sunday, according to the Pentagon. The USS Mason destroyer and allied ships-reportedly belonging to Japan- recovered the Israel-linked Central Park tanker, which an "unknown entity" hijacked in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen, U.S. Central Command confirmed on Monday. Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder confirmed that at...
TAIPEI (JTA) - For a few years eight decades ago, Shanghai was home to an outpost of what would become BBYO, the global Jewish youth movement. At the time, the Chinese city was a refuge for Jews fleeing Europe. Fifteen German Jewish teens created an Aleph Zadik Aleph chapter in June 1941, but when they left Asia after the war, the youth movement ended, too. Now, the network of small but significant Jewish communities scattered across Asia has resurrected BBYO's presence on the continent. About...
(JNS) - The Israel Defense Forces is investigating claims that three members of the Bibas family in Gaza, including 10-month-old Kfir, died in Hamas captivity, the military said on Wednesday. The "military" wing of Hamas announced the deaths Kfir, his brother Ariel, 4, and his mother, Shiri, 32, the Hamas- and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-affiliated Quds News Network reported earlier on Nov. 28. Without presenting evidence, the Al-Qassam Brigades attributed their deaths to "a previous Israeli...
Israeli Arab detainees refuse to be included in prisoner release deal (JNS) — The attorneys of several Israeli Arab detainees informed the Israeli State Attorney’s Office and Justice Ministry on Wednesday that their clients refuse to be included in a prisoner release deal with Hamas. On Monday, Israel’s Prime Minister’s Office released a list of 50 female prisoners in Israeli jails that would be added to the 150 prisoners slated for release as part of a prisoner-exchange deal with Hamas. Of those 50, 22 were Israeli Arabs arrested after O...
Israel’s coalition to advance bill giving Druze special status (JNS) — Israel’s government coalition announced on Saturday evening that it will advance a Basic Law to give the Druze community special status. The decision comes as six soldiers from the minority have been killed in action against Hamas terrorists in Gaza during the IDF’s “Operation Swords of Iron.” Coalition chairman Ofir Katz and Foreign Minister Eli Cohen announced the legislation, saying that “in the coming days we will advance the draft law on the foundation of the Druze com...
(JNS) — U.S. President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that Israel’s Gaza operation will last until Hamas no longer has the power to commit the types of atrocities witnessed on Oct. 7. “I think it’s going to stop when Hamas no longer maintains the capacity to murder and abuse and just do horrific things to the Israelis. And they still think they—at least as of this morning, they still thought they could,” Biden said at a press conference in California following a meeting with China’s Xi Jinping. “When Hamas said they plan on doing the same thing...
(JNS) - "We have indeed made history today with over 290,000 of us gathered here on the National Mall. This is the largest pro-Israel gathering in history," William Daroff, CEO of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, told attendees of the "March for Israel" on the National Mall in Washington on Nov. 14. Daroff, whose organization represents 50 member groups, added that another 250,000 watched the march on livestream and on C-SPAN. "Look what we can do in just...
On the very same day when over three hundred thousand Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike, travelled to Washington, D.C., to support Israel’s efforts to prevent Hamas from ever slaughtering innocent Jews again, President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken approved 10 billion dollars of additional sanctions relief to the Iranian terror regime. It is beyond recklessly irresponsible, sickening and frightening that the Biden administration authorized releasing money to the Islamic Republic of Iran, while Iran is funding Hamas’ and Hezbo...
(JNS) — While nearly a million residents of Gaza are displaced by war, Hamas’s top leaders and their families have been enriching themselves. The Hamas leadership controls an investment portfolio estimated at close to $1 billion and owns assets in Sudan, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Egypt and other places. Hamas imposes taxes of 20 percent on goods smuggled from Egypt to the Strip through tunnels. Reports also indicate that Hamas earns an estimated $450 million annually from Gaza’s black-market trade. Iran is belie...
