Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JTA) - Chaim Walder, an Israeli haredi Orthodox children's book author who was accused last month of sexual abuse by several teenage girls, was found dead Monday in an apparent suicide. His body was found in a cemetery in Petah Tikva, in central Israel, after a passerby heard a gunshot and called police, according to Israeli news reports. Walder's death came a day after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that a rabbinical court in Safed had heard testimony from 22 young women about alleged...
(JNS) — As U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan arrived in Israel on Tuesday to discuss Iran and other strategic issues, and as nuclear talks continue in Vienna, the Israeli leadership increasingly believes that applying heavy pressure on Tehran is the only way to stop the Iranian advance toward nuclear weapons. But where exactly do the U.S. and Israel go from here on the Iranian threat? Sima Shine — head of the Iran program at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank as well as former head of the research and eva...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on Sunday the approval of a 1 billion shekel ($317.3 million) program to develop and settle the Golan Heights. Addressing the weekly Cabinet session, held in Kibbutz Mevo Hama in the southern Golan, Bennett said that the government’s goal was to double the Golan’s population, according to an official statement. The current population is approximately 50,000. To achieve this goal, the government plans to build two new neighborhoods in Katzrin, the unofficial capital of the Golan, and a...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - A synagogue dating back some 2,000 years has been excavated at Migdal in northern Israel, a modern town and the site of a significant Jewish community in the Second Temple era. This is the second synagogue excavated in Migdal and the first time archeologists have found evidence of two synagogues coexisting in a Jewish community at a time when the Second Temple was still in use. Like many archeological discoveries in Israel, the second synagogue at Migdal resurfaced due...
(Israel Hayom via JNS) - "An intensification of Israeli military threats against Iran seems to suggest that the Zionist regime has forgotten that Iran is more than capable of hitting them from anywhere," began an article published Tuesday in the Tehran Times, a newspaper identified with the Iranian regime. The article ran under the headline "Just One Wrong Move!" and featured a "map of Israeli targets," which showed nearly every populated community in the country labeled with a red dot. The...
(Israel21C via JNS) — When it comes to the Miss Universe pageant, most people firmly belong in one of two categories: those who consider it to be a global celebration of women and beauty, and others who find it an old-fashioned, patriarchal event that belongs deep in the past. Whether you find it to be an incredible, sparkly international affair or not, there’s no disputing that this year, it’s one that’s (relatively) close to our hearts, being held as it is for the first time in Israel,...
(JTA) - Violent attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank are nothing new. But the phenomenon has reached alarming new level of frequency this year. Violent attacks perpetrated by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank exceeding last year's attacks by nearly 50 percent, according to a report by The Times of Israel. In 2021, there have been 397 attacks so far, compared to 272 in 2020, The Times of Israel reported based on data from the Shin Bet, Israel's domestic security agency....
(JTA) - Israeli officials are expected to attend the Winter Olympic Games in Beijing next year, unlike their American counterparts who will boycott the game to protest China's human rights abuses against the Uighur Muslim minority. Haaretz reported the news, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official who called the Americans' decision to boycott "bizarre." Earlier this week, the United States announced that no American officials would attend the games. The boycott only applies to diplomatic...
(JTA) - When she won the privilege of representing Puerto Rico in the Miss Universe contest, Michelle Marie Colon spoke of her pride in making history as the first Black woman from the territory to seize the honor. This week in Israel, where the contest is being held, she has been touting pride in another aspect of her heritage: her Jewish great-grandfather who escaped the Holocaust. Last week, Colon posted a photo of her holding hands with Noa Cochva, the Israeli entrant into the contest,...
(New York Jewish Week via JTA) — Israel will set plans in motion to renovate the non-Orthodox prayer space at the Western Wall, an Israeli official said Tuesday in New York. The current Israeli government is expected to implement an agreement, shelved under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, that would expand an area of the holy site where men and women could pray as they please. But speaking to journalists at the Israeli consulate in New York City, Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai said that before it formally implements the 2...
(JNS) - A new autonomous unmanned ground vehicle introduced by Israeli companies Elbit Systems and Roboteam, called "Rook," can carry out a remarkable number of roles on the battlefield. Elad Levy, CEO of Roboteam, told JNS that the ground robot is tailor-made to client needs through its ability to be assembled in a system of "boxes," with each box allowing for clients to choose a different kind of capability - much like assembling Legos. While one box can act as an electrical engine, others...
(JTA) — American officials have warned Israeli officials that their country’s repeated attacks on Iran’s nuclear program have been counterproductive, arguing that Iran has continually rebuilt the destroyed facilities to be more effective, according to a report in The New York Times. Israeli officials have ignored the warnings, according to the report. The report comes ahead of a planned meeting in Vienna between Iranian officials and the countries still remaining in the 2015 Iran deal to discuss the country’s nuclear program. Despite Preside...
(JTA) - An 11-year-old girl found a rare silver coin dating from approximately 67-68 CE in dirt from excavations at the City of David park in Jerusalem. Liel Krutokop was visiting the site with her family recently to sift dirt from an archeological dig when she found the coin, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. "We poured the bucket with the dirt on the strainer, and as we filtered the stones that were inside, I saw something round," Krutokop said of the moment when she found the...
Two seemingly parallel and completely unrelated things happened this week with an astonishing response. Running a nonprofit, the end of the year is an opportunity to tie up loose ends and be sure that in the last weeks of the year, the level of financial support is at least maintained. While planning some traditional year-end appeals on behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation, I realized that Israel was in a bit of a crisis, with my organization and many others facing a financial deficit. In...
(JTA) — Kanye West’s trips to Israel clearly left a mark on the rap superstar. In a wide ranging podcast interview released Friday, West — who recently changed his legal name to Ye — said he thinks Christians should form kibbutz communities, modeled off the Jewish versions, to help foster a sense of togetherness. “We need Christian kibbutz[im], we can have communities,” West said on the “Drink Champs” hip-hop podcast. He had to clarify the term to co-hosts N.O.R.E., a rapper, and DJ EFN, a record executive. “Jewish people have this type of circ...
(JNS) — The current Israeli government led by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is taking the issue of climate change more seriously than ever before. Israel has brought a delegation of 140 members to the 26th U.N. Climate Change Convention in Glasgow, Scotland. Bennett pledged this week that Israel will no longer burn coal for electricity by 2025, and committed Israel to be a net-zero carbon economy by 2050. While the pledges, particularly the latter, will be extremely difficult for a nation that currently relies on abundant sources of n...
(JTA) - Women of the Wall's monthly prayer service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem was disrupted yet again by more than 100 Orthodox protesters, a day after former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu amplified the protesters' cause. The disruptions took place even though lawmakers who support and oppose the group agreed to stay away from the Western Wall, in a bid to calm tensions. Women of the Wall, a group that organizes a women's prayer service at the holy site on the first day of each Hebrew...
(Israel21c via JNS) — A team of Israeli experts has solved the mystery of which proteins in the SARS-CoV-2 virus are responsible for causing the severe vascular damage seen in coronavirus patients. The novel coronavirus is made up of 29 proteins. Five of those proteins were identified as damaging to blood vessels in a study led by Tel Aviv University researchers Ben Maoz (biomedical engineering and neuroscience), Professor Uri Ashery (life sciences and neuroscience) and Professor Roded Sharan (computer science). “We see a very high inc...
(JTA) — In what was seen as a crucial test in Israel’s longstanding governing crisis, the country’s lawmakers managed to approve a national budget for the first time in more than three years on Thursday. A failure to do so by a Nov. 14 deadline would have meant the collapse of Israel’s new government and a fifth national election since 2019. The approval of the fiscal framework marks a victory for the coalition led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett over his predecessor, Benjamin Netanyahu, who sought to undermine parliamentary negotia...
(JNS) - Part of a 140-member Israeli delegation to Glasgow, Scotland, to attend the 26th U.N. Climate Change Convention, Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg tells JNS how she assesses the role that the Jewish state can play in the global effort, and the environmental and economic benefits it will bring to the country. Q: Israelis generally don't take environmental issues seriously. There is litter and illegal dumping. Water sources are dirty. Air quality is often poor. Why start addressing the...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said on Friday that six Palestinian NGOs will be listed as terror organizations for their close ties with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. “Those organizations were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel,” he announced. “The security organizations will continue to act and intensify the strikes against terrori...
(Israel21C via JNS) - If there's proof that you can't go anywhere in Israel without stumbling on some kind of ancient artifact, it's got to be the news this morning that a scuba diver has discovered an ancient Crusader sword on the sea bed off the Carmel coast in the north of the country. Atlit resident Shlomi Katzin was diving off the coast at the beach in Carmel on Saturday when he spotted ancient artifacts lying on the sea bed, uncovered apparently by shifting sands. Katzin saw ancient stone...
(JTA) — After more than a year and a half of largely closed doors, Israel just moved one step closer to allowing tourists back into the country — as long as they are vaccinated. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and the country’s health minister Nitzan Horowitz approved a plan Thursday that would allow foreign tourists back into the country beginning Nov. 1. The plan still has to be formally approved by the government. Since the beginning of the pandemic, tourists have only been allowed to enter the country with special approval and have be...
(JNS) - Israel's Upper Galilee region is positioning itself to become a global leader in foodtech. Several food-tech and agritech accelerators and companies have established themselves in Israel's northern "periphery," where the Israeli government provides incentives for individuals and businesses to establish themselves there. The region boasts open and fertile land that brings forth some of Israel's top produce, as well as an ecosystem of budding infrastructure - public bodies and...
(JNS) — Michael Oren says he has been “integrally linked to the Jewish Agency” for years. The former Israeli ambassador to the United States and former Knesset member is one of eight candidates to head the organization. He has a long history with the Jewish Agency for Israel, which he hopes will continue with him at its helm. According to Oren, 66, the Jewish Agency used to be viewed “as a sinecure for politicians.” “That practice seriously impaired [its] image and effectiveness,” he said. “It would be tragic if now, at this most critical t...
