Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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(JNS) — More than 2,000 ultra-Orthodox Israelis have asked to be enlisted in the IDF, in an unprecedented mobilization in the haredi sector. The volunteer recruitment follows Hamas’s murder of more than 1,400 Israelis and wounding of thousands of others on Oct. 7, the bloodiest one-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. About 150 haredim arrived at the IDF recruitment office at Tel Hashomer in Ramat Gan on Monday as the military begins to draft them as volunteers. Most of the volunteers, who ranged in age from their mid-20s to...
(JNS) — A 73-year-old grandmother, her 43-year-old son and barely 10-month granddaughter. Three generations of one Israeli family brutally murdered by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7 were laid to rest Sunday side by side, the infant sharing the same coffin as her father. In ceremonies across the country, a nation in mourning was burying its dead from the worst assault on Israel in half a century, and the most deadly one-day attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. In many cases, the c...
(JNS) - Hamas rocket fire targeting Jerusalem interrupted the opening session of the Knesset's winter session on Monday afternoon, Oct. 16. The legislators exited the plenum for the parliament's hallway during the attack. MK Merav Ben-Ari of the Yesh Atid Party was at the podium when air raid sirens sounded in the distance. "I think there's a siren," Ben-Ari told Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, who told everyone to go to the hallway. The second session of the 25th Knesset opened with a minute of...
(JNS) — “I came to Israel with a single message: You are not alone,” U.S. President Joe Biden posted on social media on Wednesday. As Air Force One returned stateside, some critics say the president should have left well enough alone, even as America’s close ally is at war. Biden’s several hours in Israel proved “a missed opportunity to show strength and secure the release of American hostages,” wrote the Republican National Committee. Biden barely mentioned the kidnapped Americans but did announce $100 million in new funding for Gaza, “shower...
(JNS) — In the ever-evolving battle against cancer, Israeli researchers have uncovered a previously unknown strategy employed by cancer cells to evade detection by the immune system. The findings may open the door for doctors to increase the effectiveness of current cancer treatments. The research, led by professor Yifat Merbl of the Weizmann Institute of Science, sheds light on the intricate world of cellular waste processing and its role in cancer’s ability to fly under the radar of our immune defenses. The team’s findings were recen...
(JNS) — The Israeli Air Force struck hundreds of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza in recent hours, including tunnels with terrorists in them, while infantry and armored corps conducted raids on the ground in the enclave in preparation for a wider ground offensive, the Israeli military stated on Monday. Dozens of operational command centers housing Hamas and PIJ operatives were also hit, according to Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari. Strikes were also conducted on targets that posed a threat to f...
(JNS) - The Israeli military has not ruled out the possibility that Hamas terrorists who infiltrated the Jewish state during the devastating cross-border invasion on Oct. 7 remain in the country. "We have not finished scanning [the Gaza border area] yet," IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on Thursday. He noted that troops on Wednesday located and captured a Palestinian terrorist-tired and hungry-who was attempting to return to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Hagari stressed that there have...
(JNS) - Israel will fight until it is victorious, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Thursday. During a visit to an IDF staging area near the Gaza border where he met with soldiers, Gallant said: "I see the determination, the spirit of battle, and above all, the motivation to carry out everything needed to defeat Hamas, to eliminate terrorist infrastructure, and to execute the mission as needed." Israel has been attacking Hamas targets from the air since the Oct. 7 massacre that killed more...
(JTA) — Hours after Saturday’s deadly surprise attack on Israel by Hamas, the Israeli protest group Achim le’Neshek (Brothers and Sisters in Arms) was helping arrange transportation for army reservists being called to the front. “Brothers and Sisters in Arms call on everyone who is required to stand up for the defense of Israel without hesitation and immediately,” the group tweeted early Saturday. “Right now the most important thing is the safety of the country’s citizens.” It was an abrupt turnabout by a group of military veterans and re...
(JNS) - "You're not going out. You are not going out." Those were 63-year-old Vivian Roitman's fateful words to her 72-year-old husband Menachem on the morning of Oct. 7, after the Hamas terrorists who had ransacked their home in southern Israel and failed to open the door to the safe room in which they were hiding had left the house. She didn't know it then, but the terrorists would be back less than two hours later for another attempt to murder or kidnap them, and then again for a third...
(JNS) — The leaders of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government endorsed the establishment of an “emergency national government” during a meeting of the party heads on Tuesday. “Every head of the coalition parties, without exception, supported the establishment of an emergency national government and authorized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to act to create it,” a spokesperson for the ruling Likud Party announced. Local media reported that an agreement for Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party to join the coalition is...
(JNS) — After more than 3,000 Jewish pilgrims visited the Temple Mount in Jerusalem during the first days of the week-long Sukkot holiday, one of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key ultra-Orthodox coalition partners on Wednesday demanded that the holy site be closed to Jews. “The ascension to Temple Mount involves a severe prohibition of karet,” tweeted United Torah Judaism Party MK Moshe Gafni, using the Hebrew religious term for divinely-inflicted premature death. “It pains my heart that 3,000 Jews violated this severe prohibiti...
(JNS) — Israeli forces have regained control of all the communities near the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday morning after two days of combat with Hamas terrorists. “We are in control of the ‘Gaza envelope’ communities,” IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari told journalists during a press briefing. He warned, however, that there are still terrorists in the area. Hagari added that the military has called up 300,000 reservists. Early Monday morning, exchanges of fire took place at Kibbutz Be’eri, Kibbutz Holit, Kibb...
(JNS) — Israeli forces killed several terrorists attempting to enter Israel from Lebanon, Army Radio reported on Monday afternoon. “The IDF forces killed a number of militants who crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanese territory,” the Israel Defense Forces confirmed in a statement. The IDF was searching the area to make sure additional terrorists had not entered the country, while attack helicopters carried out strikes near the border. Residents near the border fence were instructed to remain in their homes, with their doors locked and li...
(JNS) - The Hamas gunman aimed his rifle at the elderly couple in their home in Ofakim, southern Israel, early Saturday morning. He held a grenade on Rachel Edri's head, began screaming "Allah Akbar" and announced he was a "martyr." But Edri maintained her composure. Thinking quickly, she offered the group of five terrorists refreshments, and later a meal, engaging them in small talk, playing for time until security personnel could arrive. For the next 20 hours, Rachel and her husband, David,...
(JTA) - One, just out of the army, told his dad "I love you" and "I'm sorry" then went quiet. One who just joined the army has no family nearby, so a stranger is keeping him company in the hospital. One was a peace activist. These are some of the stories beginning to emerge as Israel strives to identify the hundreds of people who are dead and dozens who are missing after Saturday's attack on southern Israel by Hamas. There are no figures yet on the number of North Americans killed or abducted...
(JNS) — As Israel entered its third day of war with Hamas, an Israeli official denied it was negotiating for the release of hostages held by the terror group via Qatar. “There is no negotiation,” an Israeli official said, according to The Times of Israel, disavowing the claim of a Hamas source to the contary. Qatari mediators have been trying to negotiate the freedom of Israeli women and children in exchange for the release of 36 Palestinian women and children from Israel’s prisons, Reuters reported on Monday. The negotiations, conduct...
Rescuers without borders medics arrived at the Gaza border on Shabbat/Saturday to help the wounded. Spokeswoman Natalie Sopinsky said they were able to get there quickly because 1) the medics are armed and 2) they have an armored ambulance. “We have remained there, working hand-in-hand with Magen David Adom. This is ongoing and we are working in shifts with volunteer from around the country. All hands are needed in the war effort and we are doing our best to treat wounded civilians and soldiers.” Sopinsky stated that they now need a 2nd tea...
(JNS) - The Jerusalem March, the largest and oldest march in Israel, took place during the intermediate days of Sukkot, with tens of thousands of Israelis and participants from some 90 other countries joined in. Participants had the choice of three routes on Oct. 4: A 10-km. (6.2-mile) circuit, suitable for experienced walkers; one of about 8 km. (5 miles), medium level of difficulty; and one of about 5 km. (3.1 miles), low level of difficulty and suitable for the whole family. The event...
(JNS) — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday in Berlin signed an agreement to provide Israel’s Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany. At an estimated value of $3.5 billion, the deal is the largest of its kind in Israel’s history. The first missile battery, including radar, launch and interception management systems, is to be supplied to the Germans by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) by the fourth quarter of 2025. Germany is the first foreign purchaser of the system. Arrow 3 is the upper-tier layer of Israel’s missile defense...
(JNS) — President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were among the speakers Tuesday at Israel’s state memorial ceremony marking 50 years since the Yom Kippur War. The ceremony took place at the Hall of Remembrance on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. The attendees included Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and Supreme Court Justice Yitzhak Amit. On Oct. 6, 1973, a coalition of Arab states, led by Egypt and Syria, coordinated a surprise attack on Yom Kippur, “thinking that the IDF would not be able to defen...
(JNS) - A 2,300-year-old tomb of a courtesan, including among other things a well-preserved bronze mirror, has been uncovered on a major Jerusalem thoroughfare, offering rare evidence of the Hellenistic period in the city, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Wednesday. The burial cave, which was discovered on a rocky slope aside Hebron Road and near Kibbutz Ramat Rachel, included the cremated remains of a young woman alongside a box mirror in a perfect state of preservation, the...
This story will be updated. (Oct. 9, 2023, JTA) — A massive military operation is underway to place Gaza under a “complete siege,” Israel’s defense minister said on Monday, 48 hours after a surprise attack by Hamas left 800 Israelis dead, thousands wounded and more than 100 captive in Gaza. “We are going to change the Middle East,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, according to Israeli media. Meanwhile, a second front in the war has threatened to open up. On Monday, a number of gunmen entered Israel’s north from Le... Full story
(JNS) - The world's largest sukkah is set to open to the public in Jerusalem, with plans for a series of free events, including workshops, plays, musical performances and virtual reality activities, for all ages and sectors. The "Mayor of Jerusalem's Sukkah" will be erected in Safra Square and be open during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday (Oct. 1-5) from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. It will also be open on Sept. 30 for a few hours after 9 p.m. and on Oct. 6 in the early morning. The...
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu instructed his country’s leading nuclear and security specialists to work with U.S. negotiators to find a compromise that lets Saudi Arabia enrich uranium, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. Israeli officials are “quietly working” with the White House to develop a “U.S.-run, uranium-enrichment operation” in Saudi Arabia for a civilian nuclear program, a key condition of the kingdom for accepting a normalization agreement with Israel, officials from both countries told the Journal. Ma...
