Debra Nussbaum Cohen

(JNS) — Community leaders in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn say that the sentence handed to the man convicted of repeatedly ramming his car into the world headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch minimizes the seriousness of the attack. Dan Sohail, 36, of Carteret, N.J., pleaded guilty to one federal count of damaging religious property after driving his Honda Accord down a ramp leading to the handicapped-access entrance at 770 Eastern Parkway on Jan. 28. After first removing protective barriers, he repeatedly rammed the vehicle into...

“As a refugee whose family fled communism, Alex Vindman [who is Jewish] will defend the American Dream because he has lived it,” said Richard Stark, president of the Florida Democratic Party Jewish Caucus. “Alex spent 21 years serving our nation in the U.S. Army, and now he’s answering the call to serve again. While corruption is running rampant in Washington, Alex is ready to stand up for all of us in the United States Senate, by addressing the affordability crisis head on, fighting to expand health care, and protecting our honor,...

JNS Staff

(JNS) — Nefesh B’Nefesh celebrated on Sunday the arrival of its 100,000th immigrant to Israel from the U.S. and Canada in a special occasion marked at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, attended by Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer and Nefesh B’Nefesh co-founders Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart. The milestone was marked by the immigration of Jeffrey and Atara Douglas, who arrived from New York to Jerusalem with their three children: Nathaniel, 10, Hallie, 9, and Emilia, 6, Nefesh...

JNS Staff

(JNS) — U.S. ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee said on Sunday that while the Iranian regime is weaker in the wake of the war, its ballistic missiles can now reach Europe. “The Iranian regime is weaker than it has been in 47 years. The infliction of harm to them and the pain to them, is not something that is imagined. Their ability to produce a nuclear weapon has been greatly set back,” Huckabee told the panel of “Fox & Friends” on Fox News. But Tehran’s missile capacity, “unfortunately, has grown”, he said. “In one year...

Jonathan D. Salant

(JNS) — For Jewish Democrats, Tuesday’s primaries could have been worse. But not much. Former public health official Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, who has accused “bloodthirsty” Israel of “genocide” and called it an “illegal apartheid regime,” defeated Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.) in the Senate Democratic primary in Michigan, a state that could determine which party controls the Senate next January. And Michigan state representative Donavan McKinney unseated pro-Israel Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.) in the Democratic primary. But state...

Menachem Wecker

(JNS) — Rabbinic law operates on a principle that “a man may not make himself out to be evil,” but the Talmud also states that “silence is like agreement.” That means, two Orthodox rabbis told JNS, that it’s complicated what Jewish tradition has to say about Dr. Anthony Fauci declining to answer questions under the Fifth Amendment 111 times during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing last week. Fauci is a former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to former U.S....

WINTER PARK, FL —Thanks to a two-year grant from the S’firot Foundation, Jewish Family Services of Greater Orlando is launching a new case management program dedicated to supporting Jewish seniors across Central Florida. The program will help older adults access critical services — coordinating care, benefits, transportation, health-related resources, and community-based resources — while addressing the emotional and practical challenges that can lead to isolation and unmet needs. “The S’firot Foundation’s goals align powerfully...

Aaron Bandler

(JNS) — A San Francisco Bay Area school district didn’t do enough to respond to an incident, in which a student told a teacher of his Jewish peer that “they deserved the Holocaust,” the California Department of Education found in a report dated June 9. On Feb. 3, “Student B” made an antisemitic comment to an AP statistics teacher at Westmont High School, in Campbell, Calif., about “Student A,” with whom the teacher was speaking. “Don’t talk to that Jew. That’s why the Holocaust happened. I’m glad it happened,” the...

JNS Staff

(JNS) — Israel will not pull back from its current positions in the Gaza Strip until the Hamas terrorist organization is completely disarmed, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Tuesday. “I am standing firm on our security interests—we will not withdraw from our current lines until Hamas is completely disarmed,” Netanyahu said in a Hebrew-language video posted to his Facebook page. He added that Israel Defense Forces soldiers had been instructed “to do everything necessary to defend themselves, to defend our...

Chabad of Oviedo Winter Springs is hosting a Rosh Hashanah All-Star Kickoff on Aug. 30 at 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. for children ages 4-12. This Kickoff is a sports-themed children’s program featuring interactive games, round challah making, personalized team caps, shofar activities and an “MVP Move” that helps every child choose a mitzvah or positive goal for the new year. Reserve a spot now at...

Andrew Bernard

(JNS) — Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), a two-term congressman known for controversial statements as one of the most conservative House members, lost his Republican primary election in Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District on Thursday in an upset victory for former state agricultural commissioner Charlie Hatcher. During his time in the House, Ogles introduced legislation that would require anti-Israel protesters who violate U.S. law to perform community service in Gaza, wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice calling for New York...

The S’firot Foundation invites members of the community to join its upcoming Community Forum, From Insight to Impact, where they will share the findings from the new Jewish Aging in Greater Orlando Report and explore how these insights will help shape future community priorities and our grantmaking. This forum is an opportunity for nonprofit leaders, healthcare providers, community organizations, funders, Jewish communal professionals, older adults, caregivers, and community members to come together to learn, connect, and discuss the future...

The Holocaust Center of Florida presents Mezuzah Traces, an evocative exhibition by the Polish-Jewish design studio MI POLIN in Warsaw, that opened Aug. 11. The first in its Memory Keepers cultural exchange program, this powerful exhibit brings to light the quiet, physical remnants of Jewish life in Poland through the lens of an object both sacred and symbolic: the mezuzah. After the destruction of Poland’s Jewish communities during the Holocaust, all that often remains of once-thriving Jewish homes are the subtle traces left behind:...

Rebecca Szlechter

(JNS) — Lior Auvgang, a survivor of the Nova music festival massacre in southern Israel on Oct, 7, 2023, and former combat paramedic in the Israel Defense Forces, shared his story of survival, loss and resilience with about 70 UJA-Federation of New York young leaders on Wednesday in Manhattan. “I feel like I’m a modern Holocaust survivor,” Auvgang told JNS. “God gave me the ability to stand in front of people and talk and tell my story, so I feel like it’s bigger than me.” He told attendees of the event that he arrived at the...

Oath of Office, the organization created to protect and strengthen the American Experiment by promoting a balanced constitutional republic and ensuring a fair democratic process has endorsed Suzanna Pavelle, running to represent District 19 including portions of St. Johns County and all of Flagler County, for her commitment to Democracy, Constitutional integrity, accountability and her “resilience against autocracy.” Suzanna Pavelle grew up in Massachusetts and earned a B.A. from the University of Oregon, where she studied anthropology,...

Smotrich, Strook urge Netanyahu to cancel approval of US-brokered Gaza plan By JNS Staff (JNS) — Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Settlements and National Missions Minister Orit Strook urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday to immediately convene the Security Cabinet to revoke its approval of the Washington-brokered peace plan in Gaza. The ministers moreover called to prevent the entry of the International Stabilization Force into the Gaza Strip until its “purpose, legal authority, and missions” are...

Mitchell Bard

(JNS) — Imagine that after Sept. 11, American and European leaders had proposed negotiating with Al-Qaeda rather than destroying it. The discussion would not have centered on dismantling its terrorist infrastructure, but on what concessions the West should make to persuade Osama bin Laden to stop attacking it. Perhaps recognition of a new Islamic caliphate. Perhaps acceptance of sharia law. The idea is absurd. No serious American leader suggested bargaining with Al-Qaeda or ISIS to moderate their ambitions. The United States hunted down and...

Stuart N. Brotman

(JNS) — In my new book, “Free Expression Under Fire,” I make an argument I’ve spent years defending: that free expression doesn’t just live in the courtroom or the ivory towers where I trained. My case is that the First Amendment’s 45 words have durable meaning when ordinary people take them out of litigation briefs and law reviews and into “kitchen table conversations, coffee shop debates and civic discussions that shape our communities.” I stand by that. But I left something out. This month, as Carnegie Mellon University...

Melanie Phillips

(JNS) — The significance of the victory by Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Democratic primary goes far beyond the particulars of the result. It’s a chilling indicator of the suicidal lurch of progressive politics, which has weaponized anti-Zionism and hatred of Israel to destroy America and the West. El-Sayed beat the moderate, Israel supporter Haley Stevens, to become the Democratic candidate for Michigan’s Senate seat in the November midterm elections. He wants a total U.S. military embargo on the “evil” State of Israel, which...

Rabbi Yossy Goldman

(JNS) — Know anyone who walked on water lately? Throughout the Torah, we read about Moses and the elders of Israel, and their spiritual greatness, including prophecy. God spoke to Moses like no other prophet in history. But there are prophets … and there are prophets. This week in Re’eh (Deuteronomy 13: 2-6), we are told that there may well arise a false prophet in your midst—one who may perform miracles and wonders. And you may be very impressed and ready to follow him. But we are cautioned. Should he tell you to follow other gods...

Dear Editor: We are becoming a nation of “Barnabys.” Let me share an analogy: “Barnaby was a dog with a big dream and a short nose. His owner, Leo, tied a plump, warm hot dog to a long string and dangled it right in front of Barnaby’s twitching snout. Barnaby trotted forward, his eyes locked on the bouncing meat, running and panting in an endless, joyful chase.” Look at us, well-informed American Jews falling for the empty promises on which communism is built. This ideology as a style of living is full of negatives, full of flaws,...

Gloria Green

The phrase “Judeo-Christian values” was once a familiar part of American civic life. Presidents, educators, clergy, and community leaders used it because they understood a fundamental truth: Christianity did not arise in a vacuum. It grew from the Hebrew Bible, from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and from the moral law first entrusted to the Jewish people. Today, public discourse increasingly speaks only of “Christian values,” as though their Jewish foundation can simply be set aside. Can a tree flourish after severing its own...

Stephen M. Flatow

Part Four of a series explaining Israel’s political system before Israelis go to the polls Ask an American Jew whether a particular Israeli politician is on the left or the right and you’ll usually get an immediate answer. Ask what those labels actually mean in Israel and the answer becomes much less certain. That is because Israeli politics developed differently from American politics. In the United States, political debates often revolve around taxes, government spending, regulation, social issues and the proper role of government....

Submitted by Jewish Pavilion Senior Services Did you know that by age 70, fewer than 30 percent of older adults maintain 20/20 vision? Age-related eye conditions such as macular degeneration, cataracts, and glaucoma are increasingly common and can significantly affect daily life. These conditions may interfere with driving, reading medication labels, navigating uneven sidewalks, or even recognizing familiar faces at church or social gatherings. Vision loss also impacts communication. During conversations, we naturally rely on visual cues to...

MORNING MINYANS Chabad of Altamonte Springs — Sunday morning minyan, 8 a.m. Weekday morning minyan 6:30 a.m., 407-720-8111. Chabad of South Orlando — Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. and 10 minutes before sunset; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 8:15 a.m., 407-354-3660. Congregation Ahavas Yisrael — Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m.; Saturday, 9:30 a.m.; Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-644-2500. Congregation Chabad Lubavitch of Greater Daytona — Monday, 8 a.m.; Thursday, 8 a.m., 904-672-9300. Congregation Ohev Shalom — Sunday, 9 a.m., 407-298-4650. GOBOR Community...