At a time when many people are reluctant to make a public display about supporting Israel, Jenna Galbut is helping people wear it on their sleeves. And their chests, their legs, their foreheads… Galbut, who made a name for herself in the last decade as a personal development guide online, and has more recently done brand development and investment advising, recently opened Olam Tova, an online clothing store with bold, youthful designs that carry a message — that the wearer is a proud supporter of Israel, and isn’t going to hide it. The clothes also have another purpose — profits are sent to h ..read more

Ben Hill Griffin Stadium at the University of Florida. Credit: Pablo Corredor via Wikimedia Commons. Chris Summerlin, dean of students at the University of Florida in Gainesville, chose not to offer slap-on-the-wrist penalties to pro-Hamas protesters arrested on campus on April 29. Instead, Summerlin applied multiple-year suspensions of some students, the most severe penalty short of expulsion. The students in question will need to reapply should they wish to continue their education at the school, an option not allowed if expelled. Summerlin, who began his position in April, rejected recommen ..read more

Space Florida, the state’s aerospace finance and development authority, and the Israel Innovation Authority announced on July 9 eight companies awarded funding to work jointly in the Space Florida-Israel Innovation Partnership Program. The joint funding program was established 11 years ago in cooperation and ongoing support of Enterprise Florida, known as Select Florida today, and continues to fund projects that have transformative implications for the aerospace industry. Through this collaboration, Florida-based companies gain access to Israeli technological prowess and innovation, while Isra ..read more

Rep. David Kustoff (left), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, July 3, 2024. Photo by Haim Zach/GPO. By Etgar Lefkovits (JNS) — He is one of two Jewish Republicans in all of Congress and hails from a heavily evangelical district in Tennessee. The politically conservative district in eastern Memphis and West Tennessee that Congressman David Kustoff represents, he recounted in Jerusalem, has almost as many church steeples as McDonald’s golden arches. When he first campaigned for Congress in 2016 and went knocking on doors ..read more

From Young Israel of Tampa’s 2020 Chanukah on Ice event The rejection by a state agency of a Florida synagogue’s advertisement for a “Chanukah on Ice” event has resulted in a Supreme Court case supported by more than half of America’s states on the grounds of religious freedom. A coalition of 26 states joined to advocate on July 5 for Young Israel of Tampa, which wanted to place ads for a holiday gathering, after the Hillsborough County Transit Authority denied such on the grounds of a “no religious speech” advertising policy. The authority, however, had accepted a similar ad for a “Winter Vil ..read more

Logan Greene with Stanlee Stahl An eighth-grade teacher in Hoover, just south of Birmingham, received a prominent national award for excellence in teaching about the Holocaust. Berry Middle School’s Logan Greene received the Robert I. Goldman Award for Excellence in Holocaust Education at an advanced seminar for educators, coordinated by the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, held over Martin Luther King Weekend in January. “We are privileged to honor exceptional educators each year and especially proud to present this year’s award to Logan Greene for his outstanding work in teaching the Hol ..read more

Florida State Representative Randy Fine at the site of the Supernova music festival massacre near Kibbutz Re’im, June 10, 2024. Credit: Courtesy. By Etgar Lefkovits (JNS) — The lone Republican Jewish lawmaker in the Florida State legislature said on June 18 that he could never have imagined considering whether it was safe for Jews to live in the United States, even though the Sunshine State is the “gold standard” for fighting antisemitism. Randy Fine spoke after months of often violent antisemitic protests across the U.S. that have shaken American Jewry in ways not seen since World War II. “I ..read more

Donavon Parish, in a 2022 Forrest County mugshot. Donavon Parish, 29, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on June 18 to cyberstalking harassment, admitting that he was motivated by Jew-hatred, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He faced one count of cyberstalking and five counts of abuse and harassment using a telecommunications device, and admitted to a special finding that he targeted his victims abased on their actual and perceived religion. Parish, of Hattiesburg, Miss., made threats over the phone to synagogues and Jewish businesses in Penn ..read more

Ten Commandments monument outside Gates of Prayer in Metairie. SJL file. Editor’s Note: A version of this editorial originally appeared in our publication in September 2001, during the Judge Roy Moore monument dispute at the Alabama Supreme Court building. It was updated slightly to refer to a 2014 Alabama bill to require its posting in government buildings, and again here in June 2024, after Louisiana mandated the Ten Commandments be displayed in every school. The original piece won the 2001 Simon Rockower Award for Excellence in Jewish Journalism from the American Jewish Press Association, f ..read more

Willie Mays (left) with Jacob Shemano and the Dodgers’ Leo Durocher. Courtesy of Gary Shemano By Louis Keene (The Forward) — Willie Mays was in the prime of his career in 1963, but his finances were a mess. The Giants’ star outfielder had plunged into debt amid divorce proceedings, and even with more than half of his career home runs under his belt, was staring down bankruptcy. Then he met Jacob Shemano. Shemano was a banker whose kid, Gary, was shagging fly balls during warmups that day at Candlestick Park. They connected in the locker room afterward, where Mays asked Shemano to help him smoo ..read more