Eli Beer, founder and president of United Hatzalah, saying the Shema upon arriving in Israel after battling COVID-19 for six weeks at a hospital in Miami, Fla. Credit: United Hatzalah.
United Hatzalah’s founder and president, who returned to Israel after surviving a six-week battle against COVID-19 in a Miami hospital.
The arrival of supplies to Cedar Sinai Park Assisted Living in Portland, Ore., April 2020. Credit: Courtesy.
With more than 1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States to date, many of the hardest-hit states include those with large Jewish populations—New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California. As a result, Jewish nonprofit organizations in the heath-care arena, including nursing homes and assisted-living centers, hospice facilities and those who provide homecare for Holocaust survivors and other vulnerable populations, have witnessed overwhelming fatality rates as a result of the pandemic.
Mayanot Yeshiva in Jerusalem has not allowed coronavirus lockdown to stop the learning of Torah, moving its classes online for students.
We are truly living in unprecedented times. The Israeli Ministry of Health has placed the entire country on a near total lockdown. Schools, restaurants, malls, and places of entertainment, have all been closed. And as of this writing, the ministry is encouraging all Israelis to stay at home 24/7, besides for trips to the supermarket, pharmacy, or any other purposes which constitute an emergency. This is all the result of a tiny microbe, the COVID – 19 or Coronavirus, which has wreaked havoc on the world community.
On today’s Israel Uncensored with Josh Hasten, an very special interview with Rabbi Guy Avihod, who runs the Haboydem second hand clothing stores in Jerusalem, which gives adults with mental illness in the community a springboard to return to work. Avihod says that while we are essentially at home and in quarantine with our nuclear families this Passover, this event is not unprecedented. He explains that on the first Passover in history, the Jews were also quarantined in their homes as G-d carried out the plague of the firstborn in Egypt, sparking the beginning of the Exodus.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia / http://thebiblerevival.com/clipart/1907/ex14.jpg
Efrat residents at home under quarantine due to the coronavirus (COVID-19), March 30, 2020. Photo by Josh Hasten.
Less than 20 kilometers south of Jerusalem in the Gush Etzion bloc, the community of Efrat and its 13,000 inhabitants made headlines this week as having one of the highest levels of coronavirus-infected residents percentage-wise in the country.
On today’s Israel Uncensored with Josh Hasten, Josh shares what it’s like to be quarantined as Israeli health officials put a near closure on the entire country. Despite the crisis, Josh says that a lot of good is still happening here in Israel and all over the world. He says that together we can defeat the virus.
Photo Credit: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ibngvirol001.jpg
Israeli youths during a remote learning session at their home in Moshav Yashresh on March 18, 2020. Photo by Yossi Aloni/Flash90.
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shut down the country’s schools and universities until at least after Passover, Israeli parents, like their counterparts in other countries shut down by the COVID-19 virus, suddenly found themselves confronted with the task of overseeing their children’s education.
On today’s Israel Uncensored with Josh Hasten, an interview with educator and lecturer Rabbi Zev Shandalov who says that despite a virtual country-wide quarantine as a result of the Coronavirus outbreak, the focus should not be on what we can’t do, but on what we can do. Namely the Rabbi says that we should use this opportunity to read more, get to know our families better, study more Torah, and other positive activities even while being on lock down.
Also on the show Josh discusses the current political reality as the country’s leaders try to put together a government, with Blue and White head Benny Gantz disappointingly accepting the endorsement of the Arab Balad Party – an extremist element whose goal is to destroy the State of Israel from within.
Photo Credit: Alpha Stock Images – alphastockimages.com/