What is the path to holiness? The parsha details for us the steps that we must take to attain that goal. Therefore, most of the mitzvoth of the Torah are mentioned in this parsha, for it is through the adherence to the mitzvot that we become holy and spiritual.
By: Rabbi Osher Jungreis
Many people will tell you that while they may not be observant, they are spiritual. What exactly does that connote? Does it mean meditating? Vegetarianism? Jogging?
It is none of the above, for all the aforementioned are self-focused. In this week’s parsha, we discover the meaning of spirituality. Kedoshim t’heeyou lee – “You shall be holy unto Me, for I, the L-rd Your G-d am holy…” (Leviticus, 19:2) is the proclamation of G-d.
What is the path to holiness? The parsha details for us the steps that we must take to attain that goal. Therefore, most of the mitzvoth of the Torah are mentioned in this parsha, for it is through the adherence to the mitzvot that we become holy and spiritual. These mitzvoth range from revering parents to loving our fellow man as ourselves, to refraining from taking vengeance or holding a grudge, to being on guard against gossip, to being kind to the stranger, to paying the day worker his wages on that self-same day, to keeping the Sabbath and not worshiping or fashioning idols, and many more. These mitzvot are so critical to Jewish life that every Jew – Kol Adas Bnei Yisroel, had to be present when they were taught (Leviticus 19:2). Another reason advanced by our sages for teaching these commandments to the entire congregation is to underscore the fact that sanctity cannot be attained through a hermit-like existence, but only through reaching out to others in chesed – kindness, thereby bringing them closer to HaShem.
One of the mitzvoth mentioned in this parsha is “not to place a stumbling block in front of a blind person “(Leviticus, 19:14). This means that we must be careful not to give misleading advice. We also have to insure that we do not have hidden agendas and that our motivations for giving advice are pure.
The question that must occur to all of us however, is why does the Torah not simply state that we are not permitted to mislead others. Why this convoluted passage–“putting a stumbling block in front of a blind man?”
The Torah wants to impart to us the seriousness and the importance of trust. Even as no sane individual would countenance tripping a blind person or allowing him to walk in front of a moving vehicle, so too, misleading someone who is unaware, is equally deplorable. We all know how painful it is to discover that we have been betrayed by people in whom we placed our trust, so we should take care not to do this to others. All relationships are built on trust. Neither individuals, nor families, nor societies can survive when trust is missing. When we come to the understanding that to deceive or mislead someone is no different than pushing a blind man down, then we will surely be sensitive to every word that we pronounce.
The path to spirituality and sanctity as outlined in this parsha is to strive for discipline, for moral and ethical excellence and to emulate the attributes of G-d. Even as He is compassionate, so must we aim to be compassionate; even as He is forgiving, so must we must aim to be forgiving, and that is the meaning of “You shall be holy unto Me, for I the L-rd your G-d am holy.”
Citizens are required to wear face masks throughout Israel in order to prevent themselves and others from contracting the coronavirus, particurlarly in the population-concentrated haredi Jewish city of Bnei Brak. April 3, 2020. Photo by Tomer Neuberg/Flash90.
“Our priorities need to be straightened out,” said writer Moshe Farkash. “If, despite the dire warnings of all global authorities and public-health experts, the public remained indifferent and flaunted directives, we must urgently address such devastating callousness.”
By: Israel Kasnett
With some ultra-Orthodox (haredi) communities in Israel having been under complete lockdown due to the high rate of COVID-19 infections, a major controversy has been raging in Israel over whether the leaders of these communities were initially aware of the dangers of the virus and, if they were, whether they intentionally encouraged their followers to flout the government-imposed lockdown rules.
No matter the details, it has become obvious that with a large portion of Israel’s infected coming from haredi communities such as Bnei Brak and areas of Jerusalem (at least 40 percent of cases—a significant number given that they make up only 12 percent of the population) their leadership has failed them.
The question is if the haredi world in Israel will undergo a change as a result. And if so, in what way?
JNS spoke with three experts on Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community, and what is clear, they say, is that most haredim are law-abiding citizens and have strictly adhered to the directives published by the government. Also clear is that haredi society places tremendous weight on its uninformed leadership, the “Da’at Torah” (“Da’as Torah” or “Da’as Toyreh”), which is roughly translated as those leaders who are experts in all facets of Jewish law and custom, and have wide-ranging knowledge of the Bible, the Talmud and many commentators.
Whether or not this is likely to change in the future remains to be seen, but the rock-bottom dependency has certainly been rattled.
Gilad Malach, director of the ultra-Orthodox in Israel program at the Israel Democracy Institute, highlighted three main reasons for the spread of coronavirus among the haredim. The first, he said, is that the spiritual leaders of the community did not heed the warnings regarding the coronavirus threat, especially when the instructions were connected to religious practices, such as studying and praying. In the beginning, when the government first began to advertise the need to practice social distancing, the haredi community was slow to heed the warnings. Many even believed that God would help them.
Gad Yair, associate professor and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, agreed with Malach. He explained that a main concept in sociology—social capital—involves the functioning of social groups through interpersonal relationships.
“The haredi community has a lot of social capital,” he said. “They participate in communal prayer, they have large families, and for every question, they go to a rabbi.”
Yair noted that this high level of social interaction, which in normal times is deemed an advantage and an asset, is now a liability.
“This is the reason it spread,” he said, “but not because they are disobedient. It is just the practices they are accustomed to and which Judaism is built around.”
While Yair vindicated the general haredi public, he laid blame squarely at the doorstep of its leaders, charging them with negligence as they urged their followers to congregate. He said their rhetoric “continued until late and verged on irresponsibility or perhaps something even more criminal than that. They knew. They were speaking about the virus, and many of them were knowledgeable of the risks.”
Israeli border Policemen in a checkpoint located at the exit of the Ultra-Orthodox city of Bney-Brak on April 03’rd, 2020. Israeli Police have set up checkpoints around roads leading in and out of Bnei Brak as the Israeli government declared the ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak a “restricted zone” after invoking emergency powers to handle the coronavirus outbreak, which has massively spread throughout the city. Photo by Gili Yaari /Flash90
The second reason that the virus spread throughout these communities, according to Malach, is that it took the state authorities a few weeks until the ministries identified the ultra-Orthodox towns as high-risk areas. This mistake is especially attributed to Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman and Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri, who belong to the community but allegedly did not act forcefully or clearly enough to convince leaders to change their behavior.
According to Yair, it is not just the politicians who are at fault, but also many of the rabbis who were very late in their response.
Yedidia Stern, a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute and a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, told JNS “there is a problem [within the haredi community], but I don’t think Litzman and Deri should be blamed.”
Stern said that there was “a lack of communication between the government and the haredi leaders. People were not aware of the cultural differences and the need to communicate with a more personal approach, explaining this in terms they may understand.”
The third reason, according to Malach, pertains to the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. The cities in question are the densest areas in Israel. In addition, the daily lifestyle of haredi men includes communal rituals and practices, such as studying and praying together in close proximity.
“In general, the ultra-Orthodox in Israel live in an enclave culture geographically, and also in terms of technology, in the sense that they reject the Internet and television,” said Malach “They did not understand the situation, and they did not trust the authorities regarding religious rituals and customs.”
Stern explained that it is understandable that the haredi community would be slow to respond to this crisis since they don’t “have faith or confidence in what the government says.”
“A large percentage of the community does not have faith in the police or the Knesset,” said Stern. “So when the government orders them to change whatever is dear to them, it’s not easy for them to do.”
Some criticism of the haredi community—and subsequent warnings about its future—has come from within.
‘The centrality of established religion’
Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman and Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Yehoshua Pfeffer, editor-in-chief of Tzarich Iyun, a website that focuses on haredi thought and ideas, suggests the nature of their response to the virus is due to three main principles that partially define that community: suspicion of the state and its institutions, isolationism from non-haredi society and culture, and a strongly institutionalized society.
“The coronavirus crisis has exposed our community’s severe vulnerability,” he said. “While cultural isolationism might be the best antidote to the ills of Western culture, it runs the risk of leading to detachment from reality. … An exaggerated self-confidence, combined with a measure of detachment from reality, can lead to dire consequences.”
Pfeffer points to “the centrality of established religion” as “another major factor that stands at the crux of [haredi] policy and leadership decisions.”
A central aspect of this community is its maintenance of religious observance and practice through communal prayer and study. During lockdown, there were groups of haredim who went to great lengths to participate in communal prayer, with each person joining in from their individual balcony.
The idea of removing so central an aspect of life was too painful for some.
Thus, as Pfeffer points out, closing haredi institutions and even recommending praying alone represent “radical steps” for their leadership.
According to Moshe Farkash, a haredi writer on the same website, “Our priorities need to be straightened out. If, despite the dire warnings of all global authorities and public-health experts, the [haredi] public remained indifferent and flaunted directives, we must urgently address such devastating callousness.”
Farkash said he believes that their “irresponsible conduct … reflects our community’s ultimate failure to properly contend with modernity itself.”
In his opinion, this crisis “must force us to think hard about our social function and how to improve it, for now and for the future.”
‘Suspicious of scientific authority’
Natan Slifkin, a self-described “post-haredi” Jew, explains on his website that while most people in Israel have access to global news, trust in government authority and accept basic concepts of science, those living in such communities lack all three.
“As a relatively isolated community,” he writes, the haredim “are less in tune with the news and mood of the wider world, and their reactions to events lag behind the rest of us. … As a community based around a siege mentality, they are unreceptive and suspicious of guidance and regulations coming from the government. And as an anti-rationalist community, they are suspicious of scientific authority. It’s only to be expected that the response to coronavirus would be deficient.”
As Israel contends with the present nightmare, working around the clock to contain the virus and its spread, it is also looking to the day after. Much discussion has centered on how reality will be different in the future. But what of the haredi community and its future? Will there be a fundamental change in the nature of the system and its leadership?
Stern believes that “there is a good chance” that change will take place. “It is a sensitive moment,” he said. “We are facing the first real time in recent history when a large majority of haredim see the state as the real protector of life.”
For years, haredim have largely avoided being drafted into Israel’s military en masse due to their contribution to the state through their Bible study. Over time, some members of its community have come to view the military, law enforcement and secular government with suspicion.
According to Stern, now, the thousands of police and soldiers in the streets protecting the public must have had some impact in influencing the ultra-Orthodox masses.
Stern is calling for a new “social order” between the haredim and the general public in Israel. He believes that the haredi public today needs a “hug” and a renewed “acceptance.”
“Today,” he said, “75 percent of haredim say they are proud to be Israeli. There is a change.”
However, he warned that if the hate speech of other Israelis towards haredim is dominant in the near future, then it might push this sector into the arms of extremists.
‘Not enough to trust their own sources’
According to Malach, the future will bring a number of changes to the haredi community.
The first, he noted, relates to technology. “Until the current crisis, just 50 percent of the community used the Internet, and some of them just at work or just on a weekly basis,” he said. “Updated data shows that in one month it jumped to 60 percent of the population. There was an increase of 200 percent to 600 percent in new connections in March compared to February. Almost half of the consumers report that they view news from regular sources and not just from ultra-Orthodox sites.”
“They realize it is not enough to trust their own sources and need more points of view,” he said. “This is a great change when we talk about the ultra-Orthodox society.”
According to Yair, “more people will now connect [online], listen to more voices and pay more attention to science and medicine. People will take more care.”
The second change that might take place, he continued, is the level of obedience to rabbis.
As Malach noted, the ultra-Orthodox society is a conservative society, and their trust in their spiritual leaders is a basic belief that’s very difficult to change. “In a democracy, usually when the leader fails in handling a situation, he resigns or gets punished by the voter,” he said. “Here, it’s more like a monarchy in that you don’t change the leader.”
“The value and centrality of respecting and obeying rabbis will continue, but more people will decide for themselves regarding personal questions like higher education or using the Internet,” he added.
Likewise, stated Yair, the haredi public “will have to come to terms with their leadership.”
“In Judaism, unlike Catholicism where you have one church, you can change your rabbi if you don’t like him,” he noted. “Judaism allows more flexibility. In Chassidic circles, they have this tendency to have only one rabbi, but this risk may open more routes, especially through the Internet, to hear more voices.”
According to Stern, the haredi public saw their rabbis as having been totally mistaken and risking the lives of the public. “The charisma of the rabbis might be viewed as more problematic from now on,” he said. “Haredim consult their rabbis on personal and national issues, and they see them as some kind of pipeline directly to God. This failed on the most important occasion in front of the camera. Everybody saw it. You can have your narrative and you can explain it, but a large chunk of haredim will now ask themselves, ‘Can we trust [our leaders] on issues not related to the Torah?’ ”
The last change regarding the future is connected to the economy and labor market.
“On the state level, policy makers understand that there is a need for haredim to be part of the state and to participate in the labor market,” said Malach. He noted that “more than 40 percent of the ultra-Orthodox community lives under the poverty line.”
Malach also said he believes the current economic crisis “will limit the ability of the state to support the community.”
In addition, the economic crisis in the United States “will cause a shut down in philanthropic support to some of the yeshivot,” leaving a lot of men with “no choice but to integrate into the labor market.”
However, as unskilled workers during a period of high unemployment, “their chance of landing a job is not very high,” said Malach.
The need to find work might also change the attitude of haredi youth towards secular studies and core curriculum subjects, such as math and English, which many of them do not learn today.
“As we see,” said Malachi, “these extraordinary events threaten the basis of the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. We don’t know exactly what will change, but it seems that a lot will.”
Rabbi Sholom Eidelman, one of the longest-serving Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in the world—a devoted Chassid, teacher and congregational leader who along with his wife, Gittel, rarely left the North African nation of Morocco since being dispatched there in 1958—passed away in a hospital in Casablanca on April 10, the second day of Passover, after contracting COVID-19. He was 84 years old.
Devoted educator was among the longest-serving Chabad emissaries in the world
By: Avraham Berkowitz
Rabbi Sholom Eidelman, one of the longest-serving Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in the world—a devoted Chassid, teacher and congregational leader who along with his wife, Gittel, rarely left the North African nation of Morocco since being dispatched there in 1958—passed away in a hospital in Casablanca on April 10, the second day of Passover, after contracting COVID-19. He was 84 years old.
For more than 60 years, Rabbi Eidelman oversaw a dozen Chabad of Morocco Jewish schools and is mourned by tens of thousands of students he taught throughout the decades. He opened and ran a kollel (advanced study group) where he trained most of the rabbis and shochtim (ritual kosher slaughters) in Morocco. Among his students were Jerusalem’s Chief Rabbi and former Chief Rabbi of Israel Shlomo Moshe Amar, and Montreal Dayan Rabbi David Raphael Banon.
Born in Soviet Russia and raised in Brunoy, France, young Sholom Eidelman grew up in a home steeped in Chassidic thought and practice.
As a young rabbinical student, he hoped to travel to New York to learn in yeshivahs there and be close to the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—but the Rebbe wrote to him that many young Jews from North Africa were already beginning to emigrate to Brunoy, and he was needed there.
In 1958, he sought the Rebbe’s blessing to marry Gittel Gurkow, who later recalled in an interview with JEM how the Rebbe’s response to his request signaled the young couple’s next chapter. Following the engagement, the young rabbi traveled to New York, where in a private audience with the Rebbe, he and his bride were given their assignment in Casablanca.
The Rebbe had been deeply concerned with the plight of Jewish communities in Muslim countries and the fate of Sephardic Jewry in general in the post-war era. In 1950, the first emissaries sent by the Rebbe to open new Chabad centers around the world were in Morocco, when Rabbi Michoel and Taibel Lipskar were sent to Meknes and Rabbi Shlomo and Pesia Matusof were sent to Casablanca, joined by Rabbi Nisson and Rachel Pinson. In 1960, Rabbi Yehuda Leib Raskin and his wife, Raizel, arrived in Casablanca, and together the Rebbe’s emissaries established what today are among the longest-running Chabad institutions and centers in the world. Mrs. Raizel Raskin remains a mainstay of Chabad-Lubavitch in Morocco.
At its peak, more than 250,000 Jews lived in Morocco, and for decades following their arrival, many of the schools, synagogues and social-service organizations assembled by Chabad emissaries and staff were among the leading educational and religious institutions for Moroccan Jews.
Over the next 62 years, Rabbi Eidelman and his wife continued to serve the community up until his passing. Even as the numbers of Jews in Morocco would dwindle, 10 years ago they were joined by Rabbi Levi and Chana Banon, who have revived many educational programs and religious services for the youth and younger generations who continue to live in Morocco today.
A Visit to Casablanca
Six months ago, the day after Yom Kippur, I stopped in Casablanca with my son, Menachem, after conducting a Yom Kippur Service in Malabo, Equatorial New Guinea. The Banons’ 11-year-old son Mendy took us around Casablanca.
Without any prior notice, we visited Rabbi Eidelman’s synagogue, In the complex is the humble apartment where he and his wife have lived for decades.
We entered and went back in time to witness a sight from another time and another world. The Eidelmans lovingly greeted us as if they had been waiting for us for days and welcomed us into their home. Rabbi Eidelman was sitting in front of an open sefer (holy book) surrounded by thousands of well-thumbed sefarim.
It was sweltering outside, and he was sitting with a fan blowing above, wearing woolen tzitzit and black suspenders. He peppered Menachem with questions about what he was learning in yeshivah and his knowledge of the laws of the upcoming holiday of Sukkot.
The Eidelmans regaled us with stories of 60 years of dedicated service to the Jewish people of Morocco, as the rabbi kept telling us that in this Chabad House, “you are not far from 770 or the Rebbe.”
“It is specifically in these remote outposts where every person matters—where the captain never leaves the ship, as long as other passengers are on board, and they can teach Torah to another person who would not be able to if they had abandoned ship,” he said.
Rabbi Eidelman told my son how he looked up to his great-grandfather, Reb Zavel Edelkopf, when he was a young yeshivah student and lived in Brunoy outside of Paris, and Reb Zavel Edelkopf taught him Tanya.
Even though his children live all over the world, they would visit them from time to time, and during the year, many grandchildren would visit them. Rabbi Eidelman was still teaching for a few hours every day at the kolel in his building with about 20 seniors and middle-aged students regularly attending.
This year for Sukkot, he didn’t have any grandchildren visiting, and so they were even more overjoyed with our drop-in visit. Before we left, he showed us a folder of tens of letters and telegrams from the Rebbe that gave them strength, direction and perseverance during the many decades they served
Inspiration From the Rebbe
In one letter, the Rebbe wrote to them in an addendum to the full letter (Free translation):
“Praiseworthy is your lot that Divine Providence gave you a beautiful portion. Educating and drawing near the hearts of the Jewish people to their Father in heaven, the reward knows no limits.”
“In addition to ‘the reward of a mitzvah is a mitzvah,’ the above are among the deeds that a person eats the fruits of in this physical world and eternally in the world to come. They include teaching Torah and acts of lovingkindness.”
“This is the main Divine service in our generation before the advent of the coming of Moshiach, this is the way to attach yourself to G‑d truthfully thereby transforming darkness into the ultimate light.”
The Rebbe concluded by writing a line from Tanya written by the Alter Rebbe in Igeres Hakodesh (End of Chapter 9, quoting from Yeshayahu 52. “‘May we merit to see each other eye to eye, with the return of G‑d to Zion.’ With major blessing and success in all the above.”
For ESU students who are struggling to move to online learning and need WiFi hot spots, electronic keys and textbooks. Due to loss of employment, many students need financial support for transportation, rent, necessary medications, and food. Photo Credit: Pocono Mountains
Grants benefit homeless individuals, homebound seniors, students & more
Edited by: JV Staff
Eight non-profits in Monroe County can continue serving our community through the COVID-19 pandemic thanks to financial assistance from the Crisis Response Fund. Local businesses, foundations and individuals have graciously contributed $166,324 since Pocono Mountains United Way established the fund last month. A special committee, chaired by Pocono Mountains Visitors Bureau President/CEO Chris Barrett, decides which organizations will receive a one-time grant. So far, $36,920 has been distributed to the following non-profits:
1) East Stroudsburg University Emergency Response Fund – $5,000
– For ESU students who are struggling to move to online learning and need WiFi hot spots, electronic keys and textbooks. Due to loss of employment, many students need financial support for transportation, rent, necessary medications, and food.
2) The East Stroudsburg Salvation Army – $10,000
– For non-congregate sheltering and emergency food for five homeless individuals to be moved into temporary shelter motel rooms through at least April 30, 2020, followed by transition into the Salvation Army’s Emergency Shelter facility on Washington Street. Funding also supports food pantry purchases.
3) Feeding Families Ministry Inc. – $2,000
– For gas, extra food pickups, masks, gloves, and food purchases through Second Harvest Food Bank.
4) Monroe County Meals on Wheels – $2,120
– For shelf-stable meal items and to purchase approximately 400 frozen meals to be provided to homebound individuals who would not normally qualify but are temporarily homebound.
5) Stroudsburg Wesleyan Church – $5,000
– For food pantry operations which have increased to 14-16 days per month. Funds will be utilized to purchase food for distribution, and to begin home delivery of food to those who are elderly/shut-in or unable to come and receive food. The pantry distributes approximately 5,000 lbs of food per week, serving 300-400 families.
6) Family Service Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania – $5,000
– For increased call volume from Monroe County residents to provide information and referral services to callers presenting with needs for food, rent assistance, utilities assistance, and information related to COVID-19.
7) Northampton Community College Foundation – $5,000
– For the Spartan Aid Fund to support Monroe Campus students by providing emergency relief in the form of technology, food, utilities, or other resources that support student progress toward their degrees and certificates.
8) Women’s Resources of Monroe County – $2,800
– For costs associated with installing and upgrading internet WiFi in shelter for children to do schoolwork and for additional food expenses for residents.
Click here to learn more about the Crisis Response Fund or donate. Pocono Mountains United Way commits that 100% of donated funds will be used to support crisis response efforts with 0% overhead fees assessed by United Way or the recipient organizations.
Featuring both indigenous and exotic animals, Claws ‘N’ Paws Wild Animal Park is the "zoo-in-the-woods" in the Poconos
By: Rachel Camaerei
The Governor’s statewide stay-at-home order doesn’t stop you from living your best life at home. We’ve highlighted a few Pocono pastimes below to enjoy in the comfort of your home to help you relax and decompress.
And the best part is, you can make these activities your own by putting your personal touch on them. These are perfect for adults, kids and families alike, so transport the Poconos to your safe space with these seven indoor activities. Mi casa es su casa!
Wildlife Viewing
Camping
Cooking
Reading
Spa
Family Fun
Sightseeing
Wildlife Viewing
Featuring both indigenous and exotic animals, Claws ‘N’ Paws Wild Animal Park is the “zoo-in-the-woods” in the Poconos. They have over 100 types of creatures, highlighting mammals, birds and reptiles.
Now, you can catch live videos of their park on Facebook! Follow them to catch a live stream daily throughout the week and learn something new about different animal species each time you tune in.
Camping
Explore the great indoors of camping! A favorite of our region, camping is a great way to relax. Set aside some space in your living room for a full-on campsite. Make a blanket fort into a tent, grab some snacks and tell stories to one another seated in a circle.
Have an outdoor scented candle? Light one in the room to bring the outdoors inside to kick the experience up a notch.
Cooking
Explore different recipes while cooking at home. Here in the Poconos, we have a range of cuisine that can be made in your kitchen. Stocked up on pasta and sauce? Try making some classic Italian dishes. Able to get your hands on some ramen? Experiment with this traditional Japanese dish by adding different ingredients from your cupboard.
Catch a video of our members, like The Settlers Inn, to learn new recipes to cook at home; watch the recipe below. Live in the area and just want a treat? Check out our restaurant offerings to see what local restaurants are offering takeout, curbside pickup and delivery.
Reading
Did you know the famed Western fiction novelist, Zane Grey, has ties to the Poconos? He built a home here in the early 1900s, which is now a museum ran by the National Park Service.
And whether diving into one of his reads or finally starting your next book, reading is a great way to relax and stimulate your mind at the same time. Take some time to unplug and get lost in a good read.
Spa
Home to world-class destination spas, the Poconos loves a good spa. Who doesn’t? Another great way to relax, make a personal spa in your home. Put on some tranquil music or water sounds to amplify the experience.
Give yourself a manicure and pedicure, indulge in a face mask treatment or see if you can get someone in your house to give you a massage! For added relaxation, try some guided meditation with French Manor Inn and Spa’s video and watch below.
Family Fun
Whether by blood or choice, family is spending more quality time together than ever. And our members have started implementing online ways to experience their activities.
Woodloch Resort is featuring Woodloch from Home where you can enjoy a plethora of activities from the comfort of your couch like concerts, trivia games and scavenger hunts. Great Wolf Lodge is also offering online activities like yoga for kids videos, science experiments and starting your own rock collection.
Sightseeing
Yes, you read that right. You can see the beauty of the Pocono Mountains all while sitting on your couch! From breathtaking sunsets over our lakes and rivers to stunning scenic overlooks from the mountains, stay connected with our social media to go on a virtual trip to the area.
Give your mind a well-deserved vacation and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to catch awe-inspiring photos of the region.
The facility, located on the grounds of the Sh’or Yoshuv Rabbinical College in Lawrence (which is temporarily closed), will serve as an assessment center for those in need of low-acuity and urgent care, and as a bridge to home for recovering patients. In cooperation with the community, the site will be staffed by Northwell Health physicians and clinical volunteers recruited by Hatzolah Air, a nonprofit emergency response service
Edited by: JV Staff
To help address the needs of communities in southwest Nassau County and southeast Queens hard-hit by coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), Northwell Health today announced the opening of a temporary outpatient care facility to serve ambulatory, low-acuity, urgent care and recovering patients in the region. In anticipation of the impact COVID-19 may have locally, the community organized to raise donations and outfit this facility to provide care in the event it was needed, inviting Northwell to participate.
The facility, located on the grounds of the Sh’or Yoshuv Rabbinical College in Lawrence (which is temporarily closed), will serve as an assessment center for those in need of low-acuity and urgent care, and as a bridge to home for recovering patients. In cooperation with the community, the site will be staffed by Northwell Health physicians and clinical volunteers recruited by Hatzolah Air, a nonprofit emergency response service. The site will be managed by Northwell.
Just as visitation is restricted at area hospitals to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, patients to the Lawrence site will need to be unaccompanied to ensure the safety of staff and fellow patients. Staff will don personal protective equipment during patient interaction, practice regular hand hygiene, clean equipment and disinfect the site.
“We are pleased to have been invited to partner with the community to fulfill the medical needs of the region as the nature and scale of the COVID-19 pandemic evolves,” said Michael Goldberg, executive director of Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park. “This temporary clinical facility, run in concert with Hatzolah Air, is a unique way to provide routine care to local residents, avoiding the need for hospital emergency care.”
Just as visitation is restricted at area hospitals to reduce the risk of spreading COVID-19, patients to the Lawrence site will need to be unaccompanied to ensure the safety of staff and fellow patients. Staff will don personal protective equipment during patient interaction, practice regular hand hygiene, clean equipment and disinfect the site.
“We’re thankful that the worst did not come to pass and that the facility we developed can be used to heal those most impacted by this pandemic,” said Rabbi Boruch Bender, founder and president of Achiezer, a resource center in the Five Towns which worked with community leaders to create and equip the temporary health facility. “We appreciate the ongoing support offered by Northwell Health, their front line clinicians and those clinicians from our community who volunteered to work in the facility.”
The Lawrence facility, located at 1 Cedar Lawn Ave., will be open daily from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more information or to make an appointment, call (718) 316-6868.
In this April 2, 2020, file photo a nurse holds a vial and a swab at a drive-up coronavirus testing station at a hospital in Seattle. A federal report due out Monday, April 6, finds that three out of four U.S. hospitals surveyed are already treating patients with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Edited by: JV Staff
The deadly coronavirus does not only claim the lives of the elderly and those afflicted with co-morbidities, according to doctors. CNN has reported that the COVID-19 disease is more enigmatic than had been previously thought. It now appears to be causing sudden strokes among those otherwise healthy adults in their 30s and 40s.
The report indicated that evidence has emerged that the COVID-19 infection has the ability to cause odd blood clots that may lead to patients experiencing strokes. Because hospitals and medical staff are overwhelmed with coronavirus cases, patients may not be willing to call 911 upon experiencing strange symptoms.
It is not common for people so young to have strokes, especially strokes in the large vessels in the brain, according to the CNN report.
CNN reported that Dr. Thomas Oxley, a neurosurgeon at Mount Sinai Health System in New York, and colleagues gave details of five people they treated. All were under the age of 50, and all had either mild symptoms of Covid-19 infection or no symptoms at all.
A stroke in a large blood vessel causes severe damage if it is not removed right away. At least one patient has died, and others are in rehabilitation facilities, intensive care or in the stroke unit. Only one went home but will require intense care, Oxley said, according to the CNN report.
“The average person who has a large vessel stroke is severely impaired,” Oxley said. “It means it a bigger clot. It includes one of the largest arteries in the brain.”
Brain cells die when blood flow is stopped, and the longer it’s blocked, the wider the damage in the brain. Quick treatment is vital. “The most effective treatment for large vessel stroke is clot retrieval, but this must be performed within 6 hours, and sometimes within 24 hours,” Oxley said.
The Washington Post reported that the numbers of those affected are small but nonetheless remarkable because they challenge how doctors understand the virus. Even as it has infected nearly 2.8 million people worldwide and killed about 195,000 as of Friday, its biological mechanisms continue to elude top scientific minds. Once thought to be a pathogen that primarily attacks the lungs, it has turned out to be a much more formidable foe — impacting nearly every major organ system in the body.
“The virus seems to be causing increased clotting in the large arteries, leading to severe stroke,” Oxley told CNN.
“Our report shows a seven-fold increase in incidence of sudden stroke in young patients during the past two weeks. Most of these patients have no past medical history and were at home with either mild symptoms (or in two cases, no symptoms) of Covid,” he added.
“All tested positive. Two of them delayed calling an ambulance.”
The Washington Post reported that there was one report out of Wuhan, China, that showed that some hospitalized patients had experienced strokes, with many being seriously ill and elderly. But the linkage was considered more of “a clinical hunch by a lot of really smart people,” said Sherry H-Y Chou, a University of Pittsburgh Medical Center neurologist and critical care doctor.
Three large U.S. medical centers are preparing to publish data on the stroke phenomenon. There are only a few dozen cases per location, but they provide new insights into what the virus does to our bodies.
The analyses suggest coronavirus patients are mostly experiencing the deadliest type of stroke. Known as large vessel occlusions or LVOs, they can obliterate large parts of the brain responsible for movement, speech and decision-making in one blow because they are in the main blood-supplying arteries.
Many researchers suspect strokes in novel coronavirus patients may be a direct consequence of blood problems that are producing clots all over some people’s bodies.
The Mount Sinai Health System has partnered with Sana Labs to launch Project Florence, a personalized learning platform to enhance the skills of nurses treating COVID-19 patients in New York City. Photo Credit: mountsinai.org
Project Florence Enhances Skills of Nurses Serving Critically Ill Patients; Curriculum Is Free to Hospitals Worldwide
Edited by: JV Staff
The Mount Sinai Health System has partnered with Sana Labs to launch Project Florence, a personalized learning platform to enhance the skills of nurses treating COVID-19 patients in New York City. The group, facilitated by the New York Academy of Sciences, is also making the platform available for free to hospitals around the world to improve medical response and care during the pandemic.
The virtual training platform, available through Sana Labs, provides a curriculum developed by Mount Sinai that includes the latest on industry resources and policies from organizations including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses. After users complete an AI-powered adaptive assessment that measures their knowledge, the platform recommends personalized content in real time to address individual skills gaps. It can be accessed from any internet-connected device including phones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. The project was officially launched at the Mount Sinai Health System on Monday, April 13.
“The profound shortage of intensive care nurses and respiratory therapists will be one of the most significant hurdles facing U.S. hospitals treating critically ill COVID-19 patients,” said Jane Maksoud, RN, MPA, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Mount Sinai Health System. “Project Florence will be a great benefit to staff preparing to care for critically ill patients. We are grateful for the partnership we have developed with Sana Labs and the work we have done together to assist our nurses on the front line.”
A projected 4.8 million Americans will be hospitalized for COVID-19, according to the American Hospital Association. Of those hospitalized, an estimated 40 percent or nearly 2 million patients will require admittance to the ICU. While there are currently about 550,000 critical care nurses in the United States, tens of thousands of nurses will be in demand in the coming months.
“I’m very excited to bring this innovative approach to Mount Sinai hospitals to help advance the skill set of our nurses,” said Diane Adams, MS, Chief Learning Officer of Mount Sinai Health System. “Not only are we advancing the essential skills of our staff, but we are also meeting the needs of our community during a particularly critical time across New York City, the United States, and the rest of the world.”
As hospitals shift priorities from other departments to ICUs, the two-day curriculum is tailored to each individual and suitable for nurses, as well as other medical professionals who are called to assist and may require an update on their understanding of ICU equipment and procedures.
“Project Florence is designed to deliver personalized learning at scale and we look forward to making it available to every hospital in need of upskilling nurses for intensive care of critical COVID-19 patients,” said Joel Hellermark, Founder and CEO of Sana Labs. “We’re honored to be working with the leading health care systems to personalize learning for health care workers who are sacrificing so much to save others.”
Ellis Rubinstein, President Emeritus of the New York Academy of Sciences and former editor of Science Magazine, noted that Project Florence is one of the first online tools to meet the requirements in responding to a global event at this magnitude.
“This is a once-in-a-century event,” said Mr. Rubinstein. “As health care systems the world over face the scarcity of trained talent, the global network of the New York Academy of Sciences is prepared to link Project Florence to those in need.”
Sana Labs is the global leader in AI for learning. The company provides a personalized, adaptive learning platform used by Fortune 500 companies for upskilling and reskilling. The team is made up of world-leading engineers and researchers with backgrounds ranging from Google AI and BCG Gamma to Harvard and Spotify. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and is backed by a renowned set of investors and advisors.
About the New York Academy of Sciences
For 203 years, the Academy has brought together extraordinary people to advance science and address the greatest challenges in society. The first conference on antibiotics, the first on AIDS, the first international meeting on SARS, and pioneering initiatives in Alzheimer’s research are among the Academy’s achievements. One out of every six Nobel laureates in science since 1900 has been a member of the Academy, as are leaders in industry, academia, and government, plus thousands of the world’s most promising young scientists.
Mike Bloomberg’s $6 million gift makes it possible for World Central Kitchen to begin food service operations on April 15, at two locations, and go live across all NYC Health + Hospitals facilities by Monday, April 27. Photo Credit: AP
$6 Million Gift is Part of the Larger Bloomberg Philanthropies Coronavirus Response Initiatives
Edited by: JV Staff
Bloomberg Philanthropies and World Central Kitchen last week announced a partnership to provide fresh daily meals for the 30,000 healthcare workers on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic at NYC Health + Hospitals’ 11 acute care hospitals and five post-acute long-term care facilities across the city’s five boroughs. Mike Bloomberg’s $6 million gift makes it possible for World Central Kitchen to begin food service operations on April 15, at two locations, and go live across all NYC Health + Hospitals facilities by Monday, April 27.
The collaboration will feed all NYC Health + Hospitals hospital, acute, and post-acute care staff plus additional personnel who have joined their ranks at these facilities, regardless of their department, discipline, or tour, seven days a week, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. from a uniquely designed grab-and-go “cafeteria.” World Central Kitchen and NYC Health + Hospitals have strategized a variety of internal and external set-ups tailored to each individual facility’s needs, ensuring that the highest safety standards are met, frontline workers experience little to no wait for meal dissemination, and that food is available to staff who work overnight shifts. The partnership aims to also meet workers’ dietary restrictions with as little burden as possible.
“As the coronavirus sweeps across the world, health care workers are risking their lives every day to protect ours — and they need our support now more than ever,” said Michael Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and Bloomberg LP, and three-term mayor of New York City. “Here in New York, we’re glad to be teaming up with Chef José Andrés and World Central Kitchen to provide daily meals to everyone working so hard at 16 of the city’s public hospitals and long-term care facilities run by the NYC Health + Hospitals system. It’s a way for our team at Bloomberg Philanthropies to express our deep appreciation for them — and to help them keep saving lives and battling this disease.”
World Central Kitchen, the international not-for-profit organization founded by chef José Andrés, uses the power of food to heal and strengthen communities in times of crisis. Through its #ChefsForAmerica response to the coronavirus crisis, they are distributing 50,000 meals a day to people in need in the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Brooklyn and New Jersey. Through their partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, World Central Kitchen will increase production at their meal distribution center at Hudson Yards and establish contracts with local vendors and restaurants to assist in providing thousands of additional fresh meals for the NYC Health + Hospitals staff. This will allow some local restaurants to bring back employees and start to revive the ailing NYC restaurant industry. World Central Kitchen has also distributed more than one million fresh meals to families, seniors, and frontline workers in 65 cities in 20 U.S. states and territories, as well as five cities in Spain.
“In this moment of profound need, World Central Kitchen’s team of food first responders is honored and grateful to be able to work together on this expanded response with the generous support of Bloomberg Philanthropies,” said Nate Mook, CEO of World Central Kitchen. “We know that together we are sharing so much more than just meals, but also hope, dignity, and nourishment for the future. It really instills these brave and tireless workers with the knowledge that we – the people of New York, and of America – are with them.”
NYC Health + Hospitals is the largest public health care system in the country serving more than a million New Yorkers annually. Currently, their hospitals and other care facilities are at the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adequately feeding staff who are enduring increased caseloads and pressures, while adhering to strict health guidelines in an effort to stop the spread of the virus, has been increasingly challenging. The Bloomberg Philanthropies and World Central Kitchen partnership will help ensure that these critical frontline NYC Health + Hospitals workers have a steady supply of fresh food easily accessible while they continue to deliver high quality care to New Yorkers.
“Our health care system is incredibly grateful for the generous contribution made by Bloomberg Philanthropies and World Central Kitchen, and their commitment to provide meals to our heroic and dedicated workforce,” said Mitchell Katz, MD, President and CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals. “At NYC Health + Hospitals, we value each employee and understand the crucial role everyone plays to address this unprecedented operation.”
NYC Health + Hospitals launched a fundraising campaign in March to help address additional needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The campaign will direct funds to purchase comfort items like groceries, taxi rides, and hotel rooms for their health care workers. Donations can be made through the NYC Health + Hospitals Network for Good fundraising page. Donations for equipment and supplies can directed to Help Now NYC. For more information on NYC Health + Hospitals’ COVID-19 responses, please visit their newsroom.
Mike Bloomberg’s $6 million in support for this partnership is part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Coronavirus Response Initiatives which were launched in March to give public health professionals and local leaders the tools to protect themselves and the public. This support is vital to saving lives and helping mitigate the kind of economic and social damage that could make this crisis even more debilitating for families and communities. Learn more about Bloomberg Philanthropies work to fight the pandemic here.
About Bloomberg Philanthropies:
Bloomberg Philanthropies invests in more than 570 cities and over 160 countries around the world to ensure better, longer lives for the greatest number of people. The organization focuses on five key areas for creating lasting change: the Arts, Education, Environment, Government
Innovation, and Public Health. Bloomberg Philanthropies encompasses all of Michael R. Bloomberg’s giving, including his foundation and personal philanthropy as well as Bloomberg
Associates, a pro bono consultancy that works in cities around the world. In 2019, Bloomberg Philanthropies distributed $3.3 billion. For more information, please visit bloomberg.org or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.
As researchers hunt for ways to treat severe COVID-19 infections, a new trial will ask whether an old arthritis drug can prevent serious complications in the first place.
By: Amy Norton
As researchers hunt for ways to treat severe COVID-19 infections, a new trial will ask whether an old arthritis drug can prevent serious complications in the first place.
The medication, called colchicine, is an oral anti-inflammatory that has long been prescribed for gout, a form of arthritis. Its history goes back thousands of years, and the drug was first sourced from the autumn crocus flower.
Doctors also sometimes use colchicine to treat pericarditis, where the sac around the heart becomes inflamed.
Now researchers in the United States and Canada are testing it for a different purpose: Keeping high-risk COVID-19 patients from getting sick enough to land in the hospital.
Colchicine is just one of several anti-inflammatory drugs currently in clinical trials for treating COVID-19.
It’s all part of a growing belief that the worst effects of the coronavirus infection are caused not by the virus itself, but by a massive overreaction of the immune system, known as a cytokine storm.
“I think there’s pretty substantial evidence that cytokine storm is involved,” said Dr. Randy Cron, a rheumatologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
In a cytokine storm, the immune system goes into overdrive — flooding the body with proteins (cytokines) that trigger widespread inflammation. That causes often fatal damage to organs.
Cron, who was not involved in the new trial, literally wrote the textbook on cytokine storms — the 2019 Cytokine Storm Syndrome.
He explained that the immune reaction is not unique to COVID-19: Cytokine storms can arise in response to other infections, to cancer, to certain cancer therapies, or in people with autoimmune diseases.
The storm that brews against the new coronavirus does appear to be unique in certain ways, according to Cron.
“One example is that it sets up shop in the lungs first,” he said.
Still, Cron and other researchers believe that treatments for cytokine storm could ultimately prove key in battling the coronavirus pandemic.
A few powerful anti-inflammatory drugs, used for conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, are already in late-stage trials. Those studies involve patients already hospitalized with COVID-19 pneumonia.
The colchicine study is different, said researcher Dr. Priscilla Hsue, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
“One of the unique aspects is that we’re trying to hit this before people need to be hospitalized,” Hsue said.
Colchicine is the medication of choice for a few reasons, Hsue explained: Unlike the drugs being tested in hospital patients — which are given by infusion or injection — colchicine tablets are easy to take and inexpensive. And the medication has a long history of safe use for gout, she added.
Beyond that, Hsue added, a recent trial found that low-dose colchicine benefits people who’ve recently suffered a heart attack. Patients who took one tablet a day curbed their risk of further heart complications or stroke over the next two years.
Heart injury is a common problem in people who become seriously ill with COVID-19 — at least partly, researchers suspect, because of cytokine storm. Hsue said it all raises the question of whether colchicine could help prevent such heart issues.
The trial aims to enroll 6,000 patients newly diagnosed with COVID-19 who are at increased risk of serious illness — because they are older than 69, or have conditions like heart or lung disease.
To keep those patients isolated at home, the study has an unusual “contactless” design: Patients will receive the medication by courier, and have follow-up visits via video or phone. The researchers will look at whether the tactic lowers hospitalization rates and deaths over one month.
While Cron believes that targeting cytokine storms in COVID-19 is wise, he had some reservations about giving colchicine to people with no signs of the severe immune reaction. Could any dampening of their immune response against the virus backfire?
“My concern is, could it make the infection worse?” Cron said.
Hsue, however, pointed to the safety record of the medication, and noted that the dose given in the trial will be lower than what’s routinely used for gout.
In the end, Cron said, the only way to definitively prove any medication works for COVID-19 is through clinical trials.
The colchicine study is currently recruiting patients, with UCSF and New York University School of Medicine being the first two U.S. sites involved.
The Mesa City Police Department’s homicide division is investigating the death of Gary Lenius, the Arizona man whose wife served him soda mixed with fish tank cleaner in what she claimed was a bid to fend off the coronavirus. A detective handling the case confirmed the investigation to the Washington Free Beacon on Tuesday after requesting a recording of the Free Beacon’s interviews with Lenius’s wife, Wanda.
Gary Lenius, 68, died on March 22. Wanda, 61, told several news outlets last month that both she and her husband had ingested a substance used to clean aquariums after hearing President Donald Trump tout one of its ingredients, chloroquine phosphate, from the White House briefing room.
Detective Teresa Van Galder, the homicide detective handling the case for the Mesa City Police Department, confirmed that the investigation is ongoing but declined to provide additional details.
“As this is an active investigation, I cannot go into any details at this time regarding the case,” Van Galder said. The Free Beacon provided a recording of its interview last month with Wanda Lenius.
News of the police probe comes after a series of Free Beacon stories raised questions about the portrayal of the couple in the initial NBC News report that vaulted the story onto the national stage.
Though that report and others suggested the couple mindlessly followed the president’s medical advice to disastrous results, friends of Gary Lenius told the Free Beacon they were skeptical he would knowingly ingest fish tank treatment.
Rather, they described Lenius as a levelheaded retired engineer and recounted a troubled marital relationship that included a previous domestic assault charge against his wife, of which she was ultimately found not guilty. The Free Beacon also reported that Wanda Lenius was a Democratic donor whose most recent contribution went to a “pro-science” super PAC.
“What bothers me about this is that Gary was a very intelligent man, a retired [mechanical] engineer who designed systems for John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa, and I really can’t see the scenario where Gary would say, ‘Yes, please, I would love to drink some of that Koi fish tank cleaner,'” one of his close friends told the Free Beacon. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Another source, who asked that all identifying information be withheld, told the Free Beacon earlier this month that Wanda Lenius “would constantly berate Gary in public.… Everyone was embarrassed for him, but he outwardly did not seem to care much.”
“In our opinion, their marriage was seen outwardly to be as one-sided as a marriage possibly could be: Gary worshiped Wanda,” this person said, adding that his wife “would routinely call him a doofus” and humiliate him in public.
Wanda Lenius was charged with domestic abuse assault in 2001 after she allegedly hit her husband and swung a mounted birdhouse at him. Gary Lenius declined to cooperate in the case, testifying that he was not injured or placed in fear of injury. His wife was exonerated.
Wanda Lenius said in a phone interview with the Free Beacon last month that she and her husband had watched the president tout the virtues of chloroquine on the news, citing preliminary studies that showed it may be a promising treatment for coronavirus.
She remembered purchasing a container of “chloroquine phosphate” years before to clean a fish tank, she said.
The powder, which can be lethal if ingested, is sold by aquarium suppliers and used to treat viral outbreaks in large fish tanks. She told the Free Beacon that she had mentioned this to her husband “and he kind of laughed at me, you know. It was just a regular conversation.”
“We weren’t big supporters of [Trump], but we did see that they were using it in China and stuff,” she said. “And we just made a horrible, tragic mistake.”
Campaign finance records show that Wanda Lenius has given thousands of dollars to Democratic groups and candidates over the past two years, most recently to the 314 Action Fund. The group bills itself as the “pro-science resistance” and has criticized the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, holding up the Lenius case to slam the White House.
In the same interview, Wanda Lenius told the Free Beacon that her husband had been planning to schedule a doctor’s appointment to have a leg injury looked at and the couple worried he might pick up coronavirus at the clinic. That’s when, she said, she reached for the fish tank cleaner in her pantry. Her husband’s response, she said, was, “Is it still good?”
Wanda Lenius routinely prepared a “vitamin cocktail” for him, according to Gary Lenius’s friend.
Asked if she and Gary Lenius had a conversation about taking the chloroquine at that time, she told the Free Beacon: “No. I mean, it was really kind of a spur of the moment thing,” adding that the couple ingested “one teaspoon and some soda” each, at least four times the lethal limit.
Biden is being urged to withdraw from the hotly contested race
for the White House by a Peter Dauo, a political activist and former Hillary Clinton supporter, due to new
developments in the sexual assault allegation against him. Photo Credit: AP
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden told twice-failed candidate Hillary Clinton Tuesday he wished he could be supporting her bid for reelection.
“I wish this were us doing this and my supporting your reelection for president of the United States. You won the majority of the vote,” Biden said during a livestream conversation with Clinton, his party’s 2016 nominee.
Biden’s wish that he didn’t have to run in 2020 against President Donald Trump comes after he effectively wrapped up the party’s nomination earlier this month.
He also appeared to speculate that some states engaged in misbehavior during the 2016 election.
“I think the way in which some of the states acted was just, anyway,” he said, before praising how Clinton would have handled the crisis.
“We’d have problems, we’d have the pandemic, but you would have already been prepared for it,” he continued. “It still would have been hard, but you would have a lot to keep us from getting in such a dire strait.”
Clinton endorsed Biden Tuesday, claiming Biden would handle the coronavirus crisis with “the compassion, competence, and respect for science we need to save lives and revive the economy.”
Clinton’s endorsement comes after former president Barack Obama announced his endorsement of Biden two weeks ago. Nearly all of Biden’s former Democratic opponents in the primary race have also endorsed the former vice president.
Clinton also told Biden how she thinks she would be a better president than Trump in handling the pandemic.
“One thing I would have done, Joe, which you know so well, I would have read my daily intelligence briefings that were sounding the alarm since January,” she said, laughing. “But apparently this president doesn’t do what we used to do.”
Maran HaRav Ovadia Yosef’s approach to Yom Ha’atzmaut was always ambivalent, since Israel is a secular state, and because there is still an existential threat for which many soldiers are still tragically sacrificing their lives. Furthermore, he claimed that since there wasn’t any supernatural miracle like Chanukah or Purim, although one can recite Hallel, it is not permissible to do so with a Bracha.
I wish to consider the approach of one of the other great Sephardic poskim of the 20th century, Rabbi Chaim David Halevi, who served as the Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv after HaRav Ovadia. In my new book, “The Narrow Halakhic Bridge”, I discuss some of his innovative ideas at length.
72 years ago, we were a collection of survivors fleeing from the ashes of Auschwitz and from Arab lands, having survived two thousand years of exile, persecution, massacres, and assimilation. Today, Israel is one of the top seven countries leading the fight against the Coronavirus. We are the “start-up nation” – an empire of science and technology that has one of the world’s strongest militaries. While the world’s leading countries are absorbing tens of thousands of casualties from the Corona pandemic, Israel remains one of the safest places on earth, serving as a model for many powerful countries. This year on Yom Ha’atzmaut, more than ever, it is imperative to thank Hashem for the great miracle of the establishment of the State of Israel.
In 1969, after the liberation of Jerusalem and the miraculous victory in the Six-Day War, Rabbi Chaim David Halevi published a book entitled “Dat u’Medina” in which he discussed at length the spiritual, historical and halakhic aspects of Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim. He said that there is an obligation to recite Hallel with Bracha, and he also suggested reciting the Bracha of “She’Asa Nissim le’Avotenu” on Yom Ha’atzmaut and Yom Yerushalayim, just as we do on Chanukah and Purim.
The major source for his halakhic ruling is the following Sheilta of Rav Achai Gaon: “And the House of Israel must thank and praise the Lord when a miracle is happening to them, as it says: “Praise the LORD, all you nations; extol Him, all you peoples, for great is His steadfast love toward us.’ This is what it means: All nations have to praise the Lord for all that He has done for them, and all the more so, that we, who have seen the grace of G-d shown to us. And so, on a day on which there has been a miracle for Israel such as Chanukah and Purim, we must recite the blessing “She’Asa Nissim le’Avotenu”, as we do during Chanukah on the candles and during Purim on the Megillah.”
Rabbi Chaim David Halevi claims that the magnitude of the miracle of the establishment of the State of Israel ranks no less than the Chanukah and Purim miracles. Hence, we should equate the halakhot of Yom Ha’atzmaut with Chanukah and Purim: “A great miracle was performed for Israel in 1948, when our enemies were trying to destroy us, and in 1967, when all the surrounding countries attempted to annihilate us. Furthermore, another great miracle was done, since until 1948 we were subjected to the nations and finally, we gained our independence, and in 1967 we were able to liberate the occupied areas of Eretz Israel, specifically Jerusalem and the holy place of the Mikdash.”
Rabbi Halevi further claims that a miracle which has long-term implications and ramifications on the lives of the nation is on the scale of Chanukah and Purim, and that was the intention of the Sheiltot: “It all depends on the essence of the miracle. A great miracle whose absence would endanger the whole nation and cause its destruction, like the Purim miracle, or cause the destruction of the Temple like the Chanukah miracle, is designated as a thanksgiving day for the generations, as all generations will benefit from it and feel the miracle, since the entire state of the nation would have been completely different and much worse had it not happened.”
Rabbi Halevi relates to the arguments of Rav Ovadia and says that when the miracle of Chanukah took place and the festival was established, it was just the beginning of the revolt and they still had many wars and battles ahead of them. Our situation, especially after the Six-Day War, is far better than theirs. Moreover, he claims that if we wish to have an impact on Israeli society and bring all Jews closer to Torah, we ought to reinforce the religious and halakhic identity of Yom Ha’atzmaut. Otherwise we are only affirming their claim that the establishment of the State of Israel is a secular event.
Finally, Rabbi Chaim David Halevi quotes a Midrash which criticizes Moshe and the People of Israel for not properly praising G-d: “It is a disgrace for Moshe and the six hundred thousand adult men of the children of Israel that they did not say: “Blessed” until Yitro came and said: ‘Blessed be the Lord.’” (Sanhedrin 94a). Rabbi Halevi strongly suggests that the inability to recognize the greatness of a miracle that has been done for our nation, and that an unwillingness to thank Hashem for his boundless grace with a full heart, is nothing but a disgrace.
When the State of Israel was founded, its population numbered slightly more than six hundred thousand people, a number equal to the census of the people in the Exodus, and a number that, according to our Sages, is the minimum for the establishment of a nation in the State of Israel: “Ulla said, ‘We have a tradition that there is no congregation in Babylonia. The Rabbis taught, ‘A congregation is no fewer than six hundred thousand people.’” (Berakhot 58a) The Gemara presents two conditions to define the Jewish people, a location, and a quantity. The only place that we can live as a nation is in the Land of Israel, and the minimum number to be considered a ‘nation’ is six hundred thousand.
Seventy two years ago, we saw the re-establishment of the State of Israel. Six hundred thousand Jews became partners in the realization of the visions of the prophets. The number of Jews living in Israel today is over 6.7 million, which means that more than six million have been added to the Israeli population since the establishment of the State. Moreover, for the first time since the destruction of the First Temple, Israel is home to the largest population of Jews in the world. According to leading demographers, within a few years the majority of the world’s Jews will reside in Israel, a fact that has profound halakhic implications.
I believe that there is no doubt today that, 50 years after Rabbi Chaim David Halevi published his psak about Yom Ha’atzmaut, we can say without exaggeration that the Jewish people’s successful return to the Land of Israel, is one of the greatest miracles that we have ever experienced. That is why on Yom Ha’atzmaut we must lift our heads, acknowledge the great miracle, and thank Hashem will full intent. As Rabbi Halevi said, there is no more appropriate way to do this than by reciting Hallel with Bracha and saying the Bracha “She’Asa Nissim le’Avotenu B’Yamim Hahem B’Zman HaZeh”.
Chag Sameach and prayers for good health for Israel and the entire world.
Rav Ronen Neuwirth, formerly Rav of the Ohel Ari Congregation in Ra’anana, is author of “The Narrow Halakhic Bridge: A Vision of Jewish Law in the Post-Modern Age”, to be published in May by Urim Publications.
Rav Ronen Neuwirth, formerly Rav of the Ohel Ari Congregation in Ra’anana, is author of “The Narrow Halakhic Bridge: A Vision of Jewish Law in the Post-Modern Age”, to be published in May by Urim Publications.
Gym-goers in New York who are being charged for memberships they can’t use during coronavirus shutdowns are getting some relief.
The state attorney general says New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts have both agreed to freeze memberships.
The gyms are also going to offer credits to members who have been charged while the fitness centers have been closed due to the pandemic
The NY Post reported: The gym’s parent company, Town Sports International, has agreed to refund and credit members for charges they incurred since NYSC and Lucille Roberts clubs were ordered by the state to close March 16 in an effort to fight the spread of COVID-19, New York Attorney General Letitia James said.
On April 24, Attorney General Letitia James announced she has secured commitments from the parent company of NYSC and Lucille Roberts to institute a number of policy changes that will provide economic relief to members who were charged dues over the last six weeks.
“This is putting money back in the pockets of New Yorkers who were being illegally charged for unusable gym memberships,” James said. “The commitments we secured from New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts will ensure that members will not be left paying the bill and lifting the weight for NYSC’s financial straits as long as the gyms remain closed, Bronx Times reported.
“We will continue to monitor the company to ensure they comply with every commitment made,” James added.
In March, James led a multi-state coalition, which also included the attorneys general of Maryland, Pennsylvania and the District of Columbia, in opening an investigation into the billing practices of Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (TSI), the parent company of New York Sports Clubs, Lucille Roberts, Philadelphia Sports Clubs and Washington Sports Clubs, among other health and fitness subsidiaries.
The agreement is as followed:
Freeze all New York Sports Clubs and Lucille Roberts memberships, effective as of April 8, at no cost to members.
Issue credits to members for dues and fees paid for cancellation or freezing of accounts after March 16, when New York’s executive order directing the closure of health clubs first went into effect.
Honor all cancellation requests submitted by April 30, without charging cancellation fees or requiring advance notice.
Contact all consumers who filed complaints with the Office of the Attorney General to resolve those individual complaints.
The NY Post reported: Members expressed outrage that the clubs continued charging dues and fees despite the closures. They were also outraged over difficulty contacting the clubs to cancel and place accounts on hold.
In fact, at least two lawsuits were filed against the club for mishandling member accounts during the pandemic closures.
The White House released new guidelines aimed at answering criticism that America’s coronavirus testing has been too slow, and President Trump tried to pivot toward a focus on “reopening” the nation.
Still, there were doubts from public health experts that the White House’s new testing targets were sufficient.
Monday’s developments were meant to fill critical gaps in White House plans to begin easing restrictions, ramping up testing for the virus while shifting the president’s focus toward recovery from the economic collapse caused by the outbreak. The administration unveiled a “blueprint” for states to scale up their testing in the coming week — a tacit admission, despite public statements to the contrary, that testing capacity and availability over the past two months have been lacking.
The new testing targets would ensure states had enough COVID-19 tests available to sample at least 2.6% of their populations each month — a figure already met by a majority of states. Areas that have been harder hit by the virus would be able to test at double that rate, or higher, the White House said.
The testing issue has bedeviled the administration for months. Trump told reporters on March 6 during a visit to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta that “anybody that wants a test can get a test,” but the reality has proved to be vastly different.
The initial COVID-19 test developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was contaminated, and early kits operated only on platforms able to perform a small number of tests per day. While the rate of testing increased as tests developed for higher-capacity platforms, they were still limited by shortages of supplies, from nasal swabs to the reagents used to process the samples.
Administration officials maintained Monday that the limiting factor now is actually the availability of samples from people who have been tested — either because guidelines on who could be tested are too stringent or because there are not enough health workers able to take nasal swab samples from them.
The CDC moved to address one of those concerns Monday, expanding the list of people to be prioritized for virus testing to include those who show no symptoms but are in high-risk settings like nursing homes. And Trump met with leaders of businesses including CVS, Walmart and Kroger, who said they were working to expand access to tests across the country.
“Testing is not going to be a problem at all,” Trump said later in the Rose Garden.
However, many of the administration’s past pledges and goals on testing have not been met.
Jeremy Konyndyk, a disaster preparedness expert who helped lead the Obama administration response to Ebola, said the administration’s testing plans are well short of what is needed.
Researchers at Harvard have estimated the country needs to be testing a minimum of 500,000 people per day, and possibly many more. Konyndyk said the aim should be 2 million to 3 million per day. Trump said the current total, up sharply in recent days, is over 200,000 per day.
Konyndyk said: “Over the past month, we’ve doubled or if you want to be really generous tripled the testing capacity in this country. We need to take where we are now and expand it tenfold.”
The testing blueprint for states provides details missing from the administration’s guidelines for them to return to normal operations, released more than a week ago. It includes a focus on surveillance testing as well as “rapid response” programs to isolate those who test positive and identify those with whom they had come in contact. The administration aims to have the market “flooded” with tests for the fall, when COVID-19 is expected to recur alongside the seasonal flu.
Trump and administration medical experts outlined the plan on a call with governors Monday.
Trump has sought to regain his footing after weeks of criticism and detours created in part by his press briefings.
Days after he set off a firestorm by publicly musing that scientists should explore the injection of toxic disinfectants as a potential virus cure, Trump said he found little use for his daily task force briefings, where he has time and again clashed with medical experts and reporters. Trump’s aides had been trying to move the president onto more familiar and, they hope, safer, ground: talking up the economy in more tightly controlled settings.
Republican Party polling shows Trump’s path to a second term depends on the public’s perception of how quickly the economy rebounds from the state-by-state shutdowns meant to slow the spread of the virus.
On Monday, the White House initially announced there would be a Trump briefing, but canceled it as Trump’s greatest asset in the reelection campaign — his ability to dominate headlines with freewheeling performances — was increasingly seen as a liability.
But hours later, Trump held court in the Rose Garden. He said he hoped that virus deaths would end up no more than 60,000 to 70,000, slightly revising upward his public estimate of recent days as the U.S. toll neared 56,000 on nearly 1 million cases. Still, he claimed a victory given dire, tenfold-higher predictions if the U.S. hadn’t adopted restrictive social distancing measures.
Meanwhile, the CDC was beginning to release more detailed guidelines on reopening schools, restaurants and other establishments. Draft guidelines include a long list of recommendations for organizations as they begin to reopen, such as closing break rooms at offices, spacing desks six feet apart at schools and using disposable plates and menus at restaurants.
Some states have started to ease closure orders, and Trump is expected to spend coming days highlighting his administration’s efforts to help businesses and employees.
Still, medical experts warn that the virus will continue to haunt the country until a vaccine is developed. They say the risk of a severe second wave is high if social distancing measures are relaxed too quickly or if testing and contact tracing schemes aren’t developed.
In other Coronavirus news, President Trump says states should “seriously consider” reopening their public schools before the end of the academic year, even though dozens already have said it would be unsafe for students to return until the summer or fall.
Trump made the comments Monday in a call with governors discussing how to reopen their economies, among other topics.
“Some of you might start thinking about school openings, because a lot of people are wanting to have the school openings. It’s not a big subject, young children have done very well in this disaster that we’ve all gone through,” he said. While addressing Vice President Mike Pence, Trump added that it’s something “they can seriously consider, and maybe get going on.”
Later in the call, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said his state’s schools are not reopening fully before summer but hope to open some buildings for special education meetings and for small groups of students in vocational programs.
“We’re hoping at least for those last few weeks that kids who are taking classes that need the physical equipment, they can come in in smaller groups,” Polis said. “But we want to reconfigure it with better social distancing for next school year.”
Trump made the comments as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention worked to finalize guidelines for reopening the economy. For schools, that included putting students’ desks 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart, serving meals in the classroom instead of the cafeteria and closing playgrounds.
Reopening schools is considered key to getting the economy moving again. Without a safe place for kids, many parents would have difficulty returning to work.
But some education officials say opening schools quickly would bring major risk and little reward, especially since the end of the school year is approaching.
“Are they going to reopen for two weeks? Three weeks?” said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, “It’s not the right thing to do. Particularly when we’re involving the safety and welfare of our students.”
At a White House news conference Monday, Trump acknowledged that there’s little time left in the school year, even as he said many states are thinking about getting kids back into the classroom.
“I think you’ll see a lot of schools open up even if it’s for a very short period of time,” he said. “In terms of what this vicious virus goes after, young people seem to do very well. Young people seem to do very well so I know that there are some governors that aren’t necessarily ready to open up states, but they may be ready to open up the school systems.”
Schools across the nation have closed during the coronavirus pandemic, and dozens of states have ordered their schools to remain closed through the rest of this academic year. Only a few have publicly discussed earlier openings, including Montana, which says school districts can resume classroom instruction on May 7.
In many districts, officials have said it’s still unclear whether students will be able to return to the classroom by next fall. And even if they do, many are planning for social distancing measures that could make school look radically different from the past.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on CNN that it’s “way too early” to reopen his city’s schools, adding that “you don’t get a lot of credit for moving too quickly to reopen.”
Responding to Trump’s comments, one of the nation’s largest teachers unions said there’s still much work to be done before schools can open safely. The American Federation of Teachers said there needs to be better testing and tracking for the virus, and schools must have access to personal protective equipment.
“It’s good the president understands that reopening society and the economy hinges on successfully and safely reopening schools,” said Randi Weingarten, the union’s president. “But the question should not be whether we open schools, but how we do it safely. COVID-19 is a terrible virus that has already taken too many lives, and, in the absence of a vaccine, there is no magic wand or magic elixir as the president would have us believe.”
If schools reopen too quickly and end up spreading the coronavirus, they could be held legally liable, said Francisco Negrón, chief legal officer for the National School Boards Association. And while coronavirus cases have been mild among U.S. children, many schools have students with medical conditions that could make them vulnerable, he said.
“The foremost concern for schools is going to be safety of their students and safety of their employees,” Negrón said. (Associated Press)
Children ride their scooters past a shuttered school following the spread of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 20, 2020. REUTERS/Carlo Allegri - RC2UNF9HHCKT
New York City schools will implement a new grading system for the remainder of the coronavirus-disrupted school year, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
Elementary school students will be graded “meeting the standards” or “needing improvement” while high school students will have a pass-fail grading option, de Blasio said.
Acknowledging that some students have struggled since schools were shuttered March 16, de Blasio said students who need help to catch up will be given academic support through the summer and into next fall.
“We have to recognize that some kids are having a tougher time because of this crisis, emotionally and academically,” de Blasio said.
Students in grades K-5 will be graded “meets standards” or “needing improvement,” de Blasio said, while middle school students will be graded “meets standards,” “needs improvement” or “course in progress.”
High schools will use traditional letter grades, but a student who receives a passing grade in a class can take a “pass” grade that won’t affect their grade point average, de Blasio said. High school students who haven’t mastered the coursework will get a “course in progress” grade.
De Blasio announced on April 11 that the schools would remain shuttered through the rest of the school year but Cuomo said the decision whether to reopen schools was up to him. Cuomo has not indicated that he wants schools in the city to reopen before the end of the academic year in late June.
De Blasio initially resisted closing school buildings and moving instruction online in part because many of the system’s 1.1 million students lacked internet access. He said that 247,000 iPads will be in hands of students who requested them by Thursday.
Educators around the nation have struggled with how to grade students after the coronavirus pandemic closed schools.
Officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest after New York City, announced earlier this month that no student would get an F and no one’s grade would be worse than what it was on March 13, the last day of on-campus classes. Philadelphia school administrators were looking for a way to give students credit for completing schoolwork without penalizing children for things that are beyond their control.
In other coronavirus news, jets from Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds flew over New York City in a tribute to the medical personnel, first responders and other essential workers involved in fighting the pandemic.
The planes from the two demonstration squadrons flew in formation over New York and Newark beginning at noon. The formation was set to fly over Trenton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia.
“We are incredibly honored to have the opportunity to salute those working on the frontline of the COVID-19 response, we are in awe of your strength and resilience,” said Navy Cmdr. Brian Kesselring, U.S. Navy Blue Angels commanding officer and flight leader. “Thank you to all of those in essential industries keeping our nation moving forward. We will get through this. We are all in this together.” (AP)
