Eight Jewish organizations, including some of the largest in the country, have formed an “emergency pandemic coalition” to coordinate relief work and information-sharing regarding people in the Jewish community affected by the coronavirus outbreak and ensuing economic crash. The coalition, which will collaborate on fundraising, aiding laid-off Jewish communal professionals and coordinating the provision of…
Around this time of year, tens of thousands of Jewish kids around the country start counting down the days until they get to go to summer camp. But now, with many trapped at home due to school closures and social distancing, the yearning may be stronger than ever. Camps are still planning on opening their…
The center of Orthodox Jewish life on Long Island, N.Y., — the Five Towns suburbs — now have 193 reported coronavirus cases, highlighting the growing spread of the virus outside the New York City area and into the surrounding suburbs. The rise in cases there has been dramatic: the Nassau County Department of Health reported…
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, has drawn the ire of many Jews during her first term for making statements that some saw as anti-Semitic. Now, she has a serious primary opponent in her Detroit-area district — who may have anti-Semitic baggage of her own. Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones…
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Some Orthodox rabbis in Israel have approved the use of a video conference program such as Zoom to bring families together for a Passover seder. The letter in Hebrew issued on Wednesday was signed by 14 rabbis, all Sephardic. According to the rabbis, the video conference must be operating before the start…
(JTA) — Besides the coronavirus epidemic, Israel has another crisis on its hands. It’s inside the government and only tangentially related to COVID-19. Here’s the short version: After Israel’s latest election earlier this month — its third in a year — Benny Gantz and his center-left coalition seem closer than ever to garnering enough support…
Speaking to Nine News Sydney, an Australian television channel, 93-year-old Holocaust survivor Olga Horak urged citizens not to panic about the novel coronavirus, telling them to stay calm and be kind to each other instead. Like America, Australia has seen streets emptied by social distancing, empty supermarket shelves, and escalating cases of coronavirus in the…
As President Donald Trump faces mounting pressure to use the Defense Production Act to make private industry manufacture supplies like masks for healthcare workers and ventilators for patients, one voice has risen above the rest in a call for action against coronavirus: Hillel the Elder. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo took to Twitter Tuesday to…
Two New York City rabbis have died, both diagnosed with coronavirus. Rabbi Romi Cohn of Staten Island, a 92-year-old and Holocaust survivor who had fought as a partisan in World War II, succumbed to the disease, the website The Yeshiva World reported. Cohn was also a mohel who performed thousands of circumcisions free of charge…
(JTA) — Why will this Passover be different from all others? This year, the London Beth Din, or religious court, has created a list of permissible products not made under special supervision for Passover due to difficulties caused by the coronavirus crisis. The Kashrut Division of the court developed the list, titled “Product guidelines in…
(JTA) — Andre Touboul, a rabbi affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement who led one of France’s most prestigious high schools, has died of the coronavirus in Paris. He was 64. Touboul led Beth Hanna, a Jewish institution of some 1,500 students whose high school was ranked the best in France in 2015 by Le Parisien…
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