Offbeat Israel: Swine Flu Renamed By Ultra-Orthodox Official
The rest of the world is in a panic about swine flu, but Israel isn’t. Here, it’s been renamed Mexican flu by the ultra-Orthodox deputy minister for health, because swine is not kosher.
“We will call it Mexico flu. We won’t call it swine flu,” Yaakov Litzman, the deputy minister, told a news conference earlier today.
No logic was cited. What could it be? Does he actually believe that all publicity is good publicity, and that all the talk of pigs, even in the context of their flu, is going to cause mass transgression of kashrut laws?
Several million Israelis are gearing up to celebrate Independence Day, which begins tomorrow night. They will be celebrating 61 years of the State of Israel, but it seems that their knowledge of the history of this era leaves something to be desired.
A survey by David Chen, an advisor to the Education Ministry and dean of the School of Education in the Academic College of Or Yehuda, indicated that students in grades 10–12 aren’t informed about their nation’s past.
Only 39% of those surveyed knew that Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first prime minister. Four in 10 thought that Ben-Gurion was Israel’s first president. Just 34% knew that this honor went to Chaim Weizmann.
The good news is that Israel’s national poet Chaim Nachman Bialik was well known among the youngsters, but the bad news is that 35% wrongly thought he wrote the national anthem, Hatikva. Some 19% thought it was Theodor Herzl. Just 45% responded correctly that it was Naftali Herz Imber.
Have you heard about the great citrus fruit conspiracy? It seemed, shock horror, that Israeli fruit was on sale in Iran.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.