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In Jewish Florida, the healthy and the young make it to polls on primary day
It’s primary day in Florida — a day that’s normally full of energy given the Sunshine State’s plum position as one of the most delegate-rich in the union. Instead, the coronavirus was like a mushroom cloud hanging over polling stations, leading many voters and some poll workers to stay home. At my own polling station,…
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Doleful teens leave Israel for computer screens as programs send students home
On Sunday, the participants of Nativ had a choice: stay in Israel, or go home. Yossi Garr, the director for 15 years of this beloved gap-year program in Israel, told the 53 participants and their parents that despite growing restrictions on public life and movement in and out of Israel, Nativ could continue. They could…
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Influenza 1918, a look back: Homes Must Now Be Heated, Says Board of Health
FYI: Reading the Forverts of early winter 1918, with the influenza epidemic ramping up and an election forthcoming, the paper sounds eerily like today’s news. The Forverts reported nearly 3,000 cases of influenza in the city and a commissioner who thought it wasn’t serious (10/10/18). At the tail end of the article, they placed an…
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We had to cancel the party, but the Bar Mitzvah will go on
March 21, 2020. That’s the date of my son Leo’s Bar Mitzvah. Aside from having one of the hardest and most boring Torah portions, it seemed like a pretty good date. My wife, Jill, Leo and I had put a lot of work into making the day really special. And I know that every family…
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Israeli health ministry releases Yiddish audio recording to prevent spread of COVID-19
The Israeli health ministry is taking unusual steps to reach out to the country’s growing Hasidic population to help stop the spread of COVID-19, releasing an audio recording and setting up a hotline – both in Yiddish. The audio recording, which was first reported Sunday by the Israeli daily Hamodia, gives specific instructions regarding social…
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Throughout history, Jews have been on front lines of fighting disease
As the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across countries and continents, scientists, physicians, and public-health officials deploy a combination of strategies to check its advance: quarantine, tests, restrictions on people’s movements, antiseptics. Meanwhile, in labs in the United States and abroad, not least in Israel, the race is on to develop an effective vaccine and antiviral drug…
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Popular Florida shul at center of coronavirus outbreak
Bal Harbour, Fla. is famous for its warmth and beauty — gorgeous beaches, posh shops and high-end hotels. Among Jews, it’s also known as the home of a big, thriving and internationally beloved synagogue that meshes perfectly with its surroundings, called simply “The Shul.” The Shul is architecturally grand, its gleaming white facade lined with…
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This Orthodox Brooklyn doctor saw the truth about coronavirus weeks ago
On Wednesday evening last week, Dr. Stuart Ditchek convened an unprecedented meeting. At a synagogue in Midwood, Brooklyn, he gathered 170 rabbis, yeshiva principals and administrators (some streaming in via Zoom) to ask them to make a difficult, but necessary, decision: close their doors immediately to help stop the spread of coronavirus. Ditchek, a pediatrician…
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Blessed with enough food, family and Facetime to handle the crisis
When I got to the freezer aisle of my the Costco in Culver City, Calif., on Friday afternoon, there were nine kosher chickens left. I swung open the glass doors and started piling them in my shopping cart. “May I?” I turned. It was a young woman — I think. Black gloves covered her hands,…
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We want to hear from you: Clergy in the time of coronavirus
In the past few days and weeks, we have all experienced shocking changes in our day-to-day lives. As our spiritual leaders, you have been on the front lines. You’ve made difficult decisions about canceling Bnei Mitzvahs and restricting attendance at life-cycle events, you’ve adapted prayer services and study sessions to take place online, you’ve helped…
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Lego, prayer, candy. How our 9-year-old scheduled Shabbat under quarantine in Teaneck.
Shabbat was not canceled in Teaneck, N.J. this past weekend — but it was radically altered. When I first found out that the Rabbinical Council of Bergen County had shuttered area synagogues in an unprecedented move to help “flatten the curve” of the coronavirus pandemic, I was pleased with their leadership. The rabbis’ ban on…
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