Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
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JERUSALEM (JTA)-The flags of countries that are home to Jewish communities hard hit by COVID-19 were projected on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The event held Tuesday night by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry in support of Jewish communities around the world and their home countries also saw representatives of youth groups in Israel waving the flags of dozens of countries in front of the Jaffa Gate. "Demonstrating support tonight for our Jewish brothers and sisters in all communities...
Israel’s sampling of 100,000 citizens’ blood will provide insights into how widely the novel coronavirus has spread and whether Israelis have sufficient “herd immunity” against a second outbreak. “This is the most important mission: Get ready for the next wave, especially a wave during wintertime,” when flu season will also begin, Ministry of Health Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov told The New York Times. Although nobody knows if antibodies against Covid-19 will protect against reinfection—especially if the virus mutates—the H...
(JNS)—Israeli health- care providers plan to start testing the population for coronavirus antibodies this week in an attempt to discover how many Israelis have developed immunity to the virus, Israeli media reported on Sunday. Depending on the results, large segments of the population could potentially not have to worry about being quarantined or isolated and could fly or rejoin the workforce without any restrictions, according to Ynet. Last week it was reported that Israel was planning to conduct 100,000 serological tests for COVID-19 as p...
Israeli medics have been on the front lines of the corona crisis playing an integral part of the national strategy to effectively fight the spread of infection. But the coordinated effort came from a number of places. Below, we've listed 10 of the top ways Israel managed in just six weeks to "flatten the curve" and get us on our way back to normal: Quarantine requirements were taken seriously As early as February people coming from Italy were directed into 14-day isolation. Soon afterwards, all...
Israel’s biological defense research lab has discovered what they say is a “breakthrough” in finding an antidote to the coronavirus by isolating and developing an antibody that attacks the virus, defense officials said Tuesday. The Israel Institute for Biological Research, which normally deals with responses to chemical and biological threats against Israel, presented its findings to Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who hailed the work as a “major breakthrough.” Researchers said the development phase has been completed and that they are filin...
(JNS)—A top Israeli health official said on Tuesday that the government is about to launch a campaign to test the population for coronavirus antibodies. Israeli Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov told The New York Times that 100,000 Israelis across the country will begin undergoing serological testing in one to two weeks to gauge the extent of the spread of the virus thus far and prepare for a possible second wave. His interview came in the wake of an easing in Israel of many restrictions imposed on the public since the outbre...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The United States is ready to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank with conditions, the U.S. ambassador to Israel told an Israel newspaper. In an interview with the Israel Hayom daily, David Friedman said Israel must freeze building in other parts of the West Bank and prepare to reenter peace negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump peace plan. The plan requires the Israeli prime minister to agree to negotiate with the Palestinians “in good faith” for four...
(JNS)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday touted Israel's "major success" in confronting the coronavirus pandemic, and laid out the government's plan for a phased reopening of the economy following weeks of lockdowns. Speaking at a press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu presented a graph illustrating the Jewish state's low infection rates and death tolls relative to other countries, and said that the result proved that the strict anti-coronavirus measures he began to impose...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-As they do each year, Israelis stood at attention Monday for one minute as sirens wailed throughout the country to usher in Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day. What happened afterward was unlike other years, however: The official state ceremony at the Western Wall was held without an audience. That was because of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi participated in the... Full story
(JNS)—Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, reiterated on Wednesday that if elected in November, he would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. “The move shouldn’t have happened in the context as it did, it should happen in the context of a larger deal to help us achieve important concessions for peace in the process,” said Biden in response to a supporter’s question during a virtual fundraiser with Boston-area donors. “But now that is done, I would not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv.... Full story
(JNS)-A U.S. Staate Department spokesperson said on Monday that the United States remains ready to recognize Israel's annexation of territory in the West Bank, but expects Israel to continue negotiations with the Palestinians. "As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the vision [U.S. President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan] foresees as... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-On Friday, the first day of Ramadan, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was virtually empty. A handful of masked worshippers kneeling on prayer rugs, distanced several feet apart from one another, listened to an imam who stood atop an 18-foot wooden pulpit. "We ask God to have mercy on us and all of humanity and to save us from this lethal pandemic," the imam said. The ban on mass communal prayer in Israel and the Palestinian territories is among the sobering restrictions... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Nearly six weeks have passed since Arie Even, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, died of the coronavirus. It happened at the end of Shabbat dinner on a Friday night in March at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Even drew headlines as Israel's first COVID-19 fatality. As of Thursday, the coronavirus death count in the country had risen to 222. There have been almost 16,000 confirmed cases. For Rachel Gemara, 33, the memory of Even has not lost its charge. It's stark an... Full story
(JNS)-Israel's 15-month political stalemate, which led to three election cycles within the course of a year, has come to a close with the signing of a unity government deal between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party, and Blue and White Party head Benny Gantz. The two sides are calling it a "national emergency government" in large part to manage the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has stymied Israel along with the rest of the world. Both leaders posted tweets... Full story
(ISRAEL21c)-Israelis receiving daily coronavirus check-ins via text message can thank local startup Diagnostic Robotics for developing the cutting-edge questionnaire that is tracking the spread of the virus with uncanny precision and generating actionable recommendations. "Last Saturday night, we saw worrying data coming from Migdal HaEmek, Tiberias and Ashkelon," Kira Radinsky, the company's cofounder and chief technology officer, told ISRAEL21c. "On Monday morning, the government issued a... Full story
A worldwide shortage of Covid-19 testing materials is slowing down the rate of testing and increasing the rate of infection. Coming from Israel, one answer to the problem is a faster and cheaper test using materials commonly found in diagnostic labs. The test was developed by Prof. Nir Friedman at Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Institute of Life Sciences and School of Engineering and Computer Science and Prof. Naomi Habib at the university’s Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Science. Testing for Covid-19 currently involves ext... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)—An Israeli falafel shop owner broke down in tears in a television interview on Sunday that resonated across the country as a symbolic encapsulation of the economic toll that the coronavirus is taking on small businesses. “Look at my wallet, it’s empty,” said the shop owner, Yuval Carmi, pulling out his wallet during the Channel 13 interview. “I don’t have a shekel in my pocket.” He added: “I’m embarrassed to face my children, to tell them I have nothing I can buy for you. I have nothing to give them. I have nothing to give t... Full story
ERUSALEM (JTA)—Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz signed a deal Monday to form a “national emergency government” that keeps Netanyahu as the prime minister for now. Israel has spent more than a year under a caretaker government as neither Netanyahu, who heads the right-wing Likud party, nor Gantz of the center-left Blue and White could assemble a coalition government. With the agreement, the country avoids a fourth national election in less than a year and a half. The agreement also accedes to Likud deman... Full story
(JNS)—An American patient diagnosed with the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been given a treatment by Israeli-based Pluristem that, so far, has a 100 percent survival rate. The development, which occurred under the Israel’s compassionate-use program, comes days after the company released preliminary data showing that six critically ill coronavirus patients in the Jewish state who are considered high-risk received the Haifa-based company’s placental cell-therapy treatment and survived one week later. The patient, whose condition was similar to the I... Full story
WASHINGTON (JTA)—A pro-Israel group is warning Israeli leaders that reports of planned annexations of parts of the West Bank would cause “long-term damage” to the U.S.-Israel alliance. “Such a move would make a two-state solution harder—if not impossible to achieve—and would likely have far-reaching negative consequences for the U.S.-Israel alliance,” Mark Mellman and Ann Lewis, the president and the co-chairwoman of the Democratic Majority for Israel, wrote to the three leaders negotiating to form a new government in Israel. The warning lette... Full story
(JNS)-Israeli researchers said they are days away from finishing production of the active component of a coronavirus vaccine that could be tested on humans starting June 1. "We are in the final stages and within a few days we will hold the proteins-the active component of the vaccine," Dr. Chen Katz, group leader of the biotechnology group at the MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. The human trials will be conducted on "young, healthy individuals" and will then... Full story
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to evolve and impact our country and our world, Kinneret Apartments and the Kinneret Council on Aging continue to intensely focus on preventing the spread of the virus within its 280 apartment independent living community. Collectively, they released the following statement regarding the heightened infection prevention protocols: "We are all aware of the extraordinary impact that the coronavirus is having on our communities, country and world. Today, we assure... Full story
(JNS)-In ordinary times, Israel Aerospace Industries Systems Missiles Space group churns out advanced missiles, including interceptors used by the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 defense systems. During these extraordinary times, the group has added a new production line-one that produces hospital ventilators. As Israel, like many countries, grapples with a shortage of ventilators in the face of a potential tidal wave of vulnerable coronavirus patients, IAI teamed up with Ra'anana-based Inovytec, which... Full story
(JNS)—A 4.3-magnitude earthquake hit Israel’s south on Sunday morning, according to the Geophysical Institute of Israel. According to the institute, the earthquake epicenter was around 62 miles south of Eilat in an area known as the Great Rift Valley—the edge of a tectonic plate in Israel that runs parallel to the Jordan River. Various residents of Eilat, as quoted by Ynet, were shaken awake by the tremblor, which hit just after 5 a.m. “Storms, coronavirus and now earthquake, what else? The 10 plagues? God save us,” said Eilat resident... Full story
The Deep Knowledge group put Israel in first place among countries around the world when it comes to promoting safety amid the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s media adviser announced Tuesday. The Deep Knowledge Group is “an investment fund focused on AI and DeepTech, which values knowledge above profit,” its website says. Netanyahu announced severe new restrictions Monday night in an effort to curtail the spread of the virus. To date, 17 Israelis have succumbed to the disease. During the announcement, Prime Minis... Full story
