BEIT SHEMESH, Israel (JTA) — Just hours after Israeli Health Minister Yaakov Litzman tested positive last week for the novel coronavirus, technicians arrived at his Jerusalem residence to deliver a smartphone and install computer equipment.An adherent...
By Eric Berger, Associate Editor
• Published April 6, 2020
Max Baker did not intend to start a fight between CNN anchor Jake Tapper and rapper and comedian Lil Dicky. But so it goes when Baker, a quarantined sophomore at the University of Missouri-Columbia, had time on his hands and no NCAA college basketball...
By Eric Berger, Associate Editor
• Published April 2, 2020
The Jewish Community Center of St. Louis has furloughed the majority of its staff, effective last weekend, due to the coronavirus pandemic.The organization, which has campuses in Chesterfield and near Creve Coeur, furloughed more than 100 employees and...
By Eric Berger, Associate Editor
• Published April 2, 2020
Becca Near said her grandmother, Gail Hawkins, wanted a party rather than a funeral when she died.And she wanted her ashes scattered into the ocean from a cruise ship. Both requests will have to wait because of restrictions on social life and travel...
By Ellie S. Grossman, Special to the Jewish Light
• Published April 2, 2020
Passover is a cherished Jewish holiday that celebrates our journey from the bitterness of slavery to the sweetness of freedom, a paradoxical theme amidst the plague of COVID-19. During this global pandemic, we are socially distant and socially isolated,...
Good news to report from the Weinhaus family, which has five members battling the coronavirus. Michael Weinhaus, 63, was released from Missouri Baptist Hospital on Monday, and his wife, Jane, 63, who has been at Mo Bap for more than two weeks, is off...
By Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
• Published April 2, 2020
Simchah Rabbah, Simchah Rabbah, Aviv Hegeea Pesach Ba! Great Joy, Great Joy, spring has arrived and Pesach is upon us! Each year, as we begin to see the first signs of spring, I am reminded of this lovely song from my childhood. It is of course common...
By RABBI CANTOR HILLARY CHORNY
• Published April 2, 2020
If you glanced at my work calendar, you might not know that the world is turned inside out. As a cantor and rabbi at a Los Angeles synagogue, I am continuing to lead services and counsel congregants. But like so many others, all of my meetings have been...
(JTA) — There are about 250,000 Jews in the United Kingdom. They account for only 0.3% of its population.But the coronavirus has killed 44 known Jewish victims so far — about 2.5% of the total U.K. tally.That means British Jews are overrepresented...
BUENOS AIRES (JTA) — Despite protests from a Jewish community near Buenos Aires, the first Jewish victim of the coronavirus in Argentina was cremated by local authorities, causing controversy and sparking concern among other Jewish communities throughout...
(JTA) — Among the mysteries of the coronavirus is that some patients suffer and ultimately die from the disease while others experience the symptoms as akin to a mild cold.Rabbi Daniel Nevins is in the latter category. The dean of the rabbinical school...
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Aviva Karoly, an attorney originally from Queens, New York, and her husband, Tzvi, were raised in religious Zionist homes and always dreamed of living in Israel.In preparation, the couple had sent their 6-year old son Adi to a Hebrew-speaking...
