March 22, 2020

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz praised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday during an interview with the German newspaper Bild, saying it was the Israeli leader that had called his attention to the dangers of what would go on to become the global coronavirus pandemic.

There was great concern in Austria, said Kurz, because the nation shared a border with Italy and had witnessed the “collapse” of Italy’s healthcare system.

The Austrian chancellor said he “thanked God” for a conversation he had with Netanyahu in which the Israeli leader warned him that he was not taking seriously enough the effect that coronavirus would have on Europe and urged him to “wake up and do something.”

Kurz said that the conversation shook him, but also prompted him to make Austria one of the first European countries to take serious action to counter the spread of the virus.

Over 3,000 Austrians have contracted the virus so far, eight of whom have died of COVID-19, the respiratory illness it causes. The country is under a strict stay-at-home policy, with much of its economy shut down. Still, compared to its southern neighbor Italy, the situation appears under control and the healthcare system is functioning well.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz on Saturday announced the creation of a “national emergency plan” to bring home Israelis stranded abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ministry said in a press release that “Israeli diplomatic missions around the world will map concentrations of Israelis wishing to return home. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Situation Room will monitor the situation around the clock and will establish a center to monitor requests of Israelis stranded abroad.”

According to the statement, the ministry will be arranging free commercial flights to Israel on Israeli airlines El Al, Arkia and Israir, calling upon them to send planes to the destinations from which Israelis are unable to find flights home on their own.

Foreign Minister Katz is coordinating with senior government officials in various countries to obtain the required permissions for the flights, according to the statement, similar to the coordination with the Peruvian government on Tuesday to charter a flight for Israelis stranded in that South American country after it shut its borders in an effort to contain the outbreak.

The emergency operations are being conducted under “the principle of mutual responsibility,” in the context of “closures taking place around the world at a growing pace and the number of Israelis abroad,” said Katz, adding that the operation will “continue to lead us until all Israelis return home.”

He urged all Israelis to return home as soon as possible, as “there are still commercial flights available from most countries, and it is possible to return.”

Palestinian health officials announced on Sunday that two Gaza residents that recently returned from Pakistan had tested positive for the COVID-19 virus, raising concerns that due the poor health care and dense population in the Hamas-controlled enclave, the virus would spread rapidly.

The Gaza Strip, with its population of over 2 million, is at high risk from the virus, and there are similar concerns regarding Syria, Libya and Yemen, according to the AP.

Abdelnasser Soboh, director of the World Health Organization’s Gaza office, said Gaza has only 62 ventilators and 15 are already in use.

“If there is a spread to hundreds, this will cause a challenge to the health care system,” said Soboh, according to the report.

Despite the fact that hundreds of Gazans have returned from abroad in the past two weeks, only 92 have been tested. More than 1,270 have been quarantined after entering Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

On Saturday, Hamas closed wedding halls and the weekly street markets, according to the report.

(JTA) — Jewish community leaders in Antwerp are predicting that the coronavirus will infect 85% of its members — a significantly higher rate than the one projected for Belgium’s population.

The projection, which was compiled last week and obtained by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, also predicts that the coming weeks will see at least 550 deaths in the heavily Haredi Orthodox community based on a calculation of a 3.4% death rate among 25,000 people.

As of Friday, Belgium — which went into partial lockdown on Monday — had 1,795 confirmed cases and 21 deaths from the COVID-19 virus. The country’s top virologist said Tuesday that he expects half of Belgium’s population to contract the virus, while other estimates put the figure at 70%.

The estimate for Antwerp’s Jews is “higher than the general population due to social interactions,” according to the projection document compiled by medical experts in the community. A fifth of the community, or about 3,400 people, will require hospitalization and 10%, or 1,700 of the members, will reach a critical medical condition, according to the estimate.

The higher infection rate “makes sense, because Antwerp Jews all know each other, each synagogue is an extended family,” Michael Freilich, a Modern Orthodox lawmaker from Antwerp, told JTA.

“If the average Belgian person has a circles of 15 close friends and family,” he said, “then with Antwerp Jews it’s 150 people.”

Rabbi Pinchas Kornfeld, secretary-general of the Machsike Hadas religious community in Antwerp, told JTA that he was aware of several community members who went into self-isolation because they suspect they have the virus. There have been no deaths or severe cases from within the community, he said.

Rabbinical authorities from across Antwerp’s multiple Haredi sections have instructed congregants to respect the lockdown order and refrain from gathering with people from outside their own household.

Many have, but some in the community are flouting the emergency regulations, according to Shmulie Markowitz, head of the Hatzole Antwerp Jewish community emergency and rescue unit.

In an impassioned WhatsApp plea to many community members, Markowitz urged Antwerp Jews to respect rules that block more than 10 people from occupying the same space at a store.

“People push in, and they bring their children with them, and this must stop,” he said in the message.

Freilich said the dire projections can be avoided. “Social distancing and partial quarantine are meant to ensure such numbers are never reached,” he said.

Kornfeld said members of his community are reluctant to tell others about diseases, adding to uncertainty about the virus.

“People don’t want to say ‘I have corona,’” he said. “It’s seen as a private matter, so there’s no way of knowing how far it’s spread so far.”

RIO DE JANEIRO (JTA) — A Brazilian cosmetics giant owned by the billionaire son of Holocaust survivors donated 1.7 tons of gel alcohol, which can be used as hand sanitizer, to help the city where it is headquartered fight the coronavirus.

The donation to Curitiba’s municipal health department was announced on Thursday by O Boticário’s founder and president, Miguel Krigsner, a Jewish biochemist and environmentalist.

“Our essence is to be agents of transformation in everything we do. If we save a life, we save humanity. This is Judaism,” Krigsner, a Bolivian-Brazilian entrepreneur, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

Born in La Paz to a Polish father and a German mother who fled the Nazi regime, Krigsner moved to Brazil with his family at the age of 11.

“Our company was born in Curitiba and we have a huge affection for this city. We believe that through this donation we will be able to minimize the anxiety and pain of many people,” he added.

Founded 43 years ago, O Boticário is Brazil’s second-largest cosmetic company and the world’s largest beauty retailer, with over 4,000 stores worldwide, 22,000 employees and nearly $4 billion in revenue in 2019.

In 1990, the company created the O Boticário Nature Protection Foundation, a nonprofit that already has sponsored 800 conservation projects throughout Brazil.

“As long as Boticário exists, it will put money into this thing. I see it as a moral obligation. There is a question of conscience and within the Jewish religion there is tzedakah. What is it? It’s a word that says that you have to do good for your neighbor,” said Krigsner, who is the founder of the Curitiba Holocaust Museum.

After a week in which the headlines seemed to grow more grim by the day, it’s worth remembering that even as cities go dark across the globe, the world continues to turn. Babies are born, people are getting married, and thankfully the sun still rises every morning.

As we wind down a week unlike any we’ve experienced before, here are three Jewish stories of hope and joy.

Alana and Yisroel got married

They’re not the only Jewish couple to get married in the midst of a pandemic, but few photos capture just how surreal this moment feels for many of us as this one of Alana Cooper and Yisroel Ygbi, who were married Thursday afternoon in Brooklyn outside the headquarters of the Chabad Hasidic movement at 770 Eastern Parkway.

Presided over by Rabbi Ari Kirschenbaum, the director of the Chabad center in the Prospect Heights neighborhood, the wedding was as makeshift as they come, with passersby recruited to participate in key parts of the service.

“Nothing was ordinary but everything was extraordinary,” Kirschenbaum wrote in an email Friday.

Cooper and Ygbi weren’t even the only Jewish couple to get married in the neighborhood this week. One couple that couldn’t have guests at their wedding drove through the streets in a convertible while people cheered for them.

As couple got married today in Crown Heights. Because no one could come to their wedding, they instead drove around the neighborhood and asked everyone to sing and dance with them from their homes. pic.twitter.com/MdwOys4MyI

— Rabbi Mordechai Lightstone (@Mottel) March 19, 2020

Jacob Frey and his wife are expecting

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey — known in some quarters as the nation’s foremost Jewish political sex symbol (watch out Bernie Sanders) — announced that he and his wife Sarah Clarke are expecting a baby in September.

https://twitter.com/sarahclarke9/status/1240779823976517641

“Hey everyone,” Frey said in a short video posted on Twitter. “I figured that you’ve gotten enough talk on coronavirus lately.”

It doesn’t even matter that Frey appeared not to know what to call an ultrasound. Presumably, he’s got other issues on his plate. Like many major cities, Minneapolis remains under a state of emergency.

“We are super excited,” Frey said in the video. And so are we. Mazel tov, Jacob and Sarah.

Westchester attorney emerges from coma

Lawrence Garbuz, the attorney at the center of the coronavirus outbreak in New Rochelle, New York, emerged from a coma on Wednesday.

Garbuz was patient zero for the coronavirus in New York, the common denominator among 37 early confirmed cases of the disease in the state. The Young Israel of New Rochelle synagogue, which Garbuz attended, was forced to close after his diagnosis. A one-mile containment zone was set up around the synagogue.

As the crisis intensified, Garbuz was placed into a medically induced coma from which he emerged on Wednesday. He “is awake and alert and seems to be on the road to full recovery,” his wife, Adina, said in a post on Facebook.

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night his Likud Party and rival Blue and White had reached agreement on the outlines of a national unity government, and called on Blue and White leader Benny Gantz to sign the deal, saying “millions of Israelis are waiting for us.”

During an interview with Israel’s Channel 12, Netanyahu said he and Gantz had agreed to a rotation deal under which Netanyahu would serve as prime minister before handing the post over to Gantz. Addressing Gantz, Netanyahu vowed to “leave office on the agreed date,” with “no shticks and tricks.”

Under the terms of the deal, Likud would take the prime ministerial, finance, and Knesset speaker posts, with Blue and White receiving deputy prime minister and the defense and foreign ministries, before switching after a year and a half. The Justice Ministry would be either split or led by an outsider.

Netanyahu added that while Likud was ready to sign on the dotted line, that would change if Blue and White and its center-left bloc moved to oust Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein.

The center-left bloc moved to force a vote replacing Edelstein before the speaker shuttered the Knesset on March 18, citing concerns over potentially exposing legislators to coronavirus infection.

Israel’s Supreme Court is expected to rule on Sunday that Edelstein must reopen the Knesset and enable the formation of committees, as well as allow a vote on who will take over the post of Knesset speaker.

Blue and White leader Gantz responded on Twitter that “Those who want unity do not work with ultimatums and harmful leaks and certainly do not try to hurt our democracy and citizens by paralyzing the Knesset.”