How Taiwan a Country that Borders China Avoided Covid-19

 

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5 patients leave Hadassah coronavirus-free after been hospitalized in serious or critical condition

Five patients recently discharged from Hadassah Medical Center were healthy and coronavirus-free after taking part in the first clinical trial of an innovative treatment developed by the hospital.

Allocetra, the drug used in the clinical trial, was developed with the Enlivex Company based on research conducted by Prof. Dror Mevorach, director of the internal medicine and coronavirus departments at Hadassah. It had already been successfully tested on ten sepsis patients.

All five patients had been hospitalized in serious or critical condition.

"Allocetra is meant to treat a wide range of cases in which there is an overreaction of the immune system, which leads to an increase in the secretion of proteins by cells of the immune system called cytokines and causes a cytokine storm," explained Mevorach. "Its activity is carried out by treating cells taken from a healthy donor and engineering them in the laboratory in a way that, when they are injected into the patient's body, will control the inflammation or storm of cytokines that is very harmful to patients."

The clinical test was carried out with the permission of the Helsinki Committee of the Health Ministry by a team led by Prof. Vernon Van Heerden, the director of Hadassah Medical Center's General Intensive Care Unit.

"We are happy that the patients in severe and critical condition recovered after the Allocetra treatment," Enlivex said.

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In Israel You Will Get a 500 Shekel Fine If You Invite the "Ushpizin"

 The government on Wednesday night approved as a temporary order for seven days the regulation according to which a restriction will apply for participation in a demonstration up to the permitted distance from the house (1,000 meters), similar to any other exit from a place of residence, including for the purpose of prayer or religious ceremony.

In addition, it was determined that there will be no gathering in public spaces, including for a demonstration, prayer or religious ceremony in which the number of participants exceeds the number allowed (20 people), and no distance of two meters is maintained between the participants.

Ministers Assaf Zamir, Izhar Shay and Orit Farkash from Blue and White voted against the party.

In addition, the government approved via a telephone vote a 500 shekel fine for those who stay in a sukkah with a person who does not live with them.

The purpose of the fine is to deter citizens seeking to stay with relatives and friends during the holiday of Sukkot, which begins at sundown on Friday.

Earlier it was reported in Channel 12 News that coronavirus project manager Ronni Gamzu has decided to seek a significant increase in fines for citizens who do not meet the guidelines related to the virus.

According to the proposal, opening businesses, public spaces and places whose opening is prohibited by regulations will result in a fine of 10,000 shekels instead of 5,000 shekels as is in effect today.

At the same time, holding prohibited events with large numbers of participants, including parties, conferences and ceremonies, will result in a fine of 50,000 shekels compared to 5,000 today.

Gamzu also proposes to increase by ten the fine for opening an educational or boarding school that was barred from opening to 50,000 shekels.

The fine for violation of the obligation of personal isolation will, according to the proposal, be 10,000 shekels compared to 5,000 shekels today, and the fine for not wearing a mask will be 1,000 shekels compared to 500 shekels so far.

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Ireland's Highest Court Paskens that the Rolls in Subway Are Not Legally "Bread"

If there are any OTD guys going out to the Subway Restaurants in Ireland , you don't have to wash since the rolls according to the courts aren't legally "bread." But that's only if you are Chassidiish, if you from a litvishe background you may have to wash anyway if you are koviah seudah."

Ireland’s highest court isn’t sweet on tax breaks for footlongs.

The country’s Supreme Court ruled that the starch used in Subway sandwiches is too sugary to meet the definition of “bread” — a legal distinction that would have saved the firm some dough.

In deciding whether to give the fast-food chain a tax break for serving a “staple” food item, the five-judge panel ruled that the bread’s sugar-to-flour content is roughly five times too high to qualify, according to the Irish Independent.

For a company to be taxed zero percent, under the Value-Added Tax Act of 1972, the weight of sugar and fat in a bread product must not be more than 2 percent of the total weight of flour in the dough.

But the dough baked for Subway sandwiches has a sugar content of roughly 10 percent the weight of its flour content, the outlet reported.

In its decision, the court rejected arguments by a Subway franchise owner, Bookfinders in Galway, that the restaurant was not required to meet the standard on to-go items such as heated sandwiches, teas and coffees.

Bookfinders had demanded a refund for past years’ taxes in an appeal of a 2006 case.

While shooting down the legal challenge, Justice Donal O’Donnell said the definition of “bread” was established to distinguish the starch from other baked goods, such as cookies or brownies, that aren’t healthy enough to be considered essential.

All six of the company’s bread options — Italian white bread, Italian herbs and cheese, nine-grain wheat, hearty Italian, nine-grain multi-seed, and honey oat — were deemed too sugary by the court to qualify as bread.

According to nutrition facts posted by the Subway, a 6-inch white bread roll has 5 grams of sugar — similar to that of an Oreo cookie. 

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Mayer Rispler Satmar "Rosh Hakahal" Sick With Covid

As COVID-19 test positivity rates continue to climb in Orthodox communities in New York, a major leader of the Satmar Hasidic sect was put on a ventilator Wednesday morning after becoming critically ill with COVID-19.

Flyers circulated online Wednesday morning calling for prayers for Mayer Rispler, a community leader in the Aronim faction of the Satmar community.

An accountant by trade, Ripsler has long been one of the community’s most important leaders and a major donor to Satmar institutions. He has also served as a spokesperson for the community at times.

In April, after a large funeral prompted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to lash out at the community in a widely criticized tweet, Rispler defended the mayor and called for compliance with government health regulations.

“We do not condone any behavior that puts people at risk and pledge to keep working alongside the brave men and women of the NYPD in addressing and eliminating any such occurrences,” Rispler wrote at the time.

Rispler is not the first major leader in the Satmar community to become gravely ill with COVID-19. Rabbi Aharon Teitelbaum, head of the Aronim faction, reportedly tested positive for the virus in March.

His name for Tehillim is Meir Zelig ben Esther. 

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Biden Wore a Wire During Debates

 

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Kid whose ‘Avinu Malkeinu’ went viral sings at NY synagogue Yom Kippur service

 

The first time 6-year-old Bibi Shapiro found out just how widely viewed the video of him singing “Avinu Malkeinu” had been, he was sitting on his mother’s lap in Australia being beamed into Yom Kippur services at one of the largest synagogues in the United States.

Like so many others who saw the video over the past several weeks, Angela Buchdahl, the senior rabbi of New York City’s Central Synagogue, was touched by the passion Shapiro brought to his performance. She also noted that Bibi, who is Black, did not conform to stereotypes about what Jews look like, the topic of her Kol Nidre sermon.

So Buchdahl reached out — and began a conversation that ended with Bibi leading her congregation in the iconic High Holiday song.

“Our community just got to hear you sing and I think our hearts are all just opened up,” the rabbi told the Perth boy before his performance. Afterwards, she said, “Connecting with both of you today — it feels like that’s what reminds us that we are a huge Jewish family.”

That was the theme of Buchdahl’s Kol Nidre sermon, in which she argued that Jews should stop thinking of themselves as a race — a historically dangerous, exclusionary concept — and instead as a family.

Buchdahl told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that she had reached out to Bibi and his mother, Nina Shapiro, after reflecting on her own experiences as a Korean-American woman who, despite holding one of the most influential pulpits in American Judaism, still elicits confusion when people learn she is Jewish.

“I was taken with how clearly Bibi’s Jewish neshama [soul] comes through, and how much is at stake for us to make sure he never feels as marginalized and othered as so many Jews of color feel in our community,” Buchdahl told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency about her outreach.

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Did These Archeological Finds Just Settle Debate on How Long a "Tefech" is?

Storage jars from Khirbet Qeiyafa 

Storage jars form one of the main ceramic types which were produced and abundantly used ever since pottery was invented.

The need to collect, store, and distribute agricultural products such as grains, oils and wine in large vessels has littered excavation sites with an abundance of ceramic jar fragments of various designs, sizes and shapes.

However, for all of their variety, three Israeli archaeologists Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s Ortal Harush, Israel Antiquities Authority’s Avshalom Karasik and Weizmann Institute’s Uzy Smilansky found an astonishing common denominator among storage jars in Israel over a period of 350 years: the inner-rim diameter of the jar’s neck.

The distribution of this diameter is consistent with measurements of the palm of a (male) hand and, according to the authors, this match is not coincidental. It may reflect the use of the original metrics for the biblical measurement of the “tefach,” a unit of measurement that was used primarily by ancient Israelites, appears frequently in the Bible, and is the basis for many Jewish laws. Their findings were published in BASOR, the Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research.

“It was natural for the ancient potters to adopt the handbreadth—tefach--standard. It was a unit of length that was widely used in ancient times, and is mentioned both in Assyrian and Egyptian sources and in the Old Testament, for instance: Numbers 25-25, Numbers 37-12,” the researchers shared.

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After Bolting Coalition, Litzman Begs to rejoin government

 MK and former Construction and Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman (United Torah Judaism) is looking to rejoin the government, just weeks after resigning in protest of the nationwide lockdown.

According to a report Walla Wednesday, Litzman has turned to senior Blue and White officials, asking them to help him be brought back in to the government, this time as Deputy Construction and Housing Minister.

This arrangement would allow the UTJ chief to serve as a de facto minister, without officially being a minister in the government – returning to the UTJ’s tradition of maintaining a symbolic distance from the governing coalition by not officially serving as ministers.

Under the plan put forth by Litzman, he would be appointed as Deputy Construction and Housing Minister, using one of Blue and White’s deputy ministerial appointments. All of the right-wing bloc’s deputy ministerial appointments have already been filled, forcing Litzman to turn to Blue and White.

Another member of the coalition would officially serve as Construction and Housing Minister, though Litzman would in effect carry out the duties of the minister.

Blue and White is considering the request, and has yet to issue a response.

Earlier this month, Litzman resigned from the government in protest of the decision to impose a nationwide lockdown during the holiday season.

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Herd Immunity - "won't help" Says Director-General of the Health Ministry Prof. Hezy Levy,

Speaking with representatives of haredi media outlets on Wednesday, the director-general of the Health Ministry, Prof. Hezy Levy, said that the haredi sector accounts for just over one third of all coronavirus infections in Israel.

Levy said that the number of coronavirus patients in the haredi sector had increased significantly in recent weeks, as has the number of coronavirus-related fatalities.

Along with accounting for 34% of all coronavirus infections in Israel, Levy continued, roughly one out of every three haredim who is tested for the virus is found to be carrying it, a far higher rate than in the general population.

“That’s twice as high as in the general population, and add to that the fact that there are many tests being conducted in the haredi community.”

The director-general also dismissed the possibility of attaining herd immunity, whereby a large enough portion of the population becomes infected and develops immunity so as to effectively block large outbreaks.

"We're not interested in gaining herd immunity," Levy said, "not in the haredi community, and not in the rest of the population either. We haven't seen that it achieved anything significant in countries where it was attained. It doesn't decrease the fatality rate.

"This is why I am so distressed at the tishes [chassidic gatherings] I see," he added, "with people behaving as if there was no such thing as coronavirus. This is not the right way - it is irresponsible and lacking all concern for others. Who are you endangering? You are endangering your own families, your own grandparents."

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