COPING WITH CORONA IN KARMIEL, GALILEE

It's said that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during a plague year, but what about The Tempest ? Certainly the line "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”, spoken by someone who had been shipwrecked and found himself seeking shelter beside a sleeping monster, could well be said of Israel and her immediate neighbours in our time of Coronavirus. Most astoundingly,  Qatar Airways has included Israelis in its allocation of 100,000 free flights to medical professionals worldwide. Airline CEO Akbar Al Baker said of the 'thank you' giveaway during a CNN interview that “There is no difference, no barrier in medical fields". Meanwhile,  World Israel News  has reported that the pandemic had brought Israeli Jews and Arabs closer together while The Times of Israel told us that  three Arab Gulf states had contacted Israel seeking help in their own war against the common enemy. All of this has taken place against a background of increased Sin

UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has offered warm support to those of his community who have refrained from holding family celebrations due to the continuing Coronavirus lockdown regulations. In a video message "for those who should have had simchas (celebrations) at this time!", Rabbi Mirvis based his remarks on the current week's Torah reading and many viewers may interpret his words as criticism of those ultra Orthodox groups and individuals who have defied official regulations during Coronavirus lockdown. Below is the full transcript. "When can the performance of a great mitzvah bring our people into disrepute? The Torah, in Parshat Emor, gives us the mitzvah: ‘ vlo techalelu et sheim kodshei – you must not desecrate my holy name’. Here Hashem is telling us that none of our deeds should, God forbid, give a bad name to Hashem, to our Torah or to our people. Then the Torah continues with a second mitzvah , ‘ Vnictashti b’toch bnei Yisrael – and

The title of this blog update comes from  To Althea, from Prison by the English 17th century Cavalier poet, Richard Lovelace .  He lived at a time when the country was plagued by both physical pestilence and the Civil War between King Charles I's supporters and the republican Puritans. What words could be more appropriate, I wonder, as  today marks the 51st since the  moadon  - clubhouse -  of the  Karmiel English Speakers' Club  was formally shut late morning on Sunday 15 March. I pen this piece as the Israel Government  announces a further easing of lockdown restrictions and the Karmiel Municipality prepares to start a staged reopening of local educational facilities. Even last week, parts of the downtown BIG shopping centre were reopened along with suburban hairdressers and beauty parlours, while today -  officially sanctioned or not -  customers were seated outdoors at a cafe adjacent to the KESC premises. But the images above of the notice of the cl