Israel Active

Israeli farmers have joined forces with charities and municipalities to ensure the poor receive nutritious food on a regular basis. Leket (who feed 175,000 underprivileged citizens) said farmers are donating high-quality produce - 250 tons a week more fruits and vegetables than we normally receive.

Israeli 3D printer firm, MAFIL Ltd. is 3D-printing hundreds of protective face masks and donating them to Israeli hospitals. Each mask takes one hour to print. They are also working in a government project to print parts for ventilators.

Israel’s Adopt-A-Doctor initiative began mid-March and within 10 days over 1,300 volunteers adopted 550 medical professionals. Volunteers help make life a little easier by cooking or sending food to the medic during shifts or for arrival home, watching kids, shopping, walking pets, or donating.

Big-hearted Israeli companies include Israeli-founded Mobileye, which is donating NIS 10 million to cash-strapped non-profits. Mobileye’s parent, Intel, is donating $320,000 to Haifa’s Rambam Hospital to buy a hi-tech coronavirus testing system. And MyHeritage is donating 66,000 swabs.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said that Israeli PM Netanyahu shook him out of his complacency, urging him to "do something" to contain the coronavirus epidemic. It prompted him to make Austria one of the first European countries to take serious action.

Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP) hosted “Corona Wake Up Call”- a virtual conference. Its attendees included global government, economic and tech leaders, as well as Israeli and Italian hospital heads and experts. They shared best practices on combating the COVID-19 crisis.

The published a positive story around a photo of two Israeli Jewish and Arab paramedics praying together – one facing Jerusalem and the other facing Mecca.  It goes on to say that this is common phenomena in Israel. WIN had a similar story if you don’t want to subscribe to the NYT.

Israel’s Esther Hershcovich has set up SAGE - a global English-language platform where skilled senior citizens give on-line classes in arts, business, education, health and more.to those in home-isolation. Teachers include an ex-Midwife, a psychologist, a Rabbi and a chiropractor. How about you?

Israeli authorities have delivered hundreds of coronavirus testing kits to the Palestinian Authority and to the Gaza strip, plus tons of disinfectant material. In addition, professional teams of Israelis and Palestinian Arabs have been working together to prevent the spread of the virus.

Israel’s Teva manufactures hydroxychloroquine sulfate, the less toxic version of chloroquine, which alleviates some of the coronavirus’ symptoms. Teva is donating six million tablets of the treatment to help U.S. hospitals meet an expected surge in demand.