Israel Active

Natan Sharansky has donated his $1 million Genesis Prize to aid those affected by coronavirus. The Israeli former Soviet prisoner urged people to “think about our great journey together and about new challenges which we face together, and that we will win together.”

Yatar Israel is a highly trained counter terrorism unit of the Israel Security Forces that shields vulnerable citizens. Its volunteers are either ex-elite IDF officers or have extensive defense background, who take orders from and support Israeli Border Police and National Israeli Police.

The Israeli government has sent matzahs and other essential Passover items to the tiny Jewish community in Egypt. Israel’s Embassy in Cairo and Jewish organizations managed to get boxes of kosher for Passover food to the 20 Jews in Cairo and Alexandria - a tiny remnant of the 80,000 in the 1940’s.

The American Zionist organization Herut published “The Unapologetic Zionist’s Haggadah” for Passover. It included hard-to-find essays by the founding fathers of Zionism. The 20-page PDF booklet provided a welcome respite from coronavirus worries.

In an Israeli hospital, an Arab nurse reads the Four Questions, a Jewish Prayer, to elderly patients who are unable to be with their children and grandchildren on Passover due to the coronavirus.

The Passover Letter of Elephantine is the oldest known ex-biblical account of Passover laws. Sent by Hananiah, a high official in Jerusalem, to his “brother” Yadaniyah and the Judean soldiers on Egypt’s Elephantine island, the papyri are 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This year, Israeli prisons didn’t conduct the usual communal Seder for inmates.  Instead each cell held its own individual Seder.  Over 2,000 Sedarim took place, with guidance beforehand.

Magen David Adom paramedics Yoel Glatt and his son Menachem were early coronavirus patients (29th and 48th). While in hospital they helped other patients. They have both now been released and have returned to the front line of Israel’s emergency medical service.

Israeli nonprofit Adopt-A-Safta has partnered with Nefesh b’Nefesh to deliver Passover Seder Boxes to needy, Holocaust survivors and new immigrants. It comes with a fully loaded seder plate, 3-course seder dinner from Kosher caterer Asparagus Catering, matzot and haggadot, delivered directly to homes.

Here are some more positive aspects of the current situation. They include Better air quality, starry skies, phone calls from friends and relatives, quiet roads, helpful volunteers, opportunities to be creative, time to relax, wildlife in the cities (see above),