2021 - The Start of Some Changes in Israel?

Welcome to 2021.  In some places it is far from clear that we have turned a "new leaf" or left 2020 behind.  Given the recent political events in the U.S., the various Covid-19 mutations, the overburdened hospitals in so many places around the world, many people are wondering how to use the restart  button for this year.   Ctrl-alt-del doesn't seem to be working.

Here in Israel, we have begun the new Gregorian year with a mixture of political and health challenges, but also with a substantial measure of optimism.

On the one hand, the spread of Covid-19 has hit record highs, reaching up to 10,000 new cases a day last week and early this week.  Since the case load has been quite high for a while now, this is meant an increasingly high number of  Covid deaths, which tend to spike about 2 to 3 weeks after people are infected.  Numbers have reached 40-50 deaths a day, which is quite high for a country of only 9 million people.  

As a result of the growing numbers, Israel has instituted a third "shut down."  Once again, most workplaces are closed, other than those deemed essential.  Synagogues and other houses of worship are limited to 5 people inside with up to 10 outside.  Restaurants are offering delivery but are not supposed to be allowing "take-out" service.  Some places, like falafel shops, are allowing you to call from inside the drug store next door and ask to have your food delivered there.  This is apparently within the guidelines... Malls are closed, although the grocery stores, liquor stores, drug stores and  stores in a few other categories are still open.  

Government experts estimate that it may take 2-3 weeks to see the results of this lockdown.  This is the first lockdown in which Israel has now begun to insist that passengers leaving the country or arriving must be tested.  Up until now, surprisingly, this was not the case.

So we have roadblocks set up across the  country where police are stopping drivers and asking people where they are off to.  If your reason for travelling is not on the acceptable list, you can be fined 500 shekels (about $200 Cdn).  Permissible reasons for being out include grocery shopping (within a kilometre of your  home), drug store, getting vaccinated, getting tested for Covid-19, helping an elderly parent or grandparent and many others.  This has provided a great deal of fodder for Israeli comedy shows with parody skits of these interactions between police officers and people trying to come up with excuses quickly enough to avoid a fine.

Sometimes, as with so many other things, real life examples are sufficient comedic material themselves.  For example, a young Israeli was stopped earlier this week and told the officer that he was visiting his grandmother.  The officer asked for the name and plugged the name into a database.  Unfortunately, the grandmother had been dead for more than 2 years.  Nice try but that is definitely a fine!

Some people have decided to take their chances and disregard the rules entirely.  Police broke up a house party last week with more than 100 guests.  They were all fined 500 Shekels each and the owner was  fined 5,000.  But I understand that this is the case all around the world.  In fact, I would say that, for the most part, people in Israel are wearing masks when out, keeping distances in lines in supermarkets and  generally conscious of trying to follow the rules, or most of them.  Or some of them.

On the optimistic side, Israel has been a world leader in obtaining vaccines and rolling them out.  Israel has purchased significant quantities of vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna, though far more from Pfizer.  Apparently, Israel offered to pay Pfizer significantly more per vaccine than the retail value, perhaps as much as three times the price.   Together with this agreement, Israel also signed a deal to provide Pfizer with information about the results of the vaccines, supposedly on a no-names basis. The exact terms of the deal have not been publicized.

The bottom line is that Israel began vaccinating its population en masse in late December.  For the most part, it has been quite orderly.  Vaccination stations were set up all around the country with big tents.  Appointments were available by phone, app, or web site.  At first, front line health  workers were vaccinated, followed by all those over 65 or people over 60 who were high risk.   Soon afterwards, the age was lowered to 60 officially (55 unofficially in many places).  

During this time period, Facebook and Whatsapp groups sprung up to help Israelis find vaccination sites.  There are a number of groups like "Vaccinations Between Friends" on  Whatsapp where Israelis who aren't in the current vaccination group can get information about which sites have "extras" on particular days so that they can show up and get in line.  Tens of thousands of Israelis have managed to get vaccinated this way.

The country's medical system quickly ramped up the vaccination rate to 150,000 to 200,000 a day.  According to recent estimates, more than 2 million people in Israel (including yours truly) have received their first dose.  Yesterday marked the start of the rollout of second doses.  At the same time, the qualifying age was lowered to 50, with talk that it will be reduced to 45 by early next week.

Many people who have received the second dose are reporting various symptoms that last for several hours or even  a day or two.  But for the most part, more serious reactions have been quite limited.  It remains to be  seen whether the rollout of the vaccine will dramatically change the pandemic situation here as expected and if so, how quickly.  The Israeli government has indicated that all citizens who wish to be vaccinated will be able to get the vaccine by the end of March (both doses).  Earlier this week, one Cabinet minister clarified that they meant everyone would have the first dose by the end of March and the second dose by late April, 2021.  

Israeli medical experts have reported that the vaccine provides significant protection starting at 14 days after the first dose, reducing the possibility of infection by more than 50%.  Both Pfizer and Moderna have estimated a success rate of more than 95% after the second dose.  I guess we will see shortly if these estimates are accurate.

The Israeli government has indicated that it is rolling out a plan to issue "Green Vaccination Photo ID cards" that look like drivers licences or health care cards - for all Israelis who have received the vaccination. These cards will be provided approximately 7 days after the second dose.  Israelis with these Green cards will be able to fly outside the country, return to Israel from a trip without isolation, go to concerts, sports events, restaurants etc.,.  I'm waiting to see whether other countries will recognize or  honour these cards - assuming that they are actually provided as planned.

So the optimistic news in Israel is that with such an aggressive rollout of the vaccine, Israel may be able to rid itself of the pandemic by May or June, assuming that the vaccine actually works.   If this all goes as  anticipated, it will be very good news for other countries as well and the world may really be able to turn the corner by mid to late 2021.  As long as Pfizer and Moderna can keep up with the demand for vaccines.  

Israeli Politics

I will save most of the Israeli election news for a later blog.  As you may know, we have an election scheduled for March 23, 2021, just days before Pesach (Passover).  Prime Minister Netanyahu is facing new challenges to his right and to his left although there still may be a consolidation of some of these parties between now and election day.   Candidates and political parties  actually have until early February to finalize their slates so it would be worthwhile to weigh in at that point once we see what the political landscape looks like.

Netanyahu's criminal trial is set to continue in early February 2021.  He is still hoping that he can get a 61 seat Knesset majority and pass a retroactive immunity bill to avoid facing these charges.  

Interestingly, or perhaps there are other adverbs, Netanyahu has embarked on a program of visiting Arab Israeli cities and asking Arab Israelis to vote for his Likud party.  Apparently, he is willing to offer some goodies in exchange for support of his immunity bill.  Now this is somewhat surprising since Netanyahu has spent the past several years attacking Arab Israeli politicians and making every effort to exclude them from any coalition.  In fact, he has argued that any government that relies on Arab Israeli support for its majority would be illegitimate.  How ironic would it be if he were to rely on exactly this support to try and get a retroactive immunity bill passed?  In any event - more politics in future blogs.

Lighter Notes

On the entertainment site, as you might have heard, "Shtisel" has returned for a third season.  Israeli TV station Yes Drama (Channel 5) has been showing the episodes on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. Israel time and  they are also showing up on youtube  the next day, though without translations.  You might need a VPN to watch them.  We have been enjoying the show.  I think it has been 3  episodes so far - not sure how many there are in the series.  In case you haven't seen it, I believe that the first two seasons are still on Netflix. 

Israel also has a variety of comedy shows that focus on political satire, especially impersonations of current politicians.  "Eretz Nehederet" ("A Wonderful Country") is one of these shows.  Many of its episodes are available on Youtube, some with subtitles.  It can be very funny, though it is hit or miss, much like Saturday Night Live.

Another show that has been increasing in popularity is called Zehu Zeh ("This is it").  The show is made up of a comedy troupe of five septuagenarians - who had a very popular comedy show back in the  70s.  They decided to get back  together and make a comeback which has included short satirical skits, impersonations and musical pieces.  I thought I would include a new release. Just last week they decided to put out an original song written by one of their colleagues and produced by a 30 something music  manager that they hired. 

It is called "The Pizza in Your Heart" - written about the search for the perfect slice of pizza and what happens when you finally find it - or how disappointing it can be to realize that maybe the slice that you dreamt of is not what you were really looking for after all.  It's all very tongue in cheek.  Although the idea might sound a bit cheesy, I think it's quite  fun. (Sorry about that).

Meanwhile, we are getting  some nice rainy  weather over the next few days, so I will have to postpone barbecuing.  I can't complain because it is still close to 20c outside.  I was happy to watch the Toronto Maple Leafs'  season opener last night (even though it was on at about 2 a.m. local time).  It was an overtime win for the boys in blue.  And I'm looking forward to NFL playoff weekend, especially the chance to see the Buffalo Bills try to get their second playoff win in 25 years.  As a Toronto hockey fan, that sounds all too familiar.  

Wishing everyone the best of health, Shabbat Shalom and a much improved 2021.

New Wave and New Closures in Israel

The Israeli government acted with determination in March 2020 and took extensive steps to close down a great deal of the country.  Perhaps, too many businesses were shuttered.  But the tight closure worked with respect to the virus.  As a result, Israel had relatively "good" Covid-19 statistics.  On a per capita basis, the rate of infections was low.  The mortality rate was low.  Prime Minister Netanyahu was happy to appear on TV and take credit repeatedly for his foresight - and to compare Israel favourably to countries like Italy, Spain and the U.S.

Later on, the country began  opening aggressively.  Wedding halls were allowed to host events with 250 people.  Yeshivas and synagogues were opened up.  Funerals were opened to 250.  Bars, pubs and restaurants around the country were opened and carried on as if there was no pandemic.  Even high schools across the country were holding proms and graduations as live in-person events instead of on zoom.  

Granted there was significant economic pressure to open things up and allow people to earn a living.  But the government opened up too many things, too quickly.

Now, here we are in early July.  Israel's numbers have gone from less than 20 new cases a day in early June to more than 1,200 new cases a day over the past few days.  Throughout that growth period, the bars, wedding halls, yeshivot and synagogues remained open along with so many other places.  All of a sudden - Netanyahu - who had looked like he was navigating difficult and uncharted waters properly - now looked like he was captaining a boat that had sprung several bad leaks.

So he called together his "Corona cabinet" to make some new and urgent decisions about what to close.  Buses will be limited to 20 passengers with no air conditioning (because the AC might spread the virus).  Restaurants will be allowed to have 20 people inside and 30 people outside but wedding and banquet halls will be shut down completely.  Yeshivas will remain open - and so will the beach....

Frankly, it sounds like the government has no idea what to do - and is facing pressure from several sectors of society which are trying to promote their own interests.  We know that more than 100 students from a Yeshiva in B'nai Brak were recently diagnosed with Covid-19 - yet the Yeshivas will be able to remain open.  

Wedding halls, whose owners and operators have struggled so dramatically over the past two months - will be required to close.  They won't even be able to run functions for 50 people.  But beaches will stay open.  I guess you can have a wedding on the beach....It is hard to find any logic in this.

Here in Ra'anana, there were several high school proms and graduations.  Few if any participants, including teachers, principals and students, wore masks or observed physical distancing.  Not surprisingly, several students at various high schools in Ra'anana have now been diagnosed as positive with Covid-19 and high school students across the city have received messages telling them that they are now required to go into mandatory isolation.

The difficulty is that the Israeli public is becoming more and more cynical about the restrictions imposed - especially given the lack of any cohesive logic.  This is a government that previously opened up huge Ikea stores early on after the widespread close  - even while shopping malls across the country remained closed because the then minister of health was a buddy of the owners of the Ikea Israel franchise rights.  

So now it is unclear whether the Israeli public will be willing to follow these new restrictions and whether they will work.  If they do not, Israel will have no choice but to impose another full closure within the coming weeks.  That will be disappointing, but the country will continue to everything it can to try and avoid what is taking  place in some of the harder hit countries.

 

Post Pesach Update Blog

Pesach has come and gone though the world-wide Covid-19 craziness has not left us yet.  I hope everyone is staying healthy.  This time, it is a blog about nothing in particular - just a few random updates on different things going on.  Some people seem to like reading these types of blogs the most.  As  usual, I welcome any responses and comments.

Pesach 2020

Passover has come and gone.  Here in Israel it is only 7 days so it goes by a bit more quickly than in North America (or anywhere else outside of Israel).  We only have one Seder.  Since we only had five people at our Seder (our immediate  family), we shouldn't have needed as many Pesach dishes.  But somehow it didn't seem to be that much less work than usual.  Changing over all the dishes, preparing some special Passover foods and making sure you have everything you need - is still a lot of effort whether you are having 30 people for dinner or just 5.  We might even have enough frozen brisket left over to last us through Rosh Hashana.

We had our annual family debate over whether to switch to eating kitniyot (legumes, rice etc.,) during Pesach.  Although we could not come up with too many great reasons  for continuing our Ashkenazi practice - other than tradition (and the possibility of hosting non-kitniyot eating guests) - we slogged through another year without eating humus, rice, corn or other kitniyot.  Since most restaurants were closed this year on hol hamoed (the intermediate days of Passover) because of the virus, there weren't many external temptations (like the pizza places that usually open up during Pesach using corn flour crust).  We had our family at home and cooked all of our meals in the house so it wasn't really too problematic.  The holiday even went by  quickly, it seemed.

We  considered following the Moroccan custom of making mufleta after the end of Pesach (essentially a fried dough served with honey or jam).  It would have been a "mini- Mimuna" (A Moroccan post-Passover party) since it would have been only the five of us.  But in the end, since none of us were Moroccan, we didn't really feel a compelling urge to spend the time making the mufleta.  Instead we spent the evening turning the kitchen back to its normal state and then made some pasta.

Covid-19

Israel, like most other countries, is still in a state of lock-down.  A range of stores are open including supermarkets, local convenience stores, hardware stores and take out restaurants.  But malls are still closed, many other businesses are closed and many Israelis are feeling the  challenge of economic hardship.

Israel has done a reasonable job at keeping the spread rate relatively low and, more importantly, the mortality rate down.   According to the latest statistics, Israel had a total of 12,855 active cases as of yesterday, including 97 new confirmed cases.  148 people have died, including 6 yesterday.  For the country, the overall mortality rate, tracked as "deaths per  million residents" is at 17.  By way of comparison, that number is 105 in the U.S., 413 in Spain, 202 in the UK and 32 in Canada.  So Israelis are cautiously optimistic that the country will emerge from this crisis with a relatively low number of casualties.

The challenging discussion now is how to open the economy back up so that people can get back to work.  The Israeli government is proposing a plan to gradually open up sectors of the  economy starting on Sunday and then to track progress after about two weeks.  Depending on the effect and the spread rate, the government will then decide if it can re-open more sectors.  This seems like a reasonable approach although there are obviously many Israelis who are suffering a great deal as a result of the economic disaster that the virus created.

Israel is not alone or unique in this regard.  According to some reports, the U.S. has not hit its peak yet and sits had more than 650,000 cases with more than 34,000 deaths.  Fortunately, the mortality numbers are much lower so far in the U.S. than some people had predicted.  Many people are feeling the pain of economic hardship that an economic lock-down brings.  The challenge for the U.S., like Israel and everywhere else, will be to find a way to reopen the economy without causing a massive spike in the infection and death rate.

Zoom and Religious Services

One of the big "winners" in the current  situation has been Zoom.  People are setting up Zoom meetings for everything - family meetings, club get-togethers, game playing, exercise classes and religious gatherings.  I have been scheduling quite a number of business meetings over Zoom and I am certainly thankful that this technology enables me to continue to run my business from a great distance.

For Passover, we considered the option of joining a big Zoom Seder with friends but  decided instead to run a more intimate family Seder.  We jumped in to say  hi to our extended family Seder in North America (at  about 3:30 a.m. our time) but that was on the second night - which wasn't really still a holiday for us.

Some synagogues have been wrestling with the challenges of Shabbat and holy days.  Since Covid-19 has meant the suspension of physical attendance at services, many  people have pushed for a replacement.  Some synagogues, including some Orthodox synagogues have decided that a daily minyan (a prayer service with at least 10 people) (or even a shiva) can be held through Zoom. I have attended some online services during the week.

Holding services by Zoom on Shabbat and chaggim is more of a challenge, halachically.  Although there are Conservative synagogues around the world that have been broadcasting their services for many years now, these have involved a passive camera, set up on a timer, before shabbat to enable people who are home-bound to watch a broadcast of a service.  Presumably, the people who are watching could set up their computer on a timer as well if they choose to do so.

A Zoom service is a bit different.  Since there is no actual service taking place with a minyan that could be broadcast, the service itself is by definition much more of an active on-line event.  The organization of Conservative Rabbis in Israel determined that this would not be appropriate halachically and recommended prohibiting these services on Shabbat and other religious holy days.

This has led to quite an active debate at our kehillah in Israel.  Some members feel that the halacha is outdated and that the emergency nature of the current situation demands a change to accommodate the spiritual needs of members.  Others are concerned at chipping away at the notion that the kehillah is still a halacha-based shul and that Zoom services on holy days are outside of that framework.  Certainly that is the decision of the Masorti leadership in Israel.

I am a bit torn here.  Although we (as a family) do tend to drive to our synagogue (knowing that we are not really supposed to), we try to keep a number of aspects of Shabbat.  We  don't use the TV or computers.  It would be a pretty big change for us to start participating in an active Zoom service on a Shabbat morning and I don't think that is right for us personally at this time.  I recognize that many  people have other needs and other opinions and this is certainly one of those issues that  has the potential to cause a major rift in some synagogues.

I suppose that if synagogues remain closed for an extended period of time, there may be more and more pressure to come up with creative solutions and a larger number of rabbis may start revisiting some aspects of halacha.  But hopefully, things will turn around sooner than anticipated and we will not have to deal what type of pressure.

I should note that we have been invited to our first Zoom wedding on Sunday (b'sha'a tova to our dear friends).  We  have also, unfortunately, had to deal with a few Zoom shivas over the past few weeks.  Neither of these scenarios would have been imaginable previously.  Needless to say, the world will continue to change in many ways as the Covid-19 crisis unfolds.

Conclusion

That's about it for now.  Hopefully many people are taking advantage of the time at home to do some different things.  We have been cooking some new and interesting dishes, playing some of our board games and trying to do some on-line fitness activities.  We have also been catching up on Fauda and enjoying the concerts that are being broadcast on Israeli TV every evening.  I am definitely looking forward to the One World concert being organized by Lady Gaga on Saturday night.

Most importantly I am hoping that as spring arrives, we will see things improve across the world.  Let's hope for a cure, a vaccine and the best of health for everyone.

I didn't deal with Israel's political situation in this blog - still a mess - and no solution in sight.  But more to come on that next week.

Shabbat Shalom from Ra'anana.