ISRAEL NEWS

ISRAEL NEWS U.S. Burials in Israel Delayed By COVID-19

By Chana Shapiro

In the Book of Genesis, Joseph had the leaders of Israel swear that his bones ultimately would be buried in the Holy Land, although he would die and be buried in Egypt. In the Book of Exodus, 210 years later, Moses and the generation that left Egypt located Joseph’s tomb and his remains were carried through the desert, ultimately fulfilling the obligation.

Under normal circumstances, the process of Jews anywhere in the world being buried in Israel was accomplished smoothly. This was achieved through efficient coordination between local and New York funeral homes, where taharah, preparation of the deceased, takes place before transportation to Israel.

But this arrangement was halted when travel and health restrictions necessitated by COVID-19 made it impossible for families in the United States to carry out the wishes of their loved ones.

Therefore, to fulfill the obligation of immediate burial, Jewish law necessitated the implementation of a rare procedure. The deceased were buried in the city where they died, al t’nai, a legal concept stating on condition that final permanent interment be in Israel.

Jewish reburial is a serious matter, essentially because it is held to be a sacred duty to respect and not disturb the condition of the deceased. Yet, according to the Shulchan Aruch, the 16th century code of Jewish law, there are specific conditions under which it is permitted to disinter a body, including flooding of the grave, destruction of the grave, or other events that could compromise the dignity of the person buried there.

In recent years, Atlantans, with and without families in Israel, have purchased plots in Beit Shemesh at Eretz HaChaim Cemetery. Many of them are members of Congregation Beth Jacob, whose Rabbi Ilan Feldman shared prevailing thoughts on the matter of re-burial.

“Under present circumstances, in which a second burial would have to take place long after the first one, and considering the Jewish reluctance to disturb a grave, re-interment is not an optimal recommendation,” Feldman said. Unless there is an established traditional family plot in Israel,

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I remember my nursing home and was first trip to Israel, when buried there. The fammy parents asked me ily requested anonymto bring home one parity because of pending ticular item. They didn’t issues. want gifts of jewelry A second, Dr. Zvi or art or ritual objects. Eddie Dressler of Dressler’s Aviner, who lives in AtMy parents wanted soil Jewish Funeral Care in Atlanta lanta part-time, lost his from the Land of Israel.

“I pray we won’t has dealt with only one death that involved burial in Israel. brother, Avraham, who contracted the virus need it for a long time,” my mother exin New Jersey and is buried there. “We all plained, “but when we die, put some of the understand the restrictions, and we agree soil in our casket. It’s the closest we can get with them,” Dr. Aviner stated. “When the to being buried there.” I fulfilled their retime comes, and no one knows when that quest in the mystical city of Safed, where I may be, our family will fulfill my brother’s obtained two small conwill and bring him to tainers of earth. a family plot in Israel

Jews often observe where his first wife is this custom by includburied.” ing a small bag of Israeli To carry out the soil as part of the burial desire of the deceased preparation. today, some families are

It is a traditional willing to disregard Isbelief that the ultimate raeli law. Several mainredemption of manRabbi Ilan Feldman of Congregation stream publications, inkind, an age of eternal Beth Jacob said that “considering cluding The Wall Street peace, will take place in Israel. For that reason, Jews of every generathe Jewish reluctance to disturb a grave, re-interment is not an optimal recommendation.” Journal and The Times of Israel, report that, to avoid the El Al restriction yearned to be laid to rest in Eretz Yistions and two-week quarantine order, prirael, the Land of Israel. If their dream could vate planes have been chartered to bring not be fulfilled, a bit of Israeli soil, if it could deceased persons for immediate burial in be acquired, would have to suffice as a subIsrael, resulting in legal conflicts and at stitute. least one police investigation.

During the pandemic, Eddie Dressler Most bereaved families’ loved ones of Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care in Atlanta, are now buried conditionally, al t’nai, until has dealt with only one death that involved they can finally be laid to rest in the Holy burial in Israel. The death was not caused Land. ì

by COVID-19, and arrangements were completed for transport on the last plane from New York before all flights were canceled.

To avoid possible conflicts or problems, funeral director Dressler received clear instructions from the Israeli Consulate. Any transportation on El Al of a deceased person, whenever that might again take place, must be accompanied by an official letter from a doctor stating that there In the Book of Genesis, Joseph had the was no evidence of a contagious disease on leaders of Israel swear that his bones the corpse. would be buried in the Holy Land. He died and was buried in Egypt, but his bones were later moved to Israel.

“I was told that, because anyone who died from COVID-19 would not be flown to Israel, we must make all arrangements it may be advisable to permanently bury a for immediate local burial here,” Dressler loved one here. A second burial in Israel noted. could be carried out, but it would depend Currently, Atlanta has no known COon an individual circumstance. In all such VID-19-related deaths of persons with cemcases, mourners will go through all the etery plots in Israel. However, I spoke to cemetery rituals a sectwo local residents, who ond time, including sayeach lost relatives from ing Kaddish, and they COVID-19. The first had will sit shiva again for a parent who died in a one day,” he concluded. metropolitan New York

Israel Faces Spike in New Cases of COVID-19

By Jan Jaben-Eilon

At the end of May, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he would not impose another lockdown on the country despite a marked increase in COVID-19 cases since the country emerged from nationwide confinement.

In school after school around the country, teachers and students are being diagnosed with the virus, accounting for most of the nation’s new cases. In one Jerusalem high school, more than 170 students and staff were infected in late May, closing the school immediately. Israeli Education Minister Yoav Galant announced that a school would only be shut down if a person there was found to be infected, rather than close all schools in the country.

Although the prime minister said a possible new lockdown of the country was under consideration, it appeared doubtful that he would take that action after the economy started reopening. The country reported the rate of positive results of daily COVID-19 tests were found to be five times higher than in the previous several days.

Netanyahu blamed the “loosening” of Israelis’ observance of social-distancing rules.

“As long as no vaccine is found for the virus, it will return and spread if we aren’t meticulous about the rules,” he said. “If we don’t do this, there will be no choice but to return to limitations on the economy and public sphere.”

Netanyahu also warned the public not to be complacent as the temperatures rise. “Unfortunately, this virus is not impressed by the weather. It is not affected at all by the climate.” He pointed to the spreading virus in hot countries around the world, including in nearby Egypt and Turkey as well as in cooler Scandinavian countries.

“In Sweden, where the number of citizens is identical to ours and which deliberately declined to impose health restrictions, … there are currently 4,300 dead from coronavirus,” the prime minister pointed out. “In Belgium, where the population is also identical to ours and which took cautious measures but very belatedly, there are currently almost 10,000 dead.”

Israel’s death toll stood at 284 the last day of May, with a total of about 17,000 cases, according to Israeli press. By June 7, the total number of cases had risen to 17,863, and deaths to 298.

Netanyahu added that Israel had “not reached the horrific numbers of other countries because we took effective, rapid and timely steps.”

Worldwide, COVID-19 has taken more than 400,000 lives, with more than 100,000 in the United States alone, according to Johns Hopkins University. ì

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the coronavirus “is not affected at all by the climate.”

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Photo courtesy of The Technion - Israel Institute of Technology // Two masks that have been modified by Yair EinEli to make them self-cleaning

Masks Could Soon Be SelfCleaning

An Israeli scientist has invented technology that aims to make face masks clean themselves.

Israeli scientist Yair Ein-Eli has invented technology to make face masks clean themselves using power from a phone charger. He has applied for a patent.

“Our idea could change masks from disposable items into gadgets that people

ISRAEL PRIDE NEWS FROM OUR JEWISH HOME

clean, meaning they wouldn’t need replacing so regularly and hospitals wouldn’t need such large supplies,” said Ein-Eli, dean of the faculty of materials science and engineering at the Technion – Israel Institute for Technology. He estimated that his cleaning mechanism can be added at around 90 cents per mask.

The only difference in the appearance of the self-cleaning masks will be an input for a USB cable to power the heating element inside the mask. This gets it hot enough to kill germs and is the only modification needed to regular masks to make them self-cleaning, Ein-Eli said.

“We have inserted a heating element of carbon fibers, and connected it to a USB input like one used to charge a cellphone,” EinEli told The Times of Israel. “The element can heat the mask to 65 to 70 degrees Celsius (149°-158° Fahrenheit), and it heats anything absorbed in the layers of the mask.”

He said that a 15- to 30-minute heating cycle would be enough to clean a mask. “If you are in your car and take your mask off, you can simply connect it to your cigarette lighter charger, and then put it back on as if it’s a new mask,” Ein-Eli said.

Photo by Yoni Reif // Eran Avraham, right, and Izaak Cohen, researchers at Bar-Ilan University, standing at the entrance of the sanitation and disinfection tunnel developed by RD Pack at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv June 2.

Disinfectant Tunnel Could Mean Safer Public Events

RD Pack, a Karmiel-based industrial automation firm, has created a sanitation and disinfection tunnel that sprays visitors at mass events using disinfecting technology developed by Bar-Ilan University researchers, according to The Times of Israel.

The tunnel, composed of an aluminum and polycarbonate frame, is being piloted at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv as soccer teams are set to resume playing there. There will not be fans in the stands.

Today in Israeli History

June 15, 1970: A plot to steal a commercial aircraft to escape the Soviet Union is foiled when 12 dissidents, all but two of whom are Jewish refuseniks, are arrested at Leningrad’s Smolnoye Airport.

“When people walk through the tunnel, their whole body gets sprayed with the disinfectant, which works fast and efficiently, and provides the complete sterilization of a person,” said Eran Druker, business development manager at RD Pack.

In April, the Bar-Ilan researchers said they had developed a way to make strong, environmentally friendly disinfectants to kill bacteria and viruses using electrified tap water. The water produces hypochlorous acid.

The method was developed and patented by Dr. Eran Avraham, Dr. Izaak Cohen and professor Doron Aurbach, head of the electrochemistry group of the Department of Chemistry and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials at Bar-Ilan University.

The advantage of the disinfectant over others, Avraham said, is that hypochlorous acid, unlike other commercial disinfectants like bleach, is not harmful to human skin or food.

The tunnel is the first implementation of the technology, Avraham said at a demonstration June 2 at the stadium. “It will help reduce the chances for infection,” he said.

June 16, 1933: Haim Arlosoroff, who has just returned from a mission to Germany to arrange Jewish emigration in exchange for the import of German goods in Palestine, is fatally shot on a Tel Aviv beach.

Haemtza Blog photo // Haredim demonstrate support for the 35 fathers jailed in a dispute over competing schools in Emanuel.

June 17, 2010: Thirty-five Haredi fathers of girls attending a Hasidic school accused of discrimination in Emanuel are jailed after refusing a Supreme Court order to send their daughters to a different school in the town.

June 18, 1992: Painter Mordecai Ardon, known for using religious symbolism and developing artwork from realistic to abstract, dies at age 95. He directed the Bezalel School of Arts and Crafts from 1940 to 1952.

June 19, 1983: Simha Erlich, the deputy prime minister in Israel’s first two Likud-led governments, dies. As finance minister, he tried to free the economy from government controls, but inflation soared.

June 20, 1950: Israel’s first Festival of Jewish Music begins at the historic YMCA building in Jerusalem and runs until July 1. Most performances present classical music, but two events showcase Israeli folk music.

June 21, 1882: Filmmaker and photographer Ya’acov Ben-Dov is born in Ukraine. He obtains a movie camera in 1917 in Jerusalem and begins a documentary career with footage of the British army’s arrival that December.

June 22, 1989: Omri Casspi, the first Israeli to play in the National Basketball Association, is born in Holon. The Sacramento Kings select him in the first round of the 2009 NBA Draft, picking him 23rd overall.

June 23, 1944: Photojournalist Alex Levac, a 2005 Israel Prize winner, is born in Tel Aviv. His photo of a Bus 300 hijacker in custody in 1984 disproves the official story of how the four terrorists are killed.

June 24, 1987: Israeli Arabs hold an Equality Day strike, demanding an end to discrimination and equal funding for Jewish and Arab local authorities on a per capita basis.

Photo by Moshe Milner, Israeli Government Press Office // The Bridge of Strings is prominent in an aerial view of the entrance to Jerusalem in 2011.

June 25, 2009: Jerusalem inaugurates the 1,180-foot-long Chords Bridge, also known as the Bridge of Strings, to serve pedestrians and the new light-rail system at the entrance to the city.

June 26, 2004: Musician Naomi Shemer dies at age 73 after a long battle with cancer. She wrote her best-known song, the anthem “Jerusalem of Gold,” for a festival in 1967 before the Six-Day War reunified the city.

June 27, 1945: Ami Ayalon, who leads Israel’s navy from 1992 to 1996 and the Shin Bet

Photo by Mark Neyman, Israeli Government Press Office // Retired Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon speaks at the President’s Residence in 2013 during his time as an advocate for people with intellectual disabilities and as a proponent of the peace process.

security service from 1996 to 2000, is born in Tiberias. He represents the Labor Party in the Knesset from 2006 to 2009.

June 28, 1967: Israel publishes the Jerusalem Declaration, announcing the reunification of the city under Israeli sovereignty after the Six-Day War. Prime Minister Levi Eshkol promises holy-site access to all.

June 29, 1946: The British military launches Operation Agatha, a two-week series of weapons raids and arrests of Jewish resistance leaders and fighters, on a day that comes to be known as Black Sabbath.

Items are provided by the Center for Israel Education ( www.israeled.org), where you can find more details.