An Afterthought From The Agudath Israel After A Shaming By This Blog - Yeah, Stay Alive At least Until The Next Agudah Convention

via GIPHY

 

Agudath Israel Statement

 

Unfortunately, the uptick in COVID-19 cases in our communities, noted in Agudath Israel of America’s recent statement regarding simchos, continues its upward trajectory. While there have been hospitalizations, boruch Hashem most of the recent cases have not been as serious as those in March and April. Theories to explain this phenomenon abound, and much remains unclear. Some medical experts see the slow rise in cases now in our community as echoing what we experienced in early March, chas v’sholom, and are concerned that we may be at the cusp of an exponential rise. Others see the past month, in isolation, as less alarming.  

 

The truth is, we do not know where this is headed.  

 

And that is exactly why we must remain vigilant.  

 

So, this Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, please remember to daven fervently for tichleh shona v’kililosaho. We must all resolve to improve our limud and support of Torah, kavod hatefila, and kedusha, as the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah has instructed. And, with the guidance of your rabbonim, please also take the precautions you’ve heard about so many times in the past 6 months – for yourself, and for the people next to you who may have health conditions that put them at greater risk. 

 

Medical experts and health officials are recommending that, as much as possible, people mask and social distance, especially given the uptick. They further advise that for indoor gatherings, ventilation should be enhanced by opening windows and/or increasing the fresh air input settings of HVAC systems. This is especially so in the context of the Yomim Noraim, when we spend additional time together in shul.  

Of course, the elderly and those at high risk should be especially careful. Individuals who have had exposure to a COVID case or attended a high-risk event should seek medical advice before attending shul. And if you feel at all ill with COVID symptoms, please stay home; do not risk endangering your fellow man.  

 

May our renewed focus on bein adam lamakom and bein adam lachaveiro merit a k'siva va'chasima tova for all of us.  

In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people.

Rabbi Yaakov Bender - Rosh HaYeshiva Yeshiva Darchei Torah

Dear Parents,

As many of you have already heard, there is a concern that the Yeshiva may have to close because of a proposal from the City of New York.

Let me assure you that we have been in daily and open communication with the Department of Health. We have made them aware of any cases within the Yeshiva – both confirmed and possible – and the precautions we are taking. These include sending home entire classes if there was a single case in the class and quarantining Beis Medrash bachurim in their on-campus residences. This is in addition to the months of preparation that we invested in opening school safely.

From mask procurement, to daily disinfection of our facilities, to daily temperature checks of students and staff, to social distancing and ‘cohort’ measures throughout the school, we have taken every possible precaution to keep our talmidim safe.

Some facts:

– Yeshiva Darchei Torah is in compliance with all published City, State and Federal government rules and regulations.

– Yeshiva Darchei Torah is in daily consultation with leading infectious disease specialists, and has accepted and implemented all of their recommendations and suggestions.

– Yeshiva Darchei Torah remains in contact with the Department of Health and we are confident that together we will come to a reasonable and amicable resolution that will keep the interests of the children at the forefront.

There is no replacement for in-person learning, which we have been conducting in a safe and efficient manner — in careful adherence to the instructions of world-class infectious disease specialists — since late August. However, our staff is hard at work preparing a plan to transition to virtual learning.
We are working feverishly to resolve any issues and will keep you updated.

This is a nisayon. Life is full of nisyonos, and our job in life is to overcome them–and grow in the process. Im Yirtzeh Hashem we will pass this nisayon with flying colors.

I close with the tefillah from Selichos that should be our focus during this nisayon, as we ask Hashem: “Asei limaan tinokos shel bais rabban shelo chat’u.”

Rabbi Yaakov Bender

******

‘This is what we expected’: COVID closures and quarantines already widespread at New York-area Jewish day schools

Students at The Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey attend a socially distanced assembly on the first day of school.

(JTA) – One New York City private Jewish high school shut down Monday after two students in 11th grade and two students in 12th grade tested positive. Several students in the younger grades exhibited symptoms.

In a boys’ yeshiva high school in New Jersey’s Bergen County, a suspected COVID case in an 11th grader sent the entire grade home for quarantine.

In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people.

“We spent a lot of time, energy and resources getting school ready for a full reopening,” said Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin, head of school at North Shore Hebrew Academy, the school that asked families to quarantine after the wedding. “Our concern had always been what would happen when the kids were not in school.

“If I sound exhausted, I am,” Kobrin added.

Just weeks into the beginning of the new school year in which schools have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Plexiglas shields, personal protective equipment, teacher training and reconfiguring classrooms, the Jewish day schools that hoped their smaller sizes and tight-knit school communities would keep them open through the pandemic are already beginning to close or quarantine students.

A number of schools have been forced to quarantine classrooms or grades after positive cases or exposures of students to positive cases. In Chicago, the Rochelle Zell Jewish High School switched to remote learning just three days after reopening when two faculty members tested positive. In the case of Ramaz Upper School, a high school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, the entire school was shut down for two days and transitioned to distance learning after four students tested positive and several others showed symptoms of COVID-19.

For many schools, there’s little that can be done to stem the new cases. That’s because the virus is likely being transmitted outside of school, where the strict protocol meant to keep students and teachers safe are not enforced. The cases are likely developing from the interactions outside of school buildings – weddings, parties, Shabbat meals and playdates – that school administrators are struggling to control.

In Bergen County, seven Orthodox day schools sent a joint letter Aug. 26 outlining expectations for the coming weeks: Families that fly anywhere or travel to a hot-spot state for the High Holidays would need to quarantine for 14 days before returning to school, the letter said, and all attendees at bar and bat mitzvahs would have to wear masks.

“The current threshold for school closing is a relatively low number of positive cases,” they wrote. “Only by our joint efforts can we individually and collectively do our part to enable our community schools to remain open, an effort that helps all of us, especially our children.”

By early September, at least five of those seven schools had notified parents about cases or exposures in the school. They included students who tested positive or were exposed to someone who tested positive and faculty who were exposed to someone who tested positive.

One school emailed parents begging for cooperation on social distancing guidelines outside of school after several families in the area gathered for a Shabbat meal and a parent at the meal tested positive.
To some, the cases in schools and the quarantines and classroom closures that follow are inevitable.

“Whenever they would have opened, it would have happened,” said Dr. Hylton Lightman, a pediatrician in Far Rockaway who tested hundreds of students at local Orthodox day schools before school started. Several Long Island schools required testing and kept those who tested positive out of school to quarantine. “Schools can control a certain amount … but the parents also need to show they’re mature enough to follow these guidelines.”

Lightman said he’s noticed a surge of anxiety over the recent upticks in cases in his community of Far Rockaway and other Orthodox communities in the New York area. In the last few weeks, his office has received as many as 40 to 50 calls a day from parents anxious about their children possibly exhibiting COVID symptoms.

“The anxiety level from the parents and the children has escalated astronomically,” he said.
 
At the Moriah School in Englewood, New Jersey, no classrooms have had to quarantine due to exposure, though one faculty member has. But “we’re just waiting for it,” Erik Kessler, the school’s executive director, said of the possibility that a positive case would cause a cohort of students to quarantine.

“I think this is what we expected,” Kessler said of the positive cases and exposures causing quarantines of classes in several local schools. “We were hoping that people would stay within their pods but we’re realistic, as well.”

The roller coaster at New York-area Jewish schools comes as Israel prepares to shutter its schools for several weeks, amid rising cases there. There, many classes and grades have been sent to quarantine since schools reopened Sept. 1, and during the upcoming closure, it is not clear whether children in all grades will receive instruction online. 

For the New York and New Jersey schools, learning is continuing from a distance even as schools close or quarantine individual students or classrooms. In addition to outfitting schools with Plexiglas barriers and new distanced desk arrangements, many schools have spent the summer installing cameras in classrooms for students to participate from home in case of quarantine. Some schools have spent time and money training teachers to improve the Zoom teaching experience, with the understanding that some closures or quarantines would be inevitable.

Daniel Rubin, a father in Queens whose three children returned to in-person schooling last week, said he still believes reopening schools is the right decision.

“I maintain that right now schools are practically the only place outside of homes that are actually enforcing some degree of distancing/masking, and so it’s not the schools I’m worried about,” Rubin said. “If a school needs to shut down, it’ll shut down.”

But with the High Holidays approaching, bringing extended family gatherings over Rosh Hashana and social meals shared by families and friends over Sukkot, and upticks in several heavily Jewish neighborhoods in New York City, several schools in New York and New Jersey are desperately trying to avoid letting the holidays further derail in-person schooling.

The Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn asked families not to travel for the holidays, to only attend High Holiday services with 50 people or fewer if outdoors or at 33% capacity if indoors, to ensure indoor services take place in spaces with HVAC systems that have been vetted by experts, and to maintain a distance of 12 feet from other participants while singing.

“If you attend a communal prayer service that does not follow the above guidelines, you are asked to self-quarantine for 14 days,” the school wrote.

Solomon Schechter of Bergen County sent out a notice to their families, as well. “I implore everyone to make responsible choices during the Jewish holidays and for the duration of the pandemic,” wrote Steve Freedman, head of the school. 

In Long Island, approximately 15 to 20 families were asked by one school to quarantine after they were found to have attended a wedding of about 200 people.

https://www.jta.org/2020/09/14/health/this-is-what-we-expected-covid-closures-and-quarantines-already-widespread-at-new-york-area-jewish-day-schools?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-22816-462090

Not One Word About Your Obligation To Stay Healthy - By Simple Rules Until A Safe Vaccine Is Available! - Minimize Your Time In Shul, Outdoors If Possible, Eliminate Any Piyutim In Shuls (Say It At Home) - Wear Masks - Socially Distance - Use Hand Sanitizer - The Baalei Tefilla, Baal Tokea, Baal Koreh Should Have Tested Negative! We Are Going Into A Shas Health Sakana Over The Next 4 Weeks Never Experienced In A 100 Years!

Rabbi Menachem Genack Said: “Hopefully the pandemic will have slowed down by January, and tourism will resume. A lot of people are going to want to go to the Emirates (For Pesach),” he added, and said the organization is going to have its hands full “in terms of trying to coordinate all of that.”

Crazy, Stupid Jews: Tired of Israel, Mexico, Switzerland, The Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Florida, Jamaica, Morocco, Panama, Europe, Mauritius, Uruguay, Thailand, South Africa, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Arizona, California, Vancouver, Niagara Falls, Catskills ----- Book now Through The OU To The UAE, Maybe get Genack to Get Saudi Arabia Kosher, Yeah...Thousand of Jews In A Few Hotels Lumped Like Pigs Stuffing Their Faces, While Hezbollah and Hamas Have Other Plans For You!
Can The Agudath Israel Convention Be Far Behind?

UAE Crown Prince Instructs Abu Dhabi Hotels to Offer Kosher Food, Plans for Passover 2021

Photo Credit: courtesy, Orthodox Union (OU)

Rabbi Yissachar Krakowski, performing kosher supervision at a hotel in Abu Dhabi, UAE

In response to a request from the leadership of the United Arab Emirates, Orthodox Union (OU) Kosher, the world’s largest kosher certification agency, will now be the leading kosher certification agency within the UAE, and will do so in partnership with the local Jewish community.

The OU Kosher will oversee all kosher food in hotels throughout Abu Dhabi as well as events such as Expo 2020 which has been postponed to October 2021-March 2022.

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According to OU Kashrut CEO Rabbi Menachem Genack, UAE Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was behind a directive issued by the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi, telling hotels to be prepared to offer kosher cuisine options to their guests, upon request.

Directive to hotels to “go kosher” in Abu Dhabi

The instructions, issued Tuesday (Sept. 8) were addressed to the General Managers of the capital city’s hotels, saying, “Based on the commitment of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi to ensure certain foods are available for all visitors and tourists in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, please note that all hotel establishments are advised to include Kosher food options on room service menus and at all food & beverage outlets in their establishments.”

The hotels were instructed to “seek Kosher certification for handling kosher meals; to designate an area in all kitchens for Kosher food preparation; and to label Kosher menu items with a clear and visible label/reference with a recognizable symbol that denotes “Kosher” as per acquired certification.”

The directive ends with a pleasant, “Thank you for your cooperation and adherence to implement Kosher food standards in Abu Dhabi.”

A selection of tailored menus is to be made available to those requesting kosher cuisine, all of which will be packaged and sealed with the OU stamp that certifies the food is kosher and has not been tampered with.

This follows the successful kashrut supervision by the OU over the kosher food for the historic visit of the US and Israeli delegations to Abu Dhabi last week. All of those meals were prepared by Elli’s Kosher Kitchen, a catering service founded and owned by Ellie Krielle, who started the first-ever kosher catering company in the UAE upon moving to Dubai from South Africa with her family six years ago.

Ellie started the company after realizing there was a lack of kosher catering options in Dubai, especially for Jewish travelers passing through who needed kosher food. Today Elli’s Kosher Kitchen caters for Emirates Airlines, local hotels, business and diplomatic events, as well as for tourists on vacation. Calling her cuisine “Kosherati” – kosher cooking with an Emirati twist — the original kosher certification came from the South African Beit Din; but Ellie recently asked the American Orthodox Union – a worldwide kashrut supervision organization – to step in.

“The OU came in at their request,” explains Rabbi Menachem Genack, CEO and Director of Kashrut at the Orthodox Union (OU), who spoke with JewishPress.com on Wednesday in an online interview.

This past year, there have been many requests for kosher food in the Emirates, and the demand for Elli’s Kosher Kitchen catering is growing by leaps and bounds.

“Through her, Rabbi Issachar Krakowski — (a mashgiach kashruth, or kosher food supervisor) came from Israel and supervised the food arrangements relative to the delegation that came from Israel,” Rabbi Genack said.

He added that the supervision for the kashruth of the delegation was only the beginning.

“I was told that the Crown Prince (Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan) said that he wants for this Pesach to see the hotels full,” Rabbi Genack told JewishPress.com.

“They’ve built a shul, a church, and a mosque [at the ‘Abrahamic Family House’ interfaith complex in Abu Dhabi], and they have the hotels in the area there.

“At his directive, so to speak, he wants to see all those full this coming Pesach,” the rabbi said. (like Jews Have Nothing Else To  Be Concerned About Now)

“Hopefully the pandemic will have slowed down by January, and tourism will resume. A lot of people are going to want to go to the Emirates,” he added, and said the organization is going to have its hands full “in terms of trying to coordinate all of that.”

Nevertheless, the momentous nature of the task and the forces that brought it about, has given the rabbi much to think about.

“We’re happy to be involved in what’s really an historic relationship and hopefully portends well for other Arab countries,” he said. “In terms of the Emirates, it’s so important because it serves as a model for what could be.

“We know that the peace treaty with Egypt and Jordan, as significant as it is, is really government to government. It hasn’t really seeped down in terms of the general population. With the Emirates you have the feeling it’s not like that, it’s much broader, much deeper.”

https://www.jewishpress.com/news/jewish-news/kosher-food-news/uae-crown-prince-instructs-all-hotels-to-offer-kosher-food-option-planning-for-passover-2021/2020/09/10/

The Florida Department of Health reported that 10,513 children under age 18 have tested positive since schools started reopening for in-person teaching, an increase of 34%.

Virus cases rise among school-age children in Florida; state orders some counties to keep data hidden 

  Updated Sep. 9, 2020 at 5:37 pm

The Washington Post

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – One month into the forced reopening of Florida’s schools, dozens of classrooms – along with some entire schools – have been temporarily shuttered because of coronavirus outbreaks, and infections among school-age children have jumped 34%. But parents in many parts of the state don’t know if outbreaks of the virus are related to their own schools because the state ordered some counties to keep health data secret.

Volunteers across Florida have set up their own school-related coronavirus dashboards, and one school district is using Facebook after the county health department was told to stop releasing information about cases tied to local schools.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has pushed aggressively for schools to offer in-person classes, even when Florida was the hot spot of the nation, and threatened to withhold funding if districts did not allow students into classrooms by Aug. 31. In the state guidelines for reopening schools, officials did not recommend that coronavirus cases be disclosed school by school. In fact, the DeSantis administration ordered some districts, including Duval and Orange, to stop releasing school specific coronavirus information, citing privacy issues.

The state also left it up to districts to decide whether masks should be worn by students and staffers. Some require it, but many don’t.

Department of Health spokesman Alberto Moscoso said in an email last week that “the Department is currently working to determine the best and most accurate manner in which to report information regarding cases of covid-19 associated with schools and daycares.” He said the information will be available “in the coming days or weeks.”

Florida is further into the reopening process than most other states, and DeSantis has been more aggressive than other governors in pushing schools to reopen and setting a deadline. The Texas state government wanted schools to open buildings but are allowing districts to operate remotely for some time. In Iowa, where schools are reopening this month – some remotely for two weeks with state permission – Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican, ordered districts to open buildings for families that wanted in-person instruction. The order is being challenged in court.

Florida school districts began opening in early August, and by mid-month about half the state’s 4,500 public schools had students in their buildings. Three large districts were permitted to stay online because of high coronavirus infection rates – those of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties. Parents could choose between keeping their children at home or sending them to school, and about half of the states’s 2.8 million K-12 students opted to return to bricks-and-mortar classrooms.

Since Aug. 10, at least 1,210 students and teachers have been sent home to quarantine because they were exposed to the novel coronavirus, according to the Florida Education Association, the teachers union.

The Florida Department of Health reported that 10,513 children under age 18 have tested positive since schools started reopening for in-person teaching, an increase of 34%. The state is not saying how many of those children were in school or doing remote learning.

“I have filed public records requests like we were told, but no one will even fill them,” said Bridget Mendel, a parent in Manatee County in southwest Florida. “This is outrageous, and I am worried for my teacher friends and our children in Manatee.”

With the dearth of reliable school-specific information on coronavirus cases, teachers and parents are trying to fill in the gap. Anonymous Twitter accounts have sprung up since school began, started by Florida teachers who want to report what’s happening in their schools but who say they are afraid of being fired if they do so publicly.

“Transparency is a huge issue,” said Andrew Spar, president of the Florida Education Association, which represents 150,000 teachers and school staff and has sued the DeSantis administration over opening schools too soon. “Parents like myself who have kids in the classroom are wondering, are they safe? And we want answers from the governor, but instead he’s quashing information.”

Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson ruled in favor of the teacher’s union, agreeing that the state had “disregarded safety” in the order. Dodson cited evidence that showed state health officials were told not to give their opinions on the safety of reopening schools in their counties. Dodson’s decision is being appealed by the state.

Across the country, there is a patchwork of requirements on the release of school-related coronavirus data. In Texas, for example, the state this week just started requiring districts to disclose to state agencies which schools have cases. The data will be published, but it is unclear whether it will be school-level or district-level. California does not require that districts disclose school-by-school information but recommends it.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as the World Health Organization, recommend a local positivity rate for the coronavirus that is below 5% for the safe reopening of schools. But many of Florida’s 67 county school districts opened with higher positivity rates. The overall child positivity rate in the state is 14.5%.

Parents deciding not to send their children into school said confusion over how they would get information about coronavirus exposure in schools was a factor in their decision.

“It seems more like information is leaking out instead of coming from the school board,” said Dawn Herring, a suburban mother in Pinellas County, which includes St. Petersburg. She and her husband opted for virtual classes for their two elementary-school-age children.

“Our family would have to see some more information on the case numbers, and on mask compliance and social distancing, before we send our kids back,” Herring said.

A number of school districts have published specific coronavirus infection rate data on their websites, but the state pushed back. After the Duval County school district in northeast Florida published a coronavirus dashboard during the first week of school, the state ordered it shut down within days, citing privacy concerns. The district launched a new dashboard Tuesday and the state did not intervene.

In Orlando, the Orange County health department was told Sept. 3 to stop releasing information about coronavirus cases tied to local schools. But the school district began listing schools with positive cases on its Facebook page within days. “Olympia High School will temporarily close and pivot” to a virtual platform, the district reported on its Facebook page Monday. It said six people had tested positive.

The Florida Department of Health released a report that detailed coronavirus cases linked to schools on Aug. 24 – reporting that 194 students tested positive in cases associated with primary and secondary schools – but it was quickly removed from public view. Moscoso said the report was released “inadvertently,” and DeSantis said the report “was not necessarily accurate.”

https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/virus-cases-rise-among-school-age-children-in-florida-state-orders-some-counties-to-keep-data-hidden/

Jews Killing Jews In Public! No Arabs, Bombs or Guns Needed!

UTJ deputy minister Meir Porush attends mass ultra-Orthodox wedding in Haifa

Hundreds of guests crowd indoor event hall, ignoring Health Ministry guidelines; Porush’s office says he was there ‘for only a few minutes,’ calls on populace to follow rules

Deputy Education Minister Meir Porush attended a mass wedding on Tuesday (Sept.8) evening in an indoor event hall in Haifa along with several hundred followers of the Seret-Vishnitz Hasidic dynasty, in contravention of Health Ministry guidelines.

The well-attended wedding took place on the same night a 40-city curfew began throughout Israel affecting some 1.3 million Israelis, mainly from the Haredi and Arab sectors, which have been hit especially hard by the pandemic.

The wedding in Haifa broke Health Ministry guidelines for holding events in closed spaces. Video from the event showed some wearing masks, but many wore them on their chins.

The United Torah Judaism MK’s office released a statement on Wednesday saying “The deputy education minister attended a wedding that took place last night for only a few minutes. The deputy minister calls on the public to conduct themselves according to and obey the Health Ministry’s instructions.”

Haifa is considered an “orange” city according to the Health Ministry’s so-called traffic light system. Orange cities have high morbidity rates and indoor gatherings are allowed to fill 20 percent of the maximum capacity specified in a location’s license (or one person per four square meters, if capacity is unspecified).

On Tuesday, Porush criticized the curfews imposed on 40 high-risk areas in Israel for being applied to entire Haredi cities instead of selected neighborhoods.

Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman, who leads the United Torah Judaism party, was infected with coronavirus in April when he was health minister. He was also caught at the time attending a prayer minyan of more than 10 men despite a ban on such gatherings.

Tuesday’s event was not the first time a large ultra-Orthodox wedding broke Health Ministry guidelines during the pandemic in Israel.

A screenshot from a video said to show thousands of ultra-Orthodox at a wedding in Jerusalem, in violation of coronavirus restrictions, on August 5, 2020.

In August, some 2,000 people attended the wedding for the grandson of the spiritual leader of the Belz Hasidic sect in Jerusalem, with images from the event showing thousands of people sitting next to each other, indoors, without keeping distance or wearing masks.

While the ultra-Orthodox have been disproportionately hit by the virus, Israelis from all sectors have been reportedly not adhering to Health Ministry guidelines to limited gatherings. Most recently in Haifa, a video emerged on social media on Tuesday evening that showed dozens of unmasked people dancing in a tightly packed nightclub.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/utj-deputy-minister-meir-porush-attends-mass-ultra-ortho?

Convalescent plasma should not be considered standard of care for the treatment of patients with COVID-19. (When Advertising Your Brand Supersedes The Science! AgudahTuesday: Plasma Drive In Flatbush - Ignorance Required)

 

Agudath Israel of America is partnering again with the COVID Plasma Initiative and the New York Blood Center to host a COVID-19 plasma drive in the heart of Flatbush.  

The drive will take place this Tuesday, September 1st, 1:30 PM-7:30 PM, at the Kingsway Jewish Center, 2902 Kings Highway.  

Click here to register for a time slot to donate. This drive will be run by appointment only.  

If you have tested positive or displayed symptoms of COVID-19 then this event is for you. You can be of vital assistance to those still struggling with this dreadful disease. 

 

The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel’s Statement on the Emergency Use Authorization of Convalescent Plasma for the Treatment of COVID-19

Last Updated: September 01, 2020

On August 23, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA)* for COVID-19 convalescent plasma for the treatment of hospitalized patients with COVID-19.^1,2 The COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) reviewed the available evidence from published and unpublished data on convalescent plasma for the treatment for COVID-19, including the FDA analyses that supported the EUA.

There are currently no data from well-controlled, adequately powered randomized clinical trials that demonstrate the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19. The FDA analysis of data on a subset of hospitalized patients from the Mayo Clinic’s Expanded Access Program (EAP) compared outcomes in patients who received convalescent plasma with high titers of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) neutralizing antibodies to outcomes in patients who received plasma with low titers and found no difference in 7-day survival overall. Among patients who were not intubated, 11% of those who received convalescent plasma with high antibody titers died within 7 days of transfusion compared with 14% of those who received convalescent plasma with low antibody titers. Among those who were intubated, there was no difference in 7-day survival. Although these data suggest that convalescent plasma with high antibody titers may be beneficial in nonintubated patients, uncertainty remains about the efficacy and safety of convalescent plasma due to the lack of a randomized control group and possible confounding in the Mayo Clinic’s EAP. Additionally, antibody levels in currently available COVID-19 convalescent plasma are highly variable, and assays to determine the effective antibody titers remain limited.³

Based on the available evidence, the Panel has determined the following:

• There are insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19.
• Available data suggest that serious adverse reactions following the administration of COVID-19 convalescent plasma are infrequent and consistent with the risks associated with plasma infusions for other indications. The long-term risks of treatment with COVID-19 convalescent plasma and whether its use attenuates the immune response to SARS-CoV-2, making patients more susceptible to reinfection, have not been evaluated.
• Convalescent plasma should not be considered standard of care for the treatment of patients with COVID-19.
• Prospective, well-controlled, adequately powered randomized trials are needed to determine whether convalescent plasma is effective and safe for the treatment of COVID-19. Members of the public and health care providers are encouraged to participate in these prospective clinical trials.
• The Panel will continue to evaluate emerging clinical data on the use of convalescent plasma for the treatment of COVID-19 and will update the Convalescent Plasma section of the Guidelines in the near future.

* The criteria for issuance of an EUA are not the same as the standards for FDA approval.⁴ There are currently no FDA-approved therapies for the treatment of COVID-19.

References

1. Food and Drug Administration. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) EUA information. 2020. Available at: https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/mcm-legal-regulatory-and-policy-framework/emergency-use-authorization#covid19euas. Accessed August 31, 2020.
2. Food and Drug Administration. Convalescent plasma letter of authorization. 2020. Available at: https://www.fda.gov/media/141477/download. Accessed August 31, 2020.
3. Food and Drug Administration. EUA 26382: Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) Request. 2020. Available at: https://www.fda.gov/media/141480/download. Accessed August 31, 2020.
4. Food and Drug Administration. Emergency Use Authorization of Medical Products and Related Authorities: Guidance for Industry and Other Stakeholders. January 2017; Available at: https://www.fda.gov/media/97321/download. Accessed August 31, 2020.

https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/statement-on-convalescent-plasma-eua/

Gamzu said last week that 80% of the most recent coronavirus cases occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews clash with secular Israeli officials over coronavirus measures

JERUSALEM - Israel's rapidly escalating coronavirus crisis is aggravating a religious divide in the Jewish state, with ultra-Orthodox leaders accusing mostly secular health officials of discrimination and fostering anti-Semitism by focusing on outbreaks in highly observant communities.

As the government struggles to contain the outbreak, ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbis, cabinet ministers and parliament members have resisted attempts to curtail activities in ultra-Orthodox areas, including many that have emerged as covid-19 hot spots.

Facing particular ire has been Ronni Gamzu, the pugnacious former hospital administrator appointed last month as the government's "corona czar." Gamzu has clashed with religious leaders over his efforts to impose targeted lockdowns on neighborhoods with high infection rates, block a yearly pilgrimage to the grave of a revered Hasidic rabbi in Ukraine and compel virus testing for thousands of foreign students who have recently arrived to attend religious schools, or yeshivas.

Gamzu said last week that 80% of the most recent coronavirus cases occurred in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. The government expects to enact targeted restrictions Monday in 10 hot spot communities, many of them ultra-Orthodox.

The tensions have riven Israel's coronavirus cabinet, the government body that sets policy. On Friday, one day after Israel recorded 3,141 new cases - the largest single day per capita increase in any country since the pandemic began - cabinet discussions grew heated over proposed lockdowns during the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur later this month.

"You want a lockdown during the High Holidays because you don't want people praying," Housing Minister Yaakov Litzman said to Gamzu, according to Israeli media reports. "We will not let this happen."

Gamzu says that his recommendations are data-driven, applied equally to all sectors of Israeli society and designed to prevent the need for another nationwide lockdown. He has not hesitated to fire back at those want to avoid restrictions, including some business owners and school officials whom he has accused of hindering the country's recovery.

"Stop the insanity," he said in an emotional appeal to the public Thursday. "All Israel is at war."

In arguments that echoed those of some church leaders in the United States, a senior ultra-Orthodox rabbi, Chaim Kanievsky, accused Gamzu of wanting to keep yeshiva scholars from their religious studies even as secular Israelis are allowed to go to beaches and restaurants.

Gamzu, who was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in early August, was overruled during his first week on the job when he sought to block this year's crop of foreign yeshiva students from entering the country. But he insisted they be quarantined to start their stay and then tested and isolated if results are positive.

Several hundred boarding students, many of them teenagers from the United States, have tested positive in recent weeks, although most show no symptoms. The northern Israeli town of Karmiel reported last week that almost half the 400 students at a local yeshiva had tested positive.

Kanievsky, however, advised schools not to test even in cases when students showed symptoms because it would disrupt their studies.

Gamzu's blunt retort - "Rabbi Kanievsky's announcement endangers the ultra-Orthodox public" - sparked outrage, with one ultra-Orthodox newspaper calling for Gamzu's resignation over his "despicable defiance of the Torah's authority."

Gamzu faced another backlash when he lobbied Ukrainian officials to bar ultra-Orthodox Israelis from making their annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the Ukrainian town of Uman. The celebrations, involving crowds of dancing men, had super-spreader potential, he warned. Officials in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, announced the ban this week, but not before Ukrainian media reported that locals in Uman had attacked Jewish travelers who had already arrived.

Ultra-Orthodox leaders were furious with Gamzu, and several Israeli officials accused him of "fueling anti-Semitism" in the words of parliament member Miki Zohar, from Netanyahu's Likud party.

Gamzu declined to comment for this article.

The arguments between religious and secular camps are not new. Ultra-Orthodox Jews - or Haredim as they known in Hebrew - live in insular communities, putting higher priority on their religious practices than civic obligations. Many, for instance, don't celebrate Israeli patriotic holidays, and most don't serve in the military, a near universal requirement for other Jewish Israelis.

Health experts say the ultra-Orthodox are particularly susceptible to the spread of infection because they typically have large families, live in crowded neighborhoods and routinely gather in large numbers for worship and funerals.

Haredi distrust of the government runs deep, and initially their rabbis resisted orders that Israelis wear masks and avoid crowded indoor prayer. Minor clashes broke out when the Israeli army was deployed in a few high-infection Haredi areas to help enforce lockdown orders.

But religious leaders began complying after they saw Covid-19 deaths spiral elsewhere, including Hasidic communities in the United States.

"They were shocked by the casualties in New York among their own people and began taking it very seriously," said Tamar El-Or, an anthropology professor at Hebrew University who has studied Haredi culture.

Since the epidemic began, confirmed cases have topped 126,000 in a country of nearly 9 million people. About 22%of infections have been in ultra-Orthodox areas, according to health data, second only to 28% in Arab towns and neighborhoods. And the latest surge of infections, which came after Israel loosened its public health restrictions, has hit the ultra-Orthodox even harder.

But with total deaths remaining relatively low - less than a thousand - and hospitals so far able to handle the volume of seriously ill patients, many ultra-Orthodox are insistent that they be able to continue activities that are important to them.

"There is sickness yes, but it's not like we are piling up corpses," El-Or said of their attitude. "It's not that they want to go back to normal. It's about where to draw the lines."

Elimelech Lamdan, an ultra-Orthodox psychotherapist in the city of Givatayim, said his community is angry over the government dictates largely because they see Gamzu as a secular Israeli who would like the religious to disappear.

"In the eyes of many Haredim, these rules are applied selectively. They are a put-up job," said Lamdan, who noted that he agreed with some, but not all, of the criticisms leveled against Gamzu. "Life should be ruled by the Torah and not by the consensus of the governing body."

 

https://www.thehour.com/news/article/Ultra-Orthodox-Jews-clash-with-secular-Israeli-15545201.php

Covid Spike Alert!

New York City is urging vigilance as it sees an increase in coronavirus cases in Orthodox Jewish communities.

“In recent days, we have observed heightened rates of COVID-19 in many neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations,” New York City Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi wrote in an email to Orthodox outlets Sunday evening. “The neighborhoods that have presented higher proportions of positive COVID-19 tests — when compared to adjacent areas — include the Forest Hills and Far Rockaway sections of Queens as well as the Midwood, Williamsburg and Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.”

The Orthodox communities were hit hard by COVID-19 in March and April, but the disease then seemed to have nearly disappeared. A source in Hatzalah told Hamodia that the organization received virtually no COVID calls for the four month period prior mid-August. Some community members believed it had reached herd immunity.

But during the past two weeks, Orthodox communities once again started seeing a spike in cases. Mayor Bill de Blasio said some cases in Boro Park had been linked to a wedding that violated the 50-person limit. Chokshi held a conference call with Orthodox outlets to warn against complacency, and encourage people to continue to wear masks, maintain social distancing, wash hands, avoid large gatherings, getting tested for the virus, and communicating and cooperating with Test & Trace officials about possible exposures.

A source with knowledge of the community told Hamodia on Sunday evening that whereas there had been hardly any COVID-related hospitalizations during the prior four months, in the past two weeks both the number of positive tests and percentage of tests with positive results have been spiking, and that there have been approximately 10 COVID hospitalizations in the community, including serious cases and intubations.

Below is the full text of Chokshi’s letter to Orthodox media Sunday evening:

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share concerning COVID-19 news that I hope you will convey to your readers in your ongoing coverage.

In recent days, we have observed heightened rates of COVID-19 in many neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations. The neighborhoods that have presented higher proportions of positive COVID-19 tests—when compared to adjacent areas—include the Forest Hills and Far Rockaway sections of Queens as well as the Midwood, Williamsburg and Borough Park sections of Brooklyn.

Moreover, we are receiving what we refer to as “signals,” in smaller sections of these neighborhoods where there are anomalous spikes in cases.

Following up on our conference call, we continue to see transmission in New York City and it appears to be happening more in communities that encompass your coverage areas than in many other parts of the city. COVID-19 can be transmitted from an adult to a child and we are seeing transmission within households from adults to children in some of these communities.

The neighborhoods experiencing transmission were particularly hard hit in the worst weeks of the pandemic this past spring and we never want to return to those awful days.

We also must emphasize that these communities’ past experience with COVID-19, does not guarantee immunity from future transmission. The science has not yet established that any section of New York City has reached herd immunity or even how long immunity lasts after someone has recovered from COVID-19.

All New Yorkers, including children, must adhere to the Core 4, which includes washing hands, wearing face coverings (if older than two years of age), maintaining distance and staying home if ill. Everyone must also avoid large gatherings and safely isolate if exposed to someone who was found to have COVID-19. If safely isolating at home is difficult, the city can provide accommodations or additional resources. All New Yorkers should be getting tested. To find a testing site go to nyc.gov/covidtest or call 311.

We know everyone in these areas shares our deep concern for their families, friends and neighbors and we urge all New Yorkers to do their part to help us keep COVID-19 at bay.

Thank you.

With appreciation,

Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, NYC Health Commissioner

Below are tables showing the increased numbers in the five neighborhoods:

• https://hamodia.com/2020/09/06/health-commissioner-warns-covid-spike-orthodox-communities/

On August 3, 2020, Governor Cuomo signed another extension giving survivors of childhood sexual abuse an additional year to bring their cases. This extension creates a final deadline of August 14, 2021. Supporters argued that the extra time was needed because of the court disruption brought by COVID-19.

 

As Lawsuits Increase, N.Y. Extends Look-Back Window for Child Sex Abuse Cases

According to a recent article in The Washington Post, the number of child sexual abuse allegations against Catholic clergy more than quadrupled in 2019 compared to the average in the previous five years. In 2015, there were 903 reports, and by 2019, that number had increased to 4,434.

Meanwhile, New York has seen at least 1,000 new child sexual abuse lawsuits filed since May 2020, with hundreds more expected before the “look-back window” deadline, which has now been moved to August 14, 2021.

New York Extends Filing Deadline to 2021

 

In February 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the Child Victims Act. This new law provided a short-term expansion of the state’s statute of limitations on child sex abuse claims, creating a one-year look-back window during which victims could file claims that had previously been barred.

Starting August 14, 2019, victims could bring lawsuits against the perpetrators and related institutions, regardless of when the abuse occurred. The law also extended the statute of limitations for future civil cases until the victim reaches the age of 55, a significant increase from the previous limit of age 23. For criminal cases, victims can seek prosecution until they turn 28.

The one-year grace period was scheduled to end on August 14, 2019, but in May 2020, Governor Cuomo announced an executive order extending that deadline until January 14, 2021, mainly because of court delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Then on August 3, 2020, Governor Cuomo signed another extension giving survivors of childhood sexual abuse an additional year to bring their cases. This extension creates a final deadline of August 14, 2021. Supporters argued that the extra time was needed because of the court disruption brought by COVID-19.

“The Child Victims Act brought a long-needed pathway to justice for people who were abused,” Governor Cuomo said, “and helps right wrongs that went unacknowledged and unpunished for far too long and we cannot let this pandemic limit the ability for survivors to have their day in court.” According to Senator Brad Hoylman, 3,000 survivors have filed claims so far.

Catholic Dioceses and Boy Scouts of America Create Victims’ Compensation Funds

 

Several other states have also opened look-back windows for child sex abuse victims, including New Jersey, California, Arizona, Montana, Hawaii, Vermont, North Carolina, and the District of Columbia. In all of these states, victims that were previously barred from filing lawsuits because of the statutes of limitations can now come forward and seek justice.

Multiple dioceses around the country have created compensation funds for victims, including those in California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and more.

In addition to sexual abuse claims against Catholic clergy and related dioceses, many victims of sexual abuse occurring within the Boy Scouts organization have come forward to file lawsuits. The Boy Scouts has created a victims’ compensation fund—survivors who wish to file for damages within the fund have until November 16, 2020 file claims in federal bankruptcy court.

https://newyork.legalexaminer.com/home-family/as-lawsuits-increase-n-y-extends-look-back-window-for-child-sex-abuse-cases/

“I didn’t want to get involved”

 “For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens,” the Times article began (there were actually only two attacks). “Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again.”

 

Austin Street in Kew Gardens, Queens, where Kitty Genovese lived. “I only hope that she knew it was me, that she wasn’t alone,” Mrs. Farrar said of being with Ms. Genovese in her dying moments

Sophia Farrar Dies at 92; Belied Indifference to Kitty Genovese Attack 

For decades, the conventional narrative that defined urban anomie overlooked a good Samaritan who heeded a dying woman’s cries for help.

The story of Kitty Genovese, coupled with the number 38, became a parable for urban indifference after Ms. Genovese was stalked, raped and stabbed to death in her tranquil Queens neighborhood.

Two weeks after the murder, The New York Times reported in a front-page article that 37 apathetic neighbors who witnessed the murder failed to call the police, and another called only after she was dead.

It would take decades for a more complicated truth to unravel, including the fact that one neighbor actually raced from her apartment to rescue Ms. Genovese, knowing she was in distress but unaware whether her assailant was still on the scene.

That woman, Sophia Farrar, the unsung heroine who cradled the body of Ms. Genovese and whispered “Help is on the way” as she lay bleeding, died on Friday at her home in Manchester, N.J. She was 92.

Her son, Michael Farrar, said the cause was pneumonia.

At around 3 a.m. on March 13, 1964, the 28-year-old Ms. Genovese was stabbed repeatedly, raped and robbed of $49 in two separate attacks by the same man as she returned home to leafy Kew Gardens from her job as a bar manager.

The murder was reported in a modest four-paragraph article in The Times. Two weeks later, its interest piqued by a tip from the city’s police commissioner, The Times produced a front-page account of the killing that transformed the murder into a global allegory for callous egocentrism in the urban jungle and undermined the innocent-bystander alibi.

“For more than half an hour 38 respectable, law-abiding citizens in Queens watched a killer stalk and stab a woman in three separate attacks in Kew Gardens,” the Times article began (there were actually only two attacks). “Twice the sound of their voices and the sudden glow of their bedroom lights interrupted him and frightened him off. Each time he returned, sought her out and stabbed her again.”

That account — epitomized by one neighbor’s stated excuse that “I didn’t want to get involved” — galvanized outrage, became the accepted narrative for decades and even spawned a subject of study in psychology: how bystanders react to tragedy. Except that with the benefit of hindsight, the number of eyewitnesses turned out to have been exaggerated; none actually saw the attack completely; some who heard it thought it was a drunken brawl or a lovers’ quarrel; and several people said they did call the police.

And there was Mrs. Farrar.

According to police accounts, trial testimony and interviews for “The Witness,” a 2016 documentary about the case, Mrs. Farrar, her husband and her son were awakened by, in Michael Farrar's words, “a loud, bloodcurdling scream.”

“The whole neighborhood had to hear it,” he said. The Farrars looked out the window, saw nothing, and went back to sleep.

Mrs. Farrar said a frantic neighbor called her after 3 a.m. and reported that Ms. Genovese was in distress in a vestibule in the back of the two-story building where she and her partner, Mary Ann Zielonko, lived on the second floor, across the hall from the Farrars.

Without hesitating, Mrs. Farrar dressed, raced through a circuitous alleyway and reached the vestibule just moments after the killer had left.

The door was jammed; Ms. Genovese’s body was wedged against it from the inside. Mrs. Farrar finally opened the door and found Ms. Genovese in a pool of blood, moaning and gurgling and barely conscious, Mr. Farrar says in the film. Mrs. Farrar cradled her, offered words of comfort, promised that help was on the way and yelled for another neighbor to call the police.

It was too late. Ms. Genovese died in the ambulance before reaching the hospital.

“I only hope that she knew it was me, that she wasn’t alone,” Mrs. Farrar says in “The Witness.”

That film, produced and directed by James Solomon, traces an investigation by Ms. Genovese’s younger brother, Bill, into the murder and the mind of Winston Moseley, the psychopathic killer who stalked his victim and died in prison in 2016 while serving a life term.

After the murder, Bill Genovese volunteered for the Marines and served in Vietnam, where he lost both his legs.

“It would have made such a difference to my family knowing that Kitty died in the arms of a friend,” Mr. Genovese, who was also the film’s executive producer, says in “The Witness.”

Mr. Solomon said in an email: “Sophia Farrar’s heroic actions complicate an overly simplified parable of urban apathy. Her story does not fit neatly with the notion that no one helped.”

Ms. Genovese and Mrs. Farrar were not anonymous neighbors. Ms. Genovese sometimes drove young Michael Farrar to school in her red Fiat. Mrs. Farrar would occasionally care for Ms. Genovese’s poodle.

“It’s clear she went to great efforts to save and comfort Kitty, giving the lie to the idea that no one helped and no one cared,” Jim Rasenberger, an author who reviewed the case 40 years later in The Times, said by email. “There ought to be a statue to her in Kew Gardens.”

Sophia Veronica Laskowski was born on Jan. 11, 1928, in Brooklyn, one of 10 children of Polish immigrants: Victoria (Bartold) Laskowski and Edmund Laskowski, a truck driver.

After graduating from Queens Vocational High School, she worked for the Army Signal Corps and Western Union during World War II. She later managed a doctor’s office and performed secretarial and communications work for the American Cancer Society.

In 1949 she married Joseph Farrar, a sheet metal worker for the Long Island Rail Road. The couple remained in Kew Gardens for about six years, then moved to the Richmond Hills section of Queens.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Farrar is survived by her husband; their daughter, Deborah; four grandchildren; a great-grandson; and a brother, Richard Laskowski.

In several retrospectives decades after the murder, The Times reassessed the original account, concluding that more neighbors might have heard Ms. Genovese’s screams than actually witnessed the attack. But only one Times article, during Mr. Moseley’s trial, even mentioned Mrs. Farrar’s name, reporting that she and Ms. Zielonko found the victim in the vestibule.

Since Mrs. Farrar was interviewed on camera in “The Witness,” though, among those who criticized The Times’s failure to report her presence in earlier accounts of the crime was Joseph Lelyveld, who was the executive editor of The Times in the 1990s. He has called the omission “inexcusable.”

Charles E. Skoller, the prosecutor who handled the case, described her role in his book “Twisted Confessions: The True Story Behind the Kitty Genovese and Barbara Kralik Murder Trials” (2008).

Mrs. Farrar, “a petite woman in her early 30s with a young baby at home, fell to her knees and cradled Kitty in her arms,” he wrote. “The police documents confirmed that Sophie was the only person to show concern or compassion for Kitty Genovese during the early morning hours of March 13, 1964.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/02/nyregion/sophia-farrar-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Obituaries

“As current contact tracing evidence has shown, many of the new cases of infection have arisen from large gatherings (weddings, bar and bat mitzvah, concerts …) where social distancing and/or mask wearing was not strictly observed,” they wrote.

Citing COVID uptick, 138 Long Island Jewish doctors ask community to trust medical experts (Thanks to the Rabbis For Creating Such Confusion, Doctors are Pleading To The Community To Trust Medical Science)

Jewish men gather for a socially distanced service at a basketball court on New York City's Lower East Side

(JTA) – As Jewish day schools begin in-person classes, a group of 138 Jewish doctors on Long Island are sounding the alarm over an uptick in COVID cases and a relaxing of precautions in local Orthodox communities.

“After a quiet summer, cases are now on the rise, specifically in our community. COVID-19 is not a political issue, nor is it old news,” the doctors wrote in an open letter. “If our goal is to keep shuls and schools open and our neighborhood stores in business, we need to recognize that the uptick demands that we take it seriously and follow appropriate precautions.”

Local doctors in several Orthodox communities have noticed slight upticks in COVID cases, with many resulting from summer camps, travel, bungalow colonies and particularly large weddings. Last month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 16 new cases were confirmed in Borough Park, home to the city’s largest Hasidic population, with several of those Brooklyn cases connected to a large wedding.

The doctors’ letter explicitly referenced large weddings and other celebrations as events with potential to spread the virus within the community.

“As current contact tracing evidence has shown, many of the new cases of infection have arisen from large gatherings (weddings, bar and bat mitzvah, concerts …) where social distancing and/or mask wearing was not strictly observed,” they wrote.

Dr. Annie Frenkel, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Nassau County and one of the initiators of the letter, noted a widespread relaxing of precautions, like mask wearing and social distancing, over the past several weeks. Frenkel said she had several patients cancel appointments in the last week due to exposure to someone with COVID.

“Everyone was pretty much compliant in the beginning,” she said, “but in the last two to three months, the tide seemed to change. There was a sense that people felt like it was over, they didn’t need to worry anymore.”

Frenkel said she saw people on Central Avenue, the main street that runs through several large Orthodox communities in Nassau County, gathered in groups without masks. But she pointed to the resumption of large weddings as a particular problem. 

“It’s gotten out of hand,” she said.

Even more worrying to Frenkel is what she calls an “anti-mask movement” stoked by influential figures within the community on social media who view masks as an infringement of their freedom of expression.

The doctors concluded the letter asking for the community to trust in medical experts to guide them through the pandemic.

“You trust us to take care of you when you are sick and at your most vulnerable, and in life and death decisions. … We collectively request that you trust us in this, as well,” they wrote.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trending on JTA

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on politics from the pulpit: ‘I’m afraid American Jewry is making a big, big, big mistake’ 

 

https://www.jta.org/2020/09/01/health/citing-covid-uptick-138-long-island-jewish-doctors-ask-community-to-trust-medical-experts?utm_source=JTA_Maropost&utm_campaign=JTA_DB&utm_medium=email&mpweb=1161-22478-462090