Wayofthegods
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Rabbi dies
Two months ago, Rabbi Romi Cohn grew deeply emotional as he stood before Congress delivering the opening prayer on the day that marked 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“As a young boy of 10 years, I was condemned to be dead, to be murdered,” Cohn told the lawmakers.
Instead, Cohn survived the war. He joined the partisan forces that fought the Nazis in what was then Czechoslovakia and helped to rescue 56 Jewish families. He moved to Brooklyn, where he became a respected rabbi and a mohel who performed thousands of circumcisions, welcoming new generations of Jewish baby boys.
This week, Cohn died at 91 of the coronavirus.
Statistics
Nearly 5% of all coronavirus-related deaths in the United Kingdom are of Jewish people, who make up just 0.3% of the country’s population, The Jewish News of London reported.
According to the paper’s report Thursday, at least 22 Jewish families have lost loved ones to the disease, which has killed 465 people in the United Kingdom. The U.K. has about 66 million residents and 250,000 Jews.
Jewish community leaders in Antwerp, Belgium, last week predicted a significantly higher infection rate of 85% in their congregation than the 50-70% rate that scientists expect to find in the general population. The leaders cited the large social circles and interaction of the Jewish community.
Among the hardest-hit congregations in the United Kingdom has been the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, which is based in northern London. It has lost four members in recent days, one of its rabbis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday.
A man in his 70s who died was connected to the Edgware and Hendon Reform synagogue through his funeral, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
At least two rabbis of died of the disease: Yehuda Yaakov Refson, a senior rabbi in Leeds, was 73 when he died Sunday, and Zeev Willy Stern, a Holocaust survivor, was 86 when he died over the weekend.
Frieda Feldman, 97, died in London on Friday, the same day that she was diagnosed as having the virus, according to the Bhol news site.
FBI spy dies
Robert Levinson, the Jewish-American former FBI agent missing since 2007, has died in Iranian custody, his family said.
Iran has claimed over the years that the regime did not know his whereabouts.
On Wednesday, the family posted the “devastating” news “with aching hearts” on Twitter on the Help Bob Levinson account.
“We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” the statement said. “We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Iran as recently as November had said that Levinson was officially a missing person case. The family denounced the regime for its cruelty in its treatment of Levinson and in withholding the information.
“How those responsible in Iran could do this to a human being, while repeatedly lying to the world all this time, is incomprehensible to us,” the statement said.
The family said it would continue to hold responsible the Iranian regime and “those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind.” The family is suing Iran in federal court. The statement did not name the U.S. officials it held responsible.
It thanked Trump administration officials, active and retired FBI agents, and past and current members of Florida’s congressional delegation for pushing the case.
Levinson, of Coral Springs, Florida, also was a private investigator and a part-time consultant for the CIA. He was 58 years old when he disappeared in 2007 on Iran’s Kish Island during what was first described as a work trip for private firms but later was revealed as a rogue CIA operation.
President Donald Trump would not confirm the death.
“I won’t accept that he’s dead,” he said in his daily briefing on the pandemic.
Last year, on the 12th anniversary of his disappearance, the Trump administration announced a $20 million reward from the State Department Rewards for Justice, in addition to the $5 million the FBI has offered for years for information leading to the rescue of its former agent.
Jewish President of school
Harvard University president Lawrence Bacow and his wife Adele Fleet Bacow have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Bacow, the third Jewish president of the Ivy League university, announced the news Tuesday in a letter to the school’s community.
Bacow, whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, wrote in the letter that the virus can “lay anyone low,” and urged the community to be vigilant and follow the guidelines to limit contact with others.
“The world needs your courage, creativity and intelligence to beat this virus — wishing each of you good health,” he concluded.
Bacow said he and his wife did not know when they contracted the disease but began experiencing symptoms Sunday — coughs, fevers, chills and muscle aches — and contacted their physicians Monday morning. They were tested that same day and received results on Tuesday, according to the letter.
The couple had been working from home and limiting their contacts since March 14, following the recommendations for social distancing, the letter said. Now, they will entirely isolate for two weeks.
A total of 18 members of the Harvard community have tested positive (or “presumptive positive”) for the coronavirus, according to the school.
Like many colleges and universities, Harvard has sent students home, brought classes online and canceled graduation because of the pandemic.
Hasidic jews
At least 100 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Borough Park, a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency confirmed the number with an official at Asisa, an urgent care clinic in the New York City neighborhood that caters to the Hasidic community.
According to the official, who asked to remain anonymous because of restrictions on speaking to the media, the 100 positive tests have come since the clinic began testing on Friday morning. Asisa has conducted 1,000 total tests, the official said.
As of Tuesday, there are 814 total coronavirus cases in New York City, according to its Department of Health.
Two months ago, Rabbi Romi Cohn grew deeply emotional as he stood before Congress delivering the opening prayer on the day that marked 75 years since the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.
“As a young boy of 10 years, I was condemned to be dead, to be murdered,” Cohn told the lawmakers.
Instead, Cohn survived the war. He joined the partisan forces that fought the Nazis in what was then Czechoslovakia and helped to rescue 56 Jewish families. He moved to Brooklyn, where he became a respected rabbi and a mohel who performed thousands of circumcisions, welcoming new generations of Jewish baby boys.
This week, Cohn died at 91 of the coronavirus.
Statistics
Nearly 5% of all coronavirus-related deaths in the United Kingdom are of Jewish people, who make up just 0.3% of the country’s population, The Jewish News of London reported.
According to the paper’s report Thursday, at least 22 Jewish families have lost loved ones to the disease, which has killed 465 people in the United Kingdom. The U.K. has about 66 million residents and 250,000 Jews.
Jewish community leaders in Antwerp, Belgium, last week predicted a significantly higher infection rate of 85% in their congregation than the 50-70% rate that scientists expect to find in the general population. The leaders cited the large social circles and interaction of the Jewish community.
Among the hardest-hit congregations in the United Kingdom has been the Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Community, which is based in northern London. It has lost four members in recent days, one of its rabbis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday.
A man in his 70s who died was connected to the Edgware and Hendon Reform synagogue through his funeral, The Jewish Chronicle reported.
At least two rabbis of died of the disease: Yehuda Yaakov Refson, a senior rabbi in Leeds, was 73 when he died Sunday, and Zeev Willy Stern, a Holocaust survivor, was 86 when he died over the weekend.
Frieda Feldman, 97, died in London on Friday, the same day that she was diagnosed as having the virus, according to the Bhol news site.
FBI spy dies
Robert Levinson, the Jewish-American former FBI agent missing since 2007, has died in Iranian custody, his family said.
Iran has claimed over the years that the regime did not know his whereabouts.
On Wednesday, the family posted the “devastating” news “with aching hearts” on Twitter on the Help Bob Levinson account.
“We recently received information from U.S. officials that has led both them and us to conclude that our wonderful husband and father died while in Iranian custody,” the statement said. “We don’t know when or how he died, only that it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Iran as recently as November had said that Levinson was officially a missing person case. The family denounced the regime for its cruelty in its treatment of Levinson and in withholding the information.
“How those responsible in Iran could do this to a human being, while repeatedly lying to the world all this time, is incomprehensible to us,” the statement said.
The family said it would continue to hold responsible the Iranian regime and “those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind.” The family is suing Iran in federal court. The statement did not name the U.S. officials it held responsible.
It thanked Trump administration officials, active and retired FBI agents, and past and current members of Florida’s congressional delegation for pushing the case.
Levinson, of Coral Springs, Florida, also was a private investigator and a part-time consultant for the CIA. He was 58 years old when he disappeared in 2007 on Iran’s Kish Island during what was first described as a work trip for private firms but later was revealed as a rogue CIA operation.
President Donald Trump would not confirm the death.
“I won’t accept that he’s dead,” he said in his daily briefing on the pandemic.
Last year, on the 12th anniversary of his disappearance, the Trump administration announced a $20 million reward from the State Department Rewards for Justice, in addition to the $5 million the FBI has offered for years for information leading to the rescue of its former agent.
Jewish President of school
Harvard University president Lawrence Bacow and his wife Adele Fleet Bacow have tested positive for the coronavirus.
Bacow, the third Jewish president of the Ivy League university, announced the news Tuesday in a letter to the school’s community.
Bacow, whose mother was a Holocaust survivor, wrote in the letter that the virus can “lay anyone low,” and urged the community to be vigilant and follow the guidelines to limit contact with others.
“The world needs your courage, creativity and intelligence to beat this virus — wishing each of you good health,” he concluded.
Bacow said he and his wife did not know when they contracted the disease but began experiencing symptoms Sunday — coughs, fevers, chills and muscle aches — and contacted their physicians Monday morning. They were tested that same day and received results on Tuesday, according to the letter.
The couple had been working from home and limiting their contacts since March 14, following the recommendations for social distancing, the letter said. Now, they will entirely isolate for two weeks.
A total of 18 members of the Harvard community have tested positive (or “presumptive positive”) for the coronavirus, according to the school.
Like many colleges and universities, Harvard has sent students home, brought classes online and canceled graduation because of the pandemic.
Hasidic jews
At least 100 people have tested positive for the new coronavirus in Borough Park, a Hasidic neighborhood in Brooklyn.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency confirmed the number with an official at Asisa, an urgent care clinic in the New York City neighborhood that caters to the Hasidic community.
According to the official, who asked to remain anonymous because of restrictions on speaking to the media, the 100 positive tests have come since the clinic began testing on Friday morning. Asisa has conducted 1,000 total tests, the official said.
As of Tuesday, there are 814 total coronavirus cases in New York City, according to its Department of Health.