The Young Women Giving New (Plant) Life to Quarantined Seniors & Other Orthodox Jews in the News

Potentially Virus-proof Israelis Deployed to COVID Wards to Relieve Loneliness
A Jerusalem hospital has been sending recovered COVID-19 sufferers into virus wards in order to relieve patients’ loneliness. It is unknown whether people who recover from coronavirus can be reinfected, and if not, how long their protection lasts, but Hadassah University Hospital in Jerusalem has started appealing for them to weigh the risks and consider becoming volunteer visitors.

Brooklyn Women Use Plants to Reach Out to Seniors Across NYC
Lifelong best friends Baila Dalfin and Nechama Hecht witnessed firsthand the toll the COVID-19 pandemic was taking on elderly New Yorkers. The young women, both Orthodox Jews raised in Crown Heights, say giving back is something that’s been ingrained in them. They started an initiative called planTogether and have given hundreds of plants to seniors quarantined at home and at nearly a dozen nursing facilities in Brooklyn and Queens.

Jews in Russia Fear Low Levels of Antisemitism Are Temporary
While Jews in Russia are experiencing historically low levels of antisemitism, they consider that this is only temporary, a new study shows. “Many, if not all, believe that weak or no antisemitism as a Russian state policy in Russia is an exceptional or even ad hoc and temporary phenomenon that has not come to stay,” Alexey Levinson, head of sociocultural research at the Levada Center, wrote in a study comparing Jewish life today with that of 30 years ago.

Bagels.tv Offers Jewish Family-Friendly Alternative to YouTube
Move over YouTube, the Jewish world now has its own treasure-trove of kosher video content – and it has a suitably Jewish name: Bagels.tv.
From in-depth conversations on philosophy and theology with leading Rabbis, to documentaries, music videos, and nostalgia, the site features thousands of hours worth of Jewish video content, and all of it is family-friendly. There’s even a ‘Frum’ section for the more religiously-minded.

Rapping Rabbi Responds to Wiley’s Antisemitism With His Own Track
A rapping rabbi has found acclaim after recording a hard-hitting response to Grime artist Wiley’s antisemitic social media rants. Released on social media last Tuesday and instantly attracting over 25,000 views, Moshe Friedman’s ‘Jewish Rapper Responds To Wiley’ issues an open challenge to “Some British rapper full of hate tweeting dangerous views. Makes me wonder if there’s any safe space for the Jews.”

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