Breaking news: Health Ministry Approves 3rd Vaccine Dose for 50-Year-Old IsraelisBy David Israel and Israeli Scientists Devise Novel Method for Rapid Repair of Peripheral Nerve Injuries and Make NO Mistake – Wikipedia is at WAR with the Jews By David Collier and Is it proper for children to ride on scooters and bicycles on Shabbos? and Jewish funeral planned for Radio host vaccine skeptic who died of the virus
Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement.
Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash on Thursday night accepted the recommendation of the Corona Vaccine Advisory Team, the Association of Public Health Physicians in Israel, and the Monitoring Committee, to start offering a third Corona vaccine to Israelis aged 50 and over, health care workers, patients with high-risk factors, prison inmates, and wardens. Prof. Ash has updated the HMO executives and starting Friday morning, people aged 50 and over can contact their HMOs to make an appointment for a third vaccine shot, popularly known as the "booster."
The ministry is holding discussions to formulate the final guidelines regarding the various populations that should be included in the 3rd shot effort.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Thursday night issued his elated reaction:
I commend the Corona Vaccine Advisory Team for making the right decision for the health of the citizens of Israel. Members of the team worked diligently, professionally, and thoroughly, and reached the conclusion that the third inoculation for people aged 50 and over, and for medical teams, is effective and correct.
The campaign to vaccinate people aged 60 and over has been a great success. Over 750,000 people have been vaccinated up until now and we are continuing to the next stage. This is an important step in the fight against the Delta pandemic.
I call on everyone over 50 to get in line tomorrow morning. Go get vaccinated. This is a great success. It is in our hands. Together with the Health Ministry, we have brought a great number of vaccines to Israel to facilitate quick action in vaccinating the public and protecting it from the Delta strain.
I also congratulate Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, Health Ministry Director-General Prof. Nachman Ash, and everyone in the health system for their dedicated work and for the leadership that they have shown at this complicated time.
We will continue treating the Delta pandemic in a thorough and responsible manner. We will safeguard lives and daily routines while balancing between health needs and economic needs and the livelihoods of the citizens of Israel.
Together – we will win.
Meanwhile, late Thursday night, the US Food and Drug Administration amended the emergency use authorizations for the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccines to allow Americans with compromised immune systems to get the third dose. The change in the FDA regulation is specific to patients who have failed to forge an immune response against the coronavirus after being fully vaccinated. The FDA is hoping—among other things, based on initial positive reports from Israel—that the additional dose would give these patients the level of protection they need.
The results of a study conducted at Beilinson Hospital in Israel showed a doubling of the number of Corona antibodies in response to the third vaccine among heart, kidney, lung, and liver transplant recipients.
There were 6,083 new verified Corona patients in Israel on Thursday, based on 122,934 tests, or 4.94%. As of Friday morning, there are 462 patients in critical condition, out of whom 75 are on respirators. 6,611 died in Israel since the outbreak of the pandemic.
To date, 775,703 Israelis received the third dose of the vaccine, 5,409,455 the second dose, and 5,834,795 the first.
According to the Johns Hopkins website, there are roughly 205.5 million people who contracted the coronavirus around the world; 4.3 million have perished; and a total of 4.57 billion vaccine doses have been administered.
The US has seen 36.3 million cases of the coronavirus, 2.3 million over the past 28 days, with 619,093 dead, 11,478 of them over the past 28 days.
352.8 million vaccine doses have been administered in the US altogether, 14.4 million over the past 28 days.
Jewish funeral planned for Dick Farrel, prominent COVID skeptic who died of the virus
AUGUST 9, 2021 12:33 PM
Dick Farrel hosts a show on Newsmax on Feb. 13, 2018. (YouTube)
(JTA) — The Florida shock radio host and former Newsmax anchor who died of COVID-19 after spending months telling his followers not to get the vaccine was a Jewish man from Queens.
The Aug. 4 death of Dick Farrel, who was 65, has made global headlines because his friends said he urged them to get the vaccine after he fell ill. The private messaging was in stark contrast to his extensive public statements on the virus and vaccines.
On a Facebook page that has since been set to private, Farrel railed against coronavirus protocols, the Daily Beast reported, including U.S. government urgings to get the vaccine. He referred to the virus as a "scam demic" and masks as "face diapers." He also promoted misinformation about the vaccines, saying that he knew people who got vaccinated and were hospitalized as a result.
Farrel's death comes amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in the United States fueled by the more transmissible delta variant. Florida, which has few restrictions and a relatively low vaccination rate, has been especially hard hit.
Farrel's real name was Farrel Austin Levitt. Born to Max and Norma Levitt in Queens, New York, in 1956, he graduated from Queens College before beginning his radio career in New York. A service will be held Friday at Beth Israel Boynton Beach Chapel, which first announced Farrel's death, according to its website.
A host on multiple talk radio stations in Florida, Farrel was also a fill-in host for Newsmax, the conservative cable outlet that is a favorite of former President Donald Trump, although it is not clear if Farrel was employed at the time of his death. He is survived by his partner, Kitty Farley.
Israeli Scientists Devise Novel Method for Rapid Repair of Peripheral Nerve Injuries
Bar-Ilan University researchers have successfully developed nerve guidance conduits filled with "smart gel" that accelerate the regeneration of torn nerve fibers, enabling the rapid repair of peripheral nerve injuries.
Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide suffer from peripheral nerve injuries, which often leave them with long-term disabilities.
The peripheral nervous system is analogous to the circulatory system; a network of vessels that reaches all parts of the body, but instead of blood flowing through vessels, electrical signals propagate information through thin fibers called axons, which are engulfed within nerve trunks.
These nerve trunks are the communication network relaying information from all parts of the body to the brain, coordinating activity, and generating motor and sensory functions. If one of the nerve trunks is damaged or torn, a common condition in limb injuries, a patient can experience pain, paralysis and even a life-long disability.
In such situations, surgical intervention is necessary to repair the damaged nerve. The standard treatments are direct suturing of detached nerves or, in cases where the gap formed in the nerve trunk is large, surgeons transfer an intact nerve trunk from the patient's leg and implant it at the site of the injury, thus creating damage in another area.
There are methods to rejoin nerve trunks to allow the axons to regrow and restore motor and sensory function. One such method is by implanting a synthetic hollow nerve conduit aimed at bridging the gap and allowing the nerve to heal without secondary damage to the patient.
One of the main problems preventing optimal regeneration is that axons within severed nerves have difficulty regenerating and reaching their target. This may be attributed in part to misguided axons that sprout in multiple directions, decreasing the probability to reach their target organs.
"They need orienting cues to help them," explained Prof. Orit Shefi, of Bar-Ilan University's Kofkin Faculty of Engineering, Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, and Gonda (Goldschmied) Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center.
Dr. Merav Antman-Passig, a researcher in her lab, added that "these guiding instructions need to remain in the body for an extended time, since axons grow fairly slowly."
A technique developed by the research team is used to fill a nerve conduit with a gel containing a number of physical and chemical components that promote and align axon regrowth.
The researchers filled hollow nerve conduits with engineered aligned collagen gels. In the body, aligned collagen fibers help axon pathfinding, but, in the hollow nerve guides available today, the aligned collagen fibers are absent. The aligned collagen gel acts as a scaffold for axons and directs their growth.
In addition, the conduits contain a substance called NGF (nerve growth factor) which is essential for the growth of the nervous system.
"Imagine that we implanted guiding cues in the gel, which are the aligned collagen fibers, and that these guiding cues also have a treat for the growing axons," Antman-Passig explained. "Like bait neatly scattered for the growing axons."
Shefi added that "an axon that reaches the gel follows these cues and finds the right direction more easily. In fact, the novel system combines several techniques for nerve regeneration. Axons like to grow toward these markers that can be left for them, like collagen scaffolding and NGF. The novelty of our method is in the engineering of an organized tissue-like gel that contains components that help restore the nerves, and especially in extending the duration of activity of the gel in the body."
If collagen and NGF are simply added in hollow nerve conduits, just like real bait, different cells consume them and actually break them down. After a short time, the growing axons do not have these "road signs." The method extends the time that these factors are accessible to axons during regeneration. This is done by incorporating NGF-coated magnetic particles that are arranged into the correct structure via a magnetic alignment strategy. This also creates an arrangement of the particles and collagen."
After characterizing the gel components, the researchers implanted them in nerve conduits and examined the direction of their growth and the platform's efficacy. The researchers measured the direction of the cell growth and found that with the help of the gel combining aligned collagen and NGF- coated particles, they were able to direct and enhance their growth.
Subsequently, they examined the efficacy of the conduit in the rehabilitation of rats with peripheral nerve injury at the sciatic nerve, which prevented them from walking properly. The number of axons that penetrated the innovative gel-filled tube and successfully crossed the injured area was greater compared to the empty tube, and accordingly, the restoration of nerve tissue was the highest.
The researchers showed that with the implantation of the tubes and the use of the engineered collagen gel, the functional motor restoration was highest, in comparison to the use of other types of conduits and compared to conduits with gel that was not enriched.
The researchers are now exploring commercialization options and hope that will help functional recovery and accelerate nerve repair following injury.
Make NO Mistake – Wikipedia is at WAR with the Jews
Larry Sanger, the man who co-founded Wikipedia recently said that 'nobody should trust Wikipedia.' Sanger describes the Wikipedia environment – in which conservative voices are stifled or banned and criticism of leftist ideology – where the argument does appear – reads like a defence counsel's brief.
This is damning criticism from a man who would know better than most. But Sanger only gets part of the picture. He assesses a Wikipedia environment in which two sides – both powerful are battling – with one having the upper hand. This leads to an inevitable and clear bias and editorial domination – which is what Sanger references. But Sanger fails to comprehend the true scale of the problem. For example – in a situation in which one side is vastly numerically superior to the other.
The Jews are the quintessential minority group. The enemies of the Jews far outnumber them. Islamists. far-left activists and neo-Nazis are all out there writing Wikipedia edits. The pages on Wikipedia that relate to the Jews or Israel are often the target.
Wikipedia is at war with the Jews. Make no mistake about this.
Wikipedia is the 13th most visited website in the world. It probably influences more people than any other source on the planet. This means it is impossible to overstate the damage the website is doing. All those children having their ideas influenced by Wikipedia today – are the leaders of tomorrow.
Every Wikipedia page that deals with the history of Jews or Israel – is tainted. The website spreads 'fake news' and provides legitimacy to antisemitic arguments. Toxic academics like David Miller provide written source material, extremist websites such as Electronic Intifada produce conspiracy theories and an army of Islamist / hard-left Wikipedia editors spend all their time reworking history. It is a co-dependent alliance that pushes lies ever further into the mainstream. Take the recent push to revise education material in Scotland to provide a 'pro-Palestinian' narrative – it is another step in this decades old strategy. If the network of toxic academics was not there – if the rabidly antisemitic NGOs were not making their outrageous claims – if Wikipedia had not been overrun by Islamists and hard-left activists – then there would not be enough momentum for the push to poison young minds in Scotland.
If we spend all our time putting out the fires (school material in Scotland) – rather than dealing with the sources of the problem (academia, Wikipedia) – we will be fighting a battle we will lose.
Rewriting recent History
Rewriting Israeli history is part of the antisemitic strategy. Such as an attempt to turn what was a bloody and difficult civil war – a battle for Jewish survival in 1948 – into an act of pre-planned ethnic cleansing. A fake news event – in which a powerful Jewish 'militia' followed a blueprint to massacre and expel an innocent Arab population. This 'Nabka' narrative never happened – so anti-Israel activists are busy rewriting history to 'prove' a lie.
Just a few examples. Take the 'massacre at Balad al Shaykh' in 1948. It is an event that source documents prove never happened – but despite numerous protests – Wikipedia is still telling everyone that it did. Or the events during the 1920 Nebi Musa festival. It was an anti-Jewish riot, fuelled by anti-Jewish rhetoric of religious Islamic leaders. Yet Wikipedia's page – which originally told a version much closer to the truth – has been edited by Israel's enemies until the truth can no longer be seen.
The history of the Palestinian identity – which did not exist at all before the British drew some lines on a map – now stretches back 1000s of years.
There is not a single page related to the conflict – that has not been tampered with by insidious anti-Israel activists who are out to demonise Israel and spread lies. As teachers and academics use the information in Wikipedia to write material for schools – these lies quickly find their way into the classroom – even in textbooks.
Smearing advocacy groups
Pages that address pro-Israel advocacy groups are also a target. This is the opening sentence of the 'Stand with Us' Wikipedia page:
Stand with Us
Notice the unnecessary insertion of the 'right-wing' label. The page is full of weighted words and criticisms. In contrast, pro-Palestinian advocacy groups – are treated reverentially. The Palestine Solidarity Campaign page reads like an advert. The antisemitism that infests the group is never mentioned.
The page for the pro-Israel Bicom overstates its power – referencing a toxic Guardian article as it does so. That is how the bias works – why is it the toxic Guardian article that made the cut – and used to help form the page – when other less criticial sources did not? It is a classic smear campaign.
The BICOM article also links to a page on the 'Israel lobby in the UK'. This lobby page belongs on a neo-Nazi website like Stormfront. It is full of antisemitic conspiracy and endless smears. The page even used the antisemitic article – that the University of Glasgow recently apologised for – as a source.
That page proves a central part of the argument of this piece. If you are standing up for Israel – then there are Wikipedia editors looking for dirt to publish about you.
Belittling Anti-Jewish hatred
Whilst many of its pages – spread anti-Jewish hated – Wikipedia also belittles the fight against antisemitism. The page for the extremist pro-Corbyn group Jewish Voice for Labour contains *no criticism* at all. Apparently – not one of the 100s of articles exposing this group's extremism was seen by any of the Wikipedia editors who wrote it. Instead the page just contains a list of unfounded accusations and statements made by JVL – all designed to stifle the fight against antisemitism. If someone wanted to reference an argument against Corbyn's Labour being antisemitic – this is the page they would bookmark.
As an example – the page frequently refers to the fight against Corbyn as an 'orchestrated campaign' that was all about Corbyn's socialist or pro-Palestinian slant:
Wikipedia 2
As there is no criticism on the page – these statements (and there are a lot of them) are never challenged. If you go on Wikipedia to try to challenge them – your input will be deleted. If you persist – you will be banned.
Whichever page you look at – you will see the bias. The page on the Chakrabarti whitewash – does not contain a section on the mountains of criticism the report received. On the occassions where deniability is impossible – the introduction provided on the Wikipedia page becomes so overloaded with pointless information -that the truth becomes hidden. On the page dealing with antisemitism in the Labour Party – you would have to read through 470 words implying there isn't a serious problem – before you find any mention of the findings of the damning EHRC report.
Hiding Jewish history
Anything to do with Jewish history has been attacked. Jesus – a Jew preaching to Jews – has his identity erased on Wikipedia's pages. Jesus is listed as a 'pre-mandate' Palestinian.
As Jewish history has become a politicised part of the current conversation – it has also become a target for Wikipedia's swarm of antisemitic editors. One method used is to equate histories – as if the Palestinian identity (a 20th century invention) and the Jewish identity (3000 years old) are somehow equal. The introduction on the page of Jerusalem is a good example of this strategy:
That section basically turns 3000 years of Jewish history into a 'he said' – 'she said' argument that flattens the truth out of existence.
Another good examples is the page on the 'history of Palestine' – which itself is dependant on a page 'the region of Palestine'. In these pages 'Palestine' is defined by the borders created through the Mandate in 1922. As a region – this specific area has no history beyond that. If we accept 'Palestine' as a historical region – (which only stayed in the western conciousness because Christians viewed it as the Holy Land) – then parts of Jordan and Syria *must* also be included. But they are not. This is therefore a distorted and politicised page – meaningless in a geo-political and historical context – that was created solely for anti-Israel purposes.
All of the pages – all of them have been shaped by anti-Israel activists who seek to belittle the Jewish ties with the Jewish homeland.
Wikipedia's war with the Jews
What is presented above is just a few of the 10000s of examples that can be found.
All this means that Larry Sanger understates the problem. He has not considered an environment in which anti-Jewish racists vastly outnumber the opposition and dominate the editorial narrative. Wikipedia has antisemites ruling the roost whenever and wherever Jewish people or Israel is mentioned.
These editors lie through omission, demonise Israel, belittle Jewish history, obsessively create new pages every time something happens and sanction all those who oppose them. Wikipedia's world vision is an antisemitic one.
So when Larry Sanger says 'Wikipedia is not to be trusted' he doesn't go far enough. In truth Wikipedia must be fought against – the antisemitic editors removed from the platform – and the website should carry warnings – that render it unusable inside an academic or school environment.
Simply put – Wikipedia is an enemy of the Jews.
{Reposted from the author's blog}
Is it proper for children to ride on scooters and bicycles on Shabbos?
Everyone agrees that children should be children, but let's discuss a few matters that are involved. First we must understand the reason to prohibit a child from riding a bike on Shabbos.
In an area that is not within an eruv, one is not allowed to venture out on Shabbos carrying or moving about any object; a bicycle, scooter or carriage would fall into that category.
Second, concerning a bicycle, even if one started out within an eruv, its range is such that it is possible (especially in rural areas) that one could ride well beyond an eruv and even beyond the techum (the 2,000-cubit limited area that one may not leave on Shabbos).
Third there is the matter of uvda d'chol – that which exhibits a weekday activity; or as Shulchan Aruch Horav (Orach Chayim 323:sk 1) refers to it, that which resembles a ma'aseh chol, a weekday activity – which may make it prohibited on Shabbos.
Now as to young children on bicycles, usually they are riding in an enclosed area, within an eruv; thus the first two problems disappear. However, as to uvda d'chol, how to proceed? We find that in certain circumstances we allow a minor child to violate a Biblical law (See Yevamos 114a) and we are not duty bound to restrain him.
Another problem that we may encounter is the violation of mesakenkli shir – repairing a musical instrument (Beza 36b) that is forbidden to do on Shabbos. While riding a bicycle one could encounter a mechanical problem and be tempted to fix it.
Rabbi Moshe Stern, zt"l, in his ruling in this matter (Responsa Ba'er Moshe, vol 6:16), cites some of the above concerns and differentiates between a katan she'lo higia l'chinuch – lit. a child too young to impose adult restrictions – and one who has reached the point that we begin the chinuch process. One who we deem ready for chinuch (and this might vary from child to child) has all the same restrictions as an adult, and just as an adult may not ride a bicycle on Shabbos, he/she may not as well.
Now as to the small child on a small bike or tricycle, there should be no problem, as this is the child's pleasure. Rav Stern even allows for leniency as regards a two-wheel bike where the chain has come off, that the child may restore it. However, any more major repairs (for example, a wheel has come off or repairing a flat tire) would be considered a Biblical violation of mesaken.
In summation, let the little ones be children, joyfully at play.
In addressing this question, we should open with the caveat that we are dealing with a location where there is an eruv. If not, then such activities are clearly prohibited, as they would constitute the "carrying" of an object in a public domain on Shabbat (a rabbinic or biblical prohibition dependent on the location).
Once that is established, we need to bifurcate the question:
The riding of bicycles is generally prohibited by rabbinic mandate for a series of reasons:
Such an activity is considered an "uvda d'chol," a weekday activity, not in the spirit of Shabbat.
It might become necessary to fix or adjust the chain or tire of the bicycle, acts that would be prohibited on Shabbat.
One could easily come to travel distances beyond the permitted techum, boundary, on Shabbat.
Scooters, which have solid tires, and tricycles do not present the issues above if used by young children. The use of scooters by older children (and adults, if they so desire) should be avoided because such activities would also be considered "uvda d'chol."
– Rabbi Goldin, author of "Unlocking the Torah Text" series and past president of the RCA.
* * * * *
Rabbi Steven Pruzansky
This is a hotly debated area of halacha and there are two factors that must be considered beyond the halachic particulars: the age of the child and the standards of the community.
It is appropriate, if not mandatory, for Jews to adhere to the community standards in dress, custom, observance and deportment. Thus it is clear to me that scooters are more prevalently used on Shabbat in Israel than in America, for example. Although undoubtedly Jews who return to America from Israel having seen the use of scooters permit them to their children. It is commonplace in Israel, a rarity in America.
Sefardic communities are much more lenient in this regard than Ashkenazic communities because of the lenient opinion of the Ben Ish Chai (Rav Pealim 1:25) who permitted riding a bicycle where there is an eruv. There are many who hold that the Ben Ish Chai retracted this opinion. Nonetheless, most poskim (Ashkenazi and Sefardi) prohibit riding on Shabbat, primarily because of the fear that the vehicle will require repairs, a forbidden act on Shabbat.
Aren't bicycle repairs quite uncommon? I thought they were, until last year when I spent Shabbat in a Sefardi community (in the U.S.) where cycling is common, went for a walk in the afternoon, saw a teen with a kippah whose bicycle chain had come off, and who was expressing his frustration in extremely colorful ways. I exclaimed, as the Gemara states (Shabbat 12b): "How great are the words of our Sages!"
Notwithstanding the lenient opinion, it is best to be stringent. But this should not apply to young children, certainly not those who ride tricycles. Once a child reaches the age of chinuch, it is best not to ride bicycles, and even use of scooters should halt by age 10.
– Rav Steven Pruzansky is rav emeritus of Congregation Bnai Yeshurun of Teaneck, NJ, and the Israel Region Vice-President for the Coalition for Jewish Values.
