19-year-old Nechemia (Chemi) Trachtenberg, who until last year lived in Yerushalayim, has been actively vaccinating people in the capital city for the past two months. As part of his work with Kuppat Cholim (HMO) Meuchedet, located on Chaggai Street, Chemi spends his days vaccinating people, and vaccinates between 200-300 people per day. During his free time, Chemi is a volunteer with United Hatzalah and responds to medical emergencies in his neighborhood. Chemi is one of close to 500 volunteers from the organization who have stepped up and taken part in the national mission to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of the Health Ministry’s Public Health division, condemned Israel’s policy on travel to and from the United Arab Emirates in recent months following the implementation of the Abraham Accords, Channel 13 News reported. “In two weeks of peace, more people died than in 70 years of war,” Alroy-Preis said to hospital directors. Alroy-Preis based her statement on a report by the IDF’s Home Front Command, which states that 906 Israelis returning from the Emirates since the beginning of December were diagnosed with the virus upon arriving back in Israel, ultimately resulting in an infection cycle totaling 4,050 cases. The high number is likely the result of the South African variant, which is more infectious than the original virus.

An Italian doctor was indicted for allegedly murdering coronavirus patients last March in order to free up beds in the hospital’s overfilled coronavirus wards. Dr. Carlos Mosca, 47, the head of the emergency room at a hospital in the hard-hit Lombardy area in northern Italy, was on the frontlines of the battle against the pandemic last March, when northern Italy was so overwhelmed with coronavirus patients that it had to choose “who will live and who will die.” Mosca has been indicted of administering lethal doses of anesthetic and muscle relaxant drugs to coronavirus patients shortly after they entered the emergency room and failing to intubating them, leading to their deaths.

On Wednesday night, Erev Tu b’Shevat, Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky received a platter of fruit from the best of Israel’s produce. The platter came from HaRav Binyamin Krishner, one of Reb Chaim’s talmidim. HaRav Krishner used to bring the platter to the late Posek HaDor Hagaon HaRav Yosef Shalom Elyashiv each year on the eve of Tu B’Shevat. Since Rabbi Elyashiv’s passing, HaRav Krishner has brought the platter to Hagaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky. The Gadol HaDor received the platter with joy and cited the teachings of the Magen Avraham who says that it is customary to eat fruit on Tu B’Shevat. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)  

Apple is urging iPhone and iPad users to update their devices to fix security flaws that might have been “actively exploited” by hackers. Apple made the software upgrades available Tuesday, adding a rare note suggesting it was a serious threat. The company credited anonymous researchers for pointing out the vulnerability but provided little details about the nature of the threat. The company said one of the vulnerabilities affects the “kernel,” the nerve center of Apple’s operating system, iOS. Two others affect WebKit, the web browser engine used by Safari and other apps. The upgrade is for several generations of devices, starting with the iPhone 6. (AP)

Twenty years after Israel closed its liaison office in Morocco, a new Israeli chargé d’affaires arrived in the country on Tuesday and officially opened an Israeli consulate in the capital city of Rabat. David Govrin, who served as the Israeli ambassador to Egypt from 2016-2020, will now represent Israel in a second north African country. Israel and Morocco maintained low-level diplomatic relations from 1994 until 2000, when Rabat cut ties during the Second Intifada. However, both countries maintained possession of their liaison offices in each other’s countries, allowing a quick reopening of the offices following the peace deal reached in December. Both countries plan to open full embassies in the future.

President Joe Biden has issued an executive order banning the use of terms such as “China virus” and “Wuhan virus” when referring to COVID-19. The order applies to federal agencies and public health documents and resources. Former President Trump routinely called COVID the “China virus” or and other conservatives linked it to Wuhan, China where the virus is thought to have originated in a government lab. Trump blamed China for the global coronavirus pandemic. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

HaGaon HaRav Chaim Meir Wosner, Av Beis Din of Zichron Meir in Bnei Brak, was hospitalized overnight Tuesday in Mayanei HaYeshua Hospital and is in great need of Rachamei Shamayim. HaRav Wosner, 83, who contracted the coronavirus recently, began having breathing difficulties late Tuesday night and he collapsed in his home. Emergency services arrived and performed resuscitation techniques and evacuated him to the hospital, where he is currently in serious but stable condition. HaRav Wosner is the son of the late renowned posek, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Halevi Wosner, z’tl. Following his father’s death in 2015, HaRav Chaim Meir was appointed to fill his place. He also serves as Rosh Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin and is the ba’al Shailos U’Teshuvos Simchas HaLevi.

President Biden has commemorated International Holocaust Remembrance Day with a statement Wednesday that nodded to the prevalence of anti-Semitism today, including a reference to Charlottesville. “We must pass the history of the Holocaust on to our grandchildren and their grandchildren in order to keep real the promise of “never again.” That is how we prevent future genocides. Remembering the victims, heroes, and lessons of the Holocaust is particularly important today as Holocaust deniers and minimizers are growing louder in our public discourse. But the facts are not up for question, and each of us must remain vigilant and speak out against the resurgent tide of anti-Semitism, and other forms of bigotry and intolerance, here at home and around the world,” Biden wrote.

HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky’s grandson, Reb Gedalia Honigsberg, spoke about how the difficult situation in the Chareidi sector in Israel is making itself known in the Gadol HaDor’s home in recent days, in an article published last week in HaBama. “In recent days, unfortunately, there is a never-ending stream of phone calls requesting a bracha from Saba for coronavirus patients,” Reb Gedalia said. “It’s very bad – I can’t remember a time when there were so many coronavirus patients, with so many of them seriously ill – Hashem Yeracheim.” “On Friday night, Saba was up and busy learning the entire night until Tefillas Neitz. After davening Shacharis, Saba was tired and went to lie down a bit.