The Admor of Karlin-Stolin, HaRav Baruch Meir Yaakov Shochet, blasted those who do not adhere to the Coronavirus guidelines for their actions in a recorded conversation that was sent to members of the Chassidus. The Rebbe, who himself was recently released from the hospital after having contracted the disease, has been one of the only Admorim to have instructed his community to strictly observe coronavirus health instructions since the beginning of the crisis. The Rebbe added that parts of the Chareidi community were ignoring the “simple” and “foundational” Jewish principle of saving lives, and said he was astonished at such “contempt” for the lives of others, especially from the Chassidic community.

Driving on the streets of Brazil (and many other South American countries) is fraught with danger, especially when at a stop at red lights, due to street thugs who won’t hesitate to use violence or even murder in order to rob drivers. Moti Rotter, a Chareidi Israeli man now residing in London, is currently in Brazil visiting his wife’s family, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported. As he was driving in São Paulo with his wife on Tuesday afternoon, he stopped at a red light and was accosted by street thugs. “They smashed the window and tried to steal my phone,” Moti told B’Chadrei. “I fought back and wouldn’t give it to them. The phone fell and they tried to grab it from the floor of the car. All this was happening as the car stood at the red light.

Israel’s Health Minister, Yuli Edelstein, and Transportation Minister, Miri Regev, announced that they reached an agreement on Wednesday that will see the opening of Ben-Gurion Airport take place on Thursday at midnight. The announcement was later confirmed by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in a video statement that he made on Facebook. According to the current rules under the lockdown, the only passengers who are allowed to fly out of Israel are those who purchased a ticket before the closure took effect. The same held true for Israelis returning from abroad. With airlines threatening lawsuits against the government for damages that they were caused by the lockdown, Israel’s attorney-general had stated that the closure of the airport was problematic.

Mourning enveloped Bnei Brak and the Sephardi and Bucharian community in particular on Wednesday morning on the news of the petira of Hagaon Rav Yisrael Pinchasi, z’tl, one of the most esteemed Gedolim in the Sephardi Torah world who was baki b’kol HaTorah kulo, including Toras Hanistar. Rav Pinchasi, 77, served as the Rav of the Bucharian community in Bnei Brak, was the Rav of the Beis Rafael Beis Midrash and Rosh Kollel HaAri, and for many years served as the Rosh Mesivta of Yeshivas Toras Chaim.

During the first wave of the coronavirus in New York, Kiryas Yoel had one of the lowest infection rates of frum areas, both in the number of cases and the number of fatalities. However, during the current wave, the situation has changed dramatically for the worse. In a notice published by the organization U’Chai Bahem, which was established especially to provide real-time updates on the pandemic to the residents of Kiryas Joel, the data paints a grim picture. A total of 46 residents have been hospitalized since the beginning of the second wave, 16 of whom have recovered and returned home. There are 29 residents hospitalized as of Tuesday, 9 of whom are critically ill. There are 41 residents receiving hospital care at home with portable oxygen machines.

As he promised to do, NY Governor Cuomo signed a new “Executive Order” to withhold funds from private schools (Yeshivas) that are open in COVID-19 “Red Zones”. On a media conference call on Wednesday morning, Cuomo went hard on the Yeshivas and warned private school operators to not suddenly announce they’re operating as “day care centers” instead. Those have separate regulations and licensing and the state will enforce that as well. “If schools are operating it’s easy enough to find out,” Cuomo said, citing two recent news reports about yeshivas operating despite restrictions imposed last week.

Germany has agreed to provide more than a half-billion euros to aid Holocaust survivors struggling under the burdens of the coronavirus pandemic, the organization that negotiates compensation with the German government said Wednesday. The payments will be going to approximately 240,000 survivors around the world, primarily in Israel, North America, the former Soviet Union and Western Europe, over the next two years, according to the New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference. With the end of World War II now 75 years in the past, Holocaust survivors are all elderly, and because many were deprived of proper nutrition when they were young today they suffer from numerous medical issues.

A chaotic situation unfolded on Wednesday afternoon, as the media showed up to a prominent Yeshiva which they thought was open. Multiple news outlets were outside the building with cameras hoping to catch children exiting at dismissal. YWN has no knowledge if this Yeshiva was even open today. Meanwhile, a massive group of angry local residents – including dozens of children – began screaming at the reporters to leave the community and stop targeting them. Nearly all of them were wearing masks. A video by BoroPark24 captured the scene, as children yelled “NAZI” and “ANTI-SEMITE” and other obscenities at the reporters. Instead of capturing footage of children in a yeshiva against the Governor’s executive order, the media was given plenty of footage of the crowd yelling at them.

Dear YWN, I wanted to let your readers know of the following disturbing incident. I was shopping in Dollar Tree located at 67 St Georges Ave, Roselle, NJ Oct. 7. While on the line to pay, there were 2 adult customers before me on line that weren’t wearing any masks at all. The Cashier, “Joan” totally ignored the fact that they weren’t wearing a mask. At the same time, a Jewish family was checking out at a nearby register and the entire family aside for their 3-year-old child were wearing masks. My cashier “Joan” immediately ran over to the other register (while keeping me waiting) and told the other cashier to make sure that the 3-Year-old child puts on a mask.

Israel’s infection rate continued to decline as the Health Ministry confirmed 2,255 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday morning in the previous 24 hours, with tests reflecting a positivity rate of 5.4 %, the lowest rate since July. The tally of daily cases is steadily decreasing from the over 8,000 daily cases several weeks ago to the 2,000 a day the Health Ministry has deemed necessary to begin to ease lockdown restrictions. There are currently 48,015 active virus cases, with 808 seriously ill patients, of whom 240 are ventilated. The death toll has risen to 2,055. The coronavirus cabinet unanimously voted late Tuesday to extend the nationwide lockdown until Sunday at midnight, delaying the steps to ease restrictions.