Israel’s Health Ministry issued its daily report regarding Coronavirus statistics in the country. According to the report on Motzei Shabbos, 272 people died of the virus this past week in Israel, 44 of them over the course of the weekend. On Friday, 8,013 people tested positive for the virus. There are currently 1,082 people in serious condition due to the virus in Israeli hospitals, among them are 247 who are on respirators. In addition, the Ministry announced that an additional four cases of the South African strain of the virus have been discovered in Israel, bringing the total number of discovered cases to 12. The virus was found among people who returned from the UAE.

French prosecutors are investigating complaints by Jewish groups in the eastern city of Strasbourg that one or more delivery drivers refused to take orders of kosher food. The Israelite Consistory of the Bas-Rhin region said that two kosher restaurants reported that drivers working for delivery service Deliveroo refused to deliver their food because they didn’t want to deliver to Jews. When the Deliveroo employee arrived at the first restaurant last Thursday, he asked the staff what sort of restaurant it was. When they responded that they sold Israeli food, he said: “I don’t serve Jews” and canceled the order. Later that day, a similar incident occurred in a second kosher restaurant. It is unclear if both incidents involved the same Deliveroo worker.

Israel’s Health Ministry published the statistics of new Covid-19 cases from the weekend. More than 5,433 people tested positive for the virus and an additional 20 people died in hospital as a result of the virus. On Friday, 85,000 tests were conducted and run through laboratories and on Shabbos 40,000 tests were conducted. There are currently 35,000 active cases of the virus in Israel and 561 people are hospitalized in serious condition and 136 on respirators. The total mortality count since the beginning of the disease in Israel is 3,203. A mission from Morocco will be landing in Israel at the beginning of next week in order to further the diplomatic connections between the two countries.

Due to the many medical emergencies and tragedies resulting from laxity around candles and kitchen safety on Chanukah, United Hatzalah of Israel issued a number of safety tips for families to implement in order to avoid situations in which family members, especially young children suffer injuries or worse on the holiday. The recommendations of the organization are as follows: Fire safety: Use a special location and apparatus to light the candles. Many times fires occur due to the use of makeshift menorahs. Please use a proper stable menorah and stable table or shelf and avoid proximity to any flammable items, including remaining oil or other candles, as well as drapes, curtains, books, or clothing.

Yesterday, United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Yoni Uziyahu, experienced something that no parent should have to go through. His son, only a year-and-a-half old, fell off of a table and suffered a severe head injury. The boy lost consciousness, stopped breathing, and almost died. Yoni, utilizing his emergency medical training, intervened and performed CPR on his own son. After bringing his son to the hospital as quickly as possible, the doctors told Yoni that the CPR he administered is what saved his son’s life. After the boy, Elie, was stabilized in the hospital Yoni wrote an open letter encouraging all parents to learn basic CPR. The following is what Yoni wrote. “This morning I performed CPR on my year-and-a-half-old son. I performed CPR on my whole world.

Following a public outcry, Israel Railways has modified their ticket selling platform to allow for religious Jews to be able to purchase tickets in on Friday, for renewed train service across the country that begins on Monday. With the reopening of the trains in Israel, it was decided to limit the number of passengers on each train to 500 people and to force all passengers to purchase tickets in advance. Passengers had the option of buying tickets as of 48 prior to their departure times. With trains scheduled to renew service on Monday morning, tickets for the entire first day of travel would have gone on sale on Shabbos. Israel has not had train service in the past three months, as trains closed to the public on March 25th.

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Oldest Jewish media outlet being purchased by consortium led by Sir Robbie Gibb, ex-head of communications at 10 Downing Street; rival Jewish News to continue publishing as before

The Gerer Rebbe emerged after a month-and-a-half of not being able to see his followers due to the health restrictions in place in Israel, and stood at the window of the Beis Medrash Hagadol on Yirmiyahu Street in Yerushalayim in order to participate from afar in the Levaya of Reb Efraim Landau Z”L. Rabbi Landau was one of the main people responsible for helping to build the Bais Medrash in Yerushalayim. He recently passed away after a long ordeal with an illness. The last time the Gerer Rebbe was seen in public was during the Yartzheit for a previous Admor of Gur, just after Purim. Then also the Gerrer Chassidim were very limited in attending in order to protect the Rebbe and only his immediate family were allowed to participate.

Some people named in consortium behind offer say they don't know who the actual funder is; liquidation of JC and rival Jewish News pushed off to midweek