Israel’s cabinet voted unanimously on Thursday night after midnight to extend Israel’s national lockdown until Sunday at 7 a.m. Israelis will no longer be restricted to within 1,000 meters of their homes, restaurants will be permitted to offer takeout, workplaces that are not open to the public will be allowed to reopen, national parks and nature reserves will be able to receive the public and vacation rentals will be allowed to offer services to nuclear families. A decision on reopening kindergartens will be reached this week following discussions by the Health and Education ministries. The government also made a decision on Thursday to continue the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport for at least another two weeks, until February 21.

Democrats and Republicans eager to tidily conclude former President Donald J. Trump’s impeachment trial within a week may have a fresh obstacle in front of them: the biblical commandment to keep the Jewish Sabbath. One of the lead defense lawyers for Mr. Trump has informed Senate leaders that he is an observant Jew who strictly adheres to the commandment against working on the Sabbath, and thus would be unable to participate in any proceeding that stretched past sundown on Friday or met on Saturday. In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the lawyer, David Schoen, asked that the trial be suspended if it was not finished by the beginning of the Sabbath at 5:24 p.m. on Friday, and that it not reconvene until Sunday.

A Quebec Superior Court judge has agreed in part with the Hasidic Jewish Council of Quebec’s request to allow more than 10 people inside a synagogue to take part in communal prayer.

With 22 inches of snow walloping Monsey during this week’s two day Nor’easter, it was a memorable week for Chaverim of Rockland which recorded 2,158 snow related calls. Chaverim coordinator Yossi Margaretten described his agency’s call volume as record breaking, with his team of approximately 120 volunteers rescuing stranded motorists, taking women to the hospital to deliver babies, transporting dialysis patients and ferrying people to and from medical appointments. With three weddings taking place in Monsey on Monday night in Ateres Charna, Ateres Chaya Sura and at the Vichovitz-Viznitz Hall, there were plenty of mazel tovs to go around as well, as Chaverim made sure that the chossonim, kallahs, parents and grandparents made it safely to their simchos and then back home again.

A prominent Jewish organization is cutting ties with a longtime Massachusetts rabbi for actively promoting anti-vaccine views and strident opposition to public health efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic. Central Massachusetts Chabad said Thursday it dismissed Rabbi Michoel Green as a representative of the organization, which oversees Jewish community centers in the region, on Jan. 27. Green has run the Chabad house in Westborough, which is a suburb of Worcester, New England’s second-largest city, for nearly 20 years.

“Pregnant women should fear the coronavirus rather than vaccines,” Dr. Rachel Picar, a specialist in obstetrics and senior doctor in Hadassah Ein Kerem, told Kikar H’Shabbos. Dr. Picar added that as is well-known, the coronavirus vaccine is based on mRNA technology, which does not introduce a weakened form of the virus, or any virus at all into the body. Once the active ingredient in the vaccine spurs the production of antibodies, it disappears altogether from the body and therefore pregnant women should not fear being vaccinated. “We’re now seeing [due to the British variant] very serious morbidity among pregnant women, especially in the last trimester, which is accompanied by serious breathing difficulties which deteriorates very quickly to ventilation being required,” Dr.

As Israel continues to grapple with a high virus morbidity rate due to the British variant, it is yet unclear how and when it is emerging from its nationwide lockdown, with a scheduled Wednesday meeting to make a decision on the matter postponed until Thursday. But one thing is clear. Unlike the first and second waves, when the focus was on avoiding infections among the older population, the British variant has forced a renewed look at preventing infections in children. The British variant, now behind as much as 70-80% of new cases, has been affecting children and even babies at a much higher rate than the original virus, with the number of babies under the age of 2 diagnosed with the coronavirus in January almost quadruple the number diagnosed in December.

In the wake of unfounded rumors that coronavirus vaccines can cause fertility issues, the question was asked to HaGaon HaRav Chaim Kanievsky. HaRav Chaim’s grandson, Yanky Kanievsky, repeated the question to his grandfather: “Young men and women who don’t yet have children or are hoping to have more children are afraid that if they will be vaccinated they won’t have more children. Is there what to fear?” HaRav Chaim responded “no” and gave a bracha for those who are vaccinated. Earlier this week, Israel’s Health Ministry updated its previous recommendations regarding pregnant women only being vaccinated after the 15th week of pregnancy.

A fast-moving blaze destroyed a Shul and home on the Far Rockaway / Lawrence border early Thursday morning. The fire broke out at 2-06 Seagirt Ave, on the Queens border in Lawrence, just after 12:30AM Thursday. The building houses the “Beach Shul” inside it. Bichasdei Hashem, the Sifrei Torah were saved and all occupants made it out of the house without injury. Firefighters battled frozen hydrants and cold conditions. The fire was extinguished in about an hour. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The residents of the Kerem Avraham Geula neighborhood in Jerusalem are in shock after five residents of the neighborhood passed away, including a mother and son and two Gedolim, in the course of a day and a half, B‘Chadrei Chareidim reported. It began after midnight on Motzei Shabbos with the bitter news from Laniado Hospital in Kiryat Sanz, Netanya on the demise of Mrs. Chaya Bracha Krishevsky, a’h, from COVID-19 at the age of 84. The nifteres was the wife of Reb Pesach Krishevsky, יבלחט”א, the famed drummer who plays at weddings per the Yerushalmi minhag and also known for being severely injured in a severe terror stabbing attack on Rechov Malchei Yisrael five years ago.