This is not the America, I once knew. I used to be immensely proud to be an American. This country provided oxygenation to me and all its citizens, based on the fundamental principals of the first amendment. We were a nation that fought for civil rights and social justice and valued personal freedom and democracy. The key tenets of the constitution are still in place. Recently they have been violated by the Governor of New York, during the current coronavirus pandemic, thus failing to uphold the inalienable rights that Americans have trusted for decades – Civil Liberties and Human Rights. On March 18, 2020, Governor Cuomo issued an advisory regarding hospital visitations. All visitations were suspended, except where end of life decisions needed to be made.

A coronavirus vaccine currently being developed by Pfizer and German company BioNTech could be ready for emergency use by this fall, Pfizer’s CEO told The Wall Street Journal. The two companies, which have partnered in efforts to develop a vaccine, began giving the experimental shot to 12 people in Germany on April 23, using their vaccine candidate “BNT1622”, BioNTech and Pfizer said in a statement. The data from this trial is expected “as early as June this year,” a BioNTech spokesperson told Business Insider. They are now waiting on approval to begin testing in the US. In the next phase, the companies plan to try the vaccine in 200 healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 55, BioNTech said. They’ll test different doses of the vaccine.

Our community has been shaken and heartbroken over the sudden loss of our beloved Rabbi David Jamal A”H. He was approximately 67, and was Niftar from COVID-19 Everyone knew the Rabbi with his infectious smile, but behind the smile was a lot of pain. The Rabbi was in heavy debt and has a large mortgage. His humility and independence did not allow him to ask for help. He would teach boys of all ages how to sing Sephardic “Pizmonim” and Lag Baomer songs at Yeshivat Ateret Torah, and spent an incredible amount of time teaching Sephardic children giving them the proper education of their heritage, making sure they all knew how to read all the Tefillos with the correct Sephardi Minhagim.

Mayor Deblasio spoke at a press conference on Wednesday morning, and tried to explain his tweets which have now gained national attention, and caused the Levaya of the Tola’as Yaakov Rebbe ZT”L to become national headlines. The Mayor says that “if you say anger and frustration (in his tweets), you’re right. I spoke out of of real distress. People’s lives were in danger before my eyes, and I was not going to tolerate it. So, I regret if the way I said it, in anyway, gave people the feeling of being treated the wrong way, that was not my intention. It was said with love, but it was tough love, it was anger and frustration. “And no, it has not happened in other places. Let’s be honest. This kind of gathering has happened in only a few places, and it cannot continue.

HaRav Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg, was discharged from the hospital on Tuesday evening, after he was in critical condition and on a respirator from COVID-19. HaRav Ginzberg is the Rov of the Chofetz Chaim Torah Center of Cedarhurst and the founding Rav of Ohr Moshe Torah Institute in Hillcrest, Queens. A statement from the family says: הודו לה כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו We are so filled with gratitude to be able to share with you that Rabbi Chaim Aryeh Zev Ginzberg was discharged from the hospital this evening. It is so clear to us how all of your nonstop tefillos have brought about this tremendous נס and we can never possibly thank you enough. You stormed shamayim and brought our husband, father and zaidy home to us.

The number of coronavirus cases aboard the USS Kidd rose to 64 as the Navy destroyer pulled into port at San Diego on Tuesday to get medical care for the crew and to disinfect and decontaminate the ship. The Kidd is the second Navy ship to have an outbreak of the disease while at sea, the other being the USS Theodore Roosevelt, an aircraft carrier that has been docked at Guam for a month. The Roosevelt has more than 900 sailors with confirmed cases of COVID-19, but the entire crew has now been tested. The Navy has moved swiftly to get the Kidd’s crew ashore. That was a point of contention with the Roosevelt, whose skipper, Capt. Brett Crozier, felt compelled to write to several other commanders pleading for more urgent Navy action to protect his crew of nearly 5,000.

Google reported its weakest revenue growth in nearly five years as the pandemic-driven recession began to shrivel its advertising sales in the first quarter. The January-March earnings for Google parent Alphabet offer a first look at how the digital ad market has fared amid widespread orders requiring consumers to stay at home. Those restrictions have given most advertisers little incentive to market their products and services. The results released Tuesday provide an incomplete picture because ad demand in most parts of the world wasn’t hit hard until late February and early March. That’s when the coronavirus outbreak accelerated and governments imposed lockdowns to fight it.

Rav Yisroel Reisman, in whose Shul Rav Nachum delivered a popular Daf Yomi Shiur every night for many years, said that Rav Nachum “was one of the few true tzaddikim I was fortunate to know in my life. He was a genuine and loved Hashem in everything that he did.” Rav Brudny and Rav Reisman said that when they were with Rav Nachum they felt “Shal N’alchah M’eal Raglechah, Ki Hamokom Asher Atah Omed Alav Admas Kodesh.” Please donate generously HERE Rav Nachum leaves behind a tzadeikis of a wife, and a large family, with six children still at home. She now has a heavy burden to bear. It is an impossible burden, emotionally, physically and financially.

The government says it has approved an additional $50 billion in loans to small businesses, although banks are complaining that a bottleneck at the Small Business Administration is severely slowing the process. Banking industry groups said Tuesday that the SBA’s loan processing system is still unable to handle the heavy volume of loan applications from business owners trying to get aid under the Paychceck Protection Program, part of the government’s $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package. “Today is just another slow, frustrating slog for getting PPP loans through,” said Paul Merski, a vice president at the Independent Community Bankers of America. The government’s small business loan program was replenished with $310 billion and started taking applications again Monday.

Yoel Schwartz, a resident of Elad who is active in politics, wrote a moving tribute to his mother who was killed in the Egged No. 2 bus bombing in 2003 ahead of Yom HaZikaron –  “Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of Israel and Victims of Terrorism.” “My mother, z’l, was taken from me in one horrible moment,” Schwartz wrote. “In her death, she left me with two unwritten testaments that influenced me deeply as a child.” “The first testament: Kibbud horim: One year, there was heavy snow in Jerusalem. The roads were blocked. It was only possible to get anywhere by foot and even that was with great difficulty.” “My mother wrapped herself up in a few layers, took two umbrellas and walked to the neighborhood where her elderly father lived to give him supper.