JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8
And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that
sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion)
to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500
million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the
beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 152,100,328 DEAD 3,196,191 AS OF SAT MAY 01,21
DR ZELENKO ON COVID-19 RECOVERY-TAMAR YONAH
https://soundcloud.com/israel-news-talk-radio/while-cautious-im-not-so-afraid-of-the-coronavirus-anymore-the-tamar-yonah-show
DR VLADMIR ZE'EV ZELENKOS MIXTURE FOR RECOVERY OF COVID-19
https://www.vladimirzelenkomd.com/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TaRDwXMhQHSMsgrs9TFBclHjPHerXMuB87DUXmcAvwg/editReuters
IT
LOOKS LIKE THE WORLD JUDGEMENT AFTER THE PINK MOON ON APRIL 26TH IS
THIS SURGE IN INDIA WITH COVID 19. IN FACT TODAY 380,000 ARE INFECTED IN
INDIA WITH COVIDS. THE MOST EVER BY FAR FOR A ONE DAY TOTAL. THE PEOPLE
IN INDI A CAN;T GET VACCINES OR OXYGEN. AND EVEN THOUGH THE VACCINES
WERE MADE IN INDIA. THEY GAVE 9/10TH OF THEIR SUPPLY TO THE WEST. AND
NOW INDIA IS DYING OFF FROM COVID 19 AS A RESULT.
Associated Press-India launches effort to inoculate-ANIRUDDHA GHOSAL and MARIA CHENG-Sat, May 1, 2021, 12:13 AM
NEW
DELHI (AP) — In hopes of taming a monstrous spike in COVID-19
infections, India opened vaccinations to all adults Saturday, launching a
huge inoculation effort that was sure to tax the limits of the federal
government, the country's vaccine factories and the patience of its 1.4
billion people.The world's largest maker of vaccines was still short of
critical supplies — the result of lagging manufacturing and raw material
shortages that delayed the rollout in several states. And even in
places where the shots were in stock, the country’s wide economic
disparities made access to the vaccine inconsistent.Only a fraction of
India’s population will be able to afford the prices charged by private
hospitals for the shot, experts said, meaning that states will be
saddled with immunizing the 600 million Indian adults younger than 45,
while the federal government gives shots to 300 million health care and
front-line workers and people older than 45.So far, government vaccines
have been free, and private hospitals have been permitted to sell shots
at a price capped at 250 rupees, or around $3. That practice will now
change: Prices for state governments and private hospitals will be
determined by vaccine companies. Some states might not be able to
provide vaccines for free since they are paying twice as much as the
federal government for the same shot, and prices at private hospitals
could rise.Since state governments and private players compete for shots
in the same marketplace, and states pay less for the doses, vaccine
makers can reap more profit by selling to the private sector, said
Chandrakant Lahariya, a health policy expert. That cost can then be
passed on to people receiving the shots, increasing inequity.“There is
no logic that two different governments should be paying two prices,” he
said.Concerns that pricing issues could deepen inequities are only the
most recent hitch in India’s sluggish immunization efforts. Less than 2%
of the population has been fully immunized against COVID-19 and around
10% has received a single dose. Immunization rates have also fallen. The
average number of shots per day dipped from over 3.6 million in early
April to less than 2.5 million right now.In the worst-hit state of
Maharashtra, the health minister promised free vaccines for those ages
18 to 44, but he also acknowledged that the shortage of doses meant
immunization would not start as planned on Saturday. States say the
paucity of shots is one reason why immunizations have declined.India
thought the worst was over when cases ebbed in September. But mass
gatherings such as political rallies and religious events were allowed
to continue, and relaxed attitudes on the risks fueled a major
humanitarian crisis, according to health experts. New variants of the
coronavirus have partly led the surge. Deaths officially surpassed
200,000 this week, and the true death toll is believed to be far
higher.The country's shortage of shots has global implications because,
in addition to its own inoculation efforts, India has promised to ship
vaccines abroad as part of a United Nations vaccine-sharing program that
is dependent on its supply.Indian vaccine makers produce an estimated
70 million doses each month of the two approved shots — the AstraZeneca
vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India and another one made by
Bharat Biotech.The federal government is buying half of those vaccines
to give to states. The remaining half can then be bought by states and
private hospitals to be given to anyone over 18, but at prices set by
the companies.The federal government is buying shots at 150 rupees each,
or $2. The Serum Institute will sell the shots to states at 300 rupees
each, or $4, and to private players at 600 rupees each, or $8. Bharat
Biotech said it will charge states 400 rupees, or less than $5.50 for a
shot, and private players 1,200 rupees, or more than $16.By comparison,
the European Union paid $2.15 per dose for the AstraZeneca vaccine. The
company says that price is discounted because the EU contributed to the
vaccine's development.The strain is mounting on the Serum Institute,
which in addition to being India’s main supplier is also a critical
supplier of the U.N.-backed initiative known as COVAX, which more than
90 countries are depending on. The institute paused exports in
March.“The urgent demand for vaccines in India is bad for the rest of
the world,” said Ravi Gupta, a professor of clinical microbiology at
Cambridge University.Some experts warned that conducting a massive
inoculation effort now could worsen the surge in a country that is
second only to the United States in its number of infections — more than
19.1 million.“There’s ample evidence that having people wait in a long,
crowded, disorderly queue could itself be a source of infection,” said
Dr. Bharat Pankhania, a senior clinical lecturer specializing in
infectious diseases at Britain’s University of Exeter. He urged India to
first stop the circulation of the virus by imposing “a long, sustained,
strictly enforced lockdown.”Pankhania cautioned that immunization
efforts alone would not help immediately stem the current spike of
COVID-19, since shots “only start to bear fruit in about three months’
time.” Vaccination would help prevent future waves of infection, he
said.India is also importing shots from the Russian makers of Sputnik V.
The first batch was due to arrive Saturday. Another 125 million doses
of Sputnik V will be distributed by an Indian pharmaceutical company
later this year.Given the urgent need for vaccines, some experts said
rationing available doses is critical.“Vaccines need to be delivered to
the areas with the most intense transmission,” Gupta said, explaining
that vaccines should be used as “emergency control measures” in specific
regions of India rather than offering doses to all adults across the
subcontinent.Pankhania said the widely seen images of Indian virus
patients gasping for air and smoke billowing from makeshift funeral
pyres should spur rich countries to share their vaccines more freely. He
criticized the approach taken by many Western countries that are
attempting to vaccinate all citizens, including younger people at low
risk, before sharing any doses.“It is better globally to immunize all
the (vulnerable) people that need to be protected rather than to
immunize entire populations in only some countries,” Pankhania
said.___Cheng reported from London. Associated Press writers Daria
Litvinova in Moscow and Krutika Pathi in New Delhi contributed to this
report.
India sets another COVID case record, and Brazil’s health
minister makes plea for vaccines-Last Updated: April 30, 2021 at 2:34
p.m. ET-By Ciara Linnane
The global tally of confirmed cases of
the coronavirus-borne illness COVID-19 climbed above 150 million on
Friday, and India set yet another one-day case record, as the Indian
army opened its hospitals in the latest effort to address a dire
humanitarian crisis.India counted 386,452 new cases in the last 24
hours, according to its health ministry, the most for any country in a
single day since the start of the pandemic in late 2019. Those numbers
are understood to be understated as the nation of almost 1.4 billion
people’s healthcare system is completely overwhelmed.Crematoria and
graveyards are full, forcing people to use public parks and car parks
for funeral pyres. Patients are dying while waiting in ambulances to be
admitted to overcrowded hospitals. And the vaccine program is stumbling,
even though India is the world’s biggest vaccine maker.Don’t miss:
Letter from India: ‘We live in mortal fear of COVID-19’India has among
the worst air quality in the world, behind only Egypt, according to
Thomas Lee, founder of Fundstrat Global Advisors. “The respiratory risks
from poor air quality, might also make India more vulnerable to
airborne diseases like COVID-19,” Lee wrote in commentary.The country is
also struggling with a “double-mutant” COVID variant, that seems far
more infectious than the original virus. Called the B.1.617 strain, the
new variant has two spike proteins instead of one. The World Health
Organization said earlier this week that the variant has now been found
in at least 17 countries.The White House said it would restrict travel
from India starting May 4 on the advice of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.“The policy will be implemented in light of
extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants
circulating in the India,” the government said in a statement.Elsewhere,
Brazil’s death toll rose above 400,000 on Friday, the second highest in
the world after the U.S. Latin America is another hot spot in the
pandemic, accounting for 35% of all deaths in the latest week, according
to the New York Times, despite being home to just 8% of the world’s
population.Like Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi, Brazilian President
Jair Bolsonaro has been widely criticized for his blasé approach to the
crisis, and is now the subject of a Senate inquiry. Bolsonaro has long
played down the severity of the crisis, has ridiculed people for wearing
face masks and resisted lockdown measures.On Friday, WHO
Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus held a joint news conference
with Marcelo Queiroga, Brazil’s health minister, and Dr. Carissa
Etienne, a WHO regional director. Queiroga called on other countries to
share vaccine supply, “so we can broaden our vaccination campaign and
contain the pandemic at this critical time and avoid the proliferation
of new variants.”The U.S. vaccine program, meanwhile, continues to show
good progress. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine
tracker is showing that as of 6.00 a.m. ET Thursday, 305.5 million doses
had been delivered to states, 237.4 million doses had been
administered, and 143.8 million people had received at least one shot,
equal to 43.3% of the population.More than 100 million people are now
fully vaccinated, it was reported Friday at the White House’s daily
pandemic briefing, though some are in the two-week period after
vaccination during which protective antibodies are believed to develop.
That’s equal to 30% of the population. These Americans have received two
shots of the two-dose vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc. PFE, +0.13%
with German partner BioNTech SE BNTX, +4.80% or by Moderna Inc. MRNA,
+1.79% or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson JNJ, -0.90% single-dose
vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine, in use in other parts of the world,
has not been authorized for use in the U.S.Among Americans 65 and older,
37.4 million people are fully vaccinated, equal to 68.4% of that group.
Almost 45 million people in that age bracket have received a first jab,
covering 82% of that population.
US to restrict travel from
India over COVID starting Tuesday-Nation will bar entry to most
foreigners who’ve been to India in past 14 days, amid massive surge of
infections-By Zeke Miller, DARLENE SUPERVILLE and Matthew Lee-MAY
1,21-Today, 6:46 am
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will
restrict travel from India starting Tuesday, the White House said
Friday, citing a devastating rise in COVID-19 cases in the country and
the emergence of potentially dangerous variants of the coronavirus.White
House press secretary Jen Psaki said President Joe Biden’s
administration made the determination on the advice of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.Biden signed a proclamation barring entry
to most foreigners who have been in India in the past 14 days, with
exceptions for legal permanent residents, spouses and close family
members of US citizens, and some others. He cited the spread of the
virus and its variants.“The CDC advises, based on work by public health
and scientific experts, that these variants have characteristics of
concern, which may make them more easily transmitted and have the
potential for reduced protection afforded by some vaccines,” Biden said
in the proclamation.He said the CDC has concluded that “proactive
measures” are needed to protect public health from travelers from
India.In this photo provided by the US Air Force, a C-5M Super Galaxy,
carrying critical medical supplies, takes off Wednesday, April 28, 2021,
from Travis Air Force Base, California, for a non-stop flight to India
(Cameron Otte/US Air Force via AP-With 386,452 new cases, India now has
reported more than 18.7 million since the pandemic began, second only to
the United States. The country’s Health Ministry on Friday also
reported 3,498 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to
208,330. Experts believe both figures are an undercount.Biden spoke
Monday with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the growing health
crisis and pledged to immediately send assistance. This week, the US
began delivering therapeutics, rapid virus tests and oxygen to India,
along with some materials needed for India to boost its domestic
production of COVID-19 vaccines. Additionally, a CDC team of public
health experts was expected to be on the ground soon to help Indian
health officials move to slow the spread of the virus.Vice President
Kamila Harris, who is of Indian descent, called the situation in India a
“great tragedy” and said she hadn’t spoken to any of her relatives
still living there since the news of the travel ban was made public. She
emphasized America’s “longstanding, decades-long relationship” with the
country in speaking about the US aid to help alleviate some of the
crisis there.US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to the media on
India, prior to boarding Air Force Two, April 30, 2021, at
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, in Hebron, Kentucky,
on return to Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)“We have a
responsibility as the United States, and particularly with people we
have partnered with over the years, to step up when people are in a time
of need,” she said.The White House waited on the CDC recommendation
before moving to restrict travel, noting that the US already requires
negative tests and quarantines for all international travelers. Other
restrictions are in place on travel from China, Iran, the European
Union, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Brazil and South Africa, which are
or have been hotspots for the coronavirus.There was no immediate comment
on the new limits from the State Department, which on Thursday reissued
a warning to Americans against traveling to India and said those
already in the country should consider leaving by commercial means. That
warning was accompanied by a notice that the department was telling the
families of all US government employees at its embassy in New Delhi and
four consulates in India that they could leave the country at
government expense.US diplomatic facilities in India have not been
immune from the pandemic and a handful of local staff have died from the
virus. Several dozen other local and US staffers have been sickened by
COVID-19, according to officials who were not authorized to discuss
personal matters publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The State
Department has declined to comment on the number of staff affected,
citing security and privacy concerns.But even as the US boosts pandemic
assistance to India and allows some of its diplomatic families to come
home, other aspects of the relationship continue unhampered.Just minutes
after the White House released the new travel restrictions, the State
Department said it had approved more than $2.4 billion in arms sales to
India, which the US believes will be a critical counterbalance to China
in the Indo-Pacific region.The sale includes six Boeing P-8I patrol
aircraft and related technology to be used for surveillance. The
department said the deal “will support the foreign policy and national
security of the United States by helping to strengthen the US-Indian
strategic relationship and to improve the security of a major defensive
partner, which continues to be an important force for political
stability, peace, and economic progress in the Indo-Pacific and South
Asia region.”
Berlin bans annual Quds Day march that protests
Israel-Jewish and pro-Israel groups have tried for years to have the
march banned as a purely antisemitic demonstration-By JTA-MAY
1,21-Today, 5:31 am
Berlin banned the annual anti-Israel Quds Day
march this year, the first time the city has taken a stand against the
event since it became a local tradition in 1996.Quds Day, which protests
the establishment of the state of Israel, was established in 1979 by
Iran’s leader Ayatollah Khomeini. Since then, his followers have marked
the day in cities around the world with large Muslim populations, during
or shortly after Ramadan.Jewish and pro-Israel groups have tried for
years to have the march banned as a purely antisemitic demonstration. It
is illegal in Germany to call for the destruction of
Israel.“Participants unscrupulously exploit freedom of expression and
assembly to spread their hatred,” Josef Schuster, head of the Central
Council of Jews in Germany, told the Judische Allgemeine
newspaper.Germany designated the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group as a
terrorist organization last year, and Schuster added that the move
“should make it easier to ban the Quds march, because the connection to
the banned Hezbollah is obvious.” In 2016, Berlin barred Quds Day
marchers from carrying Hezbollah flags, saying the image of an upraised
assault weapon is a call for genocide.Since 1996, Berlin’s annual
demonstration has attracted between 300 and 1,000 Islamists. Men and
women march separately.According to the Judische Allegemeine Zeitung,
several Palestinian groups were among the 2,000 people who had
registered to attend the event scheduled for May 8. Last year’s march
was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
US Jewish day schools
struggle with celebrating Lag B’Omer amid Meron tragedy-Balancing
hardship and happiness is difficult, one teacher says, ‘but we’re kind
of used to it, Jewish people’-By Ben Sales-MAY 1,21-Today, 4:37 am
JTA
— After months of distanced learning, Sharon Levin was excited for her
school to celebrate Lag B’Omer together on Friday with a day of outdoor
activities.The spring holiday, which is popular among students at Jack
M. Barrack Hebrew Academy near Philadelphia, was to include a picnic, a
bonfire and a mini-color war, or tournament where students in blue and
students in white faced off against each other in a variety of games.
Levin, the head of school, had enjoyed having all her kids back on the
school’s campus for Israeli Independence Day a couple weeks ago, and was
looking forward to another holiday.Then, Thursday night, she heard the
horrific news: At least 45 people had died in a stampede at a massive
Lag B’Omer celebration in Israel’s Mount Meron. Like Jewish day school
leaders across the country, Levin was faced with a vexing dilemma. Was
it possible to address the tragedy while still having a celebration,
especially in a difficult year like this one?“In our Jewish community,
we can barely ever come up for breath,” Levin said Friday.“Here we are
right now going through school in the midst of a pandemic,” she added.
“What do you do as the head of school with a joyous Lag B’Omer
celebration? How do you acknowledge and commemorate what just happened
in Israel?Across the US, Jewish day school heads answered that question
in largely the same way. Five administrators who spoke with the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency Friday all said they let the festivities go on, but
all made sure to include an acknowledgment of the tragedy. A few of them
said that, unfortunately, they’ve had experience mixing joy and
sadness, particularly when it comes to discussing Israel.“Tragedy and
happiness can live side by side, although that’s a difficult balance,”
said Tamar Cytryn, director of Jewish studies and campus life at Chicago
Jewish Day School. “But we’re kind of used to it, Jewish people.”Like
Levin, Cytryn felt that students would gain more from celebrating than
from transforming a happy day into an entirely somber one.“It’s
challenging — you have to think about creating an environment where
students connect and understand that something big and something tragic
happened,” she said. “But also ask yourself if canceling connects them
more or serves a stronger purpose.”In the end, her school did not
cancel. Her students, like many others, recited Psalms on behalf of the
victims, a traditional Jewish response to tragedy. Cytryn’s school also
had Israeli emissaries talk at a schoolwide assembly about how they were
feeling.At Barrack in Philadelphia, students wrote get-well-soon cards
for the more than 100 people wounded in the stampede, and gave charity.
At a few schools, they chanted a traditional prayer for healing or said
the Mourner’s Kaddish prayer.Then the students took part in the rest of
the day’s programming: arts and crafts, color wars, (supervised)
bonfires, song and dance.“We helped students work through their emotions
of why bad things happen to good people and used these tragedies as a
moment to reflect and teach,” said Vanessa Donaher, head of school at
Scheck Hillel Community School in North Miami Beach, Florida. “From a
religious perspective, it’s difficult for students and adults alike to
understand why these things happen in the world.”In Israel, on Sunday,
schools across the country are going to begin their day by discussing
the tragedy, according to a directive sent on Friday by the Education
Ministry.At Jewish schools in the US, the response varied by grade.
Administrators of elementary schools said that their teachers did not
discuss the tragedy unless a student asked about it.In middle and high
schools, where students are expected to be aware of the news, schools
alternated between discussing the facts of the tragedy and talking about
how to help victims and process grief.“The seventh and eighth grade,
especially, came in having seen it,” said Jody Passanisi, director of
the middle school at Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto,
California. “Many of them had questions and were wondering what
happened, in terms of the tragic part but also, how did people get
there? What was the tradition?”High school students had the harrowing
experience of wondering whether older friends of theirs spending a gap
year in Israel were at the stampede. Donaher said that about half of her
graduating seniors spend a year in Israel, and that she first checked
whether any of them were at Meron before she then asked whether any
alumni of other schools had been ther.All of Donaher’s students were
safe, but that wasn’t the case for everyone. One of the victims was
Donny Morris, a 19-year-old from New Jersey studying in an Israeli
yeshiva this year. Rabbi Bini Krauss, principal of Salanter Akiba
Riverdale Academy in New York City, said that his son, who is also
studying at an Israeli yeshiva this year, knew Morris through
friends.“It’s very painful to know you have kids who spent their year in
Israel who aren’t coming back,” he said. “He’s devastated.”
16
still hospitalized after Meron tragedy; condition of 11-year-old boy
improve-Rambam Medical Center in Haifa says child has been taken off
ventilator and is no longer sedated; identification of fatalities set to
resume Saturday evening-By TOI staff-MAY 1,21-Today, 12:01 pm
Sixteen
people remained hospitalized on Saturday morning after the deadly
stampede at Meron, with a number of them in critical or serious
condition.However, there has been an improvement in the condition of an
11-year-old boy who was seriously injured, the Rambam Medical Center in
Haifa announced.A spokesperson for the hospital said the child was
sedated and put on a ventilator when he arrived at the medical center on
Friday, but has now regained consciousness. His condition has been
upgraded to moderate, they said.The boy, who wasn’t named, is from the
central city of Bnei Brak.The hospital said three other people injured
in the crush remained in their intensive care unit and were still
sedated and on ventilators. Those injured in the stampede were taken to a
number of hospitals around the country.With 45 dead and dozens injured,
the disaster in the early hours of Friday appeared to be one of the
worst peacetime tragedies in Israel’s history, surpassing the death toll
of 44 from the 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire.There have now been 32
victims identified at the Abu Kabir Forensic Center in Tel Aviv.The
institute halted the identification process on Friday evening, following
a ruling from the chief rabbi that it could not continue on the
Sabbath. It was set to resume on Saturday evening.More than 100,000
people were attending the annual gathering in the northern Galilee,
which includes visits to the gravesite of the second-century sage Rabbi
Shimon Bar Yochai and massive bonfires on the mountainside.A bonfire
lighting ceremony for the Toldot Aharon Hasidic sect was being held at
the pilgrimage area, close to Bar Yochai’s tomb.As the dense crowds
began to exit, some apparently slipped on the walkway, falling on those
below and precipitating a stampede and fatal crushing, exacerbated by a
reported police barrier at the bottom of the incline.Pictures from the
scene showed bodies covered in blankets and bags as well as the personal
effects and shoes of those trapped in the crush.As the initial shock
and horror over the deadly crush began to subside, focus started to turn
on Friday toward the matter of who was to blame for the packed
conditions at the site that led to the deaths of 45 people and the
injuring of dozens of others in the fatal stampede.Stark questions will
likely be directed at political, civil and law enforcement officials
involved in planning, approving and securing the event, amid talk of a
potential state commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate the
disaster.
Death trap’: Packed walkway, slippery metal floor – how
Meron tragedy unfolded-Fatal crushing occurred as large numbers of
ultra-Orthodox participants moved through narrow passageway, on an
incline, on the exit route from the pilgrimage site-By Raoul Wootliff-30
April 2021, 11:47 am
The roads to Mount Meron in northern Israel
began to fill with traffic early Thursday afternoon as tens of
thousands of people made their way to the pilgrimage site said to be the
burial place of the famed 2nd Century sage and mystic, Rabbi Shimon Bar
Yochai, who is reputed to have died on Lag B’Omer.Last year, the
government ordered police to seal off the site for the duration of the
Lag B’Omer festival to prevent gatherings amid fears of a fresh outbreak
of the coronavirus.This year’s celebration of Lag B’Omer — which among
other traditions commemorates the end of another plague some 2,000 years
ago, that which saw the deaths of 24,000 followers of Rabbi Akiva — was
the first major public gathering allowed since the start of the
pandemic, with most major restrictions now removed due to the success of
Israel’s vaccination drive.By nightfall Thursday, when Lag B’Omer
bonfires are traditionally lit, an estimated 25,000 people, mainly
ultra-Orthodox pilgrims, had gathered at the tomb, Israel’s second most
visited pilgrimage site after Jerusalem’s Western Wall.That number,
according to media reports, steadily rose in the subsequent hours until
swelling by midnight to over 100,000, according to some
estimates.-Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews celebrate during a Lag
B’Omer gathering on Mount Meron in northern Israel on April 29, 2021
(David Cohen/Flash90)-It was among those mass crowds, as the main
bonfire lighting event ended, that a deadly crushing stampede occurred,
causing one of the worst peacetime disasters in Israel’s history.At
least 44 people were crushed to death and more than 150 people hurt,
including many in critical condition.The incident took place shortly
after a bonfire lighting ceremony for the Toldot Aharon Hassidic sect
held at the pilgrimage area, close to Bar Yochai’s tomb.Video from the
celebration showed tens of thousands of people in the makeshift arena,
dancing and jumping up and down on the stands to music.But at the end of
the ceremony, as the dense crowds began to exit, some 20,000 people
streamed down a narrow, steep walkway toward the exit of the site.Video
of the walkway, moments before the deadly crush, shows thousands of
people packed together, with some visibly carried off their feet as the
crowd moved through the passage.According to reports, the ground of the
walkway was covered with slick metal flooring that may have been wet,
causing some people to fall underfoot during the rush for the exit.Some
apparently fell on the walkway and down a flight of stairs at its end,
toppling onto those below and precipitating a stampede and fatal
crushing domino effect.Eyewitnesses accused police of blocking a key
exit route at the bottom of the narrow walkway, which had for years been
seen as a dangerous potential bottleneck.“There’s an aluminum-floored
walkway, then a stairway, and then there was a barrier,” said Eli
Pollack, the head of the United Hatzalah emergency rescue service. “It
was a death trap.”It wasn’t immediately clear why police may have
prevented some people from leaving the scene as the disaster began to
unfold — a move which would have reduced pressure on the packed crowd —
but officers were apparently unaware of the severity of the situation
and were trying to keep some areas clear of congregants.Footage from the
scene shows police at one point ripping off metal barriers in order to
enable people to escape and to widen the passageway.Witnesses and
survivors described the panic and the fear amid the stampede, with many
struggling for breath, trapped next to the dead, and waiting long
minutes for rescue.“We were walking out, everything was flowing,
suddenly it stopped,” a survivor identified as Zohar told Channel 12.
“Everyone was pressed up against each other and we did not understand
why. I lifted up my head and I saw police blocking the entrance, I
shouted to them ‘people are dying here.’”Another survivor said from a
hospital bed that he slipped on the walkway before being trampled. He
was trapped under the crowd for some 10 minutes before first responders
cleared the crowd and began treating him, he said.“I felt someone push
me, he just wanted to move, he punched me. I felt that I couldn’t
breathe,” the man told the Kan public broadcaster. “No one knew what to
do.”“It started with very heavy crowding. There were a lot of people on
top of me. I was lying on someone else who wasn’t breathing. There were
screams, chaos. I saw children underneath me. The only thing going
through my mind was that I didn’t want my child to be an orphan.”Times
of Israel staff contributed to this report.
History, mystery, and
occult converge in King David’s fabled tomb-In Jerusalem’s City of
David, visitors find ancient Roman burial caves, an historic
19th-century Jewish home and the site of shadowy excavations said to
produce biblical treasures-By Aviva and Shmuel Bar-Am-MAY 1,21Today,
8:10 am
Were it not for an eccentric Finn and a former officer in
the British army, King David’s family tombs might never have been
found. No, we don’t mean the tomb on Mount Zion, whose doubtful sighting
is based on Christian traditions from the Middle Ages. Rather, we are
referring to a group of tunnels and caves in the City of David that more
closely fit the biblical description. These were uncovered during
excavations adjacent to Beit Meyuhas, a 19th-century house built by one
of the first Jews to move outside the walls of the Old City.It all
started when Valter Henrik Juvelius met Captain Montague Parker.
Juvelius was a Finnish surveyor, poet and philosopher who wrote his
doctoral thesis on Jewish chronology. Obsessed with the possibility of
locating the lost Holy Ark and Temple treasures, he planned to bring an
expedition to the Land of Israel in their pursuit. Parker loved the
idea.Parker was a rich, noble, and possibly bored British ex-army
captain. According to some accounts, before his departure, Parker
attended a séance at which, in perfect English, King Solomon told him
where to look.Some say that Juvelius claimed to have read a secret book
in an even more secret library which revealed the location of the
treasures. Others, like lecturer Tal Chenya, say that Juvelius claimed
his unique way of reading between the lines of the Bible would divulge
the site.Parker and Juvelius collected over $100,000 from supporters of
their quest. They then bribed Turkish government officials into
obtaining permission from the Jerusalem Pasha to dig in what we today
call the City of David.Living there already was Rahamim Nathan Meyuhas, a
butcher whose family had found its way to Jerusalem from Spain in 1510.
The slaughterhouse he used for his animals operated before dawn and was
located outside the Old City, where Meyuhas lived with his family.
Since the doors of the Old City only opened when the sun rose, he
decided to move outside the walls.In 1873 he picked a location known as
the City of David, where there were few houses. Across the Kidron river
bed in Silwan there was Arab settlement, but the Meyuhas family would be
alone in the first Jewish home to be built in the area. For water they
had the Shiloah, or Siloam Spring, and they grew all of the vegetables
they ate.We got a look at the historic Meyuhas house on a tour with
Chenya, who guides regularly at the City of David. He told us that warm
and friendly relationships sprang up between the Arabs and their Jewish
neighbors across the way. Happy occasions like weddings and holidays
were always celebrated together, with the Jews bringing matzah to the
Arabs on Passover, and the Arabs big trays of honey to the Jews. For
their weddings, the Arabs even made sure the Meyuhas family would have
kosher food.Juvelius and Parker arrived in 1909, hired several hundred
Arab workers, and fenced off an area in the City of David not far from
the Meyuhas house. Then they began to dig.At one point Jerusalem’s Jews
began to wonder what kind of shady happenings were taking place beyond
the fence. Baron Edmund de Rothschild — a banker philanthropist who
founded many an early settlement in the Land of Israel — got wind of
their activities. Worried that Solomon’s crown and other treasures could
end up in the hands of non-Jews, he decided to buy the property on
which the excavations were taking place.Parker was convinced that the
treasures were actually somewhere on the Temple Mount. In 1911, when it
became obvious that the adventure was coming to an end, he bribed the
guard at the Temple Mount to look the other way. And one dark night when
no one was supposed to be about, Parker and his crew dressed up as
Muslims and began digging beneath the Dome of the Rock — the stone
believed by some to hold up the world.Unfortunately for Parker, they
were not alone for long. That night an Arab Jerusalemite held a party
and had so many guests that he had to find himself another place to
sleep. He picked the Temple Mount, and after climbing up was shocked and
startled to find people digging away under the stone.As he screamed for
help Parker and his associates fled from the spot, making it all the
way to Jaffa. Unfortunately for them, the telegraph had already been
invented and Jaffa gendarmes had instructions to search their
luggage.Parker wasn’t fazed for a minute. He invited the police to his
yacht, where, he said, they could go through his bags in comfort. Then,
Parker loaded the boat with a number of sacks and dashed off before the
gendarmes arrived. Contemporary newspaper accounts related that he did
make off with some fabulous treasures, from Solomon’s crown to Moses’
staff.In 1913, Baron Rothschild asked archeologist Raymond Weill to
excavate the property that he now owned in the City of David. Weill, the
first Jewish archeologist to conduct excavations in Palestine, made two
major discoveries. The first was an inscription discovered deep in a
cistern. Written in Greek, it belonged to a synagogue over 2,000 years
old.The inscription is attributed to Theodotos, a Jewish priest who was
the head of the synagogue. It speaks of a synagogue founded by his
forefathers where Jewish law was read and the Bible’s commandments
taught. Also mentioned are a guest room, an inn, and water facilities. A
copy of the inscription can be seen next to the caves today.The second
discovery was made on the slopes above the Siloam Pool: a Roman quarry
next to a group of caves assumed to have been used for burial. According
to the Bible, King David was buried “in the City of David” (1 Kings
2:10). Of course, we can’t know today what royal tombs looked like in
David’s time. However, the Book of Nehemiah, written in the 5th century
BCE, places them just about where Weill discovered the caves.Once Jews
began returning to Jerusalem from their exile in Babylon, they began
repairing the walls of the city: “Shallun… repaired the wall of the Pool
of Siloam… as far as the steps going down from the City of David…
Nehemiah son of Azbuk… made repairs up to a point opposite the tombs of
David.” (Nehemiah 3:15)Following Weill’s discovery, and as excavations
continued at the end of World War I, the Meyuhas family was asked to
leave so that workers could dig under their home. They left, but the
house remained standing. Later on, Arabs moved into the City of
David.After Rothschild passed away in 1934, the property he had
purchased was transferred to the Jewish National Fund (JNF).Entrance to
the City of David is NIS 28; half price for seniors, children and
soldiers. While you can just appear at the ticket window, it is better
to reserve in advance by calling (in Israel) 02-626-8700 or *6033, or
visiting the City of David website.Aviva Bar-Am is the author of seven
English-language guides to Israel.Shmuel Bar-Am is a licensed tour guide
who provides private, customized tours in Israel for individuals,
families and small groups.
Paris to name a street for Sarah
Halimi in Jewish Quarter-‘It will be a way of achieving justice for
her,’ says mayor following rally by some 20,000 people against ruling by
France’s highest court not to prosecute Jewish woman’s killer-By Cnaan
Liphshiz-MAY 1,21-Today, 8:09 am
JTA — Paris will soon inaugurate
in its historic Jewish quarter a street named for Sarah Halimi, Mayor
Anne Hidalgo said amid protests over authorities’ handling of the
killing.Hidalgo made the announcement on Sunday following a rally by
about 20,000 people, mostly Jews, who demonstrated against the April 14
ruling by France’s highest court on the 2017 slaying.“We need to honor
Sarah Halimi’s memory. And that’s what we’ll do,” Hidalgo said in a
statement, France3 reported Tuesday. “There will be a Sarah Halimi
Street. It will be a way of achieving justice for her.”The street will
be in the 4th District, also known as the Marais, which before the
Holocaust was the heart of Jewish life in Paris.Halimi’s killer, a
31-year-old Muslim man with a history of antisemitic behavior, will not
stand trial because the high court ruled that the marijuana he had
smoked before the murderous attack made him temporarily psychotic.
Previous rulings had found that the killer, Kobili Traore, was motivated
partly by his hatred of Jews.In 2011, Paris inaugurated a memorial
garden for Ilan Halimi, a French Jew (not related to Sarah) who in 2006
was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a gang of criminals because he
was Jewish. Jihadist literature and Hamas propaganda were retrieved at
the homes of some of the conspirators. The gang’s leader was given a
life sentence and more than a dozen others were sent to prison.
Yemen officials: Heavy flooding from seasonal rains kills 13-AHMED AL-HAJ-Sat, May 1, 2021, 5:54 AM
SANAA,
Yemen (AP) — Floods swept through parts of Yemen amid heavy seasonal
rains, leaving at least 13 people dead, including two children, security
officials said Saturday.Fatalities were reported in the provinces of
Sanaa, Ibb, Shabwa and Hodeida, where it began raining late last month,
the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they
were not authorized to brief the media.Heavy rains also pelted the
provinces of Aden, Taiz and Hadramawt, where flooding damaged houses and
vehicles, they said. Rescuers managed to save some residents trapped in
their cars.Yemen’s National Meteorological Center issued statements in
recent days warning Yemenis to stay away from flood ducts in affected
areas and to take necessary precautions. Yemen’s rainy season runs from
April through August.Last year, flooding in Yemen left dozens dead and
forced tens of thousands to leave their homes.The Arab world’s poorest
country is divided between Houthi rebels in the north and an
internationally recognized government in the south.
