Life
has taken us all for a bumpy ride. In Israel, it looks as if the ‘Corona Ride’
is starting to slow down and let us off. We open our doors and walk out a bit
dazed, weakened and unstable. We take the first few steps and feel uneasy,
insecure, almost incapable of returning to the same pace as we once knew.
But
that’s ok – the Israeli weather system has taken care of anyone’s desire to
move too fast. We are now in day eight of scorching temperatures that blister
in the mid-forties. Just yesterday, three people died from the heat. As
everyone cranks up the air conditioning, the electrical grid in Israel hit an
all-time high. Children, just returning to school after months of being at home
in quarantine, arrive with backpacks and face masks. Yet, because of the heat,
they are allowed to take off their masks in school.
Walking
down the simmering street in my mask yesterday, I felt as if I could faint, with
sweat beading and pooling inside the mask. I quickly did my errands then retreated
to the cool safety of home, my hiding place for the last few months.
Despite
the fear and anxiety surrounding COVID-19, the mystery villain hiding in
droplets emitted by coughs and lurking on door handles, gas pumps and the
buttons of bank machines, Israelis are overcoming the unknown in creative ways.
As the
world adapts to this new way of being, Israelis do so ‘Sabra style.’ My
daughter told me about the camp sites that popped up on lawns in her neighborhood
over Pesach. These families, whose tradition is to go camping on the Jordan River or beside Lake Kinneret, promised their kids a Passover camping trip. A
promise is a promise so the parents put up tents on their lawns and everyone slept
cozily outside their front doorstep.
Only
‘essential’ services were open. These included pharmacies, grocery stores, doctor’s
offices, delivery services and smoked herring. Herring? Seems like this is such
an important delicacy in Israel, it made the essential services list, with shmaltz
and pickled herring delivered to your door. Turns out that herring has selenium,
an important mineral that can help protect one from Coronavirus disease progression.
Entrepreneurs
did not miss a beat. When weddings were cancelled and postponed, an online
registry company, had a plunge in sales. But Bracha Lamm who owns La’Bayit
Gifts, decided to think out of the box. Since it was just before Pesach and
many families who had always had seders at their parents’ homes were now on
their own, Lamm switched to selling Passover items online. She was able to help
the suppliers who were stuck with a large inventory of items and connect them
with people who did not even own a seder plate.
A pastry
chef who specialized in weddings, workshops and festivals saw the same sudden
downturn. Suddenly she found herself at home with bored young boys. Inspired by
her own children who love baking, she invented a service where she provided a
box filled with ingredients and a recipe to families once a week. The next day,
she and her boys made a Zoom a class to bake the yummy recipe, sharing her knowledge
with kids all over central Israel.
An Israeli
robotics company called Robotican took
the Coronavirus issue to heart and developed a robot that can enter a patient’s
hospital room to check their vitals without the doctor having to make direct
contact.
Israel’s
Medtronic, a company that produces ventilators, decided to give away their blueprints
for free. With a demand in April for hundreds of thousands of machines, the
company decided that saving lives was the most important factor in this
emergency situation.
On May
4, the Corona ward at Shaarei Tzedek hospital closed as there were no more
patients. Nurses, doctors and secretaries celebrated, as seen in this sweet, heart-warming
video.
We pray this will soon end
across the world. During these hard times, there have been countless stories told
of charity, unity and creativity from every country affected. Governments in many
nations also rallied to the cause, offering assistance through money and loans.
Mired in political crisis after
a third election resulted in a deadlock, Israel did not even have a government during
Coronavirus. On May 17, after 508 days of infighting, the 35th
Knesset was finally sworn in among affable elbow knocking.
Speaking to family and
friends who live in other countries, I sadly realized that Israel was not in
the forefront of financial assistance. Far from it. The government offered empty promises to aid its citizens. Seeing the suffering of so many small businesses, I would call this negligence, creating an even bumpier ride for many. Yet perhaps this forced the people to
step up to the plate and, in true Israeli style, help themselves. It is the Israeli
people who are the true heroes of this harrowing ride.
