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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, March 13, 2020

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Illustrative: Maccabi Tel Aviv basketball team players raise the championship plate after defeating Hapoel Holon at the final of the Israeli Basketball Premier League in Tel Aviv, June 14, 2018 (Roy Alima/Flash90)

Synagogues keep 100-person limit; Western Wall open as usual

Israel’s sports events scrapped, cops clamp down on gatherings as virus spreads

Man who was in serious condition now breathing independently; all soccer and basketball events canceled; schools stay shut; IDF further restricts personnel

Illustrative: Jewish ultra-Orthodox girls wear face masks during celebrations of the Jewish festival of Purim in Bnei Brak, Israel, March 10, 2020 (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Virus cases hit 127 as synagogues curb prayer; schools, hotels and theaters shut

Students arrive to Hadar Elementary School in Kfar Yona, on March 12, 2020. (Chen Leopold/Flash90)

Israel closes schools, universities as Netanyahu issues dire coronavirus warning

The Western Wall and Temple Mount, viewed from the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, March 13, 2020 (LH/Times if Israel)

Reporter's notebook

Jerusalem muted, a little bereft, on 1st Friday of the ‘keep your distance’ era

At the Western Wall, only a few were at prayer; kids were neither in school nor out and about; at least the rival protesters in Paris Square were reassuringly present

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks past people praying at the nearly deserted Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City on March 12, 2020. (Emmanuel Dunand/AFP)

Israel’s chief rabbis call on Jews to avoid visiting the Western Wall

Jerusalem's Nofim Tower sheltered living facility. (Courtesy)

Jerusalem assisted living facility in lockdown after social worker infected

In this photo taken March 12, 2020, an elderly woman wearing a mask waits to enter a deli meat and cold cuts shop in Codogno, Italy. The northern Italian town that recorded Italy’s first coronavirus infection has offered a virtuous example to fellow Italians, now facing an unprecedented nationwide lockdown. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Reporter's notebook

At a center of global pandemic, Italy’s Jews contemplate Passover under lockdown

By Giovanni Vigna

Analysis

As virus cases swell, Israel’s hospitals gird for feared deluge of patients

From designating special coronavirus-only hospitals to relying on robots, professionals are looking at effective ways to keep the health system running without endangering staff

Workers at a building at Sheba-Tel HaShomer Hospital which was converted into a coronavirus isolation unit, on February 20, 2020. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

A Magen David Adom paramedic wearing protective gear as a preventive measure against the coronavirus, outside a special emergency call center in Kiryat Ono, February 26, 2020. (Flash90)

MDA: We’ll reduce ER traffic by a third so hospitals can cope with coronavirus

By Nathan Jeffay

The empty departure hall at the Ben Gurion International Airport on March 11, 2020. (Flash90)

El Al halting flights to most areas of the world as virus shuts down tourism

By Luke Tress and ToI Staff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem on March 12, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Analysis

Bleak and worried, Netanyahu implies virus could kill tens of millions worldwide

Closing schools, telling Israelis to stay away from each other, and urging an emergency government, PM likens coronavirus to Spanish flu of 1918, which killed up to 50 million

Illustrative: IDF reservists patrolling along the Lebanese border near the Israeli village of Zar'it. (Roy Sharon/Flash90)

IDF cancels all exercises for reservists amid coronavirus fears

By Judah Ari Gross

Leader of Israel's Blue and White electoral alliance Benny Gantz speaks during a press conference in the southern Israeli town of Sderot on the border with Gaza on February 24, 2020. (Jack GUEZ / AFP)

Gantz says coronavirus above politics, calls to mobilize IDF to manage crisis

By Raoul Wootliff

Illustration: People wear facial masks to protect against infection (iStock by Getty Images)

Analysis

Jessica Steinberg

Under quarantine? Here are 10 ways to cope with being cooped up

As more Israelis enter 14 days of isolation, a host of suggestions for how to stay sane

Worshipers at the Western Wall on March 10, 2020. (Jacob Magid/Times of Israel)

Reporter's notebookTo kiss or not to kiss: The question for Old City pilgrims amid virus outbreak

Empty ticket selling booths are seen as a couple buys discounted Broadway theater tickets at the TKTS kiosk, March 11, 2020, in New York's Times Square. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

The show does not go on: Coronavirus brings entertainment world to a standstill

A letter to my children during a pandemic

We are warned not to embrace even the friend, but I must embrace you. I can’t keep the world safe, but I can be there for you.

Rachel Sharansky Danziger

The intimacy that is yet to come

I’m already thinking of my future nostalgia: ’Remember how we’d sit together in a room, unafraid? How we’d let the toddlers run around, touching everyone, boogers and all?’

Time is running out – we must protect our elders

Our national disaster response proposal, ’Honor Your Father and Mother’ (and your grandparents), aims to protect everyone over the age of 70

Meredith Berkman

The last bat mitzvah party

Living in close community, I told my daughter, may make us more vulnerable at this moment, but always remember it is the source of our strength

The moment the Jews sabotaged their relationship with God

If you had heard the Ten Commandments yourself, there’s no way you would have worshiped the Golden Calf a few days later

How to turn your home into your synagogue

Before we start Kabbalat Shabbat every Friday night my 4-year-old son announces ’The African shul is starting in five minutes!’

Explainer

Coronavirus in Israel: All you need to know

Answers to questions on the restrictions imposed to fight the spread of the virus, testing, symptoms, quarantine and more

Coronavirus in Israel (Photo: Flash90)

Israelis take part in celebrations marking 71st Independence Day, in Jerusalem on May 8, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Independence Day events to be called off amid scramble to contain coronavirus

The outdoor areas of the Tower of David Museum at the Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem's Old City make it a easier to visit during the restrictions necessitated by the 2020 coronavirus (Courtesy Tower of David Museum)

Israel’s museums stay open, but with limits; special events canceled

By Jessica Steinberg

US President Donald Trump (L) shakes hands before a dinner with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago, March 7, 2020, in Palm Beach, Florida. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Aide to Brazil president tests positive for coronavirus after meeting Trump

By ToI Staff and Agencies

Fabio Wajngarten confirmed to carry virus after returning from Mar-a-Lago and posing for a photo next to US president, VP Pence

Democratic presidential candidate former US Vice President Joe Biden speaks about the coronavirus, March 12, 2020, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP/Matt Rourke)

Biden says Trump response to coronavirus has left US ‘woefully unprepared’

By Bill Barrow and Randall Chase

In this Sept. 11, 2019, file photo, Minister in charge of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games Seiko Hashimoto speaks during a press conference at the prime minister's official residence in Tokyo (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)

Japanese Olympic minister shoots down Trump’s proposal to postpone games

A woman has her temperature checked and her hands disinfected as she enters the Palladium Shopping Center in northern Tehran, Iran, March 3, 2020. (Vahid Salemi/AP)

Top Iranian cleric okays buying future Israeli coronavirus vaccine

Naser Makarem Shirazi, 93, a Holocaust-denying hardliner and one of the highest religious authorities in Iran, says using vaccine made by ‘Zionists’ okay if ‘there’s no substitute’

People wear masks to help guard against the Coronavirus on a street in downtown Tehran, Iran, February 23, 2020. (Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)

Iran accuses US of ‘economic terrorism,’ urges end to sanctions

By AP and ToI Staff

Fighters from the Kataeb Hezbollah, or Hezbollah Brigades militia, inspect the destruction at their headquarters in the aftermath of a US airstrike in Qaim, Iraq, December 30, 2019. (AP)

US bombs Iran-backed Iraqi militia in response to deadly rocket attack

By AP

A general view of the Knesset in Jerusalem on December 11, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/AFP)

Gantz to try for control of Knesset Monday; Likud blasts move amid virus crisis

Blue and White plans vote to replace Speaker Edelstein in power play against PM; premier’s party decries actions as disgraceful as country deals with ‘national emergency’

Coronavirus crisisNetanyahu, Gantz discuss creation of emergency unity government

By Joshua Davidovich and Michael Bachner

Israel media reviewNot without my Joint List: 7 things to know for March 13

By Joshua Davidovich

Gesher’s Levy-Abekasis calls for unity gov’t; won’t back any candidate for PM

People of the Pod

LISTEN: Quarantine in Israel — drastic? Or just what the doctors ordered

Episode #27: International relations expert Dr. Yonatan Freeman talks coronavirus preparedness * Ross Kriel, president of the Jewish Community of the Emirates, gets personal

International Fellowship of Christians and Jews founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and daughter Yael, the current organization head, with a view of the Jerusalem Old City. (Olivier Fitusi)

Times of Israel PodcastLISTEN: Fellowship of Christians & Jews CEO walks father’s path in her own shoes

By Amanda Borschel-Dan

After years of trolling the far right and Holocaust tourists, Shahak Shapira no longer feels at home in Germany. (Courtesy of Shapira/via JTA)

Interview

With the rise of German far-right, Israeli celeb in Berlin says it’s time to go

By Cnaan Liphshiz

A currency dealer wearing a face mask monitors exchange rates in a trading room at KEB Hana Bank in Seoul on March 13, 2020 (Jung Yeon-je / AFP)

Coronavirus sparks wild swings in global stock markets

By Richard Carter

Japan’s stock market plunges more than 10% at its low on Friday, following the worst day on Wall Street since the crash of 1987

A pair of traders work in their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, March 12, 2020. The deepening coronavirus crisis is sending stocks into another alarming slide on Wall Street, triggering a brief, automatic shutdown in trading for the second time this week. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Worst day on Wall Street since 1987 as virus fears spread

By STAN CHOE and ALEX VEIGA

In this Saturday, March 7, 2020 photo Arsenal's head coach Mikel Arteta reacts during the Premier League soccer match between Arsenal and West Ham at the Emirates Stadium in London. (AP/Matt Dunham)

Premier League soccer in doubt as Arsenal manager, Chelsea player catch virus

By AFP

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More Headlines

This Feb. 19, 2020 photo shows Carl Goldman in the biocontainment unit at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. (KHTS Radio via AP)

Despite fears and stigma, most recover from coronavirus illness

By Carla K. Johnson and Victoria Milko

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau talk prior to the beginning of a welcoming ceremony during the G7 Summit, Friday, June 8, 2018, in Charlevoix, Canada. (AP/Evan Vucci)

Canadian PM Trudeau in quarantine after wife tests positive for COVID-19

By AP

Eden had her braid measured to see if it was long enough to donate at Ophir Hashmonai's salon in Jerusalem (Jessica Steinberg/Times of Israel)

Israelis keep donating hair for cancer charity’s wig project

By Jessica Steinberg

Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a combined Senate Judiciary and Commerce committee hearing in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill April 10, 2018 in Washington, DC. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

In court, NSO Group accuses Facebook of lying, disregarding international law

Some 4.2 billion meals go into the garbage every year. (Courtesy Leket)

Israelis throw away 4.2 billion meals annually, while 400,000 families go hungry

Then US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) 2020 policy conference in Washington, DC, March 2, 2020. (AP/Jose Luis Magana)

Sixth person present at AIPAC conference diagnosed with coronavirus

A woman wears a mask amid coronavirus fears in New York, Jan. 30, 2020. (AP/Mark Lennihan)

Rabbis order synagogues closed in New Jersey county to stem virus spread

By ToI Staff and AP

Iman Khatib-Yassin (center), an Arab Israeli newly elected to the Knesset, speaks to supporters in the northern town of Kafr Kanna on March 4, 2020 (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Newly strengthened in Knesset, Arab women seek to expand their voice

By AFP and ToI Staff

Then-Islamic Jihad Deputy Secretary-General Ziad Nakhaleh delivering a speech on August 14, 2018. (Screenshot: Palestine Today)

Islamic Jihad chief meets Russian FM, thanks him for criticism of US plan

Alexander Leibman, a bus driver involved in a deadly accident on Highway 40 near Ben Gurion Airport, is escorted by a prison guard as he arrives at a court hearing in Rishon Lezion on December 23, 2019. (Flash90)

Driver indicted over bus crash near Ben Gurion Airport that killed 4

The US Capitol building, center, is seen next to the bottom part of the Washington Monument, left, before sunrise on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 19, 2019 (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

US Capitol closing to public until April 1 amid virus outbreak

A car drives along a flooded road in the northern Israeli city of Nahariya on January 8, 2020, after a river burst it banks. Some 40%, or 250 millimeters (9.8 inches), of the city's average annual rainfall fell from January 3 to 9, that year. (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)

Powerful storm set to batter Israel with 100-kph winds, massive flooding

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