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Sue Surkes
Sue Surkes
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter.
A woman shops for matzah at a supermarket in Jerusalem on March 31, 2020. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)
April 2, 2020, 7:58 pm
Consumer council finds massive price differences in Passover products
With large price gaps between supermarkets for matzah and Passover items such as potato starch, consumers advised to compare prices, which, overall, are similar to last year’s
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative image of an elderly person with a cane. (oneinchpunch/ iStock by Getty Images)
April 1, 2020, 11:19 pm
COVID-19 is confining some of most vulnerable seniors indoors — at what cost?
CEO of JDC-Eshel, experts in the elderly population, sets out measures to protect susceptible population during and after the pandemic
By Sue Surkes
Coronavirus can pose special challenges for couples undergoing separation, or already divorced. (RomoloTavani/iStock/Getty Images)
March 31, 2020, 3:18 pm
Pandemic compounds challenges facing divorced and separating couples — mediator
Asnat Hacohen highlights issues ranging from the impact of job losses on alimony payments to worries about protecting children in the homes of ex-spouses who have new partners
By Sue Surkes
Some of the anti-coronavirus products available via the Tikkun Olam Movement. (Courtesy TOM - Tikkun Olam Makers)
March 31, 2020, 11:38 am
Israeli-created movement harnesses tech brains worldwide to fight coronavirus
Tikkun Olam Makers launches open database of prototypes and products; encourages engineers, designers, developers, to create affordable solutions for hospitals, households
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative photo of elderly residents in a nursing home. (Tsafrir Abayov/Flash90)
March 30, 2020, 3:27 pm
US Jewish foundation announces $4 million in COVID-19 funds for nonprofits
Baltimore-based Weinberg Foundation to immediately distribute $2.57 million, most of it in the US, with the rest to be allocated for coronavirus-related needs in coming months
By Sue Surkes
Attendees, including Holocaust survivors, at the Fifth World Holocaust Forum at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem on January 23, 2020. Their faces lined by age and haunting memories, about 100 Holocaust survivors joined political leaders in Jerusalem to recall the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp 75 years earlier. (Abir Sultan/Pool/AFP)
March 29, 2020, 10:26 pm
German foundation gives million euros to help Holocaust survivors amid pandemic
Berlin-based Alfred Landecker Foundation says survivors are particularly vulnerable in light of COVID-19, both to infection and to effects of self-isolation
By Sue Surkes
This abandoned dog recently found a new home. (Courtesy, Tel Aviv Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).
March 29, 2020, 8:18 pm
More pets abandoned, and more adopted, since coronavirus outbreak
Animal welfare organizations fear that many adopted animals will be returned to shelters once people return to work, school
By Sue Surkes
Israeli children watch as Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a live press conference on the new government restrictions for the public regarding the coronavirus COVID-19 on March 19, 2020. (Chen Leopold/Flash90)
March 28, 2020, 8:55 am
How to get through the virus lockdown with your marriage and family intact
A clinical psychologist and couples therapist gives some tips on how to survive under new pressures of pandemic rules
By Sue Surkes
A Ukrainian Jewish couple with food parcels provided by Christians for Israel. (Christians for Israel)
March 28, 2020, 1:24 am
In Ukraine, Christian group steps in to feed needy Jews confined by COVID-19
Dutch-based Christians for Israel planning to deliver more than 300,000 meals on wheels over next two months as country with poor medical infrastructure scrambles to contain virus
By Sue Surkes
Retired seniors have so much expertise to pass on, says Esther Hershcovich, an immigrant to Israel from Canada, who is launching the SAGE platform. (Zinkevych/iStock/Getty Images)
March 25, 2020, 4:49 pm
Israeli app taps the wisdom of elders for those stuck at home
Esther Hershcovich designed her English-language site while in COVID-19 quarantine. ‘Elderly have so much to teach. We have so much to learn, and now we have the time’
By Sue Surkes
A woman wearing protection mask looks on through the window, at San Martin nursing home, where several elderly people were infected by coronavirus in Vitoria, northern Spain, Thursday, March 19, 2020. Spain will mobilize 200 billion euros or the equivalent to one fifth of the country's annual output in loans, credit guarantees and subsidies for workers and vulnerable citizens, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced Tuesday. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some, it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos)
March 25, 2020, 5:42 am
Virus tears families apart as children strive to protect elderly by staying away
‘It dawned on me last night that I may never see, kiss or touch my sick father again before he dies,’ says one distraught daughter
By Sue Surkes
Leket Israel collected 2.2 million cooked meals from institutions in 2018 to donate to soup kitchens and charities across Israel, like this archive photo of volunteers collecting uneaten food from a hotel. (courtesy Leket Israel)
March 24, 2020, 6:47 pm
NGO that gives meals to schoolkids in need will deliver to homes amid pandemic
NEVET and Leket Israel join forces to provide pre-packaged hot meals, ensure deprived children and their families continue to benefit from nutritional food
By Sue Surkes
Illustrative picture of a lonely woman. (LSO photo/iStock/Getty images)
March 23, 2020, 7:31 pm
Calls to crisis hotline triple as Israelis reel from coronavirus travails
Eran organization says callers lonely, worried about money and fearful of how long situation will last; Arabic-language hotline launched to meet increasing demand
By Sue Surkes
A volunteer delivers a package of meals to an elderly resident of Tel Aviv, March 22, 2020. (Oded Karni, Government Press Office)
March 22, 2020, 7:26 pm
State distributes meals to 75,000 housebound elderly in expanding program
Social Welfare Ministry launches ‘unprecedented’ initiative to feed seniors stuck at home because of coronavirus
By Sue Surkes
Disasters apparently don't propel people to act against climate warming. Flooding in Nahariya, northern Israel, January 8, 2020. (Meir Vaknin/Flash90)
March 22, 2020, 4:31 am
Coronavirus kicks global warming off the public agenda
World’s focus on pandemic raises questions about climate change and why the public response to both has been so different
By Sue Surkes
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