ToI Community update — Editor’s Note: The wonderful world of yesterday * Community Zoom with Fauda creator * Podcast preview: A beautiful day in the sederhood

[The Times of Israel]( Dear Community members and Daily Edition readers, Professor and retired general Isaac Ben-Israel, a polymath with degrees in physics, mathematics and philosophy who heads Israel’s Space Agency, chairs the National Council for Research and Development, and runs the Security Studies program at Tel Aviv University, [appeared]( on Israeli television Monday night to present a provocative assessment of the battle against COVID-19. Ben-Israel is a brilliant, original and often maverick thinker, and his take on fighting the virus was sufficiently radical as to have Channel 12’s resident medical expert, the usually unflappable Prof. Gabi Barbash, almost tearing his hair out. A simple statistical study, said Ben-Israel, demonstrates that the virus has a life-span of about 70 days, peaking after about 40 — wherever it strikes in the world, and whatever measures are taken to try to thwart it. Thus, he went on, those countries that have shuttered large parts of their economies as part of their efforts to reduce contagion are causing vast and unnecessary damage. Isaac Ben-Israel (Photo credit: Courtesy) Ben-Israel and Barbash traded arguments and counter-arguments for a while. Ben-Israel was the calmer of the two but Barbash, a hospital director and former Health Ministry chief who dismissed the study as unfounded, was the more plausible, to this viewer at least. So incensed was Barbash by Ben-Israel’s presentation that he returned to the matter twice more in the course of the evening’s news broadcast, long after Ben-Israel had left the studio. “We’re going to be living with the coronavirus for the next year,” Barbash said at one point. And, at another: “I strongly urge that we not let mathematicians — who know nothing about biology — determine when we lift the lockdown.” The little national TV face-off emblemizes the deeply dismaying truth that months into this pandemic, and weeks into radically curtailed life as we know it on much of planet Earth, the people to whom we look for guidance — the experts, and the political leaders who hopefully at least try to make decisions on the basis of the experts’ wisdom — still cannot entirely pin down COVID-19. Less than a month ago, our prime minister was [warning]( that it could prove to be the greatest threat to humanity since the Middle Ages, and could kill tens of millions. Nobody, including Benjamin Netanyahu, is saying that anymore. But it has killed 100,000 worldwide, we’re still not sure if one can be reinfected after recovering from it, and we don’t know if it will fade away like SARS or prove seasonal. Medical workers treat a COVID-19 patient at the coronavirus unit in Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, Bnei Brak, April 13, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90) Netanyahu last night observed that “until a coronavirus vaccine is found, we are in one reality. Only when a coronavirus vaccine is found will we be able to move on to the world of tomorrow, which will be like the world of yesterday.” It wasn’t one of his most articulate summations (forgive him: He had on his mind an urgent ’emergency government’ that they’ve spent five weeks negotiating). But you get the point: Austria may today have begun leading the free world in moving gingerly out of lockdown, but we won’t know that we’ve conclusively beaten the virus until, well, we’ve conclusively beaten the virus. And that may be a long way off. As I [noted]( earlier this week, Israel seems to have defended against contagion relatively effectively, but there are abiding concerns about infection rates in the ultra-Orthodox and, maybe, Arab populations. Thousands of known carriers have not been evacuated from Bnai Brak and ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods in Jerusalem, to the frustration of the authorities. Locking down the high-incidence areas runs the risk of turning them into incubation centers; on the other hand, it’s hard to argue with infected parents of large families of young children who resist the authorities’ efforts to move them to state quarantine facilities. Sweden, with a similar sized population as ours, has had about eight times as many deaths to date, following a less restrictive lockdown policy. Britain, with almost seven times our populace, has 100 times as many deaths. Such superficial comparisons ignore innumerable contributory factors but they do give a sense of how much worse Israel’s situation could have been. Strikingly, in that regard, [figures]( released Monday show over 200 deaths — almost double the Israeli total — in Britain’s Jewish community, which numbers only some 300,000. Never has “the world of yesterday” looked more appealing. Wherever you are, be well. — We’ve been sending these weekly emails to ToI Community members and all Daily Edition readers lately, and we are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the Community as a consequence, and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. If you haven’t yet joined, [please do](! All Times of Israel content remains open to all readers. But if that content matters to you, do please support us — for as little as $6 a month. — Community podcast preview — WhyWhyWhy! presents: A beautiful day in the sederhood In this episode of the WhyWhyWhy! podcast, neighbors find their way out of isolation to join together (but not too close together) for a Passover seder. Emily Silverman, a Hebrew University professor, was inspired to propose the idea after she witnessed worshipers praying as an ad hoc congregation from their separate apartment balconies. Dizengoff square, Tel Aviv, April 11, 2020. (Miriam Alster/Flash90) Milton Roller brings yet another Egg Shortage story that progresses from the simple realization that you’ve got to crack a few eggs to make an omelette, through a dark dream about Boris Johnson’s teeth, and an even darker experience on the express checkout line at a supermarket. And Linda Lovitch, a communications consultant, finds herself nostalgic for the First Gulf War, a time when, like today, everyone had to stay home in close quarters — but human touch was not off limits! [Click here]( or on the image above to listen to the podcast, a collaboration between The Times of Israel and TLV1 Podcasts. WhyWhyWhy! welcomes new story submissions and if you have a story to tell that you think might be a fit, contact the hosts at story@tlv1.fm — Take in Community LIVE on Zoom Exciting news for Fauda fans! On Thursday, April 16 at 7pm Israel time/12pm EST, Fauda co-Creator Avi Issacharoff (and Times of Israel Arab Affairs writer) will join our Community Zoom to talk with New Media editor Sarah Tuttle-Singer about Season 3, which launches this week on Netflix. htt On Thursday, April 16 at 7:00 pm Israel time, Fauda co-Creator Avi Issacharoff will join our Community Zoom to talk Season 3 Here’s the invitation: Community Zoom with Avi Issacharoff Time: Apr 16, 2020 07:00 PM Jerusalem time, 12:00 PM Eastern Join Zoom Meeting Meeting ID: 771 9277 7442 Password: 020727 And please[join our Facebook Community group]( here as well to hear about other great Zoom meet-ups — this week we hosted [educator Rachel Korazim about literature and poetry,]( and Dr. Stuart Akerman, a board-certified Gastroenterologist from Dallas, Texas. In addition to these enlightening sessions, you can stay connected with other Times of Israel readers during this captivating time. — Shelled gold: Journalist Melanie Lidman explains how to raise your own eggs on the ToI podcast Eggs are more precious than gold these days, so ToI Podcast host Amanda Borschel-Dan phoned up her good friend and colleague Melanie Lidman, who is currently managing an urban farm in Oakland, California. Melanie Lidman with Cheese and Quakers, after a trip to the Kfar Qassem bird market on August 20, 2016. (courtesy Melanie Lidman/Times of Israel) Mel has mad skills as a journalist/carpenter/garden therapist. She recently wrote [this magnificent piece]( on how to raise your own chickens. Now, from her corner of the world on Zoom, Mel gave a lot of useful tips on how to build the coop and take care of the “ladies” as she calls them. And also, great insight into the many added benefits of growing your own food. To listen [click here]( or on the image above. — April perks for ToI Community members: - 10% off a pre- or post-Pesach delivery order from [BeerBazaar]( ([English](). Discount Code: TOI-COMMUNITY - 20% off Gur Inbal’s ceramic art at [ArtSource](. Indicate you’re a member of the Times of Israel Community to receive discount. - A 15% discount at [Judaica Webstore:Â](Coupon code: TOI_15 - A $100 voucher for a Hebrew course from[ eTeacher.]( Warmly, [David Horovitz] David Horovitz You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to The Times of Israel's Daily Edition. If you would like to stop receiving editorial announcements, please click below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe](