Update # 20 – April 15
It’s so quiet and peaceful outside,
this last day of Pesach, which is like a Shabbat.
The weather is nice – 23
degrees Celsius, and we had breakfast and coffee on the balcony. A heat wave is
on its way, and we’re debating of asking our handyman to put up the sun cover
on the patio. For now, we keep moving the umbrellas and the table to stay in
the shade.
We received an update from the
Haifa home for Holocaust survivors, and I’d like to share one story.
Isolation brings back memories
For some, especially those that are
in the process of Dementia or Alzheimer, the breaking of the normal daily
routine, is giving them even more flash backs and memories of their dark past
of the Holocaust.
Whenever we visit 98-year-old Miriam she immediately brings
you back to her horrific youth in ghettos and camps which ended at Auschwitz.
Whenever we try to change the subject, she continues to live in and talk about
that time.
Although some people are glued to
their TV screens all day and evenings, others find creative ways to pass the
time in their room.
Mania e.g. has been painting and has written a poem about
the Corona crisis every day.
This is one example:
“One day I went for a little walk,
with my mask on my face and rubber gloves all by myself.
All of the sudden I heard a
familiar voice from my dining room neighbor who walked behind me.
She was very happy to see me, and
we continued our walk together.
When we had walked for a while, we
rested on a bench.
Then my next-door neighbor
approached and joined us on the bench.
For a little while we completely
forgot about Corona, which had taken away our daily routine and enjoyed each
other’s company.”
A few days ago there was an uplifting
article in the newspaper:
The Health Ministry has begun a
project to produce high quality masks that are not only washable so they can be
re-used, but are also suitable for all of Israel's dynamic population to use.
The project began Monday morning
with the initial production of 300,000 masks. The project line is 100% made in
Israel, and employs over a thousand Israeli seamstresses.
"Thanks to the important
venture of locally produced masks, we can are able to back our economy which is
in dire need of support during these complicated times," said Health
Minister Ya'acov Litzman.
With the goal of further preventing
the spread of the virus, the masks will be distributed to residents living in
areas with a high concentration of the virus by their local authorities
together with the Home Front Command. "A mask can be used as personal
protection to spread disease and infection," Liztman said.
With the intention of making mask
wearing a norm, residents of these areas will be given instruction by the
authorities on how to properly wear the masks. Recipients of the mask will
receive a kit including three masks paired with an instructional leaflet
printed in a variety of languages such as Arabic, English and Hebrew.
The project is being led by defense
systems and the Mossad in cooperation with textile experts, and industries that
make products for the Defense Ministry. The Mossad has obtained over 10 million
masks for Israel, as well as other medical equipment and hundreds of thousands
of test kits.
