Tagged pikuah nefesh

Haredi rabbinic leader calls on followers to pray alone
March 29, 2020 / Marcy Oster, JTA

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a prominent leader in the haredi Orthodox community, called on his followers to pray alone without a prayer quorum. The ruling on Sunday came after a steep rise in the number of coronavirus cases in Bnei Brak, a mostly haredi city in Israel,… Read more »

I’m a veteran expert in stopping epidemics. Here’s why Jewish institutions should cancel everything.

Keeping the synagogue pews empty temporarily is seen as one way to stop the spread of COVID-19. (Getty Images)
March 13, 2020 / Gary Slutkin, JTA

CHICAGO (JTA) — I am an infectious disease epidemiologist who worked at the World Health Organization on epidemics in over 25 countries around the world. As a physician and member of the Jewish community, I prize the Jewish teaching that places the saving of a life above all other laws and… Read more »

With Jack Lew’s appointment, Jewish community again has a White House address
January 10, 2012 / Ron Kampeas, JTA
Jack Lew, center, helps light the "national menorah" organized by American Friends of Lubavitch, with the group's director, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, left, and his father, Rabbi Abraham Shemtov, the director of Agudas Chasidei Chabad, Dec. 20, 2011. (Baruch Ezagui, courtesy American Friends of Lubavitch)

WASHINGTON (JTA) — @JewishWhiteHouse is back. President Obama on Monday announced that Jack Lew, his director of the Office of Budget and Management — a Cabinet-level position — would replace William Daley as White House chief of staff. Lew, 56, was chosen for his long years in government and… Read more »