By Ari Friedman | February 24, 2021
This article was originally written about one year ago, when a new virus from Wuhan was just starting to make the news, and whose destructive power wasn’t felt yet in the United States. At the time Rabbi Glickman’s second yahrzeit was approaching, and even with the world-changing events of 2020 still to come, as with every life event, challenging or celebratory, the inability to share it with and learn from Rabbi Glickman, z”l brought its own sense of renewed loss.
As my hospital was swiftly overrun by COVID, leaving little time for anything other than trying to stem the crashing wave of death, I was never able to share what his loss meant to me and the lesson his legacy taught me for these trying times. My hope then, as it is now, is that others who knew him might find kinship in the feeling of loss but inspiration from the teachings he left us.
Academies at GBDS: Blessed With a ‘Vaccine Angel’ By Joshua Shuster | March 04, 2021
Before COVID-19 hit, Dr. Melissa Berlin, a family doctor and mother of four, was already managing a lot. Today, more than a year since the pandemic began, her responsibilities make her pre-COVID busy life seem like a walk in the park.
In addition to working full-time as a doctor in a global pandemic and raising four young children, Berlin is an active member of Academies at GBDS (Gerrard Berman Day School) Board of Trustees and a chair of the medical committee for the school. She has been instrumental in keeping Academies at GBDS running safely and smoothly. In her role as chair of the medical committee, Berlin has been working closely with the school leadership on setting up COVID guidelines and protocols, giving educational presentations to our community about the virus and the new vaccines, consulting with infectious diseases specialists, and much more. Despit
By JLNJ Staff | March 05, 2021
2020 was quite a year in California: record heat and fires, COVID-19 and stay-at-home orders. For those in California’s $40-billion wine industry, it was a year like no other. The Jewish Link reached out to a number of California’s kosher winemakers and winery proprietors to learn about the challenges they faced and to find out how they fared.
“It was like we all had these signs on our backs that read, ‘Kick me and kick me again’,” explained Ernie Weir of Hagafen Cellars, California’s oldest kosher winery. “We had a triple whammy, with low rainfall and a very strong desiccating heatwave in the beginning of August that dehydrated grapes abnormally. Then we had the first wildfire and so much smoke that we didn’t see the sun for two or three days. Then we had the second fire, which led to more smoke and the non-harvest or provisional harvest of grapes.” And all of that is before considering the impact of COVID-19 on the
Israeli Wine in the Time of COVID By Gamliel Kronemer | March 05, 2021
Back in the fall, when the editor of The Jewish Link Wine Guide and I were discussing topics for this magazine, it was the harvest season and Israel had just gone into a hard lockdown. An article on the impact of COVID-19 on the Israeli wine industry seemed to be a very timely story. I had assumed that I would interview Israeli winemakers, winery owners and consultants. I also assumed it would come out as one of those stories that would showcase Israelis’ unique sort of resilience in adversity. But that is not the story I am able to share.