H eadlines
NEWSBRIEFS AT ARDEN COURTS WE
OFFER: 100% DEDICATED
MEMORY CARE
SAFE, SECURE INDOOR/
OUTDOOR WALKING
PATHS NURSING SERVICES
ON-SITE Thursday, May 6, 2021
11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m.

Register in advance for this Zoom webinar by visiting the
LINK below:
https://tinyurl.com/exm9s8jf Questions can be directed to
VirtualSeminars@arden-courts.org FREE DEMENTIA VIRTUAL SEMINAR
Conversation with Dr. Tam Cummings
A Monthly Education Series for the Dementia Caregiver
Staging the Person with Dementia
Understanding how dementia moves through the brain and causes
behavior changes allows families to determine how much damage the
brain has suffered. Identifying which stage the person with dementia
is in means you can know what behaviors or declines may follow, the
amount of time the person with dementia is expected to be within each
stage, how much brain tissue is remaining, and what to care plan for
next. Since people with dementia don’t look physically ill until Stage Six of the
disease, these staging tools give us a better picture of the brain damage
and resulting behaviors than relying on long-term memory social skills.

SPONSORED BY:
© 2021 ProMedica
6 APRIL 29, 2021
Quebec Court Upholds Workplace Ban on Yarmulkes
The Quebec Superior Court on April 20 mostly upheld a provin-
cial law banning Jews and other religious minorities who work in
public from wearing religious symbols such as yarmulkes in the
workplace, JTA reported.

The court said that Bill 21 — known as the “secularism” or
“laicity” law — doesn’t conflict with Canadian human rights
charters. The court did say the controversial law doesn’t apply to
the English-language school board that brought the case to court.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said in a statement
that it was “deeply disappointed.”
“[T]he provisions of Bill 21 ... severely restrict religious
freedom and the ability of Jewish Quebecers and other faith-
based communities to freely pursue careers in the public sector,”
the Toronto-based center said.

Virginia GOP to Allow Shabbat Voting Exemption
The Virginia Republican Party reversed a previous decision, to
allow Jews to vote for a gubernatorial nominee before Shabbat
starts, JTA reported.

On April 25, the party’s State Central Committee unani-
mously agreed to allow Orthodox Jews to vote during the day on
Friday, May 7, the day before the party’s May 8 convention.

Several days earlier, a majority of the same committee voted
to accommodate Orthodox Jewish voters and who don’t vote on
Saturday, but the vote didn’t meet the 75% passage threshold.

The Republican Jewish Coalition asked the party to reconsider.

Majority of House Opposes Conditions on Aid to Israel
More than 75% of House of Representative members signed a
letter opposing conditions on aid to Israel, JTA reported.

The letter to Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the chairwoman
of the Appropriations Committee, and Kay Granger, R-Texas, the
committee’s ranking member, was signed by 331 members of the
House and was split nearly between Republicans and Democrats.

Pro-Israel lobby AIPAC backed the letter.

“This is a very strong bipartisan statement that full security
assistance to Israel — without additional conditions — is in
the national security interest of the United States,” AIPAC
spokesman Marshall Wittmann said. l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
Tam Cummings, Ph.D., Gerontologist
Author, Untangling Alzheimer’s: The Guide
for Families and Professionals
14026_Warminster-Yardley_5.5x11.indd 1
Germany Won’t Prosecute 95-year-old Deported
Concentration Camp Guard
GERMAN PROSECUTORS SAID they won’t prosecute a
95-year-old concentration camp guard deported from the United
States in February because they had insufficient evidence against
him, JTA reported.

All charges were dropped against Friedrich Karl Berger, who
was deported after a U.S. Immigration judge determined that he
served at a subcamp of the Neuengamme concentration camp
system near Hamburg, Germany.

Berger admitted to “guarding prisoners in a concentration camp
which was not used for the systematic killing of the prisoners,” the
prosecutors said. This “is not sufficient as such to prove the crime.”
Berger arrived in the U.S. in 1959 through Canada, living
in Tennessee for many years and receiving a military service
pension from Germany.

He was deported under the Holtzman Amendment a 1978
law. It prohibits anyone who participated in Nazi-sponsored
persecution from entering or living in the U.S.

3/25/21 10:44 AM
JEWISH EXPONENT
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
re INVIGORATING
At Philadelphia’s oldest Friends school, we are
ISRAELBRIEFS learning
Netanyahu Pledges for Israel to End Fossil Fuel Use by 2050
ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER Benjamin Netanyahu announced
April 23 at President Joe Biden’s virtual climate summit that
Israel will stop using fossil fuels by 2050, Haaretz reported.

Netanyahu said the country’s short-term goals include closing
coal-based power plants by 2025 and, by the end of the decade,
having about 30% of the nation’s power production come from
renewable energy sources, largely solar power.

Activists and environmental groups questioned Netanyahu’s
sincerity, saying prior pledges were never fulfilled.

Professor Ofira Ayalon of the Department of Natural Resources
and Environmental Management said the speech didn’t “present a
courageous vision capable of propelling not only the Israeli economy
but also humanity towards a carbon-free future by exporting
innovative technologies in the field of green and clean tech.”
Leaders from about 40 countries participated in the two-day
summit that began on April 22. The summit is likely to set the
ground for the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow,
Scotland, slated for November.

A Penn Charter education is a powerful challenge
for students to use modern tools and design thinking
to dive into complexity, cultivate curiosity, and
develop discipline and a thirst for discovery — all
within a culture of caring and community.

A VIRTUAL OPEN HOUSE INFORMATION SESSION
Friday, May 14 at 10:00 AM • Tuesday, May 25 at 7:30 PM
RSVP for the zoom link:
penncharter.com/virtualopenhouse Israel Buys More Vaccines
Israel made new deals to buy more Pfizer vaccines and added
Moderna doses to its arsenal on April 19, just two weeks after
Pfizer cut off its vaccine supply over a failure to pay, JTA reported.

Israel, which counts about 9 million residents, bought 18 million
more doses from Pfizer and Moderna, The Times of Israel reported.

Although Israel has the world’s highest vaccination rate at
more than half of all civilians, it needs to make a final push to
reach the herd immunity threshold. Experts believe that comes
at a vaccination rate of about 70%.

Pfizer previously stopped a shipment of nearly a million doses
expected to arrive on April 4. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
hinted that political infighting resulted in delayed payments.

re INVENTING classic
Unemployment Drops Sharply in Israel
Israel’s unemployment rate fell to 8.9% in the second half of March,
according to the Central Bureau of Statistics reports, down markedly
from the 9.8% rate in the month’s first half, Globes reported.

The reduced unemployed is attributed to the country’s
economy opening up after vaccine rollouts.

There were 361,000 people unemployed in the second half of
March. Those include those temporarily unemployed — such as in
the tourism industry — because of the pandemic’s lingering effects.

The Bank of Israel recently forecast that the nation’s unemploy-
ment rate would drop to 7.5% by year’s end.

Israeli Wrestler Earns Bronze at European Championships
Israeli Mitch Finesilver won a bronze medal on April 21 at the
European Wrestling Championships in the 74 kilogram weight
class, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The United States-born Finesilver attended Duke University,
earning All-American honors, placing fourth at the 2019 NCAA
Wrestling Championships and compiling a career record of
95-30. He has a fraternal twin brother, Zach, who wrestled for
Duke, too, finishing his career there at 70-49.

In January, Finesilver also won bronze at 74 kilograms at a
tournament in Nice, France.

“I have a lot of pride being able to represent Israel on the
world’s stage,” he said after that tournament. “It’s amazing to be
able to represent my culture and heritage.” l
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM JEWISH EXPONENT
APRIL 29, 2021
7