Story: Stormy January in Israel Jan. 30/2022

Israel's unspoken covert strategy to cope with the Omicron spiked spread was

"Herd Immunization".

Making the the numbers of the statistical "Herd", our entire family, David I , the 2 daughters and their husbands as well as the 6 and 2,5 years old grands, all tested Corona Positive, excluding my 99 years old mom, who is blessed with special durable genes...yet sadly wasn't spared some other debilitating curse... more later...

David hardly showed any, and the symptoms I experienced, were lite, resembling a mild winter cold, and lasted about 4 days . So now we are immune against the previous recognized variants, yet are as in in the dark, concerning the future stealth ones...

Omicron Contamination Climex

Contamination numbers in mid-month hit the roof,, the long winding lines at the Corona Testing stations got thicker by the day in our Israeli neighborhood by the Habima.

Our Kinder-Garden is closed (song)

The increased numbers of those being quarantined, disrupted essential public educational, transportation and medical services, in addition to the impacted large general sick workforce..

Fourth Covid Vaccine

The 4th immunization shot (second booster) was offered to those 60+ and to

those with medical background conditions, as well as to medical service givers. As well as approved for 18+

The public was quite reluctant to

get this 4th shoot.

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David's Input ob the 4th Shot

As many of our friends had asked, here are David shred thoughts ; 

The mRNA vaccines confer infection protection for ONLY about 3 months (very big drawback ) and longer term protection from severe disease .

There are some risks with getting injection 4-5-6 every three months  of RNA vaccines in terms of the immune system .

Novavax just received some regulatory approvals . It is a more traditional vaccine and will most likely be longer acting . Israel already purchased 5M doses of this vaccine

 David personally prefer to wait or a few months, until there is more info on injection 4  and take the risk of being less protected and hopefully get Novavax 

It should be noted that, on the other hand, there are some people that got 3 shots  and did  get severe disease . So every one can decide .

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Variants Drama

The Reports on the spread of a French Variant B.1.640.2 , the BA 2 Sub Omicron variant and the Corona one half Delta and half Omicron variant only added to the lunacy ghost-dance .. (More Variants UK Study )

Cultural Life in Tel aviv

Yet, Cultural Life continued bubbling, despite the spike in contamination.

Theater performances, movie houses, and restaurants/bars were all open and over-flowing as usual.

Prior to getting contaminated, we took our chances and visited plenty in Fantasy Land

The 16th Lam ( הכבש ה–16) at Habima Theater

The play , which is based on Jonathan Geffen's charming poems' book, and to which I took Leo - my 6 years old grandson, was a delightful experience. Many Grandmas joined their grand-kids in the sing-along, of these popular songs so very much liked both by children and adults.

Hot Jazz Concert at the TLV Museum

The Hot Jazz concert was a tribute to

Peggy Lee and Frank Sinatra and preformed by Australian Hetty Kate and the Dutch Joep Van Weert with an Israeli Jazz ensemble

Revolution Orchestra

with Gidi Gov at the TLV Opera House

The Revolution Orchestra is a young dynamic most talented composing and preforming

creative entity, which produces original orchestral music combined with other art forms.

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The Corona didn't detract the admiring groupies off the orchestra nor off the singer -

Gidi Gov who completely filled the house, and sing a long joined, to the popular tunes.

We lucked out to get tickets and enjoyed the musical interpretation to the known pieces sang by one of Israel's popular singer/actor - Gidi Gov

The delightful "Zorba the Greek" play , was put on stage by the Habima National Theater, with Norman Isa in the main charterer role, and Sandra Sadeh - as his Bobulina.

"The Tune keeps Coming Back " ’עוד חוזר הנגון’ - wonderful musical play

Tribute to the late national Israeli poet/song–writer Natan Alterman and his turbulent relations with the women in his life including his beloved daughter - Tirza Atar also a poet/song-writer, "And the Tune keeps Coming Back " ’עוד חוזר הנגון’ (here)

Fantastic popular singers like: Miri Mesica, Riki Gal and, Shlomit Aharon, were among

the large cast of wonderful performers, on this another Habima successful stage

In the Land of Reality...

Israel lost 2 national Icons

Yoram Tehar-Lev an iconic prolific witty and beloved poet/songwriter died at 83.

Born in northern Kibutz Yagur (by Haifa) he wrote more than 1,000 songs, including 100 works for the army’s musical entertainment troupes, publishing also dozens of books.

The beloved poet was gravely mourned by many in the country.

Also highly esteemed former Israeli supreme Court chief Justice Miriam Naor died at 74

She was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2003, served as head of Israel’s top court from 2015 to 2017, when she retired.

Billboards Surreal Farce

A photo of another iconic"actor" bigger then life, and popular with half of the nation, was "hammered" onto a building's huge bill board, saying:

"Our Beloved

You are the encore

You are the hope

you are the vision

you are the handsome

We will follow where-ever you go"

This herd worshiping of a Persona costing Bibi's admiring donors, over 30k NIS ,along with a spontaneous crowdfunding donations of over 2.5M for Bibi's trial costs, are only further proof that, something is deeply deranged in the nation...

Plea Burgening shouldn’t be for Prime-Ministers

Bibi's plea bargain to avoid trial had kept the papers headlines almost the entire month. The talk of Netanyahu’s corruption trial ending in a possible plea bargain is bad for Israeli democracy, even if it offers a chance to move on from a long-running nightmare.

Better that it failed. The law shouldn’t be easier on Public figure!!!

Especially on those rotten ones, who would stop at nothing to hold onto

Chairs of Power they feel entitled to

Staged-craft -A lovelier idea of what to do with Chairs

"Urborus" by Ori Shifrin Anavi Ready-Made Chairs Art

on Rothschild Ave corner of Shenkin

Elpis Winter Melorama

This turbulent month was sealed with a white snow blanket of Jerusalem and the Golan Heights in the North,

The Elpis winter storm, which brought along very cold windy weather, to most parts of the country, coated heavily few areas, closing some snow clogged and slippery main roads as well as schools (more) as well as provided great snow playground for others.

The Dog that have so much fun in the Snow

The last strow of the month - Family Tragedy -

On Jan 27th, exactly on International Holocaust Day, sadly my mother was impacted by a stroke which left her right side paralyzed and her speech impaired

She is still lucid, pain-less and hospitalized in Carmel hospital in Haifa As David, I and Keren all tested Corona Positive and had to be quarantined, Inbal, who already got over her contamination, was the only one who could accompany/visit Mom at the hospital.

Obviously we are worried and frustrated with this crazy situation, and hope for the best.

We are all looking forward to a much more tranquil February....