Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Eighteen Floating Stars

 

Bnei Brak (it’s also spelled Bnei Beraq) is a city in Israel, east of Tel Aviv. Although it has been particularly hard-hit by the current pandemic, members of this ultra-Orthodox community have been reluctant to take advantage of the vaccines meant to fight it. According to Israel’s Health Ministry, only 17% of Bnei Brak’s residents had received the first of two doses. So municipal leaders decided to throw a party. All four of the city’s health providers opened their doors from 7:00 p.m. to midnight last Thursday. They enlisted the help of the city’s at-risk youth to ladle out big bowls of cholent (a hearty Jewish meat-and-bean stew), rolls, and drinks to anyone willing to be vaccinated. They called their creative immunization drive, “Green Night,” because they hope increasing the city’s immunity will allow it to become a “green zone” where life can begin to return to normal.

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