Click to expand Image People wearing face masks walk past a mural depicting Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro in Caracas on April 17, 2020, amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.  © 2020 Federico Parra / AFP (Washington, D.C.) – An agreement between Venezuelan authorities and the opposition to allow millions of dollars in humanitarian aid to be delivered to Venezuela apolitically through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an important step forward, Human Rights Watch said today. Venezuela’s Health Minister, Carlos Alvarado and the National Assembly’s health advisor,… (Full Story)

Click to expand Image Ali Younesi during an interview with Iranian Student News Agency after winning a gold medal as a member of Iran’s national team during the 12th International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics. © 2019 ISNA News  (Beirut) – Iranian authorities have detained two students from Sharif University in Tehran in solitary confinement for nearly two months, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should release the two students immediately – unless they can promptly charge them with a recognizable crime – and ensure all their due process rights. The authorities… (Full Story)

Our nine English school boards maintain that their priority is and always has been the health and safety of our students, staff and their families. While no English school board will reopen any of its schools and centres earlier than the dates proposed by the Government of Quebec, the respective English School Boards will decide if and when each of their schools and centres may reopen, once they determine that all the conditions required can be met in each instance. (Full Story)

By Ephraim Lavie, Khader Sawaed, Maisalon Dallashi, Mora Deitch and Meir Elran

There has been a significant rise in COVID-19 infection rates in Arab communities in Israel.The month of Ramadan, which is commonly celebrated with large public gatherings, demands sharpened awareness and particular preparations regarding information dissemination, enforcement of health regulations, and urgent provision of health services and assistance to the Arab citizens. The positive engagement of the Arab public in the campaign against the pandemic highlights the need for a basic change of approach toward the Arab community, which is entitled to equal access to the social and health services enjoyed by Israel’s Jewish public. (Full Story)

By Itai Brun

What will the world look like one year from now, and how will the corona pandemic affect the Middle East? This article presents four possible scenarios: “continuation,” in which following a temporary interruption of a few months, there is a resumption of familiar global and regional trends from the pre-corona era; “revolution,” in which there is a fundamental change in the patterns that characterized life before the crisis and the world prepares for a new illiberal world order led by China; “breakdown,” in which all global actors emerge wounded from the crisis and the fragile structure of the international system collapses into chaos, expressed inter alia by new waves of upheaval in the Middle East; and “reconstruction,” in which the United States regains its initiative and resumes an international effort to repair the liberal world order and solve burning conflicts.

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Humankind faces the greatest challenge since World War 2 which is the new pandemic. COVID 19 has spread throughout the World from China to Europe. Nations from around the World are working together to get rid of this coronavirus. This virus puts national health systems worldwide under extreme pressures. The future of the World depends on the healthcare workers and scientists. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill once said: ¨Never was so much owed by so many to so few.¨ Health professionals work tirelessly to fight this virus; the World greatly relies on health professionals. Humankind has never been more united against this invisible enemy that is COVID 19. Nations have developed a national plan to fight COVID 19 that is to use social distancing and flattening the curve in order to allow the national healthcare systems to treat patients infected by the virus. Several nations work on treatments, drugs, and vaccines to put an end to this pandemic. (Full Story)

By Shahar Eilam and Michal Hatuel-Radoshitzky

A comparative analysis enables us to examine different approaches to the challenges posed by the corona pandemic around the world. Most countries have adopted a similar coping strategy, based on three components: the first is a lockdown policy (to varying degrees), in an attempt to slow the spread of the virus and avoid overloading the health system; the second is the improvement of preparedness and readiness in health systems; and the third is a broad economic aid package in response to the sudden economic shutdown and the deep financial crisis. (Full Story)

Last night, December 24th at midnight, we sang Christmas Lieders in German. That was in Long Island, New York, in a tree-lined brownstone neighborhood inhabited by Halb Jüden; half Jews or half Germans, I don’t recall exactly how they defined themselves. But being all survivors of Hitler’s personal madness, the Nazis themselves called them half-breeds, Mischlings, with a full measure of contempt. (Full Story)

Montreal Jews rely on non-Jewish academics, writers and filmmakers to present and even explain, in French, Jewish realities to the Quebecois public and within Francophone academia. The considerable number of publications on Jewish themes, both in fiction and non-fiction, written in French by non-Jews is certainly unequaled in the Francophone world and most likely in the West, contends writer Victor Teboul. But do these works encourage or dissuade critical assessment of Quebec and of Quebec–Jewish relations, asks Tolerance.ca’s editor, whose most recent book also questions Quebecois identity. (Full Story)

Every year for several weeks before November 11, a field of scarlet poppies appears on coat lapels across Canada. This wearing of the poppy has a complex history ... (Full Story)

New York - Southern (Inner) Mongolian poet Mr. Zhao Baahuu, who goes by the pennames Soliyoot Shulegchin (“Crazy Poet” in Mongolian) and Cao Yuan Nu Huo ( “Fury of Grassland” in Chinese), was detained and placed under house arrest after publishing poems online criticizing China’s ethnic policies toward Southern Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs over the past 70 years.  (Full Story)

There are nominated candidates of all races and religions in our Party. the PPC. With names like Salim Mansour, Rocky Dong, Jigna Jani, Tahir Gora, Jude Guerrier, Jing Lan Yang, Salomon Rayek, and many, many others. (Full Story)

Valentine’s Day rituals often begin in the classroom, where the holiday serves both as an enjoyable arts and crafts activity and as a pedagogical tool, teaching children about structuring love and friendship into a concrete, prescribed form. The ritualization of love continues throughout our lives, not only on Valentine’s Day, but through weddings, anniversaries, and Mother’s and Father’s Day. (Full Story)

Despite his dedicated work on behalf of Jewish refugees in Europe during the 1930s and 1940s, James G. McDonald (1886-1964) is little known today. Come discover this highly unusual and outspoken maverick through Shuli Eshel’s inspiring documentary, “A Voice among the Silent,” followed by comments and discussion led by Neil Caplan. (Full Story)

The Canadian government's recent announcement that it will be providing more than CDN $600 million (USD $455 million) over the next five years to bail out the country's financially strapped media outlets -- as part of the fall fiscal update about the federal budget ahead of the 2019 federal election -- is not as innocent as it may seem. (Full Story)

To many observers, the Jewish community in Quebec is highly integrated into Quebec society, yet to others it appears insular. How can this apparent contradiction be explained? How do religious groups, including Jews, deal with the trend towards secularization in Quebec? We raised these questions and others with Dr. Morton Weinfeld. Professor of Sociology at McGill University in Montréal, Dr Weinfeld holds the Chair in Canadian Ethnic Studies. He is the author of Like Everyone Else, but Different: The Paradoxical Success of Canadian Jews (McClelland & Stewart, 2001), a study of the Jewish community in Canada. Dr. Weinfeld is also a recognized authority on Quebec’s Jewish community. (Full Story)