Wednesday, April 8, 2020

Passover in a Time of Plague

Here's wishing all of my Jewish readers as happy a Passover as possible in this bad, bad times. I'm not Jewish, but growing up in the NYC metro area, I have always had Jewish friends and neighbors, and have attended Passover Seders (we would double up on holidays with our Israeli-American neighbors on numerous occasions). One of the questions posed by the youngest attendee of the meal is, "How is this night different from all other nights?" I imagine, with stay at home orders, this night isn't much different from the preceding fourteen to twenty nights.

These being fraught times, antisemitism is on the rise as conspiracy theorists blame Jews for the spread of the virus. It seems as if nothing has changed in seven centuries.

On a personal note, I found out that a friend of mine tested positive for COVID-19 after feeling run down for a few days. She is two weeks into her battle, but is on the mend (I just got a text from her indicating this). She does, though, know someone who succumbed to the virus at the age of 54. Scary times, indeed!

Here's hoping that everyone stays safe. The COVID-19 pandemic is terrifying, but the accompanying plague of stupidity is even scarier.

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