Southwestern Ends Largest Evangelical Archaeology Program

By Gordon Govier, Christianity Today— The nation’s leading evangelical archaeology program is closing, partly in response to COVID-19. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) will shut down its archaeology program in May, terminating five professors and discontinuing its degree program, which currently has more than 25 graduate students. The decision came as “part of campus-wide budgetary…

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Christian Zionism Isn’t the Caricature of Popular Imagination

By JOHN D. WILSEY, Christianity Today— Dwight D. Eisenhower was the first president baptized in office. Shortly after his inauguration, Edward L. R. Elson of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington baptized the president in a private ceremony. For several reasons, Elson was an interesting figure during America’s civil-religious awakening of the 1950s. First, he…

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Infected health minister accused of flouting rules, endangering Israel’s leaders

By Jacob Magid, Times of Israel-— Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who tested positive for the coronavirus late Wednesday, allegedly broke his own ministry’s guidelines on social distancing by attending group prayer services in the days before he was diagnosed, a TV report said Thursday. Litzman’s positive test has forced almost all the Israeli politicians, officials,…

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Number of corona cases in Israel exceeds 8,000 as death toll continues to rise

By Maytal Yasur Beit-Or , Gadi Golan , Ariel Kahan , Efrat Forsher, Israel Hayom—- The Health Ministry on Sunday released updated figures on the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel, which now stands at 8,018 people. The number of deaths caused by the virus is now 48, with the latest fatality being that…

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In Effort To Curb Corona Outbreak – United Hatzalah Initiated Publicity Campaign for Charedim To Stay Home

By Raphael Poch, Israelrescue.org— United Hatzalah initiated a campaign aimed at explaining to the Charedi communities around Israel the importance of adhering to Health Ministry Regulations when it comes to Covid-19 Coronavirus. The campaign consists of tens of thousands of pashkvillim being posted in Charedi cities and communities, recorded phone calls targeting some 500,000 Charedim…

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Israel’s unemployment soars to over 1 million – one quarter of workforce

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News— The coronavirus crisis passed a new milestone Wednesday as the number of unemployed Israelis passed one million – one in every four members of the workforce, Ynet reported. The country’s previously robust economy has been sent into shock. The unemployment rate, an envious 3.4 percent in December, has rocketed…

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Coronavirus: Why Palestinian Leaders Are Not Helping Gaza to Combat It

By Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute— After the discovery of the first coronavirus cases in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is ignoring appeals to lift a series of sanctions it imposed on the two million Palestinians living there. Actually, the PA leadership has done virtually nothing to help the Gaza Strip confront the…

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Half a million people take part in mass online prayer against coronavirus

By Jeremy Sharon, Jpost-— Half a million people participated in a mass online prayer event staged on various different digital platforms and involving rabbis and participants from around the world, to request divine intervention to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative was promoted by the chief rabbis of Israel Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef…

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Netanyahu: ‘Stay at home, stay alive,’ complete lockdown if virus spread continues

By Adina Katz, World Israel News Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a press conference Wednesday evening at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, stressed the need for citizens to stay at home and follow the lockdown rules amid the rise in the number of people diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus “Citizens of Israel, you know…

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Israeli Engineer Invents Algorithm to Predict Worldwide Spread of Coronavirus

By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Breaking Israel News— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked Israelis recently when he was quoted as saying that by the end of April, a “million Israelis could be infected with Covid-19 and 10,000 will die.” His office did not deny the statement. Prof. Gabi Barabash, a veteran physician, former director-general of the…

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Israel’s Chief Rabbi calls for public fast day amid coronavirus outbreak

By Tzvi Joffre,  JPost— As the coronavirus outbreak continues, Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau called on the public to fast at least half a day on Wednesday, which marks the eve of the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, according to Srugim. “Difficult days are affecting all of Israel and the entire world,”…

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