“Let’s Get Real with Coach Menachem,” a series of therapy meetings on Zoom, has reached its two-month anniversary. This program emerged organically in response to the negative emotional symptoms people are suffering in the current climate—people who don’t usually have them and especially those with underlying symptoms. It started as a small counseling session hosted by coach Menachem Bernfeld and soon grew into a therapy platform with hundreds of log-ins. Topics that have been addressed include anxiety, depression, trauma, and shalom bayis. How did all this get started?

The current pandemic has caused confusion and uncertainty as people are overwhelmed with information about the COVID-19 virus. While epidemiologists and virologists are trying to come up with answers about the virus, economists are trying to predict its aftermath and effect on our economy. And as the country continues to work through the health crisis, conversations are starting to turn to economic recovery. While we look for signs that we’ve reached a plateau in virus cases, the scenario of what will happen as businesses open up again plays out in our minds. There is speculation about what our economic recovery will look like and how quickly businesses will rebound after the shutdown. It is important to understand how our economists will attempt to predict our road to recovery, by analyzing three scientific modules.
1/Business Science 

Teach Coalition, a project of the Orthodox Union, will host “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow: A Tribute to our Schools and Parents” on Tuesday, May 26, at 8 p.m. EST.  The streaming event will honor Jewish day schools, teachers and parents, while supporting Teach Coalition’s fight for safer and more affordable Jewish education during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.

Recent surveys have shown that 2.5 million Israelis don’t believe they can survive the economic crisis caused by COVID-19. Leading economists predict that it might take years before Israel’s unemployment and poverty rates return to pre-pandemic levels. For Meir Panim, an organization devoted to feeding the hungry citizens of Israel, there has been an unprecedented number of people, including the newly unemployed, who have been reaching out for food provisions through emails, phone calls, Municipalities and the Ministry of Health.