Meet Eitan Elbaum; he’s the smiley kid second from the right side of the picture. His smile got even brighter this week when he won a silver medal at the International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI) held in Indonesia last month. It made it even more special because the team wasn’t allowed to travel to Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world by population. Three hundred forty-six students from 90 countries competed in the world’s most prestigious computer science competition for high school students. Eitan credited his high school, Torah U’Mada Yeshiva High School, which teaches programming courses as early as 9th grade. Congratulations to Eitan and the entire Israeli delegation. #IsraeliPride

Thankfully, Covid restrictions are behind us, and it’s mostly a memory. Still, the health ministry has been preparing for Winter 2022-2023, and Israel announced that they’d be offering the adapted Covid booster later this month. The adaptation better protects from the Covid variants that have become more prevalent than the original virus. According to the health ministry, almost half of Israelis have received three vaccines, and about 850,000 have received four. We wish you all a healthy winter.

Meet Eitan Elbaum; he’s the smiley kid second from the right side of the picture. His smile got even brighter this week when he won a silver medal at the International Olympiad of Informatics (IOI) held in Indonesia last month. It made it even more special because the team wasn’t allowed to travel to Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world by population. Three hundred forty-six students from 90 countries competed in the world’s most prestigious computer science competition for high school students. Eitan credited his high school, Torah U’Mada Yeshiva High School, which teaches programming courses as early as 9th grade. Congratulations to Eitan and the entire Israeli delegation. #IsraeliPride

Thankfully, Covid restrictions are behind us, and it’s mostly a memory. Still, the health ministry has been preparing for Winter 2022-2023, and Israel announced that they’d be offering the adapted Covid booster later this month. The adaptation better protects from the Covid variants that have become more prevalent than the original virus. According to the health ministry, almost half of Israelis have received three vaccines, and about 850,000 have received four. We wish you all a healthy winter.

Marvel got backlash when it announced that they cast the Israeli actress Shira Haas to play the Israeli superhero Sabra in the upcoming “Captain America: New World Order.” I never knew the character existed, but the casting brought her into the spotlight. In the comics, Rut Bat-Seraph goes by the alias Sabra and first appeared in a cameo appearance in Incredible Hulk#250 in August 1980. She’s a Yerushalmi mutant, raised a special kibbutz, and worked for the Mossad and police. I hope the film version does her justice and she doesn’t get canceled with the uproar. #israelisuperhero

Finally, you probably know that Queen Elizabeth died last week unless you’ve been living under a rock. We’re grieving along with all of Great Britain, and send our condolences. However, her death means the start of the Reign of King Charles III. Aish put out a great piece about his affinity for Israel and even that he received his circumcision by Rabbi Snowman, a well-known mohail in London’s Jewish Community. There is a lot of fascinating info about Charles, and it sparks hope that the new King of Great Britain will be a great king for all Jews.