World’s Largest Hanukkah Menorah to be Lighted in New York City in Early December

by Anna Breuer

What  is believed to be the world’s largest menorah will be erected on Fifth Avenue and 59th Street at Grand Army Plaza, located next to Central Park.
Designed by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam, the 36-foot (11-meter)-tall symbol of Hanukkah, the festival of lights, will be lighted every night for eight nights starting on December 7.
The Agam menorah, a gold-colored steel structure, was inspired by a drawing of the original menorah in …

The 2021 Post-Thanksgiving Massacre: Omicron May Yet Have Surprises in Store For Us

by Anna Breuer

It is appropriate as Americans approach the Thanksgiving holiday later this week to refer to it as the post-Thanksgiving rude awakening. After almost two years of SARS-CoV-2, many believed that the pandemic would soon be over.
By then, over five million people had succumbed to Covid and over four billion had been inoculated against it, using vaccines created in record time. Two variants of the original virus – Alpha and Delta …

Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Nov. 22: Mysterious Viruses in Children Causing Overflows in China’s Hospitals, Vaccine Take-Up Rate in U.S. Isn’t Sufficient

by Jonathan Spira
Coronavirus Morning News Brief – Nov. 22: Mysterious Viruses in Children Causing Overflows in China’s Hospitals, Vaccine Take-Up Rate in U.S. Isn’t Sufficient

Good morning. This is Jonathan Spira reporting. Here now the news of the pandemic from across the globe on the 1,351st day of the pandemic.
The CMNB will not be published on Thursday, the 23. of November, in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
In news we report today, it feels awfully like January 2020 in terms of dispatches from China on hospitals overflowing with sick children due to …

In Austria, Hitler’s Birthplace in Braunau am Inn Raises as Many Questions as It Answers

by Anna Breuer

Located on the lower river Inn, below the confluence with the Salzach, Braunau am Inn is a picturesque Austrian town on the German border.  It received Stadtrecht, or town rights, in 1260, one of the first in present-day Austria.
Braunau changed hands between Germany and Austria multiple times, depending on the winners and losers in various conflicts. It is known for its late Gothic parish church dedicated to St. Stephan, a …

Thanksgiving is Thursday – Here’s What’s Open and What’s Closed in 2023

by Anna Breuer

This Thursday, November 23, will be the fourth Thanksgiving in the United States to take place during the coronavirus pandemic.  The holiday is a national day of giving thanks for the harvest.  Travel is expected to be close to pre-pandemic levels if not higher, as travel continues to increase following an earlier pandemic-induced decline in group activities.
While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t issue specific guidance for holiday …

Black Friday is a Scammer’s Favorite Holiday: Here’s How to Not Become a Victim

by Kurt Stolz

In 2022, Black Friday spending reached $9.12 billion, 2.3% more than in 2021, according to figures released by Adobe Analytics, which tracks such information, and that figure is likely to increase again in 2023. But many people will make holiday purchases and find themselves cheated out of their hard-earned funds instead of joyfully opening boxes of items purchased at bargain prices and delivered by liveried couriers.
The unofficial holiday of Black …

Strategies for Celebrating a Safe and Healthy Thanksgiving: Expert Advice for Avoiding Covid, RSV, and the Flu

by Paul Riegler

Thanksgiving is approaching rapidly and, while the pandemic picture is much different from the previous threeThanksgivings, the world is still embroiled in a pandemic with an average of 100,000 new cases each day and some 400 to 600 daily deaths.
We have far better tools to cope with this including multiple vaccines, new bivalent vaccine boosters, and therapeutics such as Paxlovid.  At-home testing kits are easily accessible and most people have …