Kvelling
(posted Jan. 5, 2021)
Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scientific Officer at Pfizer, is Jewish. He grew up in Halmstad,
Sweden, the son of a Jewish father with prewar roots in Sweden and a Jewish mother
who escaped Austria in the early days of WWII. He visited Israel several times as a
youngster and did a year of his doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute. There he
learned cutting edge immunology that led him to pharmaceutical science. Dolsten has
referred in interviews to rising anti-Semitism in Sweden.
Pfizer CEO Albert Borla is a Sephardic Jew from Thessalonika, Greece, a city whose
Jewish population was almost completely wiped out during WWII. The Borla family’s
history in Thessalonika goes back five centuries, and Borla visits his remaining family
members there yearly. He now lives in New York City.
The Chief Medical Officer for Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, is
an Israeli immigrant named Tal Zaks. Previously, he served as head of Global Oncology
at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Zaks received his MD and PhD degrees at Ben Gurion
University and conducted post-doc research at the NIH.
The scientist responsible, with a colleague, for the pioneering breakthroughs that
allowed the development of an mRNA vaccine (the novel approach used by Moderna
and Pfizer for dealing with COVID-19) is University of Pennsylvania’s Drew Weissman.
A Professor of Medicine at Penn, he received his BA and MA degrees at Brandeis and
MD/Microbiology and PhD at Boston University. Weissman once worked with a
fellowship at the National Institutes of Health under Dr. Fauci.
Final related notes: President-Elect Joe Biden this week named his new head for the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Professor
Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts
General Hospital. She works as a physician at a Jewish camp for a week each
summer. Also in the clan is Jeff Zients, who will be Biden’s overseer for the entire
federal coronavirus response. Zients led the successful effort to fix the government’s
Health.gov <http://Health.gov> website when it became damaged during the launch of
the Affordable Care Act.
Feel free to join us in kvelling . . .
[*We have made every effort to trace the author and publication of this article, but we
have been unable to do so.]
Chanukah 2020
Chanukah, like most Jewish holidays, has components that encourage young children to get involved, but the message is an adult one. And we are commanded to celebrate the holiday even if we are alone in the house (which, as Covid-19 continues, is all too frequently true).
What do we want to focus on to ensure that our Hanukkah is meaningful? (Hint: It’s not latkes, although that’s not so bad, either.)
There is a beautiful idea that has its roots in one of the famous arguments between Hillel and Shammai. The question arose, “Can you use one Chanukah candle to light another?” Shammai insisted that you could not. “How can you diminish one candle to light another?” he queried.
But Hillel replied, “When I use one candle to light another, we both benefit.” In other words, if I use the flame that burns within me to light someone else’s flame, the fire within me isn’t extinguished; in fact, it burns even brighter. I don’t lose by lighting someone else’s candle; I benefit! In helping you, I’m the one who grows!”
In the same way that one mitzvah leads to another, so too one light leads to another, until we have a big flame, until the light of that one original candle is illuminating the whole world.
On Chanukah, I hope we each take the light that shines within us, the light of our souls, and share it with others so that together we can help lighti up our world!
Chanukah is also the holiday of dedication or, more specifically, re-dedication. With the light of the menorah, we recommit ourselves to the values it represents. We rededicate ourselves to connecting with the Almighty and to following His Torah. We remind ourselves that despite the darkness around us, there will always be light.
This message is a timeless one that resonates anew this year. And it’s not enough to think it, to know it, to write it, even to discuss it with family members. This is a re-dedication that we need to shout from the rooftops – or more practically from the lit menorah in our living room windows. Because it’s an idea that we want and are obligated to share with the rest of the world.
May we emerge from the challenges of 2020 and the pandemic as better people. And may we continue to be a light unto the nations.
✡ Happy Chanukah! ✡
(posted Jan. 5, 2021)
Mikael Dolsten, Chief Scientific Officer at Pfizer, is Jewish. He grew up in Halmstad,
Sweden, the son of a Jewish father with prewar roots in Sweden and a Jewish mother
who escaped Austria in the early days of WWII. He visited Israel several times as a
youngster and did a year of his doctoral work at the Weizmann Institute. There he
learned cutting edge immunology that led him to pharmaceutical science. Dolsten has
referred in interviews to rising anti-Semitism in Sweden.
Pfizer CEO Albert Borla is a Sephardic Jew from Thessalonika, Greece, a city whose
Jewish population was almost completely wiped out during WWII. The Borla family’s
history in Thessalonika goes back five centuries, and Borla visits his remaining family
members there yearly. He now lives in New York City.
The Chief Medical Officer for Moderna, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, is
an Israeli immigrant named Tal Zaks. Previously, he served as head of Global Oncology
at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. Zaks received his MD and PhD degrees at Ben Gurion
University and conducted post-doc research at the NIH.
The scientist responsible, with a colleague, for the pioneering breakthroughs that
allowed the development of an mRNA vaccine (the novel approach used by Moderna
and Pfizer for dealing with COVID-19) is University of Pennsylvania’s Drew Weissman.
A Professor of Medicine at Penn, he received his BA and MA degrees at Brandeis and
MD/Microbiology and PhD at Boston University. Weissman once worked with a
fellowship at the National Institutes of Health under Dr. Fauci.
Final related notes: President-Elect Joe Biden this week named his new head for the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Professor
Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts
General Hospital. She works as a physician at a Jewish camp for a week each
summer. Also in the clan is Jeff Zients, who will be Biden’s overseer for the entire
federal coronavirus response. Zients led the successful effort to fix the government’s
Health.gov <http://Health.gov> website when it became damaged during the launch of
the Affordable Care Act.
Feel free to join us in kvelling . . .
[*We have made every effort to trace the author and publication of this article, but we
have been unable to do so.]
Chanukah 2020
Chanukah, like most Jewish holidays, has components that encourage young children to get involved, but the message is an adult one. And we are commanded to celebrate the holiday even if we are alone in the house (which, as Covid-19 continues, is all too frequently true).
What do we want to focus on to ensure that our Hanukkah is meaningful? (Hint: It’s not latkes, although that’s not so bad, either.)
There is a beautiful idea that has its roots in one of the famous arguments between Hillel and Shammai. The question arose, “Can you use one Chanukah candle to light another?” Shammai insisted that you could not. “How can you diminish one candle to light another?” he queried.
But Hillel replied, “When I use one candle to light another, we both benefit.” In other words, if I use the flame that burns within me to light someone else’s flame, the fire within me isn’t extinguished; in fact, it burns even brighter. I don’t lose by lighting someone else’s candle; I benefit! In helping you, I’m the one who grows!”
In the same way that one mitzvah leads to another, so too one light leads to another, until we have a big flame, until the light of that one original candle is illuminating the whole world.
On Chanukah, I hope we each take the light that shines within us, the light of our souls, and share it with others so that together we can help lighti up our world!
Chanukah is also the holiday of dedication or, more specifically, re-dedication. With the light of the menorah, we recommit ourselves to the values it represents. We rededicate ourselves to connecting with the Almighty and to following His Torah. We remind ourselves that despite the darkness around us, there will always be light.
This message is a timeless one that resonates anew this year. And it’s not enough to think it, to know it, to write it, even to discuss it with family members. This is a re-dedication that we need to shout from the rooftops – or more practically from the lit menorah in our living room windows. Because it’s an idea that we want and are obligated to share with the rest of the world.
May we emerge from the challenges of 2020 and the pandemic as better people. And may we continue to be a light unto the nations.
✡ Happy Chanukah! ✡
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