Pantaphobia is a very rare medical condition in which the patient feels absolutely no fear. Thanks to a middle-aged American woman known to science as SM-046, who in the mid-‘90s the media dubbed “the woman with no fear” and whose brain scans were examined by doctors, we know that this condition is caused by damage to the amygdala, the section of our brain that regulates primal emotions and instinctual reactions.

In the current crisis, we are hearing calls in the Jewish media and in leadership conversations to launch an “emergency campaign” creating a “central fund” to “save” the Jewish community system from the devastating impact of the Covid-19 crisis.

(Session at JFN 2020 Virtual Convening, March 23, 2020)

Coronavirus Resource Hub

Posted by · March 23, 2020 4:58 PM

Join Yohanan Plesner, president of the non-partisan Israel Democracy Institute and a former Member of Knesset, for an in-depth analysis of the March election results in Israel. In this March 17, 2020 webinar, Plesner discusses who won, who lost, and how the coronavirus changes everything.

JFN President and CEO Andrés Spokoiny's presidential address at the JFN 2020 Virtual Convening, delivered on March 23, 2020.

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Scroll down or click here to watch this speech.

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” said Thomas Paine. And these times are trying ours.

These are times in which our character is being tested; our wisdom; our empathy; our compassion; our selflessness and being tried.

The spread of the COVID-19 has drastically affected the entire world. For the Israeli philanthropic community, the past few weeks and those that lie ahead are especially challenging because, with Israel yet to form a permanent government, nonprofits have been unable to rely on government funding.