‘Most COVID studies focus on destroying the virus. We’re trying a different approach’

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Jiri Zahradnik, 32; lives in Rehovot, flying to Pilsen, Czech Republic

Hi Jiri, what have you been doing in Israel?

You pronounced it right!: “Yiri.” It’s a hard name in Hebrew, people are always calling me “Jerry.” I’m doing a postdoc in biochemistry at the Weizmann Institute. Now I’m heading home to the Czech Republic to visit my family, and then I’ll come back here to continue my work. The truth is that I’m working on a project that’s related to the coronavirus.

So tell us, are we all going to die?

No, obviously not. There’s nothing to worry about. We have strong vaccines, we’re in advanced stages of developing medications. We are now in a completely different place from the situation two years ago. We see that in Israel the number of those infected is pretty high, but the number of serious cases is lower, so it can’t be compared to the first outbreak.

Can you say something about your work?

Sure. The truth is that just yesterday there was an article published about it. Most of the recent studies about corona are focused on the virus, how to destroy it. We said we would try a different approach, so we produced a protein that works like a cork in a bottle. If you close the bottle, the virus cannot enter. So we developed a protein that can be used as treatment, and it keeps the virus from entering the cell. Viruses need to penetrate cells in order to reproduce, and that is what we are preventing.

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So a person with COVID can cough on me, and even if I become infected, I won’t be positive?

Apparently not, because the virus will not reproduce.

That’s pretty amazing.

Yes. We are collaborating with the Department of Health [and Human Services] in the United States, and they are launching a test study.

Aren’t you afraid of being infected when you work with the virus?

I don’t come into close contact with the virus. I don’t think there is any facility in the Weizmann Institute that permits work with the virus itself. The Biological Institute in Nes Tziona is able to work with the virus.

I admit that when I suggested interviewing you, I didn’t expect you to turn out to be a scientist. I assumed you were a trekker.

I like to travel, which is why I have a backpack. I traveled a lot in Israel, because I didn’t have other options; it was impossible to leave the country because of the coronavirus. This is my second visit to the Czech Republic since my arrival – I was there a month ago, and now I have the feeling that this will be the final opportunity before stricter flight regulations take effect. But there was also an advantage to the pandemic: I’ve been here three-and-a-half years now, and during that time I have had opportunities to travel and discover all the amazing places in Israel. I’ve done most of the Israel Trail, the Golan Heights, I walked in the footsteps of Jesus. And the Weizmann Institute is so beautiful, it’s like a Garden of Eden in the city.

How did you come to be at the institute?

Through the Czech government – they created a Czech-Israeli advanced-training program. I flew here for a month, I saw the Weizmann Institute, and then I decided that this was the place where I wanted to do my postdoc. I also received a job offer in Germany, but I decided that it was too much like the Czech Republic, it would be like staying home. I decided that I want to discover new cultures, and I came to Israel.

Is Israel as different from home as you’d hoped?

Yes, it is different. There is no comparison.

Give me an example.

Shabbat, the fact that there is no public transportation on weekends. It’s amazing for a person from the outside, because with us it’s the exact opposite. Everyone wants to go on weekend outings, so public transportation is beefed up. So that was the first jolt. I had a lot more like it. For example, I had no knowledge of Jewish culture when I got here, so all the dietary laws were completely new to me. There was a huge use of disposable utensils, and some of that use was intended to maintain kashrut. I was used to real cutlery being shared by people in common working spaces, and everyone has a real dish, which is washed and reused. But here, when I started doing that, I was the weird one. What else? The culture and society are a lot more diverse here. In many ways. There are Arabs, Druze, Jews, Ethiopians and other communities here. It was something completely different for me.

In the Czech Republic, everyone is Czech.

Almost, yes. And here it is far more diverse, also in terms of social standards.

What do you mean?

The difference between different parts of the country is extreme. You have skyscrapers in Tel Aviv and Bedouin villages with a fire burning and naked children running all over. I saw that when I hiked the Israel Trail.

Were you in shock?

Yes, but I was even more in shock when those people invited me to have dinner with them. The Bedouin said, “Come and drink tea with us, and afterward there’ll be food.”

And how was it?

A wonderful experience. That’s why I like traveling – you never know what will happen. Even though the people there were very poor, they were very generous and kind to me.

How did you communicate?

In the most simplified English. Without tenses and without grammar.

“I eat, I drink” – like babies?

Like babies, yes, it works. And a lot of hand gestures. Understanding people is more the desire to understand and less the language. That’s true everywhere in the world.

Osher AtoonHadas Parush

Osher Atoon, 41; lives in Jerusalem, arriving from Prague

Hi Osher, what were you doing in Prague?

We were on a family vacation. Actually, it was my daughter’s bat-mitzvah trip, which was delayed a year. Because all the event halls shut down, we said we would compensate her before the schools reopen by taking her to Prague. It was perfect.

What’s it like to be the father of a girl who’s entering adolescence?

It’s terrific to watch as they grow up. When you see her, the way she’s maturing… and you remember yourself 30 or 40 years back… I’m the best-friend dad. I speak openly. Of course there are matters of modesty that she talks about with her mother, but my wife and I are as open as can be with our kids. We talk, we share, we don’t want them to be shy or to keep things pent up. That little dwarf in the gut will only grow with the years, and if it’s not dealt with from the start, it will grow with you and afterward you’ll need surgery. So I want them to feel comfortable about telling me everything, no matter what.

How do you make a growing girl feel comfortable?

First of all, you have to take things on yourself, no matter how much coping is involved. It’s up to you as the father to come to her. You need to speak with her in her language, explain to her with examples from your life, show her that you also went through these experiences, and you too were helped and overcame them – and today you’re here to help. From here she needs to take it a step further – to overcome the obstacles she has in life, the shyness and the hurtful things and certain things she thinks about the world. We follow developments all the time. She shares – and we’re here for her. And you see them blossoming, because they feel they have a place in the home. It radiates outward. Today my younger daughter is the most popular personality in the class. All the girls flock around her, because she comes to them as herself. When you bring what you are, you find true friends.

Aren’t you afraid that there will be a distance between you because of the age difference?

No way. They are Daddy’s girls. I’ll tell you the truth, the real distance comes from all the screens and phones of all sorts, everyone who sits playing these games, and it messes up their brains. And I have friends like that, too. I have a lot of secular friends, I came from a secular home. What do the parents want? Quiet. So a kid became quiet thanks to the phone, but that phone wrecks his life. And it’s no longer pleasant for the father; the father doesn’t know any longer how to approach his daughter because distance has been created, and the daughter also doesn’t know how to approach her father anymore. And from there, it begins to deteriorate.

So you are from a secular home?

A long story, but we’ll cut it short. I would go to parties and clubs, and I was a promoter of parties and so on. After a party, I would go to an after-party, and that wasn’t enough, either, so I would go to another party and then to friends to play on the Sony until Shabbat was over. After army service, I worked a little in the Defense Ministry, and then I wanted to travel. I went to India, Nepal and Laos, I spend half a year in Japan, and I started to examine my whole spiritual path. I meditated, did yoga and went to the River Ganges to sit with a guru. Everyone asked me, “What are you doing here? You’re a Jew.” Someone asked me who the patriarch Abraham was, and I was ashamed but I didn’t know how to answer. I told him, “I know there’s a person, Moses, who once took us out of Egypt.” But when you start to accept that you are a Jew, you understand that it’s impossible to go against the truth. You connect to it and the soul begins to live.

How did your family accept the fact that you became observant?

Really not well at first. My mother was always respectful, but my father… It was very hard for him, because his father was religious. They were religious when they came from Tunisia, and they supposedly freed themselves from religion, and then suddenly his son goes back to it. For him that was the worst thing possible. His world fell apart. He would shout at me and quarrel with me, and even humiliate me about it. He said, “You’ll walk around looking like a black penguin, you’ll start swaying back and forth all day – this isn’t the son I wanted and this isn’t the son I raised.” On Shabbat, I would cry. There is a very large gap when you explain something to someone when he is in a different place. You don’t know how to approach him, and he thinks the same about you. There’s an abyss that you don’t know how to bridge.

How do you get along today?

Today, thank God, my father respects me, and I love him very much. I loved him very much then, too! But today there is affection and understanding between us, and when he comes to me for Shabbat, he says that they are the best Shabbatot he has had in his life.