Podcast Of The Week: Jerusalem’s Hotel Corona

The Dan Hotel in Jerusalem has been leased by the government to be used as a coronavirus recovery house. Basically, if you’ve tested positive but are getting better, you can be sent here until you’re no longer infectious. What it’s created is a space where people don’t have to socially distance or worry about catching the disease. And, since it’s in Jerusalem, the mix of religions and various subsets of a normally very divided society is all there, packed into the hotel together, co-existing peacefully. Their story started spreading via social media posts by people ordered to stay at the hotel, and NPR picked it up. Check out Rough Translation, Season 3, episode 21, “Hotel Corona.”