BS”D
Re Herzl: Please read Amos Elon’s biography. It details how Herzl OLBM led his life and how this led to his infection and early demise. I would not have mentioned this if I had not read the whole book carefully. I do not go out of my way to post potentially lurid information on a Torah site. The mohel probably contracted it via just that – metzitza bapeh, which explains the need for the tshuva. Very few Viennese Jews were so far removed from Judaism that they eschewed milah, and many babies were born with all kinds of bacterial infections LA until antibiotics were discovered. In fact I remember all too well when there was much fear of mohalim contracting HIV as well as rumors about one or two who may have, L”A. We are not choished bekesherim. And we are not metaher shrotzim.
Re: R’ Avigdor Miller: I need to do full research before I post any detail but indeed I do fear it will lead to more trouble than it is worth.
Re: The EY hi tech industry: India is way ahead of EY and all that industry is for the most part is cheap R&D for ideas developed elsewhere. The reason any chip is developed in EY (or India, or here in Ukraine for that matter) is because bosses in the US give workers in EY orders to develop a chip. EY’s best and brightest and most ambitious have had to and still have to emigrate or at least invest abroad to succeed.
LOL regarding the medicines. With the exception of the MS treatment copaxone (Teva) which has been superseded, most EY pharmaceutical products are cheap generics, made in factories that Teva and Taro and Agis have purchased abroad. Indeed if you receive a generic RX in the US it may be made by a plant owned by EY giant Teva – but it was not developed in EY and not even made there. It could be from New Jersey or Ireland among other places.
I used Teva RX strength ibuprofen once in Moscow; not sure if it was from their factories in EY or Hungary. The quality and finish of the pills was amazingly low, lower than that of the local Ukrainian product I now keep around for emergencies. Unlike a cheap Ukrainian pill, these things were grainy, and dissolved in the back of my throat leaving a terrible aftertaste. I was shocked, but I can’t say I was surprised, as I am very familiar with the callous indifference of EY firms to consumer needs and quality control issues.