Volunteers from the Satmar Bikur Cholim movement have been restricted from visiting patients at the NYU-Langone Hospital Manhattan in New York. The hospital has banned non-family members and friends from patient floors, although they will not disclose what prompted this policy change. The volunteers think that their Orthodox beliefs, particularly on ending life support and administering palliative care, conflicted with the hospital’s approach and may have led to this change.

Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi investment arm Alliance Ventures has invested in an Israeli venture capital fund focusing on car technologies. This was the venture’s first investment in Israel. The amount of money invested is undisclosed, but the venture’s goal is to invest US$1 billion over the next five years in startup partnerships involving auto technologies.

The Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem is a traditional Middle Eastern market by day, selling spices and local produce, but by night it has become a hangout for young people with its bars, cafes, music, and art. This transformation began in 2006, when the market stayed open late one night for a Purim party. It ended up drawing 4,000 people.

Philip Roth, who’s well known for his novels about the sex drives of American men, which prompted some of the most probing examinations of the American Jewish condition in the 20th and 21st centuries, has died at 85.