Jerusalem Mayor: Don’t Close Yeshivos, Keep Yeshiva Students In Their Frameworks Until Sukkot

JERUSALEM (VINnews) — Jerusalem mayor Moshe Leon has called on health minister Yuli Edelstein and National Security Council leader Meir Ben-Shabat to reconsider the closure of yeshivot and to leave them open until after Sukkot.

Leon warned that letting yeshiva students return home would be a “serious mistake which could lead to a significant rise in the spread of coronavirus.”

In his letter, Leon wrote that “the yeshivas are acting based on the Vaad Hayeshivos capsule framework. [students study in small groups together within the yeshiva termed “capsules”.] However since it is safe to assume that there are students who are carriers of the virus and in order to prevent its propagation and to break the chain of infection, the correct thing is to isolate the yeshivas and their students in the supervised frameworks they are in. This is preferable to spreading carriers and sick person within the community and turning them into moving incubators within their large families and local synagogues.

The results of sending tens of thousands of yeshiva students to cramped apartments could be detrimental and could harm the national attempt to overcome the coronavirus as well as harming the communities they belong to.”

Leon recommended keeping students in the yeshiva frameworks during the coming vacation period and even until the month of Tishrei. He concluded by saying that “in fighting the coronavirus we need to act with wisdom and to measure our actions based on their estimated results. We must beware of generic actions which despite their good intentions could lead us to danger.”