Here’s how Israel built and squandered its lead: On March 12, as total virus cases in Israel rose to 100, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shut down schools as part of a broad closure that ground life to a near total halt and capped the outbreak. In late April, as infections slowed, he turned to a gradual reopening.
On May 3, the first wave of mostly younger students restarted in-person learning. Initially schools limited class size with kindergarteners only in school half the week. But amid pressure from parents and politicians, the entire system fully reopened later in May and restrictions were lifted.
“It felt like we were being called up to babysit because parents had to go back to work,” said Rivi Zelenko, a teacher at a boarding school in a northern suburb of Tel Aviv.
In late May, while much of Europe and the U.S. were still under lockdown, Israel removed almost all restrictions. Ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods reopened synagogues, large weddings resumed, and the health minister temporarily lifted a requirement to wear masks in schools and outdoors.
It all culminated in Netanyahu telling Israelis to go out and “have fun.”
It wasn’t very long before cases surged, and officials started re-closing schools. At one well-known high school in Jerusalem, all 1,400 students and staff had to enter quarantine as cases mounted to more than 100, stemming from a single teacher, according to local media. Parties also caused problems, with one bash in a central city leading to dozens of cases. New daily cases rose from just five on May 24 to more than 2,300 in late July.
Those missteps mean there’s skepticism over the next reopening, even though it is being organized more methodically. Among the dilemmas: whether the entire country is ready for widespread online learning and if older students will be spending too much time at home. “There are many holes in the plan to open in September,” said Merom Shiff, head of a national parents group.
“The lesson is not that you cannot open schools,” said Hagai Levine, a Hebrew University epidemiologist and chair of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians. “The lesson is that you should probably open schools but do it in a careful, measured, controlled manner.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.