Dear Magen David Families, We are writing to inform you of our decision regarding COVID-19. In consultation with medical specialists and representatives from the Department of Health, many yeshivot have been working together to create a community-wide approach to dealing with this rapidly-changing and evolving situation, one that will hopefully slow the spread of the Coronavirus in our community. In light of all of the information we gathered, we have decided to close all divisions of Magen David Yeshivah. Please rest assured that this is not in response to a live case that we have, but out of precaution, to be sure that our students and families stay safe and healthy. Our school closure will begin tomorrow, Thursday, March 12th and will continue until further notice while we monitor the situation keeping in mind the safety of our students, faculty and community. Our school leaders will remain in regular contact with each other, the Department of Health and other medical authorities, to discuss the impact of the Coronavirus on our community and how best to continue addressing them proactively. We will continue to update you with any changes and any new information that we have. We have worked diligently, over the last few days, to put a plan in place for online learning. We will be conducting remote learning classes, rather than in-school instruction. Tomorrow morning we will have a Professional Development program to enable teachers to enhance their skills for online instruction. Having had a bit of time to prepare for this, many of our teachers are already comfortable with these platforms. Over the next few days, we will be transitioning to online learning to conduct classes in a way that we believe will work best. You can expect to hear more details about class times and our plans for instruction in the next two days. We ask for your patience, as we recognize that as we learn more, we will make changes and our plan will evolve. We strongly urge that everyone adhere carefully to social distancing protocols. This means that students should remain at home and not gather together with friends at their homes or in public places, such as movie theaters, restaurants, etc. Experts have shared that social distancing will help to contain the virus, and it is critical to us as a community that we each do our part to slow its spread. Please understand that this means that even small groups of children getting together is not advised and this will therefore be a challenge for us as parents and educators. Our community knows how to meet challenges and we will together find ways to make this a productive experience for our children. With God’s help, they will remember this as a positive learning experience through which, among other things, they learned about resilience and the strength of their parents and community. We are grateful that we do not have any reported cases in Magen David Yeshivah and we pray that our community remains safe and healthy at this time. Sincerely yours, Rabbi Alan Berkowitz, Principal MDYES Rabbi Richard Tobias, Principal MDYHS (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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