As of tomorrow morning a curfew will be imposed on the citizens of Israel. Individuals will only be alowed to leave their houses for limited reasons such as buying food and medicine and goint to work that is defined as essential.

As I write this piece from the very center of Tel Aviv, the streets are nearly deserted, the bars and clubs are dark, as are the coffee shops. On most days (depending on the weather) planes destined for Ben Gurion Airport fly directly over the city on final approach. One often sees a convoy of planes lining the skies. But these days, hours pass between the arrival of one plane and the next, at an airport that handled 25 million passengers last year.

Yesterday, 6,000 miles away, my four-year-old grandson completed his 14 days of mandatory quarantine — just in time to find his city (New Rochelle) closed in ways very similar to the shutdowns of Tel Aviv. These past few weeks have felt like a slow-motion car crash; one in which we are still unsure how severe the damage will be.

Israel began taking the Coronavirus very seriously on January 30th, when it banned entry into the country of all non-residents coming from China, and forced residents returning from China to enter into quarantine. Those restrictions were extended shortly afterward to all of East Asia.

The US followed suit, banning entry from China on February 4th, but never took any action on flights from the rest of Asia. I remember being on-air at i24News on February 6th during President Donald Trump’s triumphal speech, after his acquittal by the Senate, saying he should not be wasting time on this [his impeachment trial]. Rather, he should be devoting his time to telling the nation how the US is preparing to defeat the Corona virus.

Back in Israel, more and more countries were added to the list of nations from which visitors required quarantine. A friend cut short his ski trip in Italy. One day I saw him in the park, the next day he was told he had to be in quarantine. The rollout of additional countries was haphazard.

Aliya Nussbaum, (originally from Hawaii and San Diego, currently a student at IDC, the Herzliya Interdisciplinary College) was en route back from Europe to attend a ceremony in which her brother participated, scheduled for March 4th. As she landed, Aliya received text messages from friends suggesting she not return home at this time, since a quarantine had been imposed on all those returning from Austria. But, it was too late. She had already landed back in Israel.

Upon arriving home, Aliya received no instructions. She was eventually contacted and told she had to remain in quarantine for 14 days. Regarding quarantine, she confided: “I can't say it was easy. When it’s beautiful outside, it’s hard. But as more and more people enter quarantine you feel you are not so alone.” Aliya came out of quarantine this morning, as most of the country entered a national quarantine.

Meanwhile, 6,000 miles away, in the place where I grew up, my 4 year old grandson was forced to remain quarantined. The disease began to spread from some source — unknown to this day — which infected a member of the Jewish community, who tested positive for the Coronavirus. Regrettably, by the time existence of the disease was discovered, the man and his children had interacted with dozens of people; many of whom tested positive for the disease. My grandson’s school, Westchester Day School, (which both I and my daughter attended) closed. Many other Jewish schools in the area shut down, as well.

The sudden closings caught the school administrations and faculties by surprise. Nevertheless, they are all trying their best to improvise. Rabbi Joshua Lookstein, WDS Principal said: “We have been moving ahead with distance-learning via Zoom’s synchronized conference calls — it reconnects students and teachers.” Lookstein went on to say about the online interactions: “The teacher’s tone and demeanor are more important than their subjects”.

Unfortunately, what WDS has implemented became the norm in Israel this week, and is quickly becoming the norm for much of the United States, as schools have been forced to shutter for a yet-to-be-determined length of time.

As of Thursday afternoon, Israel has identified529 residents who have tested positive for COVID-19:

Thankfully,at the time of this writing there have been no deaths in Israel. The Israelis convalescing at home are all being monitored using a system developed by Datos designed specifically to oversee patients with COVID-19. According to Uri Bettesh, CEO of Datos Health, they were able to implement their monitoring system with all of Israel's HMO’s and the Health Ministry. Every one of Israel’s at-home patients is being monitored via the Datos system. According to Betttesh, starting today, their system will also be deployed by Rochester Regional Health. However, implementing Datos’ solution in America's fractured health system will be a challenge.

Israel's economy has been slowly grinding to a halt, and our connections to the world dwindle — as El Al who two months ago operated over 80 flights daily, has now cut back to four flights per day; and whose international airport welcomed flights from 149 airlines, most of which have suspended their flights.

Despite the fact that things in Israel are liable to get worse before they get better, there is a sense (perhaps false) that things are under control, at least to some extent. However, I worry about my family in the USA, where a failure of national leadership has allowed the situation to get out of control.

We have entered into a very uncertain time. As the head of tourism for Jerusalem, Ilanit Melchior told me: “The world is looking for hope that there will be a future.” Amen to that.