New York Jewish school becomes coronavirus hotspot as neighbourhood locked down

SAR is in on the outer-edges of New York’s Bronx borough, only a short distance from a heavily Jewish New Rochelle where officials established a one-mile containment zone on Tuesday in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.

The containment zone is centred on a local synagogue: the Young Israel of New Rochelle, after a local lawyer who attended services, tested positive for coronavirus.

Attendees at a bat mitzvah, a funeral and Shabbat services were ordered to self-isolate.

Over Purim, local yeshiva students offered open-air readings of the Book of Esther to anyone who could not attend synagogues because of the closures.

Jewish centres across the United States are cancelling or postponing events. On Tuesday, it was announced that the Jewish Community Centre on Manhattan’s Upper West Side would close after a child was found to have attended while sick with coronavirus, while the National Jewish Book Awards have also been cancelled.

There are 173 confirmed cases of coronavirus in New York state, the second highest in the United States. As of Tuesday, there were at least 1,037 confirmed cases across the country, while 31 people had died.