Governor Cuomo on Monday agreed to New York City’s plan to close schools in nine coronavirus “hot spots” in Brooklyn and Queens. Many of the affected neighborhoods include large, close-knit Orthodox Jewish communities.

Israel, said Eyal Levanon, chairman of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa parent-teacher association, “has to understand that it is losing a generation. It needs to put all the money it has or doesn’t have into bringing them back to school."