Sort of Locked-down Jerusalem, Corona COVID Life

Yesterday I escaped to Jerusalem for a few hours. To be honest, it's rather risky. For me, my age makes me one of those who should be avoiding people. And in terms of corona COVID statistics, Shiloh is much, much greener/safer than Israel's Capital Jerusalem. But I'd been home for over a month and a half. To say I was going stir crazy is no exaggeration. As "jails" go, Shiloh may be rather benevolent and friendly, but waking outside, zooming with friends and family, facebook, whatsapp etc just aren't enough. 

Following are photos, some with captions of sorts to illustrate what I found in the Holy City of Jerusalem.

Body language says it all. 

No eye contact. People are masked in more ways than one. No unnecessary touching of anything. It's like we're all within our personal portable jails, even when on the lightrail.

Depending on where you're looking, life looks almost normal, but for after 10am too many stores are totally shuttered.

With typical Israeli ingenuity, these fabric and notion stores are trying to sell their wares. Those who know how to sew are the lucky ones, because clothing stores were boarded up. 

Shopping for fabric required explaining to the sales staff what you wanted, choosing and then "ordering" for immediate "delivery." I discovered that many storeowners adopted this method of sales, as if they were pizza or felafel places.

Very lonely Jerusalem street with most stores totally shut until the government allows them to open.

Even some shoe stores have adopted the immediate order/delivery system, though I presume they permit people to try on their shoes first.

I just can't imagine buying shoes I haven't tried on. My feet and body are just too unique and delicate to trust online shoe shopping.

I almost bought a few packs of these gorgeous masks, but then I ran into a good friend who told me that she bought the same ones much more cheaply in Rami Levi. I must find someone to buy me some pretty colored masks there.

One thing for sure, disposable masks have dropped dramatically in price.

Prices have dropped, but the stores are locked. I guess you can order online, but I like to see and touch items first. That's how I judge quality.

Just in case those trying to get into the main post office have no idea of what two meters, aka social distancing, means, there are little boxes on the sidewalk to show you where to stand. 

People were very obedient. It's taking awhile, but Israelis are beginning to accept the concept of physical distancing when downtown doing errands.

After filling my backpack with Israeli craft beer, Shapiro's to be exact, I was overjoyed to discover that HOBBY was "open." Of course "open" meant that customers couldn't enter.

I stuck my head and phone in as far as I could to see the colors of the jersey yarn HOBBY was selling. Then the salesgirl had to bring them to me. 

Not all of them looked the same up close, but I had no time to have her run back and forth the way I would have chosen. Also there were people lined up waiting to "shop." I'm glad to have a new stock of jersey yarn to crochet more bags.

In all honesty, I think that these craft, sewing notions and fabric stores should be open the public just like pharmacies are. For many of us crafts are valuable medical tools, occupational therapy. And this is a great time to teach children these wonderful arts and crafts instead of their just using computer apps to make "works of art."

Gd willing corona COVID will disappear quickly, and everyone should be healthy and healed. Let this lockdown nightmare be quickly over. 

I'm glad to have accomplished a lot in my Jerusalem escape. And in case you're wondering, I ate nothing while there, but I walked a lot.

Maximum Attendance Should be PERCENTAGES, Not Numbers, Life in Corona COVID-19 Lock-down

When the Israeli Government announced "corona gifts" of money to help citizens out without proving poverty or restricting the money to the lower income bracket, I davka agreed. It would cost more to do the bureaucratic bookkeeping to enforce the restrictions than they would save. But when it comes to announcing maximum attendance in synagogues, restaurants, social halls the situation is completely different. These places are supposed to have a maximum capacity listed in their permits. And if they don't for whatever reason, a simple calculation can be made according to the size. For argument's sake, I suggest thirty percent 30% of maximum capacity, and if there hadn't been one set, then 20% of recommended capacity. Any restaurant which is then limited to under ten people will be take-out only. And any synagogue too small for even ten to fit by these standards must be closed.

More about the synagogues, for example here in Shiloh, there are large synagogues that were built to normally seat well over a hundred worshipers comfortably, and there are others that utilize small prefabricated shelters. In the large synagogues it's certainly easy to arrange safe seating for dozens of worshipers keeping their required distance. On the other hand the smaller building may not even be large enough for even a minyan quorum of ten, if they carefully follow social distancing regulations.

The government's "one size fits all" ruling is idiotic and counter-productive. There is no other way to put it.

A synagogue as large as the main synagogue in Shiloh,  Mishkan Tabernacle Synagogue, certainly has room for over 50 worshipers to sit safely, according to social distancing and another 20 or more upstairs in the Ezrat Nashim, Women's Section.