I'm not sure I'll ever get over how a few crucial weeks in March may have made all the difference in the Jewish community's COVID-19 losses. None of this is new but I'm still upset about it and I don't think we should forget about it.

Thread.

On March 2nd, Lawrence Garbuz was diagnosed with COVID-19. Jewish schools in Riverdale with ties to Garbuz closed the next day and hundreds of people who may have been in contact with him in synagogue went into quarantine.

On March 9th, Jews in the New York City area got together to celebrate Purim. They went to synagogue in large numbers. They went to parties, they drank wine with friends and exchanged gifts of food as is customary on this holiday.

On March 12th, things started changing:

- Cuomo banned gatherings of 500+
- Rabbinical Council of Bergen County closed all synagogues in the county, and told people to stop shared shabbat meals, public weddings, funerals, shivas
- 12 Jewish day schools in the county closed

By the shabbat of March 13th/14th, a huge number of synagogues in the New York City area were closed. But they were *ahead* of official guidance.

NYC's public schools closed on the 15th. Gatherings of 50+ were banned on the 16th.

So many people got sick from (perfectly legal) contact they had with people on Purim.

When it came time to prepare for Passover, rabbis told people not to do seders with anyone outside their household. The idea was to avoid "a repeat of Purim."

I will never get over the amount of death and suffering that probably could have been averted had the guidance on gatherings of 50+ been issued a week earlier. If schools had closed a week earlier. If synagogues had been closed on purim instead of the following shabbat.

The Orthodox community has been hit so hard by this. Estimates of the number of people who died from this virus in the Orthodox communities of NYC have been as high as ~700.

Every death is a tragedy. But the fact that many could have been avoided is what I will never forget.