No touching, sharing or borrowing pencils: Israeli students go back to school

JERUSALEM — At the Michel household, the first normal school morning in six weeks felt anything but. Clil and Alma, identical twin 7-year-olds, were by turns giddy and apprehensive as Israel, after days of on-again, off-again uncertainty, opened schools Sunday to thousands of first-, second- and third-graders.

Like families around the world, the Michels had been waiting for back-to-school day as a coronavirus milestone. But even as they packed the backpacks — the new supply lists included masks, hand sanitizer and cloth napkins to unfold under their snacks — they didn’t know whether the return would reduce the frightening grind of the country’s outbreak, or amplify it.