4 students test positive for coronavirus at Ramaz, elite NYC Jewish prep school

The Ramaz School Image by Paul Stremple/Forward

By Ari Feldman September 14, 2020

The Ramaz School, a Jewish prep school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, is going virtual after four students tested positive for coronavirus.

In an email to the school’s community Sunday and viewed by the Forward, the school said that two juniors and two seniors from “multiple different communities and locations” tested positive, and that they were asking the entire junior and senior classes to quarantine for 14 days.

The email said that the school would close its Upper School building for at least two days, because students in the freshman and sophomore classes were exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19, though none had yet tested positive. The school will continue virtually “until further notice.”

A representative for Ramaz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

While New York City public schools have had their in-person start date pushed back from the beginning of September amid concerns about teacher coronavirus infections and difficulty creating distanced classrooms, many private schools have gone ahead and opened their doors.

Jewish private schools have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars, in some cases, to update their buildings for distanced learning, while also creating plans for remote schoolwork if students or faculty test positive for the virus.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.

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