JERUSALEM (VINnews) — The Israeli government has again updated its travel and quarantine rules for foreign students who are traveling into Israel, amid the recent Covid surge.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
On Motzei Shabbos, Rabbi Nechemia Malinowitz, Director of Igud Yeshivos and Seminaries, and Director of Eretz Hakodesh, released a video with the latest update.
The United States is a red country which means that it has strict travel restrictions. The following rules apply to the U.S. as well as all other red countries:
- Students with valid visas who have been in the U.S. FROM BEFORE the country turned red, MAY go back without any special permit. As such, if a student has a gate pass Visa that they received at the beginning of year–their yeshiva will provide them with an entry permit from the Igud.
- When you arrive in Israel with a student visa or a permit from Yeshiva, if you were vaccinated or you recovered in Israel, you may go to yeshiva (or home) to quarantine
- If you have a Green Pass from a recovery or vaccination that took place in the U.S., you will be required to stay at a hotel until your PCR results come back negative and then you can go to yeshiva.
- If your vaccinations and recovery are from the U.S, but you DO NOT have a valid Israeli Green Pass, then you will be required to go to a hotel for the entire seven day quarantine
- If you have a student visa and you are currently in Israel, you will not be able to travel to the U.S. or any other red country and return to Israel
- Regarding any new student or anyone who does not have a student visa, the government has cancelled all student travel programs right now, which means that anyone without a student visa may not come into Israel. (This includes Birthright and similar travel programs.)
- If you have a student visa, and you went home to the U.S. to get married, and your spouse does not have a student visa, that issue is being worked on, and the Igud hopes to have an update soon.
It would be helpful and easier to understand if words that Rabbi Malinowitz were not dropped from the written summary.
For example, #1 (I picked this one because it’s the one that pertains most to my son in Israel). I will add the missing words in brackets.
“Students with valid visas who have been in the U.S. [or any other red country from] BEFORE the country turned red, MAY go back [and learn in Eretz Yisrael] without any special permit.”
The key word is “from”. Otherwise, it sounds like if you were in the U.S. ANYTIME before it turned red you can go back to Israel.
the rules will change in another three days, then another three days, then another…..
It’s confusing.
I’m going to kick back and relax with a tax code volume after the strenuous read of these complicated travel rules.
I commend them for taking the lives of it’s citizens so seriously!