Dear residents,

We are nearing the end of the fifth week of the War of Iron Swords in Efrat and maintaining a new sort of routine.
 The directives of the Home Front Command have not changed and Efrat has green status in the regulation requirements system.

 This Friday, the preschools will operate as usual.  There will be no classes in the elementary schools.
In response to the question of many parents, we would like to explain that the schools are currently facing a shortage of staff, as a result of teachers being in reserves.  The principals of the schools invest a lot of effort in making up the missing hours of those teachers that are in reserves. They use the teachers that are able to work, to teach extra hours on Sundays - Thursdays in addition to their regular duties in order to open school five days a week.
 In addition to this, the teaching staff come to us from different towns. For various reasons, the education system in their towns work less hours and do not operate on Fridays.  This creates a chain reaction.  Lack of manpower and failure to open educational institutions on Friday in a certain place forces our educational staff to stay home with their children and not come to work.
 The lack of uniformity with regard to the educational institutions at the national level directly effects the opening of the educational institutions in Efrat.  The education department and the schools are doing their best to reassemble the "puzzle" of the education staff and enable the opening of frameworks in a normal manner on Sunday-Thursday. Friday is used to give the teaching staff a day off.
 To illustrate the situation, we share sample data from one of the schools in Efrat:
 The school has 595 students, of which 96 are special education students.
 2 principals are in reserves (high school and lower school), 5 out of 6 rakazot are in reserves, 11 out of 30 teachers are in reserves, and 10 spouses of teachers are in reserves.

 In recent days, halachic questions have arisen regarding the use of vehicles on Shabbat by volunteers of the "Lirot Velehiraot" team. 
Please see Rabbi Shimon Golan's explanation of the issue distributed by the Religious Council.

https://www.efrat.muni.il/he/%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%99%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%9C%D7%A1%D7%99%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%9B%D7%91-%D7%91%D7%A9%D7%91%D7%AA/

 iPhone users - if you have not yet updated the Home Front Command application, make sure to do so as soon as possible by logging into the application and confirming the update.

 Despite the prolongation of the war, the great community initiatives of Efrat residents continue!  On the council's website you can find links to a wide range of initiatives and volunteering.

In prayer for the safety and success of our soldiers, the security and rescue forces.
 We will continue to update,
The Public Information Team