Many Jews worldwide will mark Yom Kippur in fasting and prayer at their synagogues this weekend.

Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, starts at sundown on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and continues through the evening of Friday, Oct. 4.

Yom Kippur means ‘Day of Atonement,’ and it is a day to reflect on the past year.

(AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)JERUSALEM – Israel on Thursday moved to further tighten its second countrywide lockdown as coronavirus cases continued to soar, ordering all nonessential businesses to close and requiring people to stay within 1,000 meters (yards) of their homes. Hagai Levine, a professor of epidemiology and a member of an expert panel advising the government, warned that allowing Yom Kippur prayers in synagogues could lead to mass transmission. He went so far as to compare it to the 1973 war, when Egypt and Syria launched a surprise attack on Israel during Yom Kippur. We are going to have a massive problem and massive transmission on Yom Kippur in a few days,” he said. The government last week imposed a nationwide lockdown that closed schools, shopping malls, hotels and restaurants, making Israel the first developed country to impose a second closure.