Workdays, Holidays, and the High Holy Days
By Lily Martin (@lilyamartin), Wisteria Magazine
For many Jews - both ethnic, religious, and otherwise - the arrival of September is synonymous with the arrival of the High Holy Days: Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. The holiest of these days is Yom Kippur, or, the Day of Atonement.
Traditional observance of Yom Kippur includes a 25-hour fast, lasting from sunset to sundown across a two-day period. Fasting is not “required” until age 13: the time at which Jews usually become adults under Jewish law. Consequently, by the time that they are “required” to fast, most Jews are in their later years of middle school. Missing school days so early in the traditional school year at that age can be detrimental for students, as they may miss tests, course information, or vital relationship-building opportunities.
With this in mind, it is imperative to also remember that every year, hundreds of thousands of Jewish American students are forced to miss school in order to properly observe one of the most meaningful Jewish holidays.
The Day of Atonement is about forgiveness and joy. Judaism believes that humankind is fundamentally good and Yom Kippur is an opportunity to celebrate and be thankful for this inherent goodness. Yom Kippur is a time for growth and goodness. Practices that in any way inhibit the observance of Yom Kippur can take away from the meaning that each individual Jewish person is able to put into their observance.
In the 2016-2017 school year, the ten American school districts with the most students served a combined 3.75 million students. All of these school districts have publicly released their academic calendars, revealing that only six of them did not require attendance on September 16th, 2021, Yom Kippur’s 2021 date. Of those six school districts, only three (New York City Schools, Houston Independent School District, and Palm Beach County Schools) officially recognized Yom Kippur as a holiday, with the other three having the day marked in their calendars as a teacher workday. New York City Schools was the only district to reference Yom Kippur by name in their 2021 calendar, though Palm Beach County schools posted about Yom Kippur on their FaceBook page.
Saranna Zhang, a student at the Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas (a school within Houston ISD), says that her school district has entirely done away with explicitly referencing non-secular holidays. “It’s all some other thing like ‘Fall Holiday,’” she notes. Coincidentally, “Fall Holiday” is what Yom Kippur is listed as on their calendar, with Good Friday appearing as “Spring Holiday.” To be fair, it seems that most of Kinder’s students knew about the holiday without the school district’s formal recognition of Yom Kippur. “Most people pretty much knew, I think,” adds Zhang. “There’s always the typically oblivious people who don’t care about anything, but the people I know were aware [of Yom Kippur].”
Houston ISD’s choice to do away with officially naming any non-secular holidays is an interesting one - probably borne out of an attempt to promote inclusivity. However, it doesn’t matter if Good Friday is called Good Friday or “Spring Holiday.” Everyone knows when and what Good Friday is regardless of its designation on a school’s academic calendar. Kinder High School’s aforementioned “typically oblivious people,” cannot be oblivious to Christian holidays like Good Friday and Easter by nature of numbers. No matter what American high school you’re in, during mid-April, statistics say that the majority of the students within those halls will be celebrating Good Friday and Easter.
Zhang also mentions in an offhand joke that she is “friends with the only two Jewish people in the grade.” Her statement may be hyperbolic, but her sentiment isn’t. In areas where Jewish people are not the majority, there isn’t going to be enough discussion of holidays like Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah to sufficiently supplant the ignorance of those oblivious students.
When schools do something as seemingly simple as designating Yom Kippur as a workday instead of a holiday (or, in Houston ISD’s case, naming the holiday something ambiguous), they are slighting Jewish students to a deeply hurtful extent. They are also putting the burden of education on their Jewish students, who are a minority in almost every space they occupy.
In addition to this, designating Jewish holidays as workdays means that Jewish educators still have to come in for work at the risk of using up an unpaid vacation day.
And for what?
An examination of these schools’ decisions is critical. In states like North Carolina, there exists legislation that limits the amount of legal holidays that schools may observe. How then, do school boards choose which holidays to observe? Is it a matter of public opinion? Is anyone on the school boards or in each states’ respective legislatures concerned at all with the responsibility of representing their Jewish constituents? How can we bring about positive and meaningful change in light of the answers to any of these questions?
Jewish students deserve the same amount of awareness and regard for their culture that the majority of Christian students receive as a default. Maintaining the integrity of these holidays within the American school system would be the first stepping stone on the path towards - at the absolute very least - recognition and respect for the new generation of Jewish Americans.
Sources:
“Digest of Education Statistics, 2019.” National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Home Page, a Part of the U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_215.30.asp
“2021-2022 School Year Calendar.” 2021–2022 School Year Calendar, New York City Department of Education, www.schools.nyc.gov/about-us/news/2021-2022-school-year-calendar.
“Houston Independent School District / Calendar and School Start Times.” Houston Independent School District / Calendar and School Start Times, Houston Independent School District, www.houstonisd.org/_calendars.
“School Calendar Legislation.” NC DPI, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, www.dpi.nc.gov/districts-schools/district-operations/financial-and-business-services/school-calendar-legislation.
