In 2023, the Park school district began to give school off for Yom Kippur. In 2024, Park declared that there would be no school on Rosh Hashanah. Before 2023, Yom Kippur wasn’t given off at Park, or even mentioned. We can’t imagine having to fast for 25 hours while learning in school for seven hours. Since then, Yom Kippur continues to be a day off at Park, while Rosh Hashanah has only been taken off once, and generally, other Jewish holidays are not given time off. We understand there is a lack in recognizing many religious holidays; however, in this story, we are focusing on our own experience as Jewish students at Park.
In 2025, Rosh Hashanah was over a weekend, but had it been on a school day, it most likely wouldn’t have gotten off. Rosh Hashanah is the start of the new year for Jewish people. Some students go to services on this day and even on the second, meaning they have to take school off in order to attend. This isn’t equitable because they should be able to participate in both and other religious holidays or practices are given off on most, if not all of them. If they aren’t given off from school, a break is scheduled around it to accommodate. Students will also miss content from teachers and other important lessons, homework assignments, etc., due to being in synagogue for hours on end. More holidays should get recognition, at the very least at Park. Jewish students should be able to have these holidays off without needing to take off school, because they should be able to celebrate their religion without worrying about their school workload. This will also allow students to feel more wanted in their community and feel like they are being treated with respect and have equitable treatment.
Another holiday, Sukkot, is a week-long holiday celebrated by Jews around the world in Sukkas (an easily built structure with three and a half walls and a roof made commonly of plants and leaves for rain to come through) in order to celebrate the fall harvest season. The Yom Tov (a time when some don’t use technology, make anything new, drive, etc.), which would be the first two days, should be given off for students to observe the holiday as they intend to without the stress and anxiety of needing to know what they missed, catch up on work and more. Students not having school off could easily dissuade students from celebrating or observing days that could better help connect them with their families and communities.
Taking more days off from school could also be beneficial to students who don’t celebrate them. Students could use these days to catch up on work and better prepare themselves for their classes and tests they may have. This would allow students to have a reset other than the weekend that they could use to relax and take care of themselves, as well as hang out with friends or family that they may not have time to be with otherwise. School can be very stressful and overwhelming, so having the extra days at home could be helpful to students in every grade and religion. Having a couple more days off in Park’s schedule wouldn’t make that big of a difference and is something that can be worked around. Trying to treat all religions equally, no matter their practices, is the best way to solve this issue.
