# Did/does your local public school system close for Jewish holidays? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 3, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507 "2018-12-03T17:39:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/21 "2018-12-03T23:28:41Z")
When I was in the school, there were about 10 Jewish kids, so they didn’t close. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/22 "2018-12-03T23:32:55Z")
My university was infamous for scheduling orientation, registration, finals and other important school days on Jewish holidays. My Jewish friends were kinda pissed about that. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2018, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/23 "2018-12-03T23:55:42Z")
I went to a majority Jewish public school in New York (not myself Jewish), and we got every major Jewish holiday off, and a few I have never heard about since (Shemini Atzeret, anyone?). One year, we closed down for a week for a particularly early Passover (or late Easter, I don’t know), and opened back up again just in time for Easter. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/24 "2018-12-04T00:10:21Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > A tangent: do any companies give Jewish holidays as paid company holidays? (outside Israel) Back when I was observant I would take the days off without putting in for any vacation or personal days, and no boss every batted an eye. I’ve always worked in tech companies where there have been lots of Jews and everyone is salaried, and no one ever looked at time cards very seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/25 "2018-12-04T00:13:36Z")
I don’t know about the whole district, as schools get to decide for themselves, but I do know my son’s secondary school (6th-12th) did not observe any “religious” holidays, unless you consider Thanksgiving and the day after to be religious. Some people do, but lots of people see it as a “national” holiday. The school year was divided into quarters with two weeks between each. School started the first of August. Fall break, end of September/beginning of October. Winter break, end of December/beginning of January, and Spring break, end of March/beginning of April. It was always those weeks. Sure Christmas always fell during winter break, but Easter often was no where near spring break. School out at the end of May. Despite that, there were lots of holiday/religious celebrations at his extremely diverse school. They had a “God is Awesome” club where Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, and Christians (basically anyone who believed in one “God” no matter what you called him) would do celebrations for the various holidays. The Hindu Club also hosted celebrations for various holidays. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/26 "2018-12-04T00:39:02Z")
They don’t in the district where I live now and where my kids went to school. In New York, when I was growing up (late 1950s), they didn’t when I was in second grade, but they eventually did close since the number of absent students and teachers meant that nothing got done. They closed for the High Holy Days and Pesach, not for any other holidays. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/27 "2018-12-04T01:05:08Z")
Nope. Being a[Torah observant Christian](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_observances_of_Jewish_holidays), I always had to get a letter from home. I just put it in at the same time we asked for Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles), since we always had to go out of town. I do the same thing now when I get the time off work, they’re pretty good about it. ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/28 "2018-12-04T02:03:31Z")
Nope, neither the district I attended nor the one I currently reside in. There was a handful of Jewish kids at my high school, and one was a friend of mine. There was a small Orthodox Jewish community in my hometown and we would sometimes see them walking to the temple on Saturdays, but as far as I know, none of the Orthodox Jews attended public schools. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/29 "2018-12-04T03:28:42Z")
Yes, my district was off for the High Holy Days. New York City, 1951-1963. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/30 "2018-12-04T03:37:34Z")
My district doesn’t close for Jewish holidays, but does for Christian: Good Friday, whenever it might happen to fall on the calendar, is always off (though they never say _why_ it’s off; it’s always just labeled on the district calendar as “no school for students”). I don’t know the actual numbers, but I’m pretty sure that there are more Muslim students in the district than Jewish (at least, there are a lot of boys named “Mohammed” and “Abdul”, and a lot of girls wearing headscarves). There might be more Buddhists and Hindus, too. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/31 "2018-12-04T03:58:20Z")
snowthx: > [@](#): > > A tangent: do any companies give Jewish holidays as paid company holidays? The company I worked for back in 1998-9 did. The CEO and founder was (well, I’m sure he still is, though he might no longer be CEO) an Orthodox Jew, so both Jewish and non-Jewish holidays the company was closed. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/32 "2018-12-04T04:04:15Z")
There were no Jewish kids in my elementary school. I believe there was one in my high school. So, no. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/33 "2018-12-04T04:09:42Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > A tangent: do any companies give Jewish holidays as paid company holidays? (outside Israel) > > Or universities that give the days off? (outside Israel) Yep, NYU sure did. (Or, as my dad calls it, “NY Jew.”) Public schools in my hometown did, too, but teachers often gave double homework on he theory that we would all have lots of extra time to do it. Well, those of us who were actually observing he holiday didn’t! It was a shocker to me when I got to grad school in Indiana that it wasn’t automatic for professors at least to avoid scheduling exams on those days. I wasn’t remotely observant by then, but come on, you can’t time-shift stuff a day or two to accommodate people? ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/34 "2018-12-04T04:34:33Z")
just found out that the school districts here don’t count it as a absence if theres a note before hand or its on the students record so no wise guys trying to pull one over ---
**Author:** ![FinsToTheLeft](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/finstotheleft/32/2930_2.png) [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/35 "2018-12-04T11:03:19Z")
I grew up in what was previously a separate city, now amalgamated into Toronto. The only religious holidays that school was closed, both then and now, are Christmas and Good Friday. Teachers are supposed to respect holy days and avoid tests and field trips, but it varies. I was off for both Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, as are my kids. Everything else is school as usual. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/36 "2018-12-04T12:25:17Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > A tangent: do any companies give Jewish holidays as paid company holidays? (outside Israel) Yes- my husband’s company used to and a fair amount of his customers give their employees a paid day off for Jewish holidays- but this is NYC and the companies in question have Jewish owners. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/37 "2018-12-04T14:42:38Z")
No; then or now. In my farm days we had a number of Jewish families in my school - say 6 of the 31 or so in my class. They didn’t get any penalty of any kind; the teachers all scheduled core lessons around so they didn’t miss anything. But it still went down as a school day. Once we got to Da Really Big City there were so few Jewish students that it was basically ignored and still is. In my call it was 1 of say 460 of us and several of the grades behind me had none. It just didn’t happen as far as the district was concerned. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/38 "2018-12-04T15:13:24Z")
Schools that allowed Jewish kids to take off for Jewish holidays; how does the school know your religion? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/39 "2018-12-04T15:36:05Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Schools that allowed Jewish kids to take off for Jewish holidays; how does the school know your religion? They speak to the parents and accept what they say. If you say you’re Jewish, you’re Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![Figaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ea666f/32.png) [@Figaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Figaro)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507/40 "2018-12-04T15:51:12Z")
Mid-1980s, suburban MD. Schools didn’t close, but I was one of the few kids who showed up on those days. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-does-your-local-public-school-system-close-for-jewish-holidays/825507.md?page=3)