A holiday is a day of festivity or recreation on which no work is done. Several holidays throughout the year are general and can be celebrated by anyone without regard to culture or religion. However, many holidays pertain only to certain religions. Christianity is the most practiced religion in the U.S. Therefore, it makes sense that specific holidays related to that religion are widely celebrated throughout the country, and I understand the importance of the holidays associated with it. Due to one religion being practiced by the majority, it makes sense to base the school calendar on that religion’s holidays. More specifically, in American public school systems, I have observed that schools excuse students from classes or arrange school breaks around Christian and neutral holidays. However, minority religions, such as Judaism, should be taken into account more often. Why aren’t Jews allowed to celebrate their religiously affiliated holidays by taking time off from work or school as is the case for many Christian holidays?

Unfortunately, schools keep classes in session for all religions other than Catholicism and Christianity. As a Jew myself, I have adapted to this and have only recently realized that it is a problem. Having solely Catholic and Christian holidays off from school illustrates a biased policy by American society on religion, or at least, favoring the majority versus the minority. In this case, I am the minority. However, I still believe it is important for me to be able to celebrate my religion on holidays and not be required to work on these days. Students should be excused from school for Jewish holidays in addition to Christian holidays so that we can respect and celebrate our religion.

As I have gotten older, I have realized how much harder it actually is to celebrate a Jewish holiday while in school. When I was in elementary school, it was easy to leave for temple services and not have to make up any work that I had missed during the day. However, now that I am in high school, I know how much work and stress I would have to take on in order to catch up after missing just one day of school. A friend of mine who is also Jewish, skipped school about a year ago to go to temple and celebrate Yom Kippur, a day on which we fast to feel the hunger that our ancestors felt. I talked to her the next day and she told me about how stressed out she was because she had to make up so much work and catch up in all of her classes. I vowed from then on that I would not leave school to go to temple because I did not want to miss anything and suffer that stress. Although this decision certainly spare me a significant amount of stress, I was also upset because it meant that I would no longer be able to celebrate different aspects of my religion by attending services.

I felt, and still feel as though I am not being true to my religion. Deciding to stay in school on a Jewish holiday may imply that I do not care about my religion or that I don’t want to celebrate the holiday. However, personally, I simply don’t want to have to deal with worrying about make-up work and catching up. Whenever I do stay in school, there is a huge part of me that regrets it, because I wish I could be at temple celebrating what I believe in. Allowing Jews to celebrate the festivities related to their religion without having to go to school, would be a huge relief, despite affecting only a smaller group of the school. Someone who may disagree with me would argue that because it is in effect for only a small group of people in the school, it would not be of importance to the majority of students and would be, what the administration may consider, “a waste of a day” in which students could be learning.

A holiday is a day of celebration with numerous festivities, which can’t be enjoyed if the person is working. If school administration understood this, they would excuse all students from school for religious holidays in order to equally respect each religion and their beliefs. As I stated before, it is hard for me to make a good decision of whether to stay in school or go worship in temple, because there are negative repercussions to both. Missing school to celebrate a holiday would cause a student to be behind in their work, while staying in school despite the holiday would cause he/she to feel as though they were not respecting their own religion. This decision should not need to be made. It is only fair that schools close during all of the high holy days (most important holidays) of the Jewish religion. In addition, no homework should be assigned during the other Jewish holidays. By incorporating these minor changes to the school calendar, this would demonstrate that the school respects not only Christian holidays, but Jewish ones as well. This would prevent any appearance of bias in the school system. Schools are not here to keep students from celebrating their religions, so why not dismiss classes on those days in which are important to celebrate? Students attend school for about 180 days during the year, and if a high holiday happens to fall on one of these days, there should no question in releasing students from school.