Schools don't seem to understand the Jewish holidays. As a Jewish teen in a predominantly Christian and Catholic area, it’s hard for my voice to get heard. I spend three and a half hours sitting in services connecting to my faith and repenting for my sins. How is that bad? Why should my religion affect my classes? After the High Holidays, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, I’m expected to immediately jump right back into class and know everything that I missed. Teachers are unaware that there are other Jewish holidays besides Hanukkah. A few Jewish teens at my school chose to not even go to services because they were afraid about missing their classes. There is no school on Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Presidents’ Day, or even Columbus Day. Why can’t there not be school on Jewish holidays?
I am fully aware that majority of the school is not Jewish, but at least make other students aware that there are Jewish holidays and students will be absent. Judaism has been around for thousands of years, so how do people still not know about important holidays that happen every year?
