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Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement
Lauren Badger
Should Jewish students get more courtesy when missing school for religious holidays? In the school’s Panoramic survey, almost all of the questions regard this topic of equal treatment, which has also been emphasized by various posters and slogans around Flagstaff High School. As students of various religions miss school for their individual religious holidays and students across the board get Christian holidays off, the question arises: is this equal treatment? Should it be mandatory for teachers to build their schedules to be more encompassing around each religion, or try to be more inclusive and flexible when considering major deadlines?
Yom Kippur, known as the “Day of Atonement”, is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. It’s a day of reflection, fasting, and prayer. Yom Kippur is one of the most important holidays in Judaism, along with Rosh Hashanah. Flag High senior Mira said, “Those are the 2 biggest holidays of the year, and people don't know that.” This year, Yom Kippur began at sundown on October 1st, with students around the world missing school on the 2nd to participate in services. When interviewed, Mira remarked on the number of assignments she had due that day: a timed essay to be completed in class, a unit test, a full essay due the next day, and not to mention copious amounts of homework. She opened up about how this felt contradictory to the holiday, saying, “these are days of reflection, so it doesn’t really make sense that you have to be stressing about school work when your job for the day is to be focusing on yourself, and how you can be a better person.” She continued by saying, “we’re supposed to fast and go to services all day. We don't have time to work on anything.”
As Jewish people are required to attend services on this day, Mira mentioned how it “seems kind of funny” that all students get Christian holidays off, and how because she missed school for Yom Kippur, she had to miss tests and quizzes, and felt penalized to make them up on her own time. While interviewing, we also discussed the topic of Christmas festivities in elementary school, and how choosing between being left out or singing Christmas songs with the rest of her grade felt like a lack of recognition of her personal religion. As a school, I believe that we should work towards a common goal of making schoolwork more time worthy and flexible, creating a space where all students can feel comfortable, not stressed or burnt out due to missing a few days for sickness, family or religious reasons.