Starting in the 2025-26 school year, students will receive Yom Kippur and Eid Al-Fitr off from school. As the school’s diversity is increasing, change was needed.
Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement, is one of the most important days in Judaism. Yom Kippur is a day of fasting, and prayer, centered on seeking forgiveness for sins. On this day, participants commence a 25 hour fast. It begins at sunset and ends after nightfall the following day.
Eid Al-Fitr is a significant Islamic holiday. It marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting, prayer, and reflection. On this day, participants pray a special prayer called Salat Al-Eid, get together with family and friends, and reflect over the past 30 days. It is a day of bonding with your family and friends while remembering God and your effort throughout the past month. Through this, it can be easily seen how this day can be very challenging to balance with the pressure of school. This day can be extremely stressful for students that may be worrying about an assignment due when they want to simply focus on their religion.
Through this, it can be seen why it is important for students to have these days off from school. However, giving students these two days off did require some change in schedule.
Now, as Sarah Warren explains, “Next year the plan is to start classes on Monday, rather than Tuesday.” This change was made to maintain the overall number of class days in the school year. However, this is a minor change in the aspect of the change in students’ life.
Sulayman Syed ‘26 said “I celebrate Eid so I think it’s very good there doing this and it means a lot to me and I’m sure students who also celebrate other religious holidays appreciate this.”
On top of this, Zac Carter ‘26 said “I am glad that Blake is giving Jewish students time to celebrate Yom Kippur, but I am curious why we still have school on Rosh Hashanah.” While this change in schedule impacts student’s practicing these holidays, it also impacts students not practicing these holidays.
Kamu Dominguez ‘27, discussed the importance of having these holidays off. When asked about his thoughts on the change, Dominguez said “It’s a really good idea that helps people practice their religion which is important to a lot of people without having the stress of school.”
