Yesterday marked the annual celebration of the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur, arguably the most important holiday of the Jewish religion. Yom Kippur is part of the celebration of the new year, which starts a week earlier with Rosh Hashanah. It is a day of reflection in which Jews all over the world spend the day in temple with their families and friends fasting to atone for their sins.

While holidays such as Christmas and Easter are recognized in the public school system, Jewish holidays are not. This forces Jewish students to choose between observing their religion, therefore missing instruction and getting behind in school, or going to class.

When asked how they feel about the fact that they don’t get Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur off from school, junior Hannah Ryan, sophomore Clea Wendt, and senior Matt White all felt the same way: “It’s unfair.” Yom Kippur is a day in which you are not supposed to engage in any work, spending all of your time focused on contemplating how you can improve yourself in the year to come, so the mere idea of doing work such as homework, school sports, and in class assignments contradicts the religion and the purpose of the holiday.

While Wendt recognized that “Judaism is a minority,” she said “I still think there should be some system for allowing Jewish students to take off time for the holidays that are meaningful in their lives. According to Debra Nussbaum of the New York Times, “there has been no school on Rosh Hashana or Yom Kippur for years.” If this is already the norm in other school districts, why not put this system into effect in San Luis Coastal Unified School District? Jews deserve respect no matter where they live.

“I can’t miss school even though it’s excused. I miss so much and my teachers are frustrated that I missed lessons,” said Ryan. Often times, even when an absence is excused for a valid reason such as illness, or a religious obligation, teachers express unwarranted annoyance at having to tell the student what the assignment is they missed. Jewish students don’t deserve to be punished for simply wanting to celebrate their religion.

“Even if you aren’t really religious, it pushes you away from the culture,” said White. Everyone should get an equal chance to observe their religion in the way that they see fit. When asked how she would have liked to spend Yom Kippur, Wendt said, “I would have spent it in services, or spending time with my family and focusing on fasting.”

It’s time for Jewish students in SLCUSD to have the same opportunity as others to celebrate a pivotal part of their religion.