Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: As someone posted earlier, MCPS does NOT "observe" Jewish holidays. Schools are closed ONLY because of the number of students who would be out in addition to the number of teachers and a lack of substitutes to cover (and expense of substitutes for a significantly reduced number of students). There are several religious Jewish holidays where the system does NOT close. For that matter, even for the highest holy days, only schools (students/teachers) are closed. Twelve month employees (principals, central office, etc...) are not off unless they choose to take leave.

Although, as far as I know, MCPS has never done a count of this. Certainly where I live, there are far more Muslim students (also Hindu students) than Jewish students. I don't think that there are any Jewish teachers either.

I am sure that MCPS will start to close on Muslim holidays if the time comes that there are significant numbers of staff/students out on a given holiday. It's also not a matter of doing a "count" as it isn't "how many Jewish teachers/students?"....it's a matter of a pattern of absences.

If they keep letting Muslims into this country then public schools for sure will be closed for every rinky dink holiday.

Anonymous wrote:Islam is a major religion so schools being closed on their holy day makes sense. For those who do not know, Christmas and Christ are in the Koran, so Christmas is not an alien holiday. Christmas predates Christianity. Dec 25 is the birt date of an ancient Roman God. And even the barbarians further north had a mid winter festival at the time of the winter solstice. This is an international standard for vacation time. Schools cannot let all teachers vacation when they want to.
Even American jews celebrate a chinese-restaurant day.
Spring break in montgomery county is designed around the jewish passover more than the easter.

It is not enough to merely say they are immigrants and therefore must assimilate, the land must meet them half way

I can't even visit a Muslim nation because I will not assimilate.

Islam is a major religion so schools being closed on their holy day makes sense. For those who do not know, Christmas and Christ are in the Koran, so Christmas is not an alien holiday. Christmas predates Christianity. Dec 25 is the birt date of an ancient Roman God. And even the barbarians further north had a mid winter festival at the time of the winter solstice. This is an international standard for vacation time. Schools cannot let all teachers vacation when they want to.
Even American jews celebrate a chinese-restaurant day.
Spring break in montgomery county is designed around the jewish passover more than the easter.

It is not enough to merely say they are immigrants and therefore must assimilate, the land must meet them half way

I wish they could make it on a school by school basis instead of county-wide in case the number of koreans, chinese, muslims, russians, salvadorans, whatever - led to a few trades in holidays. Like 3 kings day, or russian orthodox christmas, lunar new year. But by being county-wide it's lowest common denominator.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh George...

What did he do? I missed it....

George's dad from Seinfeld invented Festivus. It was Festivus for the rest of us.

The " count" was done by MCPS in the early 70s when the decision to close on RH/YK was made.

Presumably MCPS noted the number of students and teachers who were taking off for Jewish high holidays (which are observed during the morning and at night vs hannukah, passover, etc which can be celebrated only at night( and came to the decision because a significant percentage were missing on those days and it would be easier to just close the school

I think that the Mulism community would need to do a similar statistic analysis to figure out if there needs to be a significant number or percentage of students needed to prove that these school would benefit from taking those days off.

Or they could be like FCPS and not take off for either....


Growing up Jewish in an area with virtually no Jews it was always a hassle to get the day off and get homework from all my teachers, many of whom had no idea what Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur was. Not really a big deal but kind of annoying, especially since the Jewish Holidays always occur right around when school is starting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: As someone posted earlier, MCPS does NOT "observe" Jewish holidays. Schools are closed ONLY because of the number of students who would be out in addition to the number of teachers and a lack of substitutes to cover (and expense of substitutes for a significantly reduced number of students). There are several religious Jewish holidays where the system does NOT close. For that matter, even for the highest holy days, only schools (students/teachers) are closed. Twelve month employees (principals, central office, etc...) are not off unless they choose to take leave.

Although, as far as I know, MCPS has never done a count of this. Certainly where I live, there are far more Muslim students (also Hindu students) than Jewish students. I don't think that there are any Jewish teachers either.

I am sure that MCPS will start to close on Muslim holidays if the time comes that there are significant numbers of staff/students out on a given holiday. It's also not a matter of doing a "count" as it isn't "how many Jewish teachers/students?"....it's a matter of a pattern of absences.

But this is kind of a self-fulfilling proposition. After all, students can't be absent on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, because there isn't any school on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And students who would prefer not to have school on Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr but go to school because there is school also aren't absent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: As someone posted earlier, MCPS does NOT "observe" Jewish holidays. Schools are closed ONLY because of the number of students who would be out in addition to the number of teachers and a lack of substitutes to cover (and expense of substitutes for a significantly reduced number of students). There are several religious Jewish holidays where the system does NOT close. For that matter, even for the highest holy days, only schools (students/teachers) are closed. Twelve month employees (principals, central office, etc...) are not off unless they choose to take leave.

Although, as far as I know, MCPS has never done a count of this. Certainly where I live, there are far more Muslim students (also Hindu students) than Jewish students. I don't think that there are any Jewish teachers either.

I am sure that MCPS will start to close on Muslim holidays if the time comes that there are significant numbers of staff/students out on a given holiday. It's also not a matter of doing a "count" as it isn't "how many Jewish teachers/students?"....it's a matter of a pattern of absences.

Anonymous wrote: As someone posted earlier, MCPS does NOT "observe" Jewish holidays. Schools are closed ONLY because of the number of students who would be out in addition to the number of teachers and a lack of substitutes to cover (and expense of substitutes for a significantly reduced number of students). There are several religious Jewish holidays where the system does NOT close. For that matter, even for the highest holy days, only schools (students/teachers) are closed. Twelve month employees (principals, central office, etc...) are not off unless they choose to take leave.

Although, as far as I know, MCPS has never done a count of this. Certainly where I live, there are far more Muslim students (also Hindu students) than Jewish students. I don't think that there are any Jewish teachers either.

As someone posted earlier, MCPS does NOT "observe" Jewish holidays. Schools are closed ONLY because of the number of students who would be out in addition to the number of teachers and a lack of substitutes to cover (and expense of substitutes for a significantly reduced number of students). There are several religious Jewish holidays where the system does NOT close. For that matter, even for the highest holy days, only schools (students/teachers) are closed. Twelve month employees (principals, central office, etc...) are not off unless they choose to take leave.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jew in NOVA here whose kids aren't off for the Jewish holidays. We pull them out but have no issue with it. Muslim observers should do the same.

But in MCPS, which is the school system under discussion, the kids are off for the Jewish holidays, as well as the Christian ones.

If MCPS closes for Christian and Jewish holidays, which it does, this request by the Muslim community seems fair to me.

That doesn't even follow logically. How is it fair?

What don't you understand? (This question is only 20% snarky).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I just say that the ONLY christian holiday that I have off for is Christmas? But it's rolled into a 2 week winter break.

Where do you work that you have a winter break and yet work Sundays (so no Easter) and don't get Thanksgiving off? I'm curious.

Thanksgiving isn't a Christian holiday... Neither are ordinary Sundays.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jew in NOVA here whose kids aren't off for the Jewish holidays. We pull them out but have no issue with it. Muslim observers should do the same.

But in MCPS, which is the school system under discussion, the kids are off for the Jewish holidays, as well as the Christian ones.

If MCPS closes for Christian and Jewish holidays, which it does, this request by the Muslim community seems fair to me.

That doesn't even follow logically. How is it fair?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jew in NOVA here whose kids aren't off for the Jewish holidays. We pull them out but have no issue with it. Muslim observers should do the same.

But in MCPS, which is the school system under discussion, the kids are off for the Jewish holidays, as well as the Christian ones.

If MCPS closes for Christian and Jewish holidays, which it does, this request by the Muslim community seems fair to me.