Respect for Faith Community Includes Staff

I am a bad Jew.

My knowledge of my heritage is anecdotal. My practice of my culture is reduced to lighting the menorah at Hanukkah. While I have great respect and appreciation for any person who contributes vitally to our society, I don’t have any special respect or appreciation for someone just because of his Jewishness. So I had a lot of nerve getting my hackles up because Back to School Night was held on Rosh Hashana.

Here’s what I know about Rosh Hashana: Nothing. I get it confused with Passover and Yom Kippur. I’m pretty sure one of them is the Jewish new year, but I’m not really sure why that should be an especially big deal. Then again, New Year’s Eve, in general, is a pretty big deal, so maybe Rosh Hashana has that kind of significance to Jews.

A few days before Rosh Hashana, one of our administrators reminded the staff that we were not to assign homework or give tests in order to respect our Jewish students. I read and promptly deleted the email, primarily because I hadn’t planned to give homework anyway, but also because I had never heard of any students in our school who observe the High Holy Days. (I realize that just because I hadn’t heard about them doesn’t mean they didn’t exist.) Nonetheless, I dismissed the email as something that didn’t pertain to me or my students and went about my day.

While it didn’t pertain to me or my students, it did pertain to a colleague. Although we were told to respect the students who might be observing this holiday, little or no thought was given regarding how it might impact the staff. I don’t believe this was purposeful, but it still got my aforementioned hackles up.

My colleague has been a proud, observant Jew all of her life. Back to School Night is an important evening, and she is serious about her job. She is also serious about her commitment to her Jewish roots. I can only imagine how she must have wrestled with whether to attend her family’s traditional dinner or be present at one of the most important nights of the school year.

The idea of respecting religious and cultural practices [2] is noble and well-meaning. There is also a long way to go. Recognizing the importance of Rosh Hashana was a good thing. It just needed to extend to all members of the school community.

In preparation for writing this article, I did a bit of research on Rosh Hashana. Turns out it’s a pretty big deal. So is Ramadan, Diwali and several others. There are dozens of religious and cultural practices that are never recognized in many schools. Yet if a school wants to truly respect all members of its community,  an interfaith calendar is a good idea. After all, the point is that no one’s beliefs should be diminished nor should their ability to practice those beliefs be left out.

Shana Tova. May it be a good new year for all of us.

Sofen is a middle school writing teacher in New Jersey.