Did you know that Jewish doctors don't, as a rule, go in to work on Jewish holidays?

[conuly]

Being as how we're not Jewish, Yom Kippur could've just been a fun day off of school, but instead we spent a few hours sitting in urgent care with other pediatric patients who inconveniently got sick the same day Ana did. Pediatrics was swamped and not accepting anybody without an appointment due to, you know, the holiday.

Honestly, we've been to the doctor's at least once a week since the start of school. Ana had an asthma attack the night before school started, and then another one a week later, and then we went back the same day to get them both their flu shots because pediatrics apparently got theirs before the rest of the center and I thought it was best to get it over with, and then today Ana got sick, possibly as a side effect from the flu shot.

And when we finally got into the doctor's office it was quick-quick-quick, in and out! Very efficient, which is why the crowd managed to thin as fast as it did. It's a measure of how crowded they were that it took an hour and a half to be seen, because with this woman on staff there's no unnecessary hanging around. She practically was running from room to room to see patients!

Her verdict was that Ana probably will recover in a few days with rest and plenty of liquids, which is what I would've figured anyway except that the poor girl's glands are so swollen she couldn't really turn her head and that never strikes me as something to go unchecked.

And then when we get home and I have them do their yesterday's homework, they say "Oh, well, first we have to do our half hour reading!" What on earth do they think, that it doesn't count if you do it in the doctor's office? Boy does it count.

Comments

[pne]

How come your school gives Jewish holidays off?

Are there that many Jews in the school district?

Is that in addition to Christian holidays such as Easter Monday?

What about Muslim holidays, Bahá'í ones, or Hindu ones?

Or is it not that everyone gets the day off but Jewish children do, and Ana & Eva are Jewish?

(I remember at my school, Jews got to take their holidays off if they chose… but school went on without them, so not all chose to take advantage of the option since they’d have had to make up the lost work on their own.)

Strike that, I just read the first paragraph and the bit about “how we’re not Jewish”.

[conuly]

We live in NYC, which has one of the highest Jewish populations in the world, THE highest outside of Israel.

NYC comprises several school districts, all run by the same department of education. Our district is 31, which is "Staten Island and part of Brooklyn".

We *do* get Easter off as part of Spring Break every year, but happily Easter and Passover almost always coincide neatly and so the break manages to encompass both of them and Good Friday as well.

We don't currently take off for Muslim, Hindu, or Bahai holidays. However, some Muslims are currently running a campaign to allow for Eid off. It's slow going, because the DoE is reluctant to tinker any more with the calendar than they have to. There are many Muslims in the city, both immigrants and converts, and they'll likely win this one sooner or later.

If your holiday isn't covered, religious holidays are still an excused absence with a note.