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Pupils may get Yom Kippur off
By SARAH SCHWEITZER © St. Petersburg Times, published January 19, 2001 TAMPA -- Joining other large districts in the state, Hillsborough school officials are poised to mark the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur this fall by giving all students the day off. The day officially will be billed a floating holiday but has tentatively been scheduled to land on Yom Kippur, the high holy day of atonement in the Jewish religion. "This is a way to show the community that we are trying to be as inclusive as possible," said Joseph Trumbach, the director of administration for the district. The School Board is expected to vote on the calendar addition at its Tuesday meeting. The holiday marks the first time a Tampa Bay area school district has mandated a districtwide day off from school in observance of a Jewish holiday. Pinellas, Hernando, Citrus and Pasco counties count Jewish students absent if they miss school for Yom Kippur, although the absence is excused. Trumbach said Hillsborough is following the lead of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties. Jewish leaders welcomed the holiday recognition, saying it was a symbolically important gesture, albeit overdue. "The school district has a long way to go in recognizing the diversity in the district," said Rabbi Joel Wasser, the chairman of the Tampa Rabbinical Association. "But this is a very nice step." The Jewish community has been a growing segment in Hillsborough. In the 1970s the county was home to, at most, 5,000 Jews, said Anne Thal, executive director/CEO of the Tampa JCC/Federation. Now, Thal said, there are an estimated 25,000 Jews, roughly 2.5 percent of the county's population. There is no official tally of Jewish students in Hillsborough public school because students are not counted by religious affiliation, school officials said. But as Jewish groups congratulated the district for the move, other religious leaders questioned why a privilege was extended to one group and not another. "We would like to have the same opportunity," said Mohammed Sultan, the director and imam of the Islamic Society of Tampa Bay. "We would like the whole state of Florida to recognize our holidays." Sultan said there are two holidays that Muslim students now often miss a day of school for: one celebrating the end of Ramadan in December and another marking the end of the monthlong Hajj season, when observers travel to Mecca in the spring. Sultan said there are an estimated 5,000 Muslims living in Hillsborough County. "We as Muslims have been struggling for a long time for acceptance in this country and hope that the district will recognize our holidays," he said. Trumbach, of the school district, said there were no plans afloat to add another all-student holiday to the calendar. "We consider everything at periodic times," said Trumbach. But the calendar committee had not received enough requests from Islamic residents to consider such a change, he said. Sultan said he planned to lobby the school district for the recognition.
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