Brick Corrects School Calendar's Yom Kippur Omission

As they have for most of the last 30 years, Brick Township’s schools will be closed on Yom Kippur in September, after an adjustment was made to the district calendar and approved by the township’s Board of Education Thursday night.

Students and staff now have Wednesday, Sept. 23 off for the holiest day on the Jewish calendar, in addition to having Monday, Sept. 14 off for Rosh Hashanah, under the change to the 2015-16 calendar, approved by the board.

At its Dec. 20 meeting, the board was questioned about the 2015-16 school calendar’s omission of Yom Kippur, with Rabbi Robert Benjamin Rubin from Temple Beth Or asking if the omission reflected a change in the district’s policies. Going back to at least 1980 the district had closed for both holidays, with the only exception being when either of the holidays falls on a weekend.

Superintendent Dr. Walter Uszenski told Rubin the omission was the result of a misunderstanding.

Thursday night, the calendar was amended.

“We corrected our mistake,” Uszenski said. In December, he said he had based the holidays on the 2014-15 calendar, where school was closed only for Rosh Hashanah, because Yom Kippur fell on a weekend.

“I consulted with other districts in Ocean County and found out they were all closed (for Yom Kippur in 2015), and the vocational school (Ocean County Vocational-Technical School), where we provide some busing, was going to be closed,” Uszenski said, in explaining the addition of the day off for Yom Kippur to board vice president John Talty. “It only makes sense that we are closed.”

Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Remembrance, is a two-day celebration of the Jewish New Year that is a time of introspection and reflection on the past year, according to the website Judaism 101. In school districts where the holiday is included in the school calendar, typically only the first day of Rosh Hashanah is given as a day off. In 2014, Rosh Hashanah began at sundown on Sept. 24 and ended at sundown on Sept. 26.

In 2015, Rosh Hashanah, begins at sundown on Sunday, Sept. 13 and ends at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 15, while Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Tuesday, Sept. 22 and ends Wednesday, Sept. 23.

Robert Ostrove, president of the congregation at Temple Beth Or, which has been part of the community since at least the mid-1970s, thanked the board for approving the change.

“Thank you for the respect you gave to the multiculturalism in the community,” Ostrove said.

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