NYC Makes Last Days of Pesach a School Holiday
Following pushback by parents and educators, New York City’s Department of Education has added the last two days of Pesach as days off in the 2023-2024 school calendar • Full Story
Via New York Jewish Week
Following pushback by parents and educators, New York City’s Department of Education has added the last two days of Pesach as days off in the 2023-2024 school calendar.
The revised calendar includes four additional days off, including Monday, April 29, and Tuesday, April 30, 2024. Both days are observed as non-work, non-school holidays by observant Jews.
As the New York Jewish Week (NYJW) reported on June 7, many New York City educators and parents were angry when they learned that public schools would be open on those days next year, a break from a longstanding tradition that aligns the public schools’ spring break with the eight-day Jewish holiday.
In an email to the NYJW Monday, DOE spokesperson Nathanial Styer, said the “changes were made based on community feedback.”
Pesach has overlapped virtually every year with the city’s spring break since 1973 — as JTA reported at the time, Orthodox Jewish teachers successfully lobbied to guarantee the alignment.
But when the long-delayed 2023-2024 school calendar was released at the beginning of June, Spring Recess was scheduled from Monday, April 22 through Friday, April 26, excluding the final days of Pesach.
Nearly 4,000 public school teachers, staff and parents signed a petition demanding that the last two days of Pesach — when certain activities are prohibited according to Jewish law, meaning observant educators and students would not be able to attend school — be added as days off on the DOE calendar.
The revised calendar now includes 178 instructional days. Styer told Chalkbeat that certain days dedicated to teacher training will count toward the state-mandated 180-day minimum.
Next year, Diwali is on a weekend, but according to the calendars posted on the DOE web site on Monday, New York City schools will be closed for the holiday on Monday, Oct. 20 in 2025 and Friday, Nov. 1 in 2026.
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