Texas School Asks Mom To Prove Her Child Is Jewish To Excuse Yom Kippur Absence
Jewish elementary school student Image by iStock
(JTA) — A Jewish mother in North Texas said her child’s school asked for proof that her daughter is Jewish in order to excuse her for Yom Kippur.
Lauren Gordon told local CBS affiliate CBS 11 Dallas Fort Worth on Thursday that when she asked last month for her daughter’s absence from school on Yom Kippur to be excused, the Garland Independent School District requested that she “send documentation from the religious establishment you attended,” according to the report.
“That response basically told me that they didn’t believe that we were Jewish. That they needed proof. Honestly, it upset me just as much as it made me angry,” she said.
After she posted about it on Facebook, she found out that other schools in the area also were asking for proof of Jewishness in order to excuse children from school for Jewish holidays.
A local rabbi told CBS 11 that such requests were relatively recent.
Gordon said that after she complained to the school’s principal she “formally apologized, said she did not mean to offend us in any way and moving forward this will never be an issue at her school while she is there.”
The school’s handbook states that said that all religious holidays are excused.
Gordon told the news channel that she wants to ensure that every school district in North Texas drops the requirement that parents prove a child is Jewish in order to miss school for the holidays.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
