Though the Bristol Warren schools do not have a large Jewish population, there is a Jewish population — Jewish children, teachers and administrators.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year, and it is one of the most sacred and important holidays in our Jewish calendar.

Our school committee voted 5-4 to start school on this important holiday. For those of you who don’t know much about this holiday or celebrate the holiday, this may not seem like a big deal. 

But it is.

It would be like suggesting that we keep the schools open on Christmas Day, which is unimaginable.

We should not be suggesting that our Jewish community miss the first day of school and take it as an absent — it is embarrassing and yet another stain on our beautiful, small, family-oriented community.

If we also add the trauma of 2020 for both teachers and children, with the shutdowns, distance learning and mask wearing, it would seem even more prudent that we don’t ask our children to miss the first day of school.

Jewish faith has been attacked for thousands of years. Recently, our own town’s Jewish community was disrupted by the placement of anti-Semitic stickers around town. We should stand together to make the point that our school district has empathy and courtesy for other religions and other view points and move the first day of school to a different day.

Can we please make an effort to show courtesy and respect? Isn’t this the message we are supposed to be teaching our children in our schools? This topic alone could be an incredible teaching opportunity.

It is my hope we can come together and ask our school committee and our superintendent to make the necessary change to support and include the Jewish children and administrators in our community so they do not have to miss the first day of school.

I have emailed School Committee Chairperson Marjorie McBride and told her my thoughts. She let me know promptly that there would be no changes made. In fact, she called me “a bully” for my comments to her in expressing my opinion. This was concerning coming from the chair of our school committee.

Please email or contact Ms. McBride. It is important that she hear from non-Jewish community members as well.

We have a lot of things to be proud of in our towns, let’s try to get this corrected and move on so we can enjoy the summer in one of the prettiest areas in the state to live, work and raise our families.

Alayne White
Bristol