Children in the Jewish community of Oakville are looking forward to the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. While we certainly have enough to think about with the pandemic and health concerns, our community is also faced with the overlapping of our Jewish High Holydays with the first week of school. In many regions across Ontario (and Canada), school boards have made the decision to allow Jewish children to attend their holy days of faith without having to choose to miss school. They are delaying the start of school with PD days for teachers. Unfortunately, the Region of Halton had decided to go ahead and have school and not accommodate the Jewish holidays, as they normally do with other faith groups. This forces us to choose between school and our faith, a distressing situation for our normally inclusive and diverse region.
Rabbi Stephen Wise
