Dallas, TX – 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.
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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.
This is a story with little if any import or chiddush.
Government employees certainly have the right to a reasonable accommodation for religious observance, but that said the bona fides of a request for an accommodation are checked.
We ask for a letter from his or her clergy verifying that the requester is a practicing member of the claimed faith…and in cases where it may not be clear web ask for verification that the requested accommodation reflects a bona fide religious requirement (comes up in law enforcement in requests for exemptions from grooming requirements).
The Constitution protects authentic observance. Think about it…it would hurt all of us if after giving a Jew an accommodation for Shabbos observance he was seen by his vo-workers one Shabbos night at a rock concert.
Of course, sociologically, Yom Kippur in America is on a different footing, as “everyone knows” that all Jews “observe” the day. But it still makes sense to verify that a person is in fact a Jew before granting an accommodation.
If Yom kipur is the only jewish day they observe , by driving to Temple and eating , they can stay in school that day. Why anger hashem yet another time
if a kid is allow to decide his/her own gender so why question if a kid decides to decide their own religion?
I question the previous comment..
If the story is of no importance as you say, why the 5 paragraph response ?
Next they may ask Jews to wear distinctive badges so they might be easily identified.
Subtle anti-semitism raising its ugly head in trumpfland. Are school officials asking goyisha kids for proof of faith? Trumpf hate has made all hate normal in the USA.
Does it mean North Texas becomes more anti-Semitic?!