"How does one notify a professor that one will be missing six classes because of a holiday involving a hut and a lemon?"

No Jewish holiday requires you to skip work or class they reallfor 6 days in a row. The three holidays that last 7/8 days all have "Chol Hamoed" in between. So even if you were really unlucky and none of the "chag" days fell on the weekend, you still have no excuse for missing six days.

I'm bothering to write this because occasionally I hear about people asking for the whole 8 days off. If you want to use your vacation time for that purpose, I see no problem with that. But it's a bit disturbing that people are "milking" their religion to get more time off than required.

If the holidays are Monday Tuesday, and you have a lecture monday and a section tuesday, you could easily miss six sessions because of RH, and the two yontifs of sukkot.  I don't know of anyone who asks for Chol Hamoed off.  Frankly, missing class is only nice until you realize how much you have to make up.

okay, that makes sense.

I like this idea about writing about the difficulties of growning up in jewish institutions and the conflict of communicating with the secular world once they leave these institutions. My guess is that the reason why one is not ainto mainstream American society, is because these institutions exist in the first place to maintain their unique culture without being diluted by Americanism. This is especially crucial when forming a person, in their childhood. It is like in montreal, where they have to enforce French and maintain that by law French is the predominant language- without these measures English would invade their culture and easily wipe out Quebec's unique identity.
  From my experience, when approached by people who want to know more about you and where you come from- you have to be really patient and open minded- especially because not only is what you are intending to inform the other totally alien, but maybe also the ways in which you communicate it. Allot of problems arise when someone replies not so kindly or in a way that you would not expect. It is probably not because they were trying to be demeaning, but because they just really didn't know how to react.  I wish more people could learn more about other cultures, especially in the U.S. because it would help us understand each other and all of our neighbors in this diverse but harmfully segregated  country. 

It's often a challenge because students' beliefs are so in flux during these years. One year a student is rebelling from his/her family and so shows up on all of the holidays. The next year s/he discovers the Habad house and begins coming to class but not taking notes or bringing a book on those days. By junior year s/he announces that s/he is a religious student, has documented it with the Dean's office and must be granted every minor feast and fast day off. By senior year, s/he has finally discovered sex or some other distraction and is back in class full time. It's a pain in the ass, but one that must be accommodated for the most part. 

It's clear, though, how to tell the legitimate from the illegitimate. The good ones are the ones who do all of the make-up work quickly and thoroughly.

One of the bigger problems I faced is part of what "Moshe Pipik" alludes to. Not to such an extent, but how do you explain to someone why you're only taking one day of RH but, as a friend of mine did, want to take all four days for Pesach because Pesach is more important/relevant to her? (Although of course on the quarter system this was never the same professor, but it still applies to why I'm taking one day but the other Jewish kid in class is taking two)...

Also, when you have an essay due the day after, well technically you should be able to get it in on time, but the day after 2nd Yom Tov for Pesach means you had to finish the essay three days early!

However, almost every professor I've talked to was incredibly nice and accomidating.

Thoughtful article, as always, Tamar. 

 And it is true that, in most Jewish day schools, students are not taught everything they need to know about living in a multi-ethnic, religiously and racially diverse world. But, in fairness, the recent study by Partnership for Excllence in Jewish Education ( http://www.peje.org/ ) shows that day schools are doing a pretty good job in preparing kids for college, at least on many dimensions.

Also in fairness. let's not think that public schools or other private schools are doing so much better at preparing kids for the real challenges that await them:  deciding on a sex ethic, figuring out just how much alcohol their limit will be, stress management in rigorous yet free environments and the like.

Now, in looking at the problem (at least from my perspective as a career Jewish educator), it may be that there are a few issues other than the ones mentioned in the article:

 1.  Day schools (and for that matter Jewish youth groups, synagogue schools, Jewish summer camps and the rest) don't encourage interfaith dialogue or provide opportunities for it to occur. If you've never had to explain your background, you're not going to know how to do it. Nor are you likely to have the communication skills to figure out what to do with people who don't talk with their hands, talk loudly at the dinner table and other Jewish interpersonal skills.

2.  There are things that Jewish educators just don't tell you. Sometimes because there's not enough time to teach everything, sometimes because the person in front of the classroom (if that's where s/he sits) doesn't have the experience that the students themselves are going to have, and yes, sometimes because the answers are troubling. So yes, the teacher who taught me the most Torah (and signed my semicha) insisted that "everything Jewish is logical" conveniently ignored slamming branches against the ground on the Hoshana Rabbah or waving a chicken around one's head before Yom Kippur (which, I'm convinced is part of the epidemic of neuroses that have plagued my mishpacha ever since my zayde in Ukraine did that to his kids). Some of it just isn't theology.

3. Which leads to a tough call, also one that doesn't always get to the Jewish curriculum:  Jewish doesn't translate as a religion in the ways that Catholic, Mormon, Baptist, Moslem or the others do. I went to college -- a Jesuit university, no less -- with Polish Catholics, Irish Catholics, Italian Catholics (sorry, I didn't know there were Protestants at the time...this was Chicago). They were Polish and Catholic, Irish and Catholic, Italian and Catholic.

We weren't. We were just Jews. It didn't matter if someone's grandparents lived in Ukraine, Poland, Morocco. Our culture was Jewish, our religion (or even lack thereof) was Jewish.

So a lot of our observances, or practices, or customs, or folkways were Jewish, even when they weren't necessarily theological.

Sometimes Jews do what Jews do, because that's what Jews do.

Not so easy to explain to someone who has separate religions and ethnicities.

First, if the guy in question wasn't prepared to answer a simple question about his religious beliefs after 13 years of schooling, he needs to ask for his tuition money back. Pronto. And why exactly can't he explain to his Irish friend that he's following a Biblical injunction when he separates his meat and milk? These are problems?

The thing that bothers me most, though, is the assumption that religious beliefs need to be accommodated by the wider society. Why is this particular brand of conviction (religion) in any way privileged in a secular culture? God told you to hide your face? Sorry, we need your pic on your driver's license. And He told you you had to observe some holiday and miss class? Sorry, this is an institution of higher learning.

I'd like to take off work when the new Martin Scorsese movie comes out. Very important to me. I can't. Neither can you, burning bush or no burning bush.

"How does one notify a professor that one will be missing six classes because of a holiday involving a hut and a lemon?"  Great line!

I'm looking forward to this series.  I actually attended public school my entire life, but from 6th to 12th grade, I was the only Jew in my class, so I had to deal with these sorts of issues.  It'll be interesting to compare what sort of things you suggest with what I actually did growing up.

As someone who's converting I deal with this everyday, only without many years of being taught to back me up. I grew up reading "a" bible. The translation of my King James I've had since I was 5 is completely different from my JPS Tannakh I bought a couple months ago, so it's kind of like going back to "G-d 101". Sadly, living where I do now I am surrounded by people who don't know much about their own religion, so the dialogue isn't that great other than "but he died for you!" Um, right...sure he did...whatever you say.

With the meat and milk thing I've never had a problem explaining that to people. I've always just said, "well, it's written here not to do it, so I don't" and everyone pretty much just as this whatever attitude. Shabbat, on the other hand, is harder to explain.

I basically had a manager tell me I couldn't have it off, at all, because 9 months ago it wasn't a stipulation. Well, I've done a lot more study since then, and this is how I feel: There is G-d, and then there's my boss.

I agree with someone from a few posts up who said that the guy who spent 13 years in Jewish educational institutions shouldn't have had too much trouble. Yes, articulating yourself to a bunch of Christians is difficult, but when you are educated to some extent, you at least have a background in it.

And no one should feel off kilter because they don't understand American religious holidays. I was raised in that religion and don't really understand them.