Petition To Make Jewish Day of Atonement Yom Kippur A US National Holiday

New York, New York --- September 16, 2012 ... Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, the most holy day in the Jewish religion is not recognized as a national holiday in the US. It is a day set aside around the world for all Jews to “afflict the soul,” to atone for the sins of the past year. But yet, the sacred holiday of Yom Kippur has not been accommodated with the respect that it deserves in the US.

We are hoping that an online petition located at www.YomKippur.us will gather support from both Jews and Christians, to reach thousands through the Internet, using social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter to request of Congress to make Yom Kippur a national holiday.

Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is well-known that you are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Jewish Talmud also specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes (Orthodox Jews routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.

In Israel, the small, vibrant democratic nation comes to a stand still. A complete freeze where cars, buses, trains and planes do not move. The only sounds are those of people praying and the children who take to the street on their bicycles. All is closed except for the Beit Knessets (Temples), the Israel Defense Forces and the police.

Most of the holiday, whether in Jerusalem, New York or LA is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar.

Yet, this holiest of holy days is not honored in the US while other religious holidays such as Christmas are. The Christmas Day holiday includes decorations, emphasis on family togetherness, and gift giving. Christmas was designated a federal holiday by Congress and President Ulysses S. Grant in 1870. Yet, Jesus, who is celebrated in Christmas was a Jew who observed Yom Kippur.

Other US national holidays are January 1, 2012 - New Year's Day, January 16, 2012 - Martin Luther King Day, February 20, 2012 - Presidents Day (also known as Washington's Birthday, May 28, 2012 - Memorial Day, July 4, 2012 - Independence Day, September 3, 2012 Labor Day, October 8, 2012 - Columbus Day, November 11, 2012 - Veterans' Day, November 22, 2012 - Thanksgiving Day, and December 25, 2012 - Christmas Day.

Yet one of the oldest and holiest holidays known to man is not honored - Yom Kippur.

It appears that there has never been a formal request made to Congress for Yom Kippur.

Perhaps those who wanted to sponsor Yom Kippur as a US National Holiday never thought that it would be approved by a Congress which is primarily made up of Christians, Protestants, Baptists and Catholics. But if one looks at the record of who actually supports the Jewish state of Israel - the Christians are among Israel's greatest allies.

Imagine a Christian or Protestant being in a Muslim country on Christmas Day? They would feel alone, isolated. No Christmas carols, no Christmas trees, no lights, no glass ornaments - decorations, no Santa Claus - nothing.
This is the isolation that most Jews feel on Yom Kippur in the US.

Many Jews are expected to be at work. Whether being an attorney, judge, electrician, student, salesman, teacher or baseball player. The US calendar which respects Christmas from Maine to Washington, and in several states Easter and Good Friday, totally ignores Yom Kippur.

The Israel News Agency is requesting that all Jewish organizations in the United States support an effort to make Yom Kippur a national holiday. It starts with the co-sponsoring of a petition which will be sent to every Jewish member of Congress to support and pass.

These members include: Senate - Michael Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Al Franken (D-MN), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Carl Levin (D-MI), Bernard Sanders (I-VT), Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).

In the House - Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Shelley Berkley (D-NV), Howard Berman (D-CA), Eric Cantor (R-VA), David Cicilline (D-RI), Stephen Cohen (D-TN), Susan Davis (D-CA), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Bob Filner (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), Jane Harman (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Sander Levin (D-MI), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO), Steve Rothman (D-NJ), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Allyson Schwartz (D-PA), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Henry Waxman (D-CA), Anthony Weiner (D-NY) and John Yarmuth (D-KY).

Yom Kippur is the most important holiday of the Jewish year. As such, it should have the respect and recognition of and by the American people as a holiday observed and celebrated no less than Christmas and or Easter.

Yom Kippur is considered one of the High Holidays. But yet in the US, it is not a holiday at all. Let's make it one!

From a Jewish lawyer friend of mine:

Make Yom Kippur a National Holiday

The secular, practical reason for Christmas to be a national holiday for is that, if it were not, large numbers of people would be taking it off anyway.

The same justification has been offered and accepted by Courts for states that make Good Friday a state holiday (note: Hawaii offered only the afternoon off specifically so people could go to church, and the courts said that was too much entanglement with religion).

In many big cities across America, Yom Kippur is like this. I think that for good practical reasons, it is time to make Yom Kippur a federal holiday and a holiday in a good many states.

As a lawyer, I can tell you that courts often shut down, and many extensions/continuances have to be granted. Not just to avoid appearing in court, but to avoid having to file documents or meet other deadlines imposed by law. The general rule is that if a deadline falls on any weekend day or holiday, the litigant or lawyer has until the next business day to perform that act.

Why not Yom Kippur?

Why should ad hoc extensions have to be granted every year? At universities, there routine struggles between professors that want to give midterm exams on Yom Kippur and students who object. Private universities often have policies - why not state universities?

Also, Jewish people have to take off a personal day or a vacation day on one of the most sacred days in the Jewish calendar. They don't get time-and-a-half for working that day, if they aren't allowed to take it off. That seems unfair too.

I believe there is a difference between the government accomodating religion and endorsing or furthering religion. When a religious practice is significantly widespread as is the observance of Yom Kippur (I have gone to downtown LA from Santa Monica in 15 minutes at rush hour that day, so light is the traffic) in many areas, accomodation seems to make sense.

I believe this is a different discussion from whether state-sponsored Christmas or other religious (or quasi-religious) celebrations are appropriate. I'm not talking about having a national day of fasting or anything, or a big Torah Scroll on the grounds of the capitol or a gefilte fish hunt on the lawn of the White House.

When I was a kid in a suburb of Hartford, Connecticut, we had Yom Kippur as a school holiday. It just made sense. Otherwise, about 5%-10% of the schoolkids would have to make up lessons and everyone, including the teachers, would be inconvenienced. Given the regular occurence of snow days that invariably pushed the end of the school year back a few days, an extra planned holiday hardly mattered.

It doesn't surprise me that a non-observant Jew believes that Christmas is more holy than Yom Kippur.

That Christmas deserves the reverence of a national holiday - holy day but not Yom Kippur.

No one is talking about convenience but rather simple respect for the most holy of holy days in the Jewish calendar! That a fellow Jew does not see the reverence in having a Jewish national holiday but accepts Christmas, Easter and Good Friday. An assimilated Jew who makes the Iranians, Syrians, Hamas and Islamic Jihad and all Anti-Semites laugh at us as Yom Kippur is not good enough to be holy day or holiday in the US. One of the few, great nations which practices religious tolerance.

It's OK that Yom Kippur is a holiday or holy day in Israel but outside the Jewish state we should just hide this holiday, even have those who want to observe Yom Kippur be punished by missing compensation for taking a day off from work, or missing studies as school classes continue to held on this holy day.

Yes the word is reverence or respect.

According to you it is less than Christmas ... and this was the mentality of Capos of the Holocaust. Don't complain, don't make waves, just do your Yom Kippur in a dark closet and remain silent.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be speaking at the UN on Yom Kippur - but I suppose that's all right, as long as it does not affect your personal schedule. Are you taking measures to protest this? If so, please let us know. I have written to the United Nations Secretary General, have you?

G-d forgive you. And may all Jews who have had to make Yom Kippur throughout the generations into a second class holiday - holy day - forgive you. May the high school and university students who open their books for exams in state schools throughout the US on Yom Kippur forgive you.

It's not about convenience, although there is respect in showing convenience to those who wish to pray - it is all about reverence and creating reverence!

To the many Christians who have showed their respect for Yom Kippur - thank you and bless you.

What is Yom Kippur?
Why is this day holy?

Significance: Day of Atonement
Observances: Fasting, Prayer and Repentance
Length: 25 Hours
Greeting: Have an easy fast
Liturgy additions: Annulment of vows; lengthy confession of sins ...In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and you shall not do any work ... For on that day he shall provide atonement for you to cleanse you from all your sins before the L-RD. -Leviticus 16:29-30

Yom Kippur is the most important holiday of the Jewish year and should be recognized as a US national holiday.

Many Jews who do not observe any other Jewish custom will refrain from work, fast and/or attend synagogue services on this day. Yom Kippur occurs on the 10th day of Tishri. The holiday is instituted at Leviticus 23:26 et seq.

The name "Yom Kippur" means "Day of Atonement," and that pretty much explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to "afflict the soul," to atone for the sins of the past year. In Days of Awe, I mentioned the "books" in which G-d inscribes all of our names. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered in these books is sealed. This day is, essentially, your last appeal, your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends.

As I noted in Days of Awe, Yom Kippur atones only for sins between man and G-d, not for sins against another person. To atone for sins against another person, you must first seek reconciliation with that person, righting the wrongs you committed against them if possible. That must all be done before Yom Kippur.

Yom Kippur is a complete Sabbath; no work can be performed on that day. It is well-known that you are supposed to refrain from eating and drinking (even water) on Yom Kippur. It is a complete, 25-hour fast beginning before sunset on the evening before Yom Kippur and ending after nightfall on the day of Yom Kippur. The Talmud also specifies additional restrictions that are less well-known: washing and bathing, anointing one's body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes (Orthodox Jews routinely wear canvas sneakers under their dress clothes on Yom Kippur), and engaging in sexual relations are all prohibited on Yom Kippur.

As always, any of these restrictions can be lifted where a threat to life or health is involved. In fact, children under the age of nine and women in childbirth (from the time labor begins until three days after birth) are not permitted to fast, even if they want to. Older children and women from the third to the seventh day after childbirth are permitted to fast, but are permitted to break the fast if they feel the need to do so. People with other illnesses should consult a physician and a rabbi for advice.

Most of the holiday is spent in the synagogue, in prayer. In Orthodox synagogues, services begin early in the morning (8 or 9 AM) and continue until about 3 PM. People then usually go home for an afternoon nap and return around 5 or 6 PM for the afternoon and evening services, which continue until nightfall. The services end at nightfall, with the blowing of the tekiah gedolah, a long blast on the shofar. See Rosh Hashanah for more about the shofar and its characteristic blasts.

It is customary to wear white on the holiday, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow (Is. 1:18). Some people wear a kittel, the white robe in which the dead are buried.

Yom Kippur Liturgy

The liturgy for Yom Kippur is much more extensive than for any other day of the year. Liturgical changes are so far-reaching that a separate, special prayer book for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah. This prayer book is called the machzor.

The evening service that begins Yom Kippur is commonly known as Kol Nidre, named for the prayer that begins the service. "Kol nidre" means "all vows," and in this prayer, we ask G-d to annul all personal vows we may make in the next year. It refers only to vows between the person making them and G-d, such as "If I pass this test, I'll pray every day for the next 6 months!" Click the musical notes to hear a portion of the traditional tune for this prayer.

This prayer has often been held up by anti-Semites as proof that Jews are untrustworthy (we do not keep our vows), and for this reason the Reform movement removed it from the liturgy for a while. In fact, the reverse is true: we make this prayer because we take vows so seriously that we consider ourselves bound even if we make the vows under duress or in times of stress when we are not thinking straight. This prayer gave comfort to those who were converted to Christianity by torture in various inquisitions, yet felt unable to break their vow to follow Christianity. In recognition of this history, the Reform movement restored this prayer to its liturgy.

There are many additions to the regular liturgy (there would have to be, to get such a long service ). Perhaps the most important addition is the confession of the sins of the community, which is inserted into the Shemoneh Esrei (Amidah) prayer. Note that all sins are confessed in the plural (we have done this, we have done that), emphasizing communal responsibility for sins.

There are two basic parts of this confession: Ashamnu, a shorter, more general list (we have been treasonable, we have been aggressive, we have been slanderous...), and Al Cheit, a longer and more specific list (for the sin we sinned before you forcibly or willingly, and for the sin we sinned before you by acting callously...) Frequent petitions for forgiveness are interspersed in these prayers. There's also a catch-all confession: "Forgive us the breach of positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act, whether or not they are known to us."

It is interesting to note that these confessions do not specifically address the kinds of ritual sins that some people think are the be-all-and-end-all of Judaism. There is no "for the sin we have sinned before you by eating pork, and for the sin we have sinned against you by driving on Shabbat" (though obviously these are implicitly included in the catch-all). The vast majority of the sins enumerated involve mistreatment of other people, most of them by speech (offensive speech, scoffing, slander, talebearing, and swearing falsely, to name a few). These all come into the category of sin known as "lashon ha-ra" (lit: the evil tongue), which is considered a very serious sin in Judaism.

The concluding service of Yom Kippur, known as Ne'ilah, is one unique to the day. It usually runs about 1 hour long. The ark (a cabinet where the scrolls of the Torah are kept) is kept open throughout this service, thus you must stand throughout the service. There is a tone of desperation in the prayers of this service. The service is sometimes referred to as the closing of the gates; think of it as the "last chance" to get in a good word before the holiday ends. The service ends with a very long blast of the shofar. See Rosh Hashanah for more about the shofar and its characteristic blasts.

After Yom Kippur, one should begin preparing for the next holiday, Sukkot, which begins five days later.

List of Dates:

Yom Kippur will occur on the following days of the secular calendar:

Jewish Year 5773: sunset September 25, 2012 - nightfall September 26, 2012 Jewish Year 5774: sunset September 13, 2013 - nightfall September 14, 2013 Jewish Year 5775: sunset October 3, 2014 - nightfall October 4, 2014 Jewish Year 5776: sunset September 22, 2015 - nightfall September 23, 2015

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