A side note--I feel uncomfortable being included with those who are truly Jewish, so please don't feel you have to acknowledge my post in thread right now. Please just let me know via email if I have offended you so we can talk about it privately. Thanks.

Allyson, you don't get Yom Kippur off as a religious holiday? Seriously? You shouldn't have to take a sick day OR a vacation day. That's just wrong.

We have classes cancelled at my school, but the offices are open. Sucks for the Jewish staff.

This year's Jewish holidays are in the worst possible days-of-the-week for anybody who doesn't get Jewish-Holidays-off, all middle-of-the-week. A friend (it's her family that hosted me on Saturday in NYC) is in college now, and she misses so many classes.

Obviously working in a Jewish institution we get all the holidays off, so that means we have classes about 9 times the entire month of October. It's crazy. They started school a week earlier than usual to try to compensate for the way the holidays fall this year.

They started school a week earlier than usual to try to compensate for the way the holidays fall this year.

In Israel, the school systems (up until the age of 18, when high shcool ends) start on the first of September. Always. This year (because last year had 13 months, a "pregnant" year) it meant there was a whole month of school before the holidays started. There are years in which there is less than a week, but even in those years they schoolyear only starts a day early, tops.

Mora than a few parents just don't send their kids to school on the days between the holidays and the weekends, though. They just 'bridge' between them. Nobody gets lots of school work done in this month, anyway.

Nilly, I really liked your Yom Kippur post. I can't ever imagine you offending anyone, ever.

It's nice to get such perspective on the Jewish holidays from someone with such devotion. It makes me appreciate it much more. Prior to this, everything I've learned about Judaism came from epsiodes of Northern Exposure.

I'm a bad, bad Jew.

Jon Stewart said the same thing about his working on Rosh Hashana.

Doesn't everyone have HPV already?

The article did say that it would take 20 or so years until the vaccinated group of women became fully sexually active to show the full benefit.

Also, that article notwithstanding, the 1918 outbreak is like the quiet plague -- I've read so little about it, compared to other plagues in history. It's like it was so scary to people of modern times, few people like to talk or write about it.

There's some general amnesia about American history between 1900-1925, esp. the years right around the end of WWI (1918-1922). The US had several major race riots during this period, as well as a pandemic, a president nearly die in office, and the xenophobia surrounding the League of Nations.

And all anyone can remember is "the eleventh day of the eleventh hour of the eleventh month" and the Black Sox.

I also appreciate the perspective on Jewish holidays, and Judaism itself. I knew nothing about it until I started hanging out here.

Of course, now the former sentence makes you a liar, so it's not like I helped you with that.

That's hillarious.

I haven't rewritten Random Acts of Paypal yet, but when I do, I'll send it to you for further fact-checking.

I've been making Tim a pop-up book for his bday (i know, i can't stop talking about it) and last night I completed the page where his car zooms down the freeway. I got a pic of it off the mercedes site, and modified it a little so it has a halo effect around it, printed it out in grayscale, and detailed it in a silver pen and spent too much time pasting tiny red sequins on the brakelights.

The US had several major race riots during this period, as well as a pandemic, a president nearly die in office, and the xenophobia surrounding the League of Nations.

And a huge Red Scare.

someone with such devotion

You know, lots of people would say that the very fact I post here, interacting on a daily (oh, how I wish) basis with non-Jewish people, let alone watching shows like "Buffy", means that I'm not that devoted, by far. I wouldn't agree with them (obviously, being here), but still.

Prior to this, everything I've learned about Judaism came from epsiodes of Northern Exposure.

Do you have any idea how much I learned from posting on b.org? About stuff that the only other way for me to be exposed to was tv?

when I do, I'll send it to you for further fact-checking.

That will be my pleasure.

I've been making Tim a pop-up book for his bday (i know, i can't stop talking about it)

See, I'm such a skipppppppppppppmpppppper, that it's the first time I've read about it, so it's for the best. It sounds like such a fun project, too! Now I wish I could see how it ends up looking like.