6 | JUNE 2 • 2022
1942 - 2022
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
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student’s corner
A ‘Hidden’ Holiday
S
o here we are: The end
of the Hebrew month
of Iyar is around the
corner, with it possibly already
having passed by the time this
article has been published in the
Jewish News. The
2021-2022
school year will
be coming to a
close, with the
summer being in
sight.
The seniors at
FJA have already
graduated, with April 29 being
their last day. They embarked
on a trip to Israel on May 15.
My own class, the freshmen of
FJA, went to Montana to visit
the Northern Cheyenne, who
are a group of Native Americans
residing slightly northeast of
Yellowstone National Park.
With all of the distractions
and events out of the way, it’s
about time to reveal the main
focus point of this article: the
upcoming and recent Jewish
holidays.
To start, there have been
three modern Jewish holidays
and memorial days that have
been commemorated recently:
Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron
and Yom HaAtzmaut. This year,
all three of them fell on dates
when we had school, so we got
the chance to commemorate
them during school. The
schedule was adjusted to
set aside time for special
ceremonies and activities.
However, unlike the three
holidays/memorial days
mentioned above, the next
holiday is one where there is
no school (if one attends a
Jewish school that is). Shavuot
has always been one of those
obscure holidays to me. My
family doesn’t typically do
anything special during this
time except to go to a friend’s
house for a meal.
For most other yom tov
holidays (like Rosh Hashanah,
Yom Kippur, certain days of
Passover, etc.), my family will
either go to services or do
something at home for them.
This is not the case for Shavuot,
which is spent like a normal
weekend or snow day when
there’s no school.
Furthermore, because the
holiday is in close proximity
to the end of the school year,
school trips, other important
events/days and more, the
holiday often feels like it is
glossed over, with not much
attention being put on it.
It’s not like this is a small
holiday either. It is one of
the three harvest festivals, or
Shalosh Regalim, with the other
two being Sukkot and Pesach.
In addition, we count down
to Shavuot with the Omer,
which is a 49-day period from
the second day of Passover to
Shavuot.
There is an additional
PURELY COMMENTARY
continued on page 7
Brody
Fleishman