New Push to Close Jersey City Schools for Muslim Holy Days

JERSEY CITY — Muslim parents are making another push for the public-school district to close on Islamic holidays.

Parents and Muslim leaders have attended two meetings in the last month to urge school officers to add Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as holidays on the school calendar (in the upcoming school year, only Eid al-Adha falls on a school day). School board members are expected to make the decision this week.

Jessica Abdelnabbi, a Muslim parent of three girls, told The Jersey Journal the issue is "very simple."

"We're diverse," Abdelnabbi said. "We're only asking for one day."

An image of the tentative 2016-17 school calendar posted by a parent to Facebook yesterday shows the district does not plan to close for Eid al-Adha, which this year begins on Monday, Sept. 12 and ends the following day. The board is scheduled to vote on approving next year's calendar on Thursday.

Requests for comment from Board of Education President Vidya Gangadin were not returned.