Yom Kippur in United States

Yom Kippur is a Jewish holiday known as the Day of Atonement. Many people of Jewish faith in the United States spend the day fasting and praying. Its theme centers on atonement and repentance. Yom Kippur is on the 10th day of the month of Tishrei (or Tishri) in the Jewish calendar.

Prayers are an important part of the Yom Kippur observance. ©iStockphoto.com/Robert Pears

What do people do?

Many Jewish Americans believe that God seals their fate for the coming year on Yom Kippur. This holiday involves activities such as fasting and praying. It is believed that those who repent from their sins will be granted a happy New Year. Many Jewish people spend time in the synagogue at this time of the year.

The fasting lasts for 25 hours and begins on the evening before Yom Kippur. It ends after nightfall on Yom Kippur. Some restrictions can be lifted when a threat of health or life is involved. Many Jewish Americans perform the Havdalah ceremony at the evening services, and then break the fast. The holiday ends on a joyous note, and many Jewish people take part in a festive after-fast meal.

Jewish leaders give lectures at Jewish community centers on Yom Kippur. Some centers in states such as New York have interactive beginners’ services in Russian. Yom Kippur also includes a remembrance service, called Yizkor, during which people read the names of the dead, reflect on their lives and their legacies, honor them through memory. Some Jewish Americans may take the day off work or organize time off during this time of the year, to observe the belief that no work is permitted on Yom Kippur.

Public life

Yom Kippur is not a federal public holiday in the United States. However, many Jewish businesses, organizations and schools may be closed on this holiday and the streets around synagogues may be busy.

It is an optional holiday for state government employees in Texas. A chief judge of any judicial circuit in Florida can designate Yom Kippur as a legal holiday for court employees within the state’s judicial circuit. Some states, such as North Carolina, try to accommodate a government employee's request to be away from work for certain religious holiday observances, such as Yom Kippur.

Background

Yom Kippur is often considered the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Yom Kippur’s origins lie in a ritual purification of the Temple in Jerusalem from any accidental ritual impurities that had occurred in the past year. The Kohen Gadol (high priest) entered the Holy of Holies at the center of the temple on Yom Kippur. It was important that he was spiritually and physically as pure as possible.

Many rituals were carried out to ensure that the Kohen Gadol was pure and that he did not carry any ritual impurities into the Holy of Holies. Yom Kippur became a more somber holiday after the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. The Torah calls the day Yom HaKippurim and Leviticus 23:27 decrees a strict prohibition of work and affliction of the soul upon the 10th day of the seventh month, known as Tishrei.

Symbols

It is customary to wear white on Yom Kippur, which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that one’s sins should be wiped away. Some people of Jewish faith also believe that humans are compared to angels on this day. It is customary to not wear gold jewelry as gold serves as a reminder of sins associated with the golden calf, a story passed down among the Jewish community.

Many Jewish men wear a kittel or sargenes and a tallit on Yom Kippur. A kittel is a simple white robe that is also used as a shroud and is worn by bridegrooms in some Jewish communities. A tallit (tallis, taleysm) is a prayer shawl with tzitzis strings tied through each of the four corners.

About Yom Kippur in other countries

Yom Kippur Observances

Related holiday

• Rosh Hashana ―Monday, September 17, 2012

Other holidays in September 2012 in United States

• Labor Day ―Monday, September 3, 2012
• International Literacy Day ―Saturday, September 8, 2012
• Carl Garner Federal Lands Cleanup Day ―Saturday, September 8, 2012
• National Grandparents Day ―Sunday, September 9, 2012
• World Suicide Prevention Day ―Monday, September 10, 2012
• Patriot Day ―Tuesday, September 11, 2012
• International Day for South-South Cooperation ―Wednesday, September 12, 2012
• International Day of Democracy ―Saturday, September 15, 2012
• International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer ―Sunday, September 16, 2012
• Rosh Hashana ―Monday, September 17, 2012
• Constitution Day and Citizenship Day ―Monday, September 17, 2012
• International Talk Like a Pirate Day ―Wednesday, September 19, 2012
• National POW/MIA Recognition Day ―Friday, September 21, 2012
• International Day of Peace ―Friday, September 21, 2012
• September equinox ―Saturday, September 22, 2012
• Emancipation Day ―Saturday, September 22, 2012
• World Maritime Day ―Thursday, September 27, 2012
• World Tourism Day ―Thursday, September 27, 2012
• World Rabies Day ―Friday, September 28, 2012
• Gold Star Mother's Day ―Sunday, September 30, 2012
• World Heart Day ―Sunday, September 30, 2012