School is starting! Yes, that's right. Wait a minute, you say. Every school year on earth (public schools, religious schools, elementary schools, high schools) has already ended their summer vacation months ago and gone back to school. What an earth are you talking about?
Well, this week, the one starting October 18th, universities in Israel are opening their fall semester. Thousands of university students will begin their studies this week.
In fact, it is quite clever, universities in Israel begin their school years after the Jewish holidays which end sometime in October. Although all school age children in Israel have started school September 1st (and already had lots of vacation days off for holidays), universities are just getting started.
Of course there is logic in this. By waiting till 'after the holidays', university students can study uninterupted without so many Jewish holidays and days off getting in the way. School age children don't suffer by starting in September because they attend school every day, but with universties where some classes only meet once a week (a lets say Jewish holidays fall on three Tuesdays, it happened to me in the US, I had to miss a bunch of classes early in the semester and scrambled to make up the material), waiting till 'after the holidays' to begin makes sense.
True, it is odd for the academic semester to start so late (in comparison with other countries), but it avoids a lot of problems too.
If you live in Israel you know the phrase, 'acharei hachagim' (after the holidays). If you need something done in September in Israel, people in power will always tell you your request, petition, job interview, sink repair, whatever will happen 'acharie hachagim' - but we joke that nobody knows for sure when that it is (they likely mean October, but for all we know they could mean Channukah in December).
One thing is for sure, universities in Israel start 'acharei hachagim' - unless their is a student or faculty strike, then it's acharei-ha'shvita (after the strike).
