Every October, Jewish students around the country face the same question: Should we celebrate Halloween? Most kids just view it as a night of candy and trick-or-treating, and nowadays it isn’t typically associated with religious activities and would be unrecognizable to those who took part in the holiday’s earliest forms.
JDS does not celebrate Halloween. It makes sense for Jewish schools not to celebrate the holiday because of its Pagan and Christian origins, but that doesn’t mean kids should be ostracized just because of their Judaism. Halloween is no longer a religious practice, but rather a community tradition.
Halloween originated from the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, to mark the end of summer and the beginning of the harvest, according to Franciscan Media. Before Halloween came to the U.S., it was mostly a religious practice, but once it got Americanized, it became a time for trick-or-treating, carving pumpkins and haunted houses.
One reason that it is okay for Jewish students to celebrate Halloween is that they can feel excluded from their community or friends. Jewish students may feel left out if not invited to parties or trick or treating, just because their friends assume they won’t go, or can’t.
Personally, when I attended a public middle school, every year, my non-Jewish friends would ask me if I was allowed to come to their Halloween parties, assuming that I wasn’t. Even though they did think to invite me, this still affected me because I was unsure if they truly wanted me to come or if they were just asking out of courtesy.
According to NIH, encounters with exclusion can have detrimental outcomes in terms of emotional and behavioral health, academic difficulties, a decrease in prosocial behavior and low self-esteem. This proves even more that excluding someone can have a profound effect and impact on students’ lives and affect their everyday activities. Humans build off of each other, and if students aren’t given the opportunity to learn and interact with their friends, it can deeply impact them.
It is also important to assimilate into American society and culture. Suppose the Jewish people decide to exclude themselves from regular American culture and activities like Thanksgiving dinner, celebrating the new year or July 4th. It gives even more reason for antisemites to target them, because they wouldn’t be trying to connect with society.
Thanksgiving is a holiday with Christian connotations, just like Halloween is, so why are Jews forbidden from celebrating Halloween and not Thanksgiving? While Halloween does have Christian origins, over time it has evolved into a largely secular celebration, much like Thanksgiving, a holiday that many Jews celebrate yearly.
Despite the religious connotations Halloween comes with, nowadays, they don’t apply to how Halloween is celebrated. Jewish students should be able to celebrate Halloween without feeling guilty.
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Towards the end of October, the halls of JDS are filled with students asking each other about costumes, parties, trick-or-treating and other Halloween-related activities. While Halloween is a popular holiday in America and definitely contributes to the vibe of fall, Jews should reconsider whether they truly want to celebrate it.
Halloween is celebrated in the United States and around the world every year on Oct. 31. The holiday originated from the Celtic holiday Samhain, when people used to ward off ghosts by lighting bonfires and dressing up in scary costumes.
In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III coined Nov. 1 as All-Saints Day, a time to honor the saints. All-Saints Day was later combined with the traditions of Samhain since the days were consecutive.
While the holiday may seem American nowadays, Halloween is deeply rooted in Christianity as well as Pagan rituals, including idolatry and communing with the dead: things that are forbidden according to Jewish law. Even though modern American Halloween looks very different from it did thousands of years ago when the tradition began, there are still reasons why Jews might want to refrain from celebrating.
What might look like a fun community-centered night of trick-or-treating and dressing up in fun costumes actually has roots in antisemitism. Many common Halloween costumes, like witches, have historically been insulting caricatures of Jews, depicting them as greedy and with big noses. Additionally, the night of Oct. 31, 1905, was filled with violent and disastrous pogroms against the Jews, leading many Jews to fear being out and about on Halloween night.
If looking for a candy-filled holiday that involves dressing up, it might be more meaningful to stick to Purim, a holiday that is more traditionally aligned with our history.
In a letter sent out to JDS families, Head of School Rabbi Mitch Malkus said that “CESJDS does not celebrate Halloween; we do not post decorations, wear costumes, discuss experiences, or distribute treats in school. Additionally, we do not actively encourage the observance of Halloween by our students outside of school.”
Whatever students choose to do outside of school is up to them, but bringing Halloween celebrations into the building is counterintuitive to our Jewish values and traditions.
It can still be fun to hand out candy to other trick-or-treaters or watch a scary movie on Halloween, but instead of choosing to celebrate the holiday, it might be more appropriate and beneficial to wait until Purim to dress up.
This story was published in The Lion’s Tale on Oct. 31, 2025.
