Mid-Winter break or Yeahiva Week

 Midwinter vacation in the yeshiva world community has always been referred to as, you guessed it midwinter break, Yeshiva Week was not in the vernacular of the Torah community. Yeshiva bochurim had an off shabbos and the girls had midwinter vacation. Recently,  the Yeshiva week term has been adopted in describing the 2 week vacation period from mid - end of January. Advertisements and news articles have been referencing yeshiva week for  the midwinter getaways to South Florida, skiing trips or other destinations.

The term Yeshiva Week is actually not new at all, it has been around  for 30 -40 years among the Jewish day school and Modern Orthodox communities. Not too long ago, when it came to winter vacation, Jewish day schools were on the same schedule as other public and private schools across the country. Vacation time was determined by the xmas and New Year calendar at the end of December and continued until some time after New Year. As the Jewish day school education system grew, schools have changed the calendars to have vacation towards the middle-to-end of January. As a way to differentiate it from xmas week it was called yeshiva week.

Call it what you want but the mid winter vacation has taken on a life of its own with must do getaways. Perhaps the "yeshiva week" vacation has influenced the yeshivish mid winter vacation to go over the top leaving parents with no choice but to plan a trip and go away. Staying home is not an option and parents have to take off from work. Instead of a relaxing weekend at home it has become a chol hamoed in the winter. There's been some push back from schools but the trend is pulling the other way.