Why did Congress have to be off for the Jewish holiday but the Senate did NOT?

meybe because there’s more Jewish people in Congress than Senate.

I don’t know the answer to your question, but just a quick note on terminology. We have two parliamentary chambers in out legislative government. One is the Senate, the other is the House of Representatives which you cannot simply call “Congress”—Congress is the name encompassing both groups.

Thank you and you’re right! It must drive you crazy when you hear the news refer to them as Congress and the Senate all the time?

I’ve never heard anyone on the news referring to the House as “Congress”. Congress is the House + the Senate.

And I’ve heard it MANY times these last few days alone on VARIOUS news channels, from channel 4 to CNN. How “Congress” was off for the Jewish holidays and votes tonight while the “Senate” voted last night.

Just the same, I don’t want to get away from my original question so, to clarify,

“Why did The House of Representatives have to be off for the Jewish holiday but the Senate did NOT?”

Did you see Jon Stewart’s rant on that Monday? He said (in part):

“How many Jews are even in Congress? Wall Street’s open. I’ll guarantee you they got more Jews on Wall Street than in Congress. I’m here. “The Daily Show,” “The Daily Show’s” on. I’ll guarantee you we got more Jews at “The Daily Show” than Congress. So get back to saving the economy. And if you have to do it without Feingold and Lieberman, so be it. Hey, how ‘bout this? The congressional delegations from Florida and New York can sleep in. How ‘bout that? I mean, seriously, Utah, you’re not coming in for Rosh Hashana? Wyoming?”

Good point!