Every official Israeli Ministry of Education school vacation for the 2026–27 school year, in one place, based on the ministry's own circulars.
The Israeli school year 2026–27 opens on Tuesday, 1/9/26 and ends in late June 2027. Between those two dates there are eight vacation windows worth planning around, plus a handful of days that look like days off and are not.
Look at how Tishrei stacks up. Yom Kippur on 20/9/26, the three days after it, and Sukkot beginning immediately — in practice that is two unbroken weeks with no school, 20/9–3/10/26, arriving right after the three days of Rosh Hashanah. The first September of the school year is almost entirely vacation.
This is the list that has parents taking a day off work for nothing, or sending a child to an empty school.
Tu BiShvat falls on Shabbat this year in any case, 23/1/27.
That is where the summer gap comes from, and it is not the same for everybody: a middle schooler is free ten days before a younger sibling and gets more than seventy days off, while kindergarten and elementary get exactly two months. A family with children in both is managing ten days with one child at home and the other still in class.
The festivals themselves do not move. Pesach is always 15 Nisan, Hanukkah always 25 Kislev. What moves is the civil date opposite them, because the Hebrew year runs about eleven days shorter than the civil one, and a month longer in a leap year. That is why the Hanukkah break lands in late November one year and late December the next, and why last year's dates are no guide at all.
On top of that sits a second layer, and this is the one that cannot be guessed. The ministry does not declare the festival days off — it sets a whole window, and the window depends on which weekdays the festival hits. Hanukkah 2026 begins on a Friday evening, so the break only opens on the Sunday after: the first candle is not the first day off. The days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot are not a festival at all, and they are full vacation. No date conversion produces either of those. They are an administrative decision, published in a ministry circular each spring for the year that follows.
One calendar also does not serve everyone. Official Arab-sector schools follow a different one: winter break 24/12/26–8/1/27, and spring break 28/3–11/4/27 — to 13/4/27 in schools running a six-day week.
When does the 2026–27 school year start? Tuesday, 1/9/26.
When is the Sukkot break in 2026? Friday to Saturday, 25/9–3/10/26. Back Sunday, 4/10/26 — high schools Monday, 5/10/26.
When is the Hanukkah break in 2026? Sunday to Saturday, 6–12/12/26. Back Sunday, 13/12/26.
When is the Pesach break in 2027? Tuesday to Wednesday, 13–28/4/27. Back Thursday, 29/4/27.
How long is the Pesach break? Sixteen days straight, two weekends included — the longest break of the year apart from the summer.
Is isru chag a day off? No. Isru chag after Sukkot and after Pesach are ordinary school days in most settings. It is the single most common mistake when booking leave from work.
When does the school year end? Kindergartens and elementary schools on Wednesday, 30/6/27; middle and high schools on Sunday, 20/6/27.
Every date on this page comes from three Israeli Ministry of Education circulars, all published 30/3/26: circular 0363 for kindergartens, elementary and middle schools, circular 0364 for high schools, and circular 0366 for the official Arab-sector schools. Dates verified against the circulars on 2/9/26. The calendar for the following school year is published in spring 2027, and this page is updated from it.
On these days, classes are held: isru chag Sukkot (4/10/26), Sigd (9/11/26), Ta’anit Esther (22/3/27), isru chag Pesach (29/4/27), Yom HaZikaron (11/5/27, school ends at 12:00), Lag BaOmer (25/5/27), Yom Yerushalayim (4/6/27).