Jewish holiday request denied

[oberliner]

A request to move a cross-country meet to the Sunday after the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur has been denied. The Anchorage School District requested the meet be rescheduled to avoid clashing with the Jewish high holiday day. But the state organization that oversees school sports has refused that request.

The School Board earlier this month asked the Alaska School Activities Association to allow the Cook Inlet Conference championships to take place Sunday, September 23rd, instead of Saturday, September 22nd.

It's at least the third time the coaches have set the cross-country meet on a Jewish high holy day. Gary Matthews -- executive director of the Alaska School Activities Association -- says the date was set for the meet because it is the last day of cross-country competition for local school districts.

He also says the board won't consider such holidays in the future. He says if you do it for one group, you likely would have to do it for the next one that makes a similar request.

http://www.ktva.com/alaska/ci_6233869

[BlooInBloo]

1. What rules do extra-curricular activities have to abide by, wrt to non-school holidays?

Anybody know?

[sutz12]

3. Good question, I suppose.....but do they hold events on Christmas Day?

IMO, they have some butt-covering to do if they find a majority Christian membership on the board doing the scheduling.

[BlooInBloo]

6. I was asking about non-school holidays.

[villager]

2. And then the Christians will be wanting *their* holidays off, too!

oh, wait a minute...

[MADem]

4. I think that's pretty shitty, myself. It's not a frivolous holiday.

I wonder what kind of accomodation they give to Christian holidays?

The Jewish teachers oughta schedule final exams for 25 December, and see how they like it....!

[atreides1]

8. That's it

Lets just take it out on the kids just because some adults can't get their heads out of their asses?

How about trying to do this without screwing over the kids?

Besides I don't recall anyone who wasn't Christian not going out on Christmas break when I was in school, I don't remember them insisting on staying in school during the Easter holiday either!!!!!

[MADem]

23. Well....I was being a bit facetious. Is your irony meter broken, perchance?

You're getting indignant, as if my suggestion has a hope in hell of becoming reality.

But I'd imagine that Jews or Muslims would MUCH prefer to have Chanukah off, or Eid, or how about the entire Ramadan month, rather than have to deal with your shitty Christian holidays--if it were up to them, of course. The only reason they "go out" is because they don't have a CHOICE in the matter--the school is CLOSED.

Good grief.

In non-Christian countries, FWIW, people don't "go out on Christmas break." December 25th is just another work or school day.

[deadmessengers]

5. Crazy question...

Are there really all that many observant Jews in Alaska? I can't help but notice that the request is coming from the Anchorage school board, and not a particular group of parents or religious leaders. Is this making a mountain out of a great big molehill?

[oberliner]

12. Jewish athletes ask for sporting chance on religious holidays

The cross-country regionals meet -- a big sporting event for Anchorage students -- was all set for Saturday, Sept. 22, 2007, at Kincaid Park.

But wait a minute: Sept. 22 is Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish religion. Like Easter is for Christians, or Ramadan for Muslims.

Is it disrespectful to hold a sporting event on such a holy day? Should Jewish track stars have to choose between their sport and God? Suddenly a conflict that's been simmering below the surface is being debated out in the open, sometimes angrily.

School superintendent Carol Comeau said she would have stopped the Yom Kippur-timed meet -- if she'd known about it.


http://www.adn.com/sports/story/9030093p-8945733c.html

[MADem]

24. The Jews of Alaska are more observant than the Jews in most of America

http://jbuff.com/c081204.htm

The Jewish communities in Alaska are located in Anchorage, Fairbanks and Juneau. Estimates place the Jewish community at 6,000 for the whole state. Of these, 42% belong to the three synagogues, two in Anchorage and one in Fairbanks. Only 27% of American Jews belong to synagogues. In all of America, only 32% of Jews light Shabbat candles. In Alaska, 70% of Jews do that. Ninety one percent of Alaskan Jews observe Chanuka. Only 63% of American Jews observe that festival....Anchorage, with a population of about 260,000 people, has two synagogues and about 5,000 Jews. Six hundred Jews live in Fairbanks and three hundred live in Juneau. There is Temple Beth Shalom which is Conservaform, and Chabad Congregation Shomrei Ohr. Beth Shalom seats 400 worshippers.

[deadmessengers]

28. Interesting, thanks n/t

[Lance_Boyle]

7. Sigh.

Participation in a cross country meet is a choice. For that matter, so is adherence to religious traditions. So... choose one. Why is this even an issue?

[oberliner]

9. Holding a cross country meet on Yom Kippur is a choice

For that matter, so is accomodating the requests of religious minorities.

It's an issue because Christian students do not have to worry about major scholastic events conflicting with their most important holiday. Christian students can join the cross country team confident that a meet will not be scheduled on Christmas Day.

[JerseygirlCT]

15. Or Easter, which is actually the more important holy day. nt

[deadmessengers]

16. Nitpick

Sports is not in any way shape or form a scholastic event. It may be affiliated with a school, but it's not scholastic or academic. If we were talking about final exams, that would be substantially different. Sports are non-academic and optional activities.

[oberliner]

17. The National Scholastic Sports Foundation

Non-academic, yes, but they are still scholastic.

Taking AP classes is optional. Would it be ok to give the AP test on Yom Kippur?

For some students, a cross-country meet, while "non-academic" is as important to their future college career as an AP exam.

[H2O Man]

18. Well said. n/t

[deadmessengers]

22. College career?

First of all, we're not talking about the AP exams. We're talking about kids running around in circles. AP exams can be (and are) moved on a student-by-student basis for the purposes of religious accommodation. A cross-country meet cannot - it's a group event and must be rescheduled entirely. We're talking about one kid's family (according to the link you provided) trying to force 399 others to change their plans in order to accommodate his religious choices.

And, I do agree that athletics can potentially have a positive impact on one's college career, in the form of "athletic scholarships" (an oxymoron if there ever was one). I also think that's completely pathetic and a very loud statement about the depths to which our country has fallen. Every time a jock gets a free ride (and not just financially, considering the preferential treatment athletes receive in high school and college), it sends a message: We value the ability to run in circles more than the ability to think and create.

[oberliner]

31. Kids running around in circles?

You could reduce any activity in a similar fashion in order to cast aspersions on its significance (AP exams are just kids filling in circles on a scantron sheet) but I can assure you that for some students, participation in cross-country is a scholastic experience as signifcant and valuable as an AP Chemistry class would be for other students.

The link I provided is not about "one kid's family trying to force 399 others to change their plans in order to accomodate his religious choices" but rather about the Anchorage School District requesting that the meet be rescheduled.

The school superintendent made the following statement:

"It's just time to recognize that we are a very diverse community," Comeau said. "And our students should be able to participate in their religious practices just like we expect the Christians to be able to participate in theirs. We're not going to schedule school events on these very significant holidays. We don't schedule them on Easter; we don't schedule them on Christmas. To me, it's the same thing."

http://www.adn.com/sports/story/9030093p-8945733c.html

[ikojo]

30. Not only will a meet not be scheduled on Christmas

or Easter, but I don't think they schedule these things on Sunday.

[RufusTFirefly]

10. So you'd have no problem with cross-country meets on Christmas or Easter?

Almost pointless to ask since it'll never happen.
We're not talking Shrove Tuesday here. This is a major holiday.

(BTW, I'm an atheist, so it would seem that I have no dog in this hunt. Except I'm a Constitution-lovin' American, which means that I do.)

[Cassandra]

11. Do Christians have to choose...

between sports and their holiest day?

[softwarevotingtrail]

13. Yom Kippur is the holiest day for many Jews, Christmas is a vacation day and lots of consumerism

for 90 percent of Christians.

[Annces]

14. I once worked at a dental college

And one of the professors who was Jewish would take off work on the high holidays, though he was not given approval by the boss ( who was my boss too). I told the boss it made perfect sense since Christians get Christmas and Easter etc off. But the lunk-head boss did not get it. Christian holidays should not get preference IMO.

[Silent3]

19. I'm no big fan of religion of any sort...

...and I don't think the government should be in the business of excessive accommodation of religion, such that people of other religions, or who aren't religious at all, end up paying significantly higher taxes for such accommodation, or end up with second-class status and second-class privileges compared to religious people who are being accommodated for religious reasons.

To me, freedom of religion means that the government won't stand in the way of free exercise of religious beliefs. It doesn't mean the government has to go out of its way to make all of the crazy requirements people impose on themselves by choosing a particular religion easier to accomplish. As some point religious observers have to be willing to pay some kind of price to follow the rules and regulations of their faith, and not expect everyone else to go out of their way to facilitate their observances.

All that said, however, simply moving the date of a track meet, which consistently keeps falling on important Jewish holy days? I think that's a quite reasonable accommodation, especially if these dates prove to be deliberate, not merely coincidental.

Could this be abused and become unworkable because dozens of different faiths demand different days be recognized, until there's a barely a day left over for scheduling anything? I suppose. But I'd go with a little fairly easy accommodation for now, and worry about crossing that other bridge if and when such a problem ever actually arises.

[Blue_In_AK]

20. They decided to hold it on Friday

so no one would be offended. They think they can finish the meet before the holiday starts in the evening. The Anchorage School District is extremely diverse, so these sorts of issues are bound to come up.

[oberliner]

21. have you got a link?

Glad they were able to work it out.

[Blue_In_AK]

26. Here's a link from this morning's Anchorage Daily News...

http://www.adn.com/news/education/story/9080882p-8996948c.html

and one from KTUU, our NBC affiliate

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6708943&nav=menu510_4_12

Here's link to the school district site that shows the diversity here. To the poster above, yes, there are plenty of Jewish people here. People are usually surprised to find out that this is not a "white-bread" community.

http://www.asd.k12.ak.us/aboutasd/

[oberliner]

27. Thanks for the links

Appreciate the info!

[nealmhughes]

25. For the record, when I kept a gradebook, I had a little chart for "excusable offenses".

J was Jewish holiday.
C was for Ash Wednesday and Good Friday,

and M was for Muslim holiday.

I had to explain to several that birthdays were not recognized holy days, nor was a bar mitzvah one was attending, nor a christening or even a confirmation or a briss.

At the same time, I said that there might be an excused absense for those who were scurrying home for a few nights of Hannukah if their grandma's brought me lots of latkes in return. . .or at least a hamentoschen or two at Purim!

I don't know what kind of calendars these guys have, but mine clearly has in large black letters Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashannah. . .

Now Alaska ain't New York, but it is a multicultural state.

[ikojo]

29. So, I can assume there will be an equally important

sporting event on Christmas or Easter?

[cgrindley]

32. Should be a simple separation of church and state issue

There shouldn't be any religious holidays. I'd gladly work on Christmas or Easter, although I suppose that a fairly good argument could be made suggesting that both of those are now entirely secular.

[oberliner]

33. But since there are religious holidays

Should the holidays associated with Christianity be accounted for differently than those of other religions?

[cgrindley]

34. I think that SCOTUS already looked at the issue in the Sunday closing case

didn't they argue in the Jersey case that although the laws were originally due to religion, they now served a greater purpose in society that transcended their religious history?

Personally, I'd advocate cancelling Christmas and Easter permanently, then problem solved. There shouldn't be any religious holidays or time off work for them.

[mmonk]

35. See if they can move it to Easter.

See what happens.

[David Zephyr]

36. Sounds like Chariots of Fire all over again. They should reschedule. Period.

Who ever scheduled the cross-country meet was a jerk or an idiot.

In any event, the meet should be rescheduled.

[tammywammy]

37. They did reschedule

It's posted upthread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1188749&mesg_id=1189196