Jewish High Holidays conflict with student obligations

Students attending religious services might not be excused from class.

By Tracy Fisher

Published Sept. 18, 2009

The Jewish High Holidays, or Days of Awe, are comprised of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the two holiest days of the year in the Jewish faith.

The Jewish Student Organization is working to make sure students have the opportunity to partake in High Holiday services by holding multiple opportunities to attend services. Rosh Hashanah services are being held through sundown from Friday to Sunday. Yom Kippur services start sundown Sunday, Sept. 27 and continue until Monday.

To enter the Hillel services, people need to get a ticket.

"(It) is purely an admission purpose implemented by Hillel Director Kerry Hollander," Hillel Secretary Emily Nickel said.

Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are Torah-based and are more synagogue-related holidays, while Hanukkah is from the book of Maccabees and is more of a cultural holiday, according to "Temple Shalom High Holidays Source Book."

The focus on Hanukkah stemmed from the timely competition with the more common Christian-celebrated holiday, Christmas.

"People turn it into a commercial holiday just like Christmas because it is more fun and more American," freshman Remy Bourgeois said.

Although this year Rosh Hashanah falls on Saturday, Yom Kippur finds itself on a Monday, which prompts Jewish students and faculty to ask whether to attend class.

"I definitely cancel class for the High Holidays," professor Alan Strathman said. "I do it both so I and the students can attend services. I don't know that there is a policy, per se, but the school sends out e-mails asking instructors to be aware of the holidays."

Some professors count the absence against students as their allotted missed classes, but others do not.

A class syllabus of Brian Brooks, associate dean for undergraduate studies at the journalism school, states students are exempt from his class for religious holidays. He asks the student talk to him first.

The High Holy Days start with Rosh Hashanah, equivalent to the secular New Year, where Jews come together and celebrate the coming of the New Year. Directly translated, Rosh Hashanah means "head of the year" and is when Jews believe people are re-written into the Book of Life, the "Temple Shalom High Holidays Source Book" stated.

The "Temple Shalom High Holidays Source Book" also states in between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur there is a period in which people are supposed to reflect on all the sins committed during the past year and ask for forgiveness.

Yom Kippur, which translated means Day of Atonement, is most closely related to the Christian holiday Lent. This is where people ask for final forgiveness.

On Yom Kippur, Jews are commanded by oral tradition to abstain from eating or drinking, wearing leather shoes, bathing or washing, wearing perfume or lotions, working or having sexual relations.

"Unlike Catholics, we only get one chance a year to really apologize to God, so it's pretty solemn and important," Bourgeois said.