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Be mindful of all religious holidays

Imagine this: Bradley University holds classes Dec. 24 and 25. Professors continue to lecture, assign homework and give exams – the works. Students are still expected to come to class and activities go on as usual.

There would be an uproar. Students and faculty would protest relentlessly. The mere concept of staying on campus instead of spending time with family on arguably the most important holiday of the year seems absurd. I heard more than a few complaints last year when Spring Break didn’t align with Easter, and students had to choose between going home for a second week in a row or spending the holiday at school.

NEWSFLASH: Jewish students face this dilemma every single year during the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

This year, Rosh Hashanah began at sundown Oct. 2 and lasted through nightfall Oct. 4, marking the start of the Jewish New Year. Yom Kippur began at sundown Oct. 11 and lasted through nightfall Oct. 12, serving as a Day of Atonement for practicing Jews.

Contrary to popular belief, Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the two most important Jewish holidays. Many Americans believe Hanukkah is the biggest Jewish holiday, but it only appears that way due to its proximity to Christmas. Hanukkah celebrates the miracle of oil during a time of oppression, while Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur represent a 10-day period of deep reflection and repentance of sins from the past year.

Besides, if Hanukkah happens to land before or after winter break, no one moves dates around. This proves that everyone is aware we have winter break specifically so Christian students have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas and the calendar new year at home with their families and friends.

This idea, by the way, is completely reasonable. I would never suggest depriving Christians from celebrating their holiday with loved ones. I am simply asking for the same considerations to the 200+ Jewish students on Bradley’s campus.

We currently have classes during the High Holy Days, which happened to fall on a Monday and Wednesday this year. This meant students were forced to miss the same classes in a relatively short time period, causing difficulties regarding make-up work and exam prep.

Yom Kippur took place the day we returned from Fall Break, so administrators could have easily decided to extend Fall Break by just one day in order to respect the traditions of a significant population on Bradley’s campus. That executive decision would eliminate half of the academic problems Jewish students presently face. We could have taken Rosh Hashanah off as well for one three-day weekend.

But where would we make up these missed days?” you may wonder.

Have no fear, concerned reader, for the solution is simple. By adding just one day of classes before winter break and one day before summer break, the school dates are readily made up. Let’s be real – if I hadn’t just told you we’re adding on two days to the semester, you would not have noticed the difference in the midst of stressing for finals.

While discussing with my fellow peers about the not-so-new idea of taking off classes for the High Holy Days, they brought up two important points.

First, many high schools do not observe the high holidays, so why would college be any different? In high school, you are only missing a few periods of class and have all day and night after services to complete the assignments. However in college, there are many other missed events besides classes. For example, I was late to my research lab meeting on Rosh Hashanah and felt very rushed and stressed. On such an important holiday for my people and I, I should not be worrying about labs and club meetings (in addition to the classes that I missed), but I should be able to enjoy my New Year.

I know many Jewish students who normally took classes off in high school, but decided it would not be worth it for them to miss so much material in college. I believe it is unfair for anyone to have to choose between practicing their religious traditions and keeping up in school.

Don’t get me wrong – the university has been fairly understanding. If a student must miss class, my experiences prove that professors do not hold the absence against the student. However, as busy college professors, they generally do not have time to reteach the lesson and still hold students accountable for learning the missed material.

The second issue my peers addressed was taking off important holidays for other religions besides Judaism and Christianity. I absolutely do not want to favor Judaism over other religions as we are currently favoring Christianity. So I highly encourage students of all religions to bring their concerns to administrators.

Although I am currently targeting the lack of consideration for Jewish holidays, I really want to argue for students to challenge the university’s policies regarding all religious holidays. Bradley certainly is not the only college that favors Christian celebrations, but there is no reason why our school can’t start the trend of making schedules more flexible around other religious holidays.

I recognize that changing a university’s schedule depending on religious holidays is a fairly radical proposal, but think about it: Every big change was once nothing more than a crazy idea.

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