Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 17, 1994 TAG: 9405170132
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By MARA LEE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
But why did the board require schools that open before Labor Day also to close on Rosh Hashana?
Either one would have been enough, some Jewish parents say.
Many school boards had considered delaying the first day of school, Sept. 6, to avoid a conflict with the Jewish holiday. But a late start would add to their problems if schools miss many days for bad weather, as they did this past winter.
The state board decided instead to allow school systems that had missed more than 10 days this past winter to open before Labor Day - if they agreed to shut both days of Rosh Hashana. Most American Jews, however, observe only the first day of the holiday.
Schools in Virginia have never closed for Jewish holidays in the past. Schools will not close for Yom Kippur, a holier day to Jews, which falls 10 days later. Chuck Kennedy, head of the religion department at Virginia Tech, said Yom Kippur "is the culmination of the High Holy Days."
"If you're asking me to question if the board was logical in its procedures, I can't do that," said Jim Foudriat, public relations coordinator for the state Board of Education.
He said the board required schools that want to open before Labor Day to close for Rosh Hashana because the state superintendent of schools and the General Assembly had specifically mentioned Rosh Hashana in their request to postpone the starting date.
Rebecca Scheckler, president of the Jewish Community Center in Blacksburg, said the board overcompensated. "What the state is requiring is a distortion of what we were requesting, to an extent," she said. "It's kind of disconcerting. It wasn't our intent to have school closed on Rosh Hashana. It's perhaps not reasonable to close for every minority's holiday."
Rebecca's husband, Stephen Scheckler, said the board had been betrayed by its own good intentions. "I don't think it's bad intent or malicious," he said, "I just think that Christians that set the calendar don't have any idea what is important."
Simply allowing schools to open before Labor Day would have covered it just fine, he said. "They wouldn't have to give those days off, just excuse our kids. We don't expect preferential treatment. We fully expect school to be a secular calendar."
Muriel Lederman, a Blacksburg Jewish mother, said her high-school age daughter had been indignant about school starting on Rosh Hashana. "She was really quite annoyed about it," she said. "She kept bugging us to write the School Board."
But Lederman said moving the date and closing schools for Rosh Hashana was inconsistent as well as redundant. "Most Jews perceive that Yom Kippur is a holier day than Rosh Hashana," she said. "If they're going to close schools on Rosh Hashana, they ought to close them on Yom Kippur."
Lederman observes only the first day of the new year celebration.
Jews make up fewer than 1 percent of the school-age population in Montgomery County, where the School Board will receive a committee recommendation tonight to apply for a waiver to open before Labor Day.
Roanoke County and Salem already have applied for waivers. Roanoke schools are not eligible and plan to postpone the start of the school year by one day for Rosh Hashana.
In trying to juggle harsh winters, late starts, and Jewish holidays, Foudriat said, the board was seeking to "accommodate as many concerns as possible."
But according to many parents, they tried to serve too many masters. Stephen Scheckler said of the closure, "We didn't ask for it, and it's not necessary, really."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***