For Weinberg sophomore Jeremy Meisel, preparing for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, started more than four months ago. Like most Jewish students at Northwestern, Meisel had to create a plan for dealing with the classes he’d miss, since NU does not cancel classes in observance of the High Holy Days.
“The first thing I did was when I registered I made sure I had no Tuesday and Thursday classes,” Meisel said. “For my Wednesday classes, I’ll just have to get someone’s notes.”
Rosh Hashana began Monday night at sundown and lasts until one hour past sunset on Wednesday. Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, is Oct. 13. Services for both holidays are offered by the Fiedler Hillel Center, 629 Foster St., and the Tannenbaum Chabad House, 2014 Orrington Ave.
The Torah mandates the High Holy Days should be “days without labor,” Campus Rabbi Josh Feigelson said. Students have to make special arrangements with their professors in order to attend services, which, depending on a student’s sect – Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform – can range from one to three per day during Rosh Hashana. More traditional students will miss classes on both Tuesday and Wednesday because they celebrate Rosh Hashana for two days.
Jewish students will then miss classes again the following week for Yom Kippur.
“It’s hard too because the holidays are on Tuesday and Thursday, ” Communication junior Audrey Klein said. “So you’re going to be missing the same classes.”
Klein, who is also President of the Hillel Cultural Committee, said her Jewish Literature professor isn’t canceling class because, although Jewish, she doesn’t observe the holidays. But other Jewish professors, like mathematics Prof. Mike Stein, are cancelling or rescheduling classes to accommodate the High Holy Day’s uncharacteristic celebration in the middle of the week.
“If necessary I make (the classes) up during Reading Week, or exchange lecture and quiz section days,” Stein said. He added that, as director of undergraduate studies in the math department, he had reminded the faculty of the upcoming holiday and university policy.
The provost Web site contains suggestions for dealing with religious holidays, urging professors to avoid scheduling exams on holidays and encouraging students to make arrangements to make up work as early as possible. The statement also says that “students should not be penalized for class absences because of religious holidays.”
“We have had zero instances in the last few years where a faculty member has refused to make accommodations for a student,” Associate Provost Stephen Fisher said.
Feigelson offered to intervene on behalf of any of the more than 800 students Hillel provides services for each year, but said his services haven’t been needed. Rabbi Dov Hillel Klein, director of the Tannenbaum Chabad House, sent an e-mail on the organization’s listserv reminding about 70 students to speak with their professors, but he said in 20 years at NU he’s never had a problem.
“In a school that’s only 11 or 12 percent Jewish, they’re not going to cancel classes,” he said. “It’d be nice, but you can’t expect it.”
Many universities, such as Columbia University in New York and the University of Chicago, have policies similar to NU’s.
But at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., no one is expected to attend classes on Rosh Hashana. Founded in 1948, Brandeis is the only non-sectarian Jewish-sponsored university in the country.
“Not having classes allows [students] the opportunity to observe their holidays without falling behind in class,” said Larry Sternberg, executive director of the Hillel Foundation at Brandeis.
Feigelson said NU students will work around the obstacles and do their best to properly celebrate the holiest days on the Jewish calendar.
“This is what it means to be a minority in America,” Feigelson said.
Students can find information about service times and venues at the Tannenbaum Chabad House and Hillel Web sites.
Reach Christina Alexander at [email protected].
