New Year's Day in September

One of the most challenging parts about being Jewish is how much other people think they know about Judaism.

They aren’t always right, but boy, do they ever think so.

One of the most common areas where people seem to misunderstand the religion is in the timetable of religious observance.

Because of the use of the lunar calendar, holidays can shift drastically within the secular year.

The day a holiday may be one year could fall on an entirely different day the following year.

This year in particular, all Jewish holidays are appearing earlier than usual.

While in past years the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, has been as late as early October, this year, Sept. 4 was day one of the year 5774.

Unfortunately for IU students, this also marked the ninth day of classes.

This posed a challenge for many students who wanted to start the semester on the right foot, yet also wanted to fully practice their faith.

Luckily, a form exists for students to get out of class without any punishment.

The religious observance form is available on the IU website and offers students the chance to communicate with their professors about the significance of missing class to be in services on these holy days.

What makes the situation really extraordinary, though, is the way that it is received by the professors.

At many institutions in the United States, missing class is a real challenge for students.

While it is immoral and unreasonable for a university to downright refuse to allow the student body to miss class for a religious observance, it is not uncommon to see teachers refuse to allow for make-up work or to count the absence as unexcused.

An unexcused absence might mean students cannot receive credit for work completed that day, which might seriously harm their grade.

That is one of the ways that IU demonstrates its excellence.

Professors at this University go out of their way to plan their classes around the holidays whenever possible, and are willing to go out of their way to accommodate students.

Accommodations are made to ensure the beliefs and practices of each individual are made as available as possible.

That is, of course, not to say certain instructors don’t struggle to understand.

It is not uncommon for a Jewish student to be exposed to intense questioning about the reason, length and obligation of a given holiday.

One professor this year even went so far as to ask me if I had changed the date this year.

While clearly making light of his ignorance, he was getting to the root of the situation — a calendar so difficult for the secular world to navigate leaves far more questions than our Christian counterparts deal with on any given day.

Yet by creating such an easy avenue through which students can be religiously accommodated, IU is succeeding at creating the kind of tolerant and understanding community that is so fundamental in the rhetoric of the institution.

In that regard, IU serves as a model to other collegiate institutions.

Although missing one day of class may not be a big deal to a professor, it could mean the world to a young Jewish student.

­— azoot@indiana.edu
Follow columnist Austin Zoot on Twitter @austinzoot12.