Jewish students at the University of Georgia are discouraged that the college has scheduled its homecoming game on the religion’s holiest of days.
UGA is set to take on Vanderbilt on Saturday, but the Jewish students say their observation of Yom Kippur will prevent them from attending the game. The students have written a letter they plan to deliver to university officials this week about their disappointment in the timing of the game.
“We are not here to place blame on the school, but rather to speak up for ourselves,” the letter reads. “We are simply here to ask how a major public university with a strong Jewish community could make this mistake. We commit ourselves to this university and would have hoped that you would commit yourselves to us.”
It’s too late to change the schedule for this year’s game, but the university should consider Jewish and other religious holy days when planning major events in the future, said Jamie Gottlieb, a senior and public relations major who helped write the letter to administrators. Since posting the letter online late Monday night, more than 1,200 supporters have signed on to it, Gottlieb said.
UGA officials said they became aware of the scheduling conflict during the summer after they designated the Oct. 4 homecoming day and received the first round of printed information for the fall football season.
The timing of the game “has a lot to do with how our schedule was delivered to us from the conference,” said Matthew Winston, assistant to UGA President Jere Morehead.
Television broadcast schedules also dictate some of UGA’s sporting event calendar, Winston said.
“It was not intentional. We were not being insensitive,” he said.
School officials have heard from alumni with concerns similar to the students, and have talked with advisors of the campus’ Jewish student groups.
“(President Morehead) has said this will not happen again,” Winston said.
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