UGA Homecoming Conflicts Yom Kippur
Students at the University of Georgia created a petition regarding for homecoming this weekend in order for Jewish students to observe the holiday Yom Kippur. The game is scheduled to take place tomorrow on October 4th, at 4pm, which is several hours before the holiday is scheduled to end. The Jerusalem Post reported students stating while their intention of the petition was not to have the game changed this year but, “We are simply here to ask how a major public university with a strong Jewish community could make this mistake.”
Often times, many sporting events are accidentally scheduled on religious holidays. For Jewish people, Yom Kippur is the holiest day on the calendar. For an event scheduled on Yom Kippur, this leaves Jewish people with the decision as to whether or not they will observe the holiday.
UGA released a statement to their local affiliate station 11Alive “UGA’s Homecoming is traditionally held in October at a football game against an SEC opponent. This year there is only one home game in all of October – this Saturday’s game against Vanderbilt.” They later added, ” We have tried in the past and will continue to strive to remain aware of and sensitive to important days on the calendar. This year’s conflict was deemed unavoidable because of there being only one home football game in the traditional Homecoming month of October.”