Zachariah Sippy ’23 argued in a recent op-ed that the Princeton Office of Religious Life’s (ORL) decision to include Yom Haatzmaut (Israeli Independence Day) and Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Memorial Day) on a list of religious holidays is exclusionary to “non- and anti-Zionist” Jewish students.
Sippy spills a lot of ink detailing the litany of political problems he has with each of those holidays. Writing about the Israeli Independence Day, he claims that “[m]any non- and anti-Zionist Jews, such as myself, are uncomfortable with undiscriminating celebrations of Israel’s Independence.” And Israel’s Memorial Day, he insists, is “similarly problematic” since observance often ignores “the root causes of Palestinian resistance to occupation and apartheid.”
But Sippy could not be more off base and ignorant of the religious history and significance of Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron. Three objections to Sippy come immediately to mind: First, he ignores several Jewish practices and customs that make the inclusion of these days on the ORL’s list appropriate and in the spirit of inclusivity. Second, he questions the legitimacy of only one religion’s holidays, when many other religious holidays include similar themes of political mourning or celebration. Third, his evident lack of concern for the safety and prosperity of the largest Jewish community in the world – notwithstanding any valid disagreement with specific Israeli policies – is jarring.
Sippy’s narrow-minded and reductive view of Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron as merely political holidays is as religiously ignorant as it is arrogant. These holidays, while certainly concerning elements of politics and history, are unquestionably of religious significance for many Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jewish students on campus. A simple examination of the religious practices during those days plainly reveals that fact.
The tractate Pesachim, part of the Babylonian Talmud, recalls a discussion between two ancient Rabbis regarding when Jews are biblically commanded to sing Hallel, a compilation of Psalms that together comprise the Jewish prayer of thanksgiving. During that Talmudic conversation, the Rabbis settled on the view that “When [the Jewish people] are redeemed, they [shall] recite [the Hallel prayer] over their redemption.”
In the immediate aftermath of the establishment of the State of Israel, many were unsure whether the new state could be considered the modern-day miracle necessary to be celebrated in the aforementioned biblical way. After a years-long period of rigorous biblical and Talmudic analysis, many observant Jewish communities across the world, as well as leading rabbinic figures, concluded that Yom Haatzmaut indeed constitutes a modern-day miracle. Accordingly, many leading Rabbis (and communities) have inserted Hallel into the morning prayers recited on Israeli Independence Day.
While different communities have specific religious requirements and customs for the day’s celebration, the lack of uniformity by no means delegitimizes the holiday’s religious significance. Moreover, on Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, there are also additional Psalms and events to commemorate the lives of those lost to terror and war since the State of Israel’s inception.
In deciding to include Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron on its extensive list of religious holidays, the ORL was likely not intending to make a political statement. As someone who misses school regularly for Jewish holidays, I can attest that small gestures like preparing faculty for the complicated and seemingly random list of religious observance requirements for Jewish students goes a long way.
If a Jewish student is late or needs to miss a 9 AM class on those days due to a longer religious service where Hallel or additional Psalms are recited, it would be disrespectful for faculty to dismiss that student’s need for a religious accommodation on the basis of some “political” disagreement with the holiday. And on a purely pragmatic level, the list’s intention is to provide a comprehensive guide so that both students and faculty have clarity when assessing acceptable absences and observances. So the ORL would be simply wrong not to include these days on its pragmatic and extensive list.
While Sippy wrote about these specific examples because of his personal identity as a Jewish student, singling out one religious tradition for criticism in this way is a dangerous precedent to set. Sippy’s personal views on Israel, which are undeniably radical and grossly unpopular among American Jews overall, are not enough to belittle the legitimacy of the days’ religious significance for his Jewish peers who happen to observe differently than he.
Lastly, aside from the Princeton policy standpoint, Sippy’s view of Yom Hazikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, as “an uncritical day of mourning” is perhaps the most contemptible aspect of his complaint. I do not support every decision the Israeli government has made, and there are times during Israeli history of which I am critical. Still, my desire and religious duty to mourn the lives of fallen Jewish soldiers and Jewish victims of terror each year is unrelated. Just as Jews mourn the destruction of our temples, the death of past Jewish leaders, and our 6 million brethren who were murdered in the Holocaust, we should also be able to mourn the deaths of our fellow Jews who died at the hands of blood-thirsty terrorists or protecting others seeking to live in peace as Jews in their biblical and historic homeland.
As an Orthodox Jew, I will continue to observe Yom Haatzmaut and Yom Hazikaron. Meanwhile, Sippy’s complaint will fall on deaf ears. It’s clear that the ORL has an appreciation of religious diversity and won’t, I pray, seek to impose naked ideological commitments onto Princeton’s religious communities. Sippy may wish it were otherwise, but his vision is simply not what the spirit of religious liberty and inclusion require.
The above is an opinion contribution and reflects the author’s views alone.
(Image Courtesy of Princeton Office of Religious Life)
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