Randolph Board of Education continues to disappoint on Rosh Hashanah | Opinion
It is disappointing, but not surprising the Randolph Township Board of Education reaffirmed its November decision to end the traditional, two-day observance of Rosh Hashanah — in a town whose history is rooted in the Jewish-American story.
However, it was a narrow vote, and I urge everyone to return to the board at its next meeting on March 15 to press the point about their wrongheaded change.
In the end, a 5-4 board majority on Feb. 15 smugly dismissed the overflow crowd, many of whom spoke against the calendar change. The board majority turned their backs on decades of tradition in Randolph schools of recognizing both days of the Rosh Hashanah and Randolph’s unique history of being settled and built by Jews who fled hatred more than 100 year ago.
It was disturbing to see some board members scoff at that history. It was as if they did not know it or, worse yet, wanted to ignore it as they pointed to other communities that do not recognized both days of Rosh Hashanah — communities that do not share Randolph’s Jewish American history.
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Let us keep this issue in proper context.
The Randolph school board did not accidentally walk into this commotion. They deliberately scrubbed the second day of Rosh Hashanah as a school holiday, just as this same board deliberately tried to scrub Columbus Day last year.
This board is not focused on education or teaching children about the diverse community that makes up Randolph or the history of the people who built this wonderful township and this nation. This board is focused on political correctness, and joining a deeply disturbing trend among school boards across America of culturally cleansing our society of all traditions and history.
The only reason the Randolph board changed its insensitive decision to cancel Columbus Day last year was because of an outpouring of outraged citizen, and even then, the board did not immediately relent. If you recall, the board reacted with a vote to cleanse the names of all holidays from the calendar, which only compounded the insanity and compounded the outrage.
Ultimately, Columbus Day was returned to the calendar. However, the board has dug in — narrowly — on Rosh Hashanah, and they are trying to defuse our outrage by saying they will reconsider the issue for the school 2023-2024 calendar.
Let us continue to challenge them this March 15. Let us push to restore Rosh Hashanah to the 2022-23 school calendar and insure all future calendars preserve the observance and the history of this community.
Join me at that meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the Randolph Middle School Cafeteria at 507 Millbrook Avenue. Please do not let this school board wipe away history.
Deborah Smith is a Morris County Commissioner.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Randolph Board of Education continues to disappoint on Rosh Hashanah
