Jewish school forced to forfeit semi-final game

The New York Times recently carried a story concerning The Beren Academy, an Orthodox Jewish school in Houston, Texas, whose basketball team recently had to forfeit their State semi-final game because it was scheduled for this past Friday evening, the Sabbath:

The school filed an appeal to change the time of the game with the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, or Tapps, the group that organizes the tournament. On Monday morning, representatives of the school were notified that the association’s nine-member executive board had rejected the appeal.

In response to the unfortunate - and, to me, unreasonable - decision, Rabbi Harry Sinoff said, "The sacred mission will trump excellence in the secular world."

I commend Rabbi Sinoff for his words, backed up by his actions, as well as many of the school's oppossing teams, many of whom, we are told, "agreed to change the time of their games to avoid conflicts with the Sabbath."

The students, too, are to be commended who have the attitude of, as one of their fathers said, "when there are bad calls, you just move on."

The TAPPS should be ashamed.