H eadlines
Penn Commencement on Shavuot Sparks Petition
L OCA L
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
NEARLY 1,600 PEOPLE
signed a petition urging the
University of Pennsylvania to
change the date of commence-
ment for the class of 2021.

Set for May 17, the ceremony
falls in the middle of Shavuot.

Observant Jewish students
would have to forgo the
in-person commencement
ceremony — the only in-person
commencement event for the
class of 2021 — and are similarly
precluded from watching the
livestream, as observance of the
holiday requires one to refrain
from the use of technology.

Should Penn refuse to
change the date, according to
the March 24 petition, it “will
force graduating students who
practice Orthodox Judaism
to choose between attending
sacred religious festivities and
attending their once-in-a-life-
time college commencement
ceremony.” About 17% of undergraduates
at Penn are Jewish, according to
Hillel International estimates.

University spokesperson
Stephen MacCarthy responded
to a request for comment by
forwarding an email sent by the
Office of the Chaplain to around
40 students. Those students were
identified by Yoni Gutenmacher,
a senior from Queens, New York,
and a leader in the campus’
Orthodox community; the office
asked him to identify students
who would be likely to find
commencement in conflict with
Shavuot. The letter to those
students noted that “we consulted
extensively with our colleagues
in Penn Hillel as well as student
leaders beginning in 2018 when
Abby Stein, Eva Spier, Simcha Stadlan and Yoni Gutenmacher, at a Penn Hillel event in December 2019. Stadlan
and Gutenmacher are part of the student-led effort to change the date of commencement.

Courtesy of Yoni Gutenmacher
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H eadlines
we identified this conflict.”
“We want to emphasize that
we are committed now, as we
were then, to making sure any
eligible observant senior can take
part in the in-person ceremony
if they choose to attend,” the
letter reads. It goes on to detail
the accommodations that will be
made for students who plan to
attend the in-person ceremony,
and explain options for those
who will not be able to attend or
view the livestream.

Gutenmacher wrote an op-ed
for The Daily Pennsylvanian
on the subject and crafted the
petition with another Penn
undergraduate, his friend Simcha
Stadlan. Though they were aware
of the potential for conflict
when the academic calendar for
2020-2021 was set in 2018, the
fluid nature of university sched-
uling during the pandemic led
Gutenmacher to believe that
there could be some flexibility
when it came to commencement.

When Penn announced on
March 9 that it intended to hold
the commencement ceremony
in person 10 weeks later,
Gutenmacher was surprised.

“If they’re only doing one
in-person event, why does it
have to be that day, specifi-
cally?,” Gutenmacher said.

the pandemic. It was the March
9 announcement, he said, that
“sparked the revived disappoint-
ment” now being expressed.

According to The Daily
Pennsylvanian, “student leaders in
the Jewish community, including
Gutenmacher ... Stadlan, and
2021 Class Board President Lizzie
unaffected by the holiday.

Youshaei, a senior from
Chicago, supported the efforts
of Gutenmacher and Stadlan,
her friends since they all shared
a freshman dorm, and she’s had
success in the past when special
events coincided with religious
holidays: She helped arrange for
If they’re only doing one in-person event, why does it have to be
that day, specifically?”
YONI GUTENMACHER
“And if they’re planning it
so last-minute, why did they
choose that date, when they
should know about the needs
of students?”
Stadlan, who graduated in
December 2020, was looking
forward to taking part in
commencement. He was a part
of the original conversations
about that conflict in 2018, which
ended abruptly with the onset of
Youshaei, also sent an email on
March 18 asking Penn admin-
istrators to reconsider.” The
newspaper wrote that the students
have not received a response.

Both Gutenmacher and
Stadlan said that they’d received
heartening support from
non-Jewish students at Penn,
as well as from alumni, some
administrators in the Office of
the Chaplain and Jewish students
and support, Gutenmacher said,
focused on that aspect of the
decision, casting the lack of
accommodation as hypocritical.

“For them, it fit into the
narrative of secular univer-
sities being anti-Semitic, or
creating an environment where
tolerance of other groups is
prioritized over tolerance of
Jews,” Gutenmacher said.

He disagrees with that
characterization, but under-
stands why the idea finds
purchase. In 1975, Penn moved
its commencement ceremony
when there was a conflict with
Shavuot, according to The Daily
Pennsylvanian. “The university has, only
since then, become, much more
progressive and inclusive of all
students,” Gutenmacher said.

“So it’s kind of just bizarre that
they can’t do it now.” l
meal service when university
programming conflicted with
Ramadan. But there was no
such luck here.

“It came down to Penn not
delivering on its promise of
making Penn a safe and inclu-
sive place for all that celebrates
diversity in a way that goes
beyond performative actions,”
Youshaei said.

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