Boston University will formally close on Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur in order to better accommodate its Jewish constituency. In a letter to Rabbi Joseph A. Polak, director of the university’s B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, Dr. John Silber, president of the university, wrote:
“I am pleased to be able to advise you that for this coming fall we have made an accommodation that will facilitate celebration of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur by Jewish members of the university community. I believe that this is the first time we have been able to treat these days in the manner of institutional holidays, and I do hope that this initiative will provide an opportunity to you and your community to welcome appropriately the year 5738 and observe the Day of Atonement on the Tenth Day of Tishri.”
Polak pointed out that the closing of the university was one in a series of several moves made by the university in recent years out of greater awareness on its part of its Jewish constituency, on the one hand, and out of an appreciation of the role of Judaism in the Western cultural heritage on the other. A little over two years ago, Polak stated, Dr. Nahum Glatzer, the scholar of modern and ancient Judaism was appointed a university professor, together with two other permanent Judaica appointments.
Last year, Dr. Gershom Scholem, the historian of Jewish mysticism was a visiting professor. This year, Polak added, the university has added to its permanent faculty the prize-winning author, Elie Wiesel, as Mellon Professor of Religion. Although there are no official counts. Polak estimated that more than a third of the university’s student body is Jewish.
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