Irvine Harvest Festival to Begin Earlier : Jewish Groups Had Protested Conflict With Rosh Hashanah

Irvine will begin its annual Harvest Festival one day earlier this year--the day before Rosh Hashanah--in response to protests by Jewish groups that would have been excluded, the festival board announced Friday.

The festival’s usual three-day celebration will now be a four-day event with rides, music and exhibits starting Oct. 2 “in order for the Jewish community to participate,” according to a joint statement issued by the Irvine Harvest Festival board of directors and various Jewish groups. Rosh Hashanah, a two-day celebration of the Jewish New Year, begins Oct. 3. The statement also said that future festivals would not be scheduled to start on Jewish holidays.

“It was never the intent of the Irvine Harvest Festival’s board of directors to insult or offend the Jewish community, and it apologizes for any such feeling that may have occurred as a result of the scheduled 1986 festival,” the board said.

Members of the Jewish community had expressed outrage at the event’s scheduling, and board members originally declined to change it.

Many of the Jewish community’s feelings were echoed in a letter from state Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress) to Irvine Mayor Dave Baker and the Irvine City Council last week charging that the board had “displayed blatant prejudice and bigotry.”

On Friday, Carpenter said he was pleased that the board “has been sensitized to the needs of the entire Orange County community.”

Michael Lapin, president of the Orange County chapter of the American Jewish Committee, said the festival’s original timing would have meant “virtual exclusion” of the Jewish community from the event.

The board’s decision to begin the festival a day earlier was “a very effective and sincere resolution to the problem,” Lapin said. “The episode is closed and behind us.”

Next year, the first full weekend in October, when the festival traditionally is held, conflicts with Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, said Susan Vanderpol, vice president for community relations for the festival. So the festival probably will be held the second weekend, she said. The following nine years present no conflicts.

This was not the first year that the event coincided with a Jewish holiday. In 1984, the overlap with Yom Kippur was not discovered until August and it was “too late to be rescheduled,” Vanderpol said.

Hinda Beral, area director for the American Jewish Committee, said the board’s rescheduling decision shows “that when people try to talk, and learn about and understand each other, that things result for the community.”

“Sensitivity to pluralism as a value and appreciation for the diversity of our citizens strengthens the entire community,” said Beral, whose organization has about 700 members in Orange County.

Mayor Baker, a former Harvest Festival board member, said Irvine should regard the Jewish community’s desire to attend the festival as a compliment.

“The Irvine community is made up of many varied and diverse interests,” he said. “This diversity is also what can come together and be unified as one strong community. I trust that’s what will happen with this year’s festival.”

The festival probably will resume its three-day schedule in future years, Vanderpol said. The board has not evaluated the cost of adding an extra day but “we’ll cope with it,” Vanderpol said. Last year’s festival cost $99,768.