Tackling a Problem of Devotion

Let’s skip the beginning, forget the middle and get right to it: This story has a happy ending.

After a two-year battle--which pitted a determined father against a nearly impenetrable school bureaucracy, and the Jewish religion against an American tradition--a truce has been declared.

Aaron Hacker, a budding prep football star and devout Jew, will be able to play in Corona del Mar High’s season opener on Thursday, Sept. 9--a day earlier than originally scheduled--against the Marina Vikings. And he’ll also be able to attend Rosh Hashanah services at his Newport Beach temple the following night.

But it’s a happy ending that doesn’t totally satisfy. For one, the compromise is good for this year only. The battle will have to be fought again.

And for another, on Sept. 10, many Orange County high school football teams will play their season openers, leaving behind any Jewish athlete, cheerleader or band member who chooses to observe Rosh Hashanah.

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For the first 14 years of Aaron’s life, Friday night lights--a term of endearment used to describe the high school football games--only meant the candles his mother lighted at home before going to synagogue.

But all that changed two years ago, when Aaron entered the football program at Corona del Mar. His father, Robin, knew going in his family faced a moral dilemma: Should Aaron play on Friday nights or observe the Sabbath?

“It’s a very painful decision, but it’s very important to my son that he be involved in football,” says Robin Hacker, a Costa Mesa businessman and a trustee at the Temple Bat Yahm in Newport Beach. “If the game is played on Friday and I have no choice to change that date, then the love of my son comes first and God will simply have to understand.

“In four years, my son will be out of high school and on to college, and I can return to my Friday night services, knowing I’ve done the best I can to juggle.”

What the Hackers didn’t know until Aaron’s freshman year was that prep football games sometimes landed on the Jewish High Holy Days--Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Aaron had to sit out a game during his freshman year because it fell on Yom Kippur.

“I don’t see why it would be such a problem to schedule a game on a different night,” says Aaron, a sophomore who was named most valuable player on his freshman and junior varsity teams. “That kind of bothered me because if it was Christmas, no one would even think about playing a game. There are only 10 games in the season and to miss one is rather significant.”

So began his father’s two-year crusade to get the school system to recognize the sanctity of the High Holy Days. The Hackers already had to compromise their religious convictions to allow Aaron to play football on the Sabbath. But playing on Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur--which often fall during the football season--wasn’t an option.

“It’s unfair to ask the child to choose between his responsibility to his team and his responsibility to his religion,” Hacker says. “The schools place a great emphasis on the multicultural aspects of society. It seems patently unfair that no consideration is given for Jews on the two holiest days of the year.”

Hacker then dived into the muddy bureaucratic waters of the public school system and the California Interscholastic Federation, the governing body of high school athletics in the state. His first forays were encouraging: “They told me, ‘Gosh, we’re sorry, the calendar’s already set, but next year. . . . ‘ “

Hacker would spend the next 12 months lobbying CIF and school officials. And, in fact, CIF Commissioner Dean Crowley did send out a notice this year to school districts informing them of the Jewish holidays.

“It’s the local school district’s option when to play the games,” says Crowley, who adds that in areas with a heavy Jewish population, such as West Los Angeles, the schools work it out so games are played Thursday night, Friday afternoon or even Saturday night to avoid violating the Sabbath.

But when Corona del Mar’s preliminary football schedule came out this spring, the season opener was set for Sept. 10, Rosh Hashanah.

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Robin Hacker wouldn’t let it go. The human pit bull redoubled his efforts to sway administrators at Corona del Mar High, school board members, league representatives, the county superintendent and top CIF administrators. Everyone was pleasant, Hacker says, but no one would make anything close to a commitment to clear the sports calendar during the Jewish holidays. And that kind of delay tactic, he contends, is the advantage the school bureaucracy has.

“After three or four years, that child graduates and the parent’s interest wanes,” Hacker says. “The irritant graduates. And they just begin the process again with the next student.”

For school officials, there are shades of gray that Hacker doesn’t see. In the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, for example, four high schools share a single football field. Scheduling problems make it impossible to satisfy everyone.

“We know how important they [the Jewish holidays] are, and we try to work it out,” Corona del Mar athletic director Jerry Jelnick says. “But if we can’t, we just can’t. It’s not something we want to do. Our coaches know that some of our best players may be missing--and they don’t want to go into battle without them.”

There’s more gray. In parts of West Los Angeles, for example, the decision not to play football on the Sabbath is an easy one because the team rosters are filled with Jewish students. But in Orange County, where a high school team may field only one or two Jewish athletes, it’s trickier--though not in Robin Hacker’s view.

“What I would like is a commitment from CIF that they will not schedule games on Jewish High Holy Days and other major holidays of other religions,” Hacker says. The solution, he adds, is to overhaul outdated CIF laws that prohibit playing games on Sunday.

“And they don’t even have to do it every week,” Hacker says. “They can pull that rabbit out of the hat when they need it. That way, everyone sacrifices a little something.”

In the end, Corona del Mar and Marina officials listened to Hacker’s impassioned pleas and sacrificed a little.

Which means on Thursday night, Sept. 9, Aaron Hacker--a 5-foot-6, 160-pound running back and middle linebacker--will be suited up and ready to play. And the entire Corona del Mar cheerleading squad and marching band, some of whom are Jewish, will be there to root for the Sea Kings.

“My son will play and the cheerleaders will cheer,” Hacker says. “And then we’ll have the same fight again next year.”