For teenagers, listening to music can feel like a spiritual experience. Whether it’s jamming out to Chappell Roan on a late-night drive, pulling an all-nighter studying for your exams while listening to Stephen Sanchez, or blasting Tyler, The Creator in your AirPods while walking to your car from school, music acts as an escape and a motivation to keep going with life. When these top singers come together to perform at the Austin City Limits (ACL) music festival, it’s hard to resist buying tickets for the euphoric experience. However, for several Emery/Weiner students, their devotion to music and ACL clashes with their commitment to Judaism.
This year, ACL occurs on two different weekends: Oct. 4-6 and Oct. 11-13. Unfortunately, both festival dates conflict with two important Jewish holidays: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement.
Rosh Hashanah is not nearly as big of a conflict for Jews as Yom Kippur. The holiday begins at sundown on Wednesday, Oct. 2, and ends at sundown on Friday, Oct. 4, the first day of ACL. Emery’s director of Jewish Life, Rabbi Laura Sheinkopf, explains that Rosh Hashanah conflicting with your ACL plans really “depends on what kind of Jew you are.” If you are a Reform Jew, you only celebrate the first day of Rosh Hashanah, so going to ACL on Friday is not a problem. However, if you are a Conservative or Orthodox Jew, your observance does not end until Friday at sundown. “But, what picks up right at sundown on Friday is Shabbat. So, if you’re a Conservative or Orthodox Jew, it would violate the Sabbath to go to ACL on Friday or Saturday until after sundown,” explains Rabbi Sheinkopf.
Jewish Life Committee (JLC) President and senior Esther Gordon views ACL as one of the best weekends of the year since “it’s like putting your favorite concerts all in one weekend.” As a Reform Jew, she will attend the festival if she can purchase tickets for the first weekend.
Unlike Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur is a more spiritually demanding holiday. It is the day when Jews reflect on their sins and ask G-d and those who they have wronged for forgiveness. Yom Kippur starts the evening of Friday, Oct. 11, and ends at sundown on Saturday, Oct. 12. Rabbi Sheinkopf explains that “going to ACL on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, when you are supposed to be fasting, and it’s Shabbat, would be a huge violation for every Jew.”
Like Rabbi, Gordon feels it would be “wrong to celebrate ACL with your friends on a day meant for reflection.” Brandon Sorkin, junior and president of the Reisbord BBYO (B’nai B’rith Youth Organization) chapter, agrees with Gordon. “Yom Kippur is one of [the] most important holidays, and I would not miss it for a music festival,” says Sorkin.
To avoid violating the Jewish holiday, Rabbi Sheinkopf explained that you could travel after sundown on Saturday to spend your entire Sunday at the festival. “As someone from Houston, I would not drive three hours up to ACL and three hours back just for a few hours at a concert,” shares Gordon. “It’s too expensive to spend less than half a day at a music festival, especially if you have to go to work or school the next day.”
It’s a shame that this year, Austin City Limits extends so many limitations towards the Jewish community. Deciding whether or not to attend the festival is a personal choice, and every Jew maintains the right to define their faith in their own way. We can only hope that next year, the Jewish calendar and the sacred ACL weekends do not clash.
