Mundelein trustee upset by board's meeting on Yom Kippur

The only Jewish member of the Mundelein village board says the administration's decision not to reschedule this past Monday's meeting because it fell on Yom Kippur was discriminatory.

Trustee Terri Voss requested the meeting date be changed the week before the holiday, which is the most important of all Jewish celebrations.

Some other suburban government agencies set to meet Monday, including the Libertyville-Vernon Hills Area High School District 128 board and the Lincolnshire and Wheeling village boards, shifted their meetings to other evenings because of the holiday. So did some Hoffman Estates village committees.

Mundelein officials did not, leaving Voss to choose between spending the evening in temple and with her family or attending the meeting.

She chose to honor her faith but is angry about having to decide at all.

"I think it's totally inappropriate to make me choose between observing my religion and serving my community," Voss said. "That's disrespectful. It's discriminatory."

Mundelein Mayor Kenneth H. Kessler dismissed Voss' allegation. The board generally only changes meeting dates for national holidays, Kessler said.

"If Terri thought it was such a problem, I would have appreciated her bringing it up at a meeting or giving me a call and letting me know," he said.

Voss raised the issue in a Sept. 23 phone call and e-mail to Village Administrator John Lobaito. She said she only recently realized the meeting conflicted with Yom Kippur because Jewish holidays rarely fall on the same Gregorian calendar dates from year to year.

Lobaito could not be reached for comment.

In response to Voss' concern, officials agreed to start the meeting at 7:30 p.m., 30 minutes later than usual, to accommodate Voss' religious obligations. Jewish holidays start and end at sundown.

But Voss wasn't satisfied with that concession. Rabbis don't stop Yom Kippur services exactly when the sun sets, she said, and a family meal traditionally follows the service.

Voss was additionally incensed because the meeting agenda included an issue officials knew she considers important, an amendment to the village's rules regarding electronic message signs.

Voss said she would have voted against the plan. The amendment passed.

The Mundelein village board wasn't the only panel to meet Monday night. Boards and committees for Elgin Area School District U-46, Carpentersville-based Community Unit District 300, Lake Villa School District 41, the village of Lindenhurst and other governments met as scheduled Monday.

But other activities were rescheduled for the Jewish High Holidays, which includes Yom Kippur. Some suburban high school football games were moved from Friday, Sept. 18, to Thursday, Sept. 17, because of Rosh Hashana, the celebration of the Jewish new year.

And some schools, including District 128 and Northwest Suburban High School District 214, regularly cancel classes on Yom Kippur.

Not rescheduling the Mundelein board's meeting slights any Jews who might have wanted to attend the session, she said, not just her.

"There's a whole segment of Mundelein that was disrespected and disenfranchised by the administration's refusal to reschedule the meeting," Voss said.

But the communities that rescheduled meetings or events because of the holidays likely have larger Jewish populations than Mundelein, Trustee Ed Sullivan said.

That shouldn't matter, Voss said.

"They have no way of knowing how many people they prevented from participating," she said. "And even if there was only a handful, it's still wrong."

Trustee Robin Meier believes village leaders might have rescheduled the meeting if Voss had mentioned the conflict earlier, perhaps at the board's Sept. 14 meeting.

"Had she brought it up at that point, it would have raised awareness and we could have made accommodations," Meier said. "Waiting until the last minute puts everybody in a bad situation."

Sullivan called Voss selfish for complaining about the issue.

"Sometimes one's color, one's religion, one's weight - whatever the situation might be - is used as an excuse," he said.

He further accused Voss of being disruptive and creating "a needless distraction."

Voss disagreed.

"I don't think that, in a multicultural society, asking people to be sensitive to diversity is a needless distraction," she said.