I am sick of the rules being changed jsut because of religious fanatics. If he wants to compete he must follow the rules and that means competing when it is time to compete. This is just another case of the religious minority imposing their superstitions on the secular majority. I never heard of Jewish athletes in America asking for special advantages because they are Jewish, or any other religion for that matter.

In EVERY single country you can see religion playing a role in politics and the law. It's not Judaism in America, but our lovely Jesus worshiping cousins who make it so that girls must get illegal abortions in some states, drug laws that are based on fear not science, etc.

u got it right. what nerve that in the only JEWISH country in the world people have to be accomodated because they want to observe their religion & still partake in the secular pursuits. who knows, some day they might even require that Jewish holidays be considered as national holidays!!!

.. that in Israel the Jewish Sabbath & other days are taken into account. Israel, of all places, SHOULD try and accommodate Religious Israeli Jews! I don't see how this ruling harms the Secular Israelis in any way.

All those championships are sheduled in the week end , Friday and Shabbat . People don't work and can participate . The organisers , mostly volunteers , too . Now , whit this ruling , people should take days off from their work , school , so it's harming all those Israelis .

# 1, 2, and 5 are right. Furthermore, since obviously no religious Jew can really participate in any organization that mainly meets on Saturday, like this fencing association, and like many other sports groups, therefore they shouldn't even consider allowing such Jews to participate, it just leads to problems.

In the rest of the world if a religious Jew cannot play checkers / chess / soccer / tennis / basketball etc. on Saturday, and a group meets mainly on Saturdays, then obviously he/she will be barred from joining. I don't care whether it is a small group or a large, national association, if they meet mainly on Saturday, then it should not be considered whether or not to accept a religious Jew, they should be banned! Especially large organizations, because they affect a lot more people.

Thanks for the reply and the information! What about having a match on Friday *before* sunset .. early in the morning? Would that impede the non-Religious? I do so hate to see Religious Jews being discriminated in Israel, of all places, when I think there could be some sort of compromise reached. However, I ALSO hate to see the Religious bossing around the Secular. I did not think this would be the case here because I thought some compromise could be reached that wouldn't impact the Secular.