Hockey and Religion

Should Benjamin Rubin put aside his religion for a chance to play in the NHL? Should the league support players who follow a religion to sit out games? Should it be up to the GM, coach or player to decide if he should play? Is it discriminatory to make a player get on the ice?

In my mind, this issue comes down to the basic idea that you can’t discriminate against someone because of their religion. Forcing a player to take the ice in direct violation of their religious beliefs goes against everything that we as Americans and Canadians believe in regards to freedom of religion. A person should have the right to practice their religion to the extent that they feel necessary.

Consider it this way – if a person works in an office and is an observant Jew, the assumption would be that he or she would be unable to work weekends or even stay late on a Friday. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide a working environment in which that is possible.

The same applies to sports.

Judaism is a religion based on strict rituals designed to separate out days and times of the year as holier than others, times when your secular life must take a back seat to your faith. I am Jewish and although I’m not anywhere near as observant as Benjamin Rubin, I do take off the two holiest days of the Jewish calendar, Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur. My employer has never had a problem with it, nor would I expect them to. I know that I will be out on certain days and plan accordingly to have my work completed in advance or work overtime to catch up after the holiday. I take it for granted that I will be given the necessary days off to practice my religion.

Last year the issue was raised here in DC when Jeff Halpern was debating whether he should sit out back to back games that took place over Yom Kippur. His eventual decision was to play the night before and attend services the day of Yom Kippur, a decision that was fully supported by the coaching staff and his teammates. For Halpern, that was something he needed to do at the time – although not a particularly religious Jew, he felt it was important that he take off this very sacred day.

In sports it is the job of the GM to pick players that he feels will best help his club have a successful season. If it is known that a certain player will have to miss a certain number of games because of religious purposes, whatever religion that may be, the GM has the right to not pick that player. It’s the same as deciding against a player because of size, inconsistency of play, or tendency towards injury, and in my opinion at least does not constitute discrimination. Having said that – if the GM knowingly selects someone whose religion will prevent him from playing at certain times then insists that the player ignore the religious practices, there is no question in my mind that it would absolutely be discrimination.

It’s hard to say whether Rubin should set aside his religion for the chance to play in the NHL. If he is able to compromise in the way that Halpern and other athletes have compromised in the past, taking certain days off but not others, so be it. He may have been raised more observant but choose to follow his own path away from strict Orthodox practices as he becomes an adult. For some people, though, religion is not a choice but a duty. They would never consider compromising on something they see as so important, something that defines who they are and how they live their lives from day to day. Should they then be punished for their beliefs by not being allowed to at least attempt to fulfill their dream? It's a tough call.

Depending on how far he is able to advance in the hockey world, Rubin will have some difficult realities to face. If he chooses to have a goal of eventually reaching the NHL, he’ll have to come to terms with the fact that some GMs won’t want to gamble on a player who won’t be playing in a good portion of the games. The NHL can't be expected to rearrange the scheduling to fit one player. There is a question of compensation. Some players might be offended by him sitting out so frequently. Fans may react negatively to what could be perceived as not being a team player, regardless of how dedicated he may actually be.

Should Rubin make it to the NHL, I believe he would be the first Orthodox Jew to play in the league (I’ll have to check with my dad, though; he knows all kinds of random stuff like that). Roy was obviously willing to take Rubin in spite of his religious practices – will NHL GMs feel the same? It will definitely be interesting to see how this plays out in the future.

Just my two cents...take it for what it's worth :)