New Jersey  NJ Assemblyman Gary S. Schaer, the only Shomer Shabbos member of the New Jersey Legislature wrote the following letter in support of Amalya Knapp, the 7-year-old Teaneck girl, who was unable to perform at the NJ Gymnastics Competition due to her being Shomer Shabbos.

February 13, 2011

Mr. Steve Penny
President, USA Gymnastics
132 E. Washington Street, Suite 700
Indianapolis, Indiana 46204

Dear Mr. Penny:

In the Sunday, February 14th issue of the Record of Hackensack I had the dubious pleasure to read about Amalya Knapp, a seven year old gymnastics athlete from Teaneck, New Jersey, located just north of my legislative district. The story described Miss Knapp’s struggle to compete in the New Jersey State Gymnastics competition due to her religious observance of the Jewish Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday. 

As the first and only Orthodox Jewish Member of the New Jersey Legislature, I find this situation unacceptable. In addition, as New Jersey and the United States continue to try and include young people from all religious and racial backgrounds in our pluralistic society, making accommodation for religious observances must be among those efforts. I am sure you would agree about the critical importance in a child’s life of both religious observance and athletic competition and that one should not come at the detriment of the other.

In that vein, I am the proud sponsor of several pieces of legislation, now law, that aim to make life for religious New Jerseyans easier by accommodating them in various situations. Laws I have authored include ensuring accommodation for those pursuing professional licensure, taking a school test and being able to obtain vacation time to meet one’s religious obligations. I have also written laws requiring nursing homes to provide food which meets a patient’s religious dietary obligations and mandating municipal and school board elections to be moved if they happen to fall on the date of a religious holiday. 

While, at this time, I do not have intention to introduce legislation that would require sporting competitions to take into account the religious obligations of their potential participants, I would strongly urge you and your organization to make appropriate accommodations for children such as Miss Knapp in the future. 

I look forward to hearing from you and your Board about how you will incorporate these accommodations into official policy in order to ensure all children in New Jersey are able to participate in your competitions.

Sincerely,
 
Gary S. Schaer
Assemblyman, 36th District
State of New Jersey

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