Why we, TRIGON 5990 aren't going to the worlds

[noammaissel]

Post from TRIGON 5990 from the Israeli district:

Hello everyone! Before we say anything else: WOW, what a season! Our first 2 blue banners!

Our first win was at the second Israeli district event with BumbleB 3339 and Hadream Team 3075; our second win was in the Israeli DCMP where we partnered with Falcons 4338 and reunited with Hadream Team 3075. This was the first season where we won an event, and we won both a district and a district championship! We’d always dreamed about getting this far, and this year we actually did it – getting the invitation to the international competition which for the Israeli district, is in Detroit this year.

Even before the season started, we knew that even if we qualified for the international competition, we most likely wouldn’t participate because two out of the four-day competition coincides with a Jewish holiday. As a religious team, we cannot do any kind of ‘work’ on both our Sabbath and holidays. ‘Work’ is considered fixing things, turning on lights, driving, etc. These days are considered complete days of rest, and yes, this means that we only had a 5-week season instead of 6 weeks! If we had gone to Detroit, we would only be able to compete on Wednesday and Thursday. Before the season started, we attempted to propose, through FIRST, possible options for us to be able to compete, but they ended up not being a solution.

Even though it has been our dream for many years to attend an international competition, our team, TRIGON 5990 – a religious team from a religious high school – decided that we would not be able to attend the international competition in Detroit. After winning the DCMP last week, we contemplated what to do for two whole days, and had many discussions about it. We ultimately decided that we would not be able to attend the competition because we want to respect both our holiday and the Sabbath.

Additionally, we decided it would not be fair to other teams – who have spent time and money to qualify for the competition – to have some of their qualifications ruined because we wouldn’t be able to complete on Friday. We also wanted the next Israeli team in line with district ranking points to be able to qualify and represent Israel throughout the entire competition.

This has been a very tough decision for us since we’ve always dreamed of qualifying for an international competition. None of us wanted anything like this to happen. But at this point, we are looking onward and forward, and we know that this will not prevent us from continuing to learn and grow and eventually fly to the international competition in the future. This is why we need your help to prevent this situation in future years where a team wins and qualifies, but cannot compete for religious reasons.

Good luck to all the teams going to worlds this year!!

[krf]

What an unfortunate situation. Dean and others at FIRST have done their best to make the scheduling work for most teams, and tried to make exemptions for those impacted by scheduling for religious reasons. That’s why the exemption to 2019-H04 to allow other teams to control your robot for religious observation, is allowed.

Your specific attention as to “fairness” for other teams is incredibly kind and definitely in line with the spirit of FIRST. Even though you’re not attending, you’ve clearly earned a spot there in spirit and in competitive success. I hope that one day you get to attend an event internationally and compete with your robot!

[DonRotolo]

Science and Religion are not incompatible. I cannot disagree with your decision and, despite some disappointment involved, you need to decide how is it you want to conduct your lives? Honoring your religion is not trivial nor should simply ignored for ‘reasons’. Others may believe differently, I am OK with that, to each their own.

That being said, would attending the Houston CMP instead have addressed these concerns? If so, when you win it all next year (you know you will…) see if you can get to Texas instead.

[Nitay]

The transition of Israeli teams to Detroit champs is intended to be for 2019 only. So Texas it is for 2020.

[AriMB]

@DonRotolo

That being said, would attending the Houston CMP instead have addressed these concerns? If so, when you win it all next year ( you know you will …) see if you can get to Texas instead.

I won’t speak for 5990, but I can give a bit of background on why Passover has caused such a problem for religious Jews trying to attend CMP this year. Passover is an 8-day long holiday, starting the Thursday evening of Houston and ending the Friday night of Detroit. The first two days (Houston Fri night through Sun night) and last two days (Detroit Thu night through Fri night) are holidays, and work is forbidden as @noammaissel explained. On the first two nights of the holiday, there is an important service and meal (called a seder), which is traditionally done at home with family. Additionally, the Jewish sabbath is every week from Friday night to Saturday night.

So for Houston, religious teams would be missing the seders, and they wouldn’t be able to compete on Saturday. Missing Saturday is practically SOP for religious teams, who would do the same thing for the sabbath regardless of the holiday. But missing the seders would certainly be a hardship on the students, and would likely mean many religious students would choose not to attend. Thi is the reason why Israeli teams were moved to Detroit this year in the first place. However for Detroit, teams aren’t able to compete both on Friday due to Passover and on Saturday due to the sabbath.

So all in all, neither option is really suitable. We have had seders at champs in previous years, but it’s definitely not ideal. And attending a competition where you can’t compete for 2/3 days is hard to rationalize. Hopefully in future years FIRST takes note of this struggle and plans the championship events so there is at least one that doesn’t conflict with a major Jewish holiday.