Over the past few weeks, I've watched with a mix of bemusement and embarrassment as a new controversy-du-jour has consumed a lot of attention in our local Jewish community. This one issue has attracted front page headlines in the Home News Tribune and The Jewish State; the active involvement of the Jewish Federation, ADL, N.J. Agudath Israel office, N.J. American Jewish Committee, and the OU; the righteous indignation of a local rabbi, who publicly promised to ‘go to war' on this issue; and the attention of a prominent state senator, who has proposed state legislation to rectify the great injustice.

The controversy is the decision by the Edison Public School District to schedule a special referendum on a $57.8 million bond issue to expand the schools on the first day of Rosh Hashanah.

The date has since been changed, but I was amused by the controversy because of the smallness of the matter. As far as I can tell, no one's life, liberty, livelihood, property, or freedom to exercise his or her faith is damaged by the date that was assigned to this vote. And as most reports on the matter have noted, an easy alternative to the voting on that day existed -- requesting and then completing an absentee ballot.

From the different reports I've read, the objections to the date of the vote were focused on the perceived insensitivity to Jewish concerns by the Edison school board in setting the date; the fact that voting by absentee ballot is a "separate and more cumbersome voting procedure"; and the suspicion, expressed by some Jewish community members, that the date was chosen deliberately in an attempt to disenfranchise Jewish voters.

Did the Edison School district pick a date that presented difficulties to Jewish voters? Yes.

Is the absentee ballot process more complicated than regular voting? Yes.

Is it fair to assume that the scheduling of the vote on Rosh Hashanah was a Machiavellian move to discourage Jewish votes? Outside of proof of such intent, it seems rash and rather paranoid to make such a claim.

What appears to be lost in all the hubbub is that the fact that living an authentic religious life in a secular society like America is not always easy or simple. As Jews, we understand that keeping kosher, observing the Sabbath and holidays, and adhering to our ethical imperatives in a pluralistic culture sometimes requires sacrifices. Sacrifices are part and parcel of the compact we have with our faith, for they help us demonstrate our commitment and constitute the "merit" of our faith choice.

This concept of accepting great risks or hardships for the sake of observing Judaism is so integral to our faith that it is referred to be a term, mesirat nefesh. In generations past, Jews made significant sacrifices, sometimes endangering their health or livelihoods, to keep kosher or observe Shabbat. Now, in 2008, all we are being asked to do is procure, complete and mail an absentee ballot.

In this situation, Jews were not asked to sacrifice their capability to vote but merely to work a little harder to exercise that right.

Would it have been more enlightened and more inclusive if the school board scheduled the vote so that it was equally convenient for Jews and non-Jews? Sure.

But what's forgotten in that simple value judgment, and what I find embarrassing, is our collective disregard of the views of our neighbors -- in this case, the leaders of the Edison schools -- who see a dire problem that they want to fix as soon as possible. As stated in some of the news reports, the school board believes that current school facilities are woefully inadequate to current needs. As the acting schools superintendent told The Jewish State reporter (Aug. 15 issue), state statute identifies four specific dates for referendum votes. The earliest date was Sept. 30 and the next available date was in December.

The first school referendum, held in April, was defeated by 400 votes -- a considerable margin, yes, but one that should be understood in light of the fact that school board votes regularly attract low voter turnout throughout the state. This low turnout can have the effect of emphasizing protest votes.

As I've witnessed in my community of Highland Park, few people welcome higher taxes and school board votes are an opportunity for many to vent their financial frustrations. Yet these "no" votes do nothing to solve the real challenges facing our neighbors, as they seek to provide a quality education for their youth.

I worry here about chillul Hashem, dishonoring God's name and Judaism, through our community's single-minded pursuit of a voting date that presents no extraordinary difficulties for us, while paying no heed to the perspective of many decent Edison community members.

I have to wonder as well if the Jewish leaders who led the charge against this great injustice could have better served our community, and our sense of religious sacrifice, by publicizing the absentee ballot process and distributing forms in all the synagogues and communal institutions. Such a course of action might not have been as exciting. But it surely would have been less contentious and more mindful of the larger world we live in.

Harry Glazer can be reached at donlegofzechut@yahoo.com.