I guess I should have thought of this a lot sooner, since I was raised Jewish, but this year's Virginia Primary Day (June 14) is also a major Jewish holiday -- Shavu'ot. Of course, since the Jewish religious calendar doesn't coincide with the Gregorian calendar, it's easy to forget these things sometimes. Regardless, state law sets the date of political primaries as the second Tuesday in June, so here we are. For the record, Shavu'ot falls 7 weeks after the second day of Passover (don't ask!). The holiday celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai, and is also known as Hag Matan Torateinu (the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah). In theory, no work -- this includes driving and voting, by the way, which is certainly hard work in the DC area! -- is permitted on Shavu'ot. Also, according to the website Judaism 101, "[i]t is customary to stay up the entire first night of Shavu'ot and study Torah, then pray as early as possible in the morning." Not a bad idea, come to think of it, to pray long and hard before going to cast one's vote! :)
So, what does all this mean -- if anything -- for the Republican and Democratic primaries being held on June 14? According to today's Washington Post:
[Shavu'ot] could have an effect on the fortunes of candidates such as Republican James L. Kaplan and Democrat Janet Oleszek, who are Jewish and are trying to win their respective primaries in the House of Delegates' 37th District, areas populated with Conservative and Orthodox Jews...Kaplan, who is running against former Fairfax City mayor John Mason in the Republican primary, might be hurt the most. He said some of his Orthodox Jewish friends have declined to help his campaign on Election Day. Many members of his synagogue, Olam Tikvah, will have to vote absentee. Even his mother-in-law plans to stay home...
...local rabbis agreed that only a fraction of Jews -- perhaps as few as 5,000 -- would not vote June 14 because of Shavuot. But in a primary, that could end up being a big factor.
Of course, religious Jews can still vote by absentee ballot, so it's probably not even that big an impact. Most likely, we're talking about a few dozen voters who would have voted, really wanted to vote, but ended up not voting because of Shavu'ot.
Still, it's a strange coincidence this year, with Passover -- and, hence, Shavu'ot -- falling so late on the Gregorian calendar. It's also kind of a pain in the tuchis, a topic to kibitz about, and possibly something to get the political meyvins shvitsing more than ever over their kakameyme prognosticating.
In the end, this little bit of mishigas probably won't amount to babkes in the grand scheme of things. Of course, the nudnik who came up with the farkakte idea of holding the primary on Shavu'ot obviously has nothing to kvel about today. I, for one, will not be wishing that goyishe shlemil "Mazel Tov" anytime soon! In the final analysis, the only thing you can really do in a situation like this is to scratch your head, roll your eyes, shrug your shoulders and loudly exclaim, "Oy Vey!!"