On Thu, 22 Feb 2007, Seth Gordon wrote:
TFP 2007 wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
You may now resgister for TFP 2007! TFP 2007 will be held April 2-4, 2007 in New York City, USA.
Aaargh!
April 2 is the first night of Passover. This is not one of those obscure holidays whose names are Hebrew for "alternate-side parking suspended"[*]; a solid majority of Jews, even of unaffiliated Jews, observe Passover.
First, I suspect that the date is now cast in stone and cannot be changed, and it is fair to suspect that holiday observance is going to reduce attendance (at the very least, in the later afternoon). Given that the scheduling should therefore be considered something of a mistake, I would suggest that if the dates cannot be moved around by a few days, the conference organizers should make a concerted attempt to see to it that food acceptable for Passover consumption is available for those that require it (like myself) and that conference attendees know this in advance. A much better solution to the problem would be to break the stone, and move the conference dates back or forward by a few days if this is at all possible. Murray Gross