I had previously posted a story about Benjamin Rubin, an Orthodox Jewish hockey player who had been dropped by the Quebec Remparts because he had missed so many games because of the Jewish Sabbath. This season he is playing for the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.After initially insisting he would not play on Friday nights and Saturdays, as he had not done in his rookie year in the league last year, 18-year-old Benjamin and his father, Michael Rubin, have decided to accede to his new team’s demand that he play full time, with the exception of major holidays. Rubin did not playing on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. If the team goes into the playoffs, it is also understood Rubin would not play on the first two days of Passover, which the team feels is a sacrifice at such a critical time.
He will continue to keep kosher (which for some road trips has meant taking his own food with him), will be allowed time for prayer and will be assisted by a non-Jew in keeping Shabbat rituals, his father said.
