After four years of college most students are proud to walk with their graduating class at commencement. It represents the culmination of the undergraduate experience. Yet for Aryeh Rosenblatt there is something more important than walking.

“I think (commencement) is important and I am sorry to miss it,” Rosenblatt said. “But God is everywhere and in everything, and that being the case, I put God ahead of commencement.”

Rosenblatt is a member of the Orthodox Jewish community. He strictly abides by the commandments laid forth in the Torah, one of which states that Saturdays are a day of rest and prayer.

Unfortunately for Rosenblatt, commencement takes place on May 7: a Saturday.

On this day of rest Rosenblatt is not supposed to work or create in anyway. The day is spent praying and rejoicing with other Orthodox Jews.

“One issue could be that Aryeh thinks participating would actually violate one or more Shabbat restrictions,” said rabbi and philosophy professor Jonathan Malino. “It’s not clear to me that his participation would in fact violate the Shabbat.”

Rosenblatt agreed, but noted that participating in graduation ceremonies would put him in a position to violate the Sabbath, a consequence Aryeh finds unacceptable.

However, there are other reasons to miss commencement as well, including group prayers and home-cooked kosher meals.

“I leave school every week to go to an Orthodox commune in Charlotte,” said Rosenblatt. “We pray together and eat good kosher food. I mean, I have food here, but I don’t cook. (There) I cook like a man – eggs, salad, Ramen noodles. I don’t want to give this stuff up just to walk.”

Rosenblatt has been an Orthodox Jew for about three years, but his intense religious feelings began in high school on a trip around Europe to several old concentration camps.

The trip was very emotional for Rosenblatt.

“We had a special service in front of this big pile of ashes,” recalled Rosenblatt. “I was standing there, I looked down, and there was a human vertebra. I thought, ‘This is ridiculous. It’s crazy. I have to get out of here.'”

From that point on, things changed as Rosenblatt found himself drifting more and “I wanted to be observant for them, for all the people who died in God’s name,” said Rosenblatt. “After a while, I realized I wasn’t doing it for them. I was doing it for God. God wants me to be an observant Jew. This is who I am.”

“I was afraid that he would become so different from the mainstream that he would be uncomfortable,” said Sharon Rosenblatt, Aryeh’s mother. “Dressing as he does, not shaving and wearing a hat all call attention to what is different about him.”

“As I watch him deal with life, however, and make the choices that he does, I am aware that Aryeh does fit nicely into the world,” she continued. “The way he looks and the things he does (or does not do) make him proud of who he is. Aryeh believes deeply in Judaism, and through that belief he has grown into a remarkable young man.”

This definitive sense of self made the decision to skip commencement easy for Aryeh, though he is disappointed to have to make the decision at all.

“I know I’m only one student, so I know the school won’t change the date,” said Rosenblatt. “It would seem that in the Quaker spirit, they would embrace different religious views.”

Had the ceremony been scheduled for any other day (aside from Friday), Aryeh would have attended.

“I respect Aryeh for his decision to sanctify the Sabbath by choosing not to attend the ceremony,” said close friend Andrew Klein. “I truly hope that Guilford will follow in the footsteps of other Universities, such as UNC Greensboro, that have chosen to respect the religious beliefs of everyone by holding their ceremonies on weekdays.