Despite complaints from some Jewish residents, the West Pasco
Chamber of Commerce is sticking with its candidate forum Thursday --
Yom Kippur. The "Day of Atonement" is the holiest day of the Jewish
calendar.

Joe Alpine, president of the New Port Richey-based chamber, said
today that he has sent Jewish community members a letter acknowledging
"the Jewish 'Day of Atonement' was mistakenly overlooked when we were
scheduling the forum."

Alpine said the 5 p.m. forum at Pasco-Hernando Community College in
New Port Richey will go on because there are so many similar events, it
is difficult to nail down confirmations from candidates and venues,
Alpine said. He said the chamber will be sure to review Jewish holidays
when planning future events.

"It’s just one of those things that happened. We didn’t purposely do that," Alpine said.

-- David DeCamp, Times staff writer

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