Reform Rabbis Warn of Attempts to Bring Religion into Public Schools

Widespread efforts are being made “to breach the traditional wall of separation between church and state, which is part of the very foundation of American democracy and spirit and constitutional law,” according to a report submitted tonight to the 67th annual convention of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is attended by about 700 Reform rabbis.

The report, submitted by Rabbi Herman E. Snyder, of Springfield, Mass, chairman of the Commission on Church and State of the CCAR, warned that “a dangerous threat to church-state separation is represented by those vague programs allegedly intended to teach ‘moral and spiritual values,’ ‘factual teaching about religion’ or a “common core religion in the nation’s public schools.”

“These are dangerous,” the commission report explained, “because they are so elusive, but when analyzed, each of these programs would involve the public school in a program of religious education for which the public school is not equipped and for which the public school was not created. The teaching of religion is the business of the church, the synagogue and the home–not of the public school.”

The commission report expressed dismay at the fact that despite the United States Supreme Court decision of 1948 which termed unconstitutional all released-time programs held on public school premises, 32 percent of the country’s public school systems permit released-time classes to meet in public school buildings.

PLEAD FOR COOPERATION BETWEEN PSYCHIATRY AND RELIGION

Pleas for greater cooperation between psychiatry and religion were voiced at a session commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Sigmund Freud. Under the chairmanship of Rabbi Henry E. Kagan of Mt. Vernon, N.Y., a panel of rabbis emphasized that “couch and pew” have problems in common. “Freud strove for man’s emotional security, while Judaism contains much that has striven for spiritual maturity,” said Rabbi Joseph R. Narot, of Miami, Florida. “Both represent the ideal, the final growth from the infantile to the adult.”

The commission protested against “compulsory Sunday laws which give no relief and recognition to those of other faiths whose Sabbath day of rest is on a day other than Sunday and called for the introduction of legislation which will give relief where such Sunday laws may now be in existence.

The practice of the New York Children’s Court in employing probation officers on a religious quota basis was also condemned by the commission, which protested that the implications of such a policy seemed “far reaching.” The commission called on the convention to go on record as demanding “that probation officers, as in the instance of public school teachers, should be employed on the basis of professional merit and not on the basis of religious affiliation.”