Jersey City Agrees to Discontinue Religious Census in Public Schools

The Jersey City Board of Education has agreed to discontinue religious censuses in the city’s public schools following a complaint by the American Jewish Congress to the State Education Commissioner, the AJC revealed today. The complaint was filed only after informal talks failed to obtain abandonment of the practice.

For several years, the Jersey City school authorities have required children to fill out quest.cmiaires listing their church affiliation. The AJC complaint charged that this practice represented an “exploitation of public school facilities” in violation of Constitutional guarantees of separation of church and state.

Adrian M. Unger, president of the New Jersey Region of AJC, said that Congress opposition to a religious census in the public schools did not stem from any “antagonism to religious instruction but from the deep conviction that complete separation between state and religion is best for the state and best for religion. “