Legislation to exempt Jews and other Seventh-Day Sabbatarians from the Massachusetts Sunday closing law was expected today to receive House approval after a unanimous favorable recommendation by the Legislature’s Committee on Mercantile Affairs.
The effort to win such exemptions has had a rough time in the Legislature. The proposal had been approved by the State Senate two years ago in a revision of the Sunday laws but the Senate in an emergency session reversed itself and killed the proposal. At present only the so-called “Ma and Pa” stores, which have no more than two persons in help, can be open for business on Sunday.
The approval by the committee followed a special hearing at which support was voiced by Christian and Jewish leaders. Catholic and other Christian religious groups, unlike in the past, did not voice any objections at the hearing.
A highlight of the hearing was a quotation by Rep. George O’Farrell of Malden, chairman of the committee, of a statement by Richard Cardinal Cushing of Boston, urging relief for such Sabbatarians. Mrs. Wyman Berenson, chairmanof the social action committee of the Women’s Branch of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, read a letter of approval from the Presbyterian Synod of Massachusetts.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
