The American Jewish Congress today called on Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller to “defend public education in New York State against the rising clamor of voices demanding more money and more services for private and parochial schools.”
Murray A. Gordon, chairman of the organization’s New York Metropolitan Council, made the call at a luncheon attended by Gov. Rockefeller, ranking state officials and 200 American Jewish Congress members here on their annual legislative day in Albany. He also proposed strengthening the State Law Against Discrimination by imposing fires of up to $500 for individuals and $5,000 for companies found guilty of “gross or wanton discrimination.”
In his address, Mr. Gordon charged that the State legislature had become the “battleground for a massive attack against the principle of separation of church and state in New York education.” He said a series of bills had been introduced “whose effect if not purpose would be to rob public education of sorely-needed funds and facilities in order to benefit private and church-related schools throughout the state.”
Mr. Gordon called for repeal of an Aet passed at the last session which provides for lending publicly-owned textbooks to non-public school pupils in grades 7 through 12, and urged defeat of four new bills to aid private and parochial schools.
(The Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox organization, issued a statement today charging the American Jewish Congress with “tampering with the physical and mental health of religious school students” because of the demands voiced today in Albany by the AJC delegation.)
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.
