The New York City Board of Education was urged today to allocate funds immediately to help pupils in the city’s Hebrew day schools, as provided by the Federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. While the legislation provides funds for remedial and enrichment programs for both public and non-public school children, the Board has not yet passed on the allocations to parochial school children in New York. Such grants are opposed by some Jewish and non-Jewish groups.
In a joint statement, Rabbi Pesach Z. Levovitz, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, and Moses I. Feuerstein, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, said that delay in granting the funds “may make it impossible to implement the program for the coming year. ” Any delay in granting the Federal funds, the statement declared, “would prove an irreparable damage for hundreds of thousands of youngsters in New York City, and will adversely affect their future.”
Both Orthodox Jewish leaders stressed that their groups are “traditionally opposed” to Federal aid and involvement in religious schools. But they maintained that the present law “is in full consonance with the separation of church and state.”
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.
