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Jewish Group Backs Pennsylvania Bill Permitting State Aid to Religious Schools

November 2, 1967
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The Pennsylvania Committee for Legislation to Aid Hebrew Day Schools, an organization composed of Orthodox rabbis and laymen and officials of the Beth Jacob School here, have com out in support of the Mullen Bill now pending in the state’s General Assembly. The bill would bypass existing constitutional provisions against use of state funds for religious schools by setting up an authority to provide educational services under contract.

A large number of Pennsylvania Jewish organizations have gone on record against the bill on the grounds that it breached the traditional wall of separation of church and state. The fraternal order, Brith Sholom, came out against the bill this week. Among its opponents is the Solomon Schechter Day School, which would be a substantial beneficiary of the measure.

Rabbi Ephraim E. Yolles, head of the Philadelphia Orthodox rabbinate, is chairman of the statewide committee and Rabbi Aaron Popack, executive director of the Beth Jacob School here, is secretary.

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