Conservative Rabbis, Professors Support Nixon in Private School Aid

A group of seven prominent spokesmen of Conservative Judaism have expressed their personal support of President Nixon’s statement Tuesday promising to find a way to aid the hard-pressed private and parochial schools. The leaders, including three officials of the Rabbinical Assembly and four professors of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, stated that “the achievements of private schools in strengthening the fabric of American democratic diversity merit their maximum support from public as well as private funds.” The group pointed out that the salaries of teachers and administrators in parochial schools were far below those of teachers in public schools and that the faculties in parochial schools were “in effect providing direct subsidies for these schools.” The leaders contended that those individuals and groups within and outside the Jewish community who have expressed their opposition to the Nixon statement “are opposed to any form of aid to religious-oriented schools, whether constitutional or not.” The statement was signed by Rabbis Gilbert Epstein, the Rabbinical Assembly’s director of community services Jules Harlow. RA’s director of publications; Wolfe Kelman, executive vice president of the RA; and Professors Israel Francus, Edward Gershfield, Seymour Siegal and Fritz Rothschild of the Jewish Theological Seminary.