8 Jewish Groups Vow Action Against Saturday Anti-poverty Elections

Eight major Jewish organizations yesterday told the city Council Against Poverty (CAP) they would take “all appropriate action” to “vigorously oppose” the holding of elections on Saturdays for the boards of community corporations in the city’s 26 designated poverty areas. The elections are scheduled to be held in April.

In a telegram to David J. Billings 3rd, chairman of CAP, the Jewish organizations said that Saturday balloting “effectively disqualifies observant Jews from taking part” and requires them “to choose between their rights to participate in the democratic process and their religious obligations.”

The message noted that CAP, the city’s central anti-poverty agency, had decided last month to permit each poverty corporation to choose either a Tuesday or a Saturday for community-wide elections to its board. Noting that in the past most of those corporations had chosen Saturday-the Jewish Sabbath-for their elections, the Jewish organizations declared:

“We consider the disenfranchisement of any group to be an invasion of their civil rights. We are certain that all responsible groups in the community will rally to the support of equal voting rights for all persons. In order to protect the religious liberty and civil rights of Sabbath-observing Jews, we vigorously oppose the holding of elections on Saturdays. We intend to support this position by all appropriate action.”

A spokesman for the organizations said the “appropriate action” they were considering included the possibility of legal action. The telegram was signed by: American Jewish Committee, NY Chapter; American Jewish Congress, NY Metropolitan Council; Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, NY Region; Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of NY; Jewish Community Relations Council of NY; Jewish Labor Committee, NY Chapter; National Jewish Commission on Law and Public Affairs; and the New York Board of Rabbis.