Ajcongress Says Its Activities Against Parochiad Represents Majority Jewish Opinion

The American Jewish Congress responded sharply today to a charge by an Orthodox rabbinical leader that it was using Jewish communal funds to combat government aid to the secular programs of religious schools but failed “to lift a finger to assist or assure the continued existence of those schools.” The charge was made by Rabbi Bernard L. Berzon, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, who alleged that the AJCongress was “in the forefront of those who would destroy the entire Jewish educational system which has been the main factor in Jewish survival.” Rabbi Berzon issued his statement in reaction to an AJCongress announcement last week that it would file suits jointly with the American Civil Liberties. Union in six states to bar the use of tax monies for private and parochial schools. The suits will be based on the recent Supreme Court ruling. In a statement issued to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today, the AJCongress said that “if its legal skills were not devoted to protecting the separation of church and state, we would then be remiss in our obligation to the total Jewish community.”

According to the AJCongress. “The position of the vast majority of American Jews is against government funding of–and inevitable government influence in–the educational aspects of religious schools. This position has been thoroughly debated, reviewed and supported at every national session of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, with only the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America dissenting,” the statement said, Rabbi Berzon said, “The American Jewish community, through its communal fund raising which supports such agencies as the AJCongress and similar groups, gives no support to the Jewish day schools or any of its educational undertakings.” The AJCongress statement said that its activities are “thoroughly reviewed by the Councils of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds and our allocations are based upon the degree to which our program reflects the priority concerns of American Jewry.” The statement continued, “Rabbi Berzon and his associates must learn that the first Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, under which American Jewry has thrived, cannot be supported or rejected as a matter of convenience.”

Rabbi Berzon asserted that, “We too believe very strongly in the separation of Church and State, but there is such a thing as carrying a good thing too far. We too believe that religion must not interfere within the state, also the state should not exert influences within the various religious communities. However, the laws of our various states require that every child be given a secular education. The religious schools must provide a secular education to every child they teach. To expect government aid for this secular education is not a breach of the wall of separation between church and state.” The AJCongress retorted that “if Rabbi Berzon supports the separation principle, he should recognize his, and our, obligation to support it as it applies to government funding of religious schools. No one has yet devised a way of being ‘a little bit’ pregnant.”