The American Jewish Congress today urged repeal of New York State laws requiring adoptive parents to be of the same religion as the child they wish to adopt. Stanley Geller, chairman of the AJCongress’ Metropolitan Council, said that the present laws place religious status above the child’s welfare.
Mr. Geller testified at a hearing of the domestic relations law subcommittee of the State Assembly’s judiciary committee sitting here. He said the religious factor often caused unjustifiable delays in adoption placement. Parents have a constitutional right to determine their child’s religious upbringing but when the parental relationship ceases, the state must focus on the child’s welfare, he said. “For the state at this point to base its actions on a theory of religious status in the child constitutes a form of aid to religion which the (Constitution’s) separation principle prohibits,” Mr. Geller said.
He urged outright repeal of the laws. But failing that, Mr. Geller proposed a state constitutional amendment that would place emphasis on the child’s welfare and only secondarily refer to the religious wishes of the child’s original parents.
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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.
