Board of Rabbis Protests Reagan’s Dismissal of Three Rabbis As Discriminatory

The Southern California Board of Rabbis, based in this city, has protested California Gov. Ronald Reagan’s plan to dismiss the three full-time Jewish chaplains for the state’s 14 mental hospitals, ostensibly for economic reasons. Rabbi Harry Hyman, director of chaplaincy for the Board, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by telephone today that Reagan’s deletion of the Jewish chaplaincies from his proposed 1971-72 budget was “purely discriminatory.” He noted that the Governor proposes the retention of the more than 30 full-time Catholic and Protestant chaplains. Rabbi Hyman condemned Reagan’s endorsement of the Department of Mental Health’s proposal that as there are not enough Jewish mental patients in the state to justify three full-time Jewish chaplains, their duties should be taken over by local rabbis.

That said Rabbi Hyman, would be “totally ineffective” as the chaplains’ duties also include family counseling, welfare guidance and various other tasks. “Which self-respecting rabbi with a full congregation can accept this?,” he asked. Hearings on Reagan’s budget will be held in Sacramento within a few weeks. The Jewish chaplains are assured of their jobs until at least July 1. On Monday, Percy Moore, a black who is executive director of Oakland’s anti-poverty program and president of the California Community Action Program Directors Association, charged that the planned elimination of the Jewish chaplains was “nothing more than a blatant act of anti-Semitism that is right in line with other recent acts of the Governor that discriminate against the poor and the sick, and with special impact on those of the minority groups.” Rabbi Hyman identified the three Jewish chaplains as Rabbi Eugene Gruenberger of Los Angeles, who has held the post for 18 years; Rabbi Harry Levenberg of Mountainview, Calif., and Rabbi Seymour (Sholom) Stern of Norwalk, Calif.