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Convention of Reform Rabbis Discusses Federal Aid to Religious Schools

June 21, 1967
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The 78th annual meeting of the Central Conference of American Rabbis here was told today that a coalition of Catholics and Orthodox Jews was working to change legislation barring public funds for non-public schools and seeking such funds on a state level where efforts in the federal area had failed.

Rabbi Edward E. Klein of New York, chairman of the church-state committee of the Reform rabbinical association, also told the conference that such sectarian forces, in seeking financial help for religiously-sponsored school systems, were threatening the principle or church-state separation.

He said a number of American Jews were “afraid to upset the applecart of the newly-founded ecumenical spirit” and did not oppose such campaigns for that reason. The committee asked the rabbinical delegates to support federal legislation extending free school bus transportation and to express strong opposition to a school prayer amendment to the Federal Constitution sponsored by Sen. Everet Dirksen, the Republican minority leader.

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