[The purpose of the Digest is informative: Preference is given to papers not generally accessible to our readers. Quotation does not indicate approval.-Editor.]
The proposal to read the Ten Commandments daily in the public schools of New York is opposed by two orthodox Jewish dailies, the “Jewish Morning Journal” and the “Jewish Daily News,” on the ground that this would serve as a wedge for the introduction later of religious instruction in the schools.
The fear that the reading of the Decalogue would be followed by the Sermon on the Mount is expressed by the “Jewish Morning Journal,” which says:
“The Ten Commandments are the Jewish contribution to the civilization and law giving of mankind which has not yet been surpassed. The largest part of the troubles from which humanity is suffering, even in the most highly developed countries, are due to the fact that the Ten Commandments are not observed.
“Nevertheless, Jews who are cautious will not be enthusiastic about the proposal…The Ten Commandments are for us the basis of religion, that is, of a subject which we should not like to see in the public schools. The Sermon on the Mount might come next, which would mean that a problem would be raised which would cause us much more embarrassment than the satisfaction we would have today at the recognition of the Jewish contribution of the Decalogue.”
The “Jewish Daily News” voices the opinion that the plan would not serve the purposes of religious training for children, while it would be a violation of the principles on which the American public school is based, and avers that this is
“…an attempt to go around the law which keeps the schools neutral between the various religions in the country.
“Those who believe in religious training for children,” the paper continues, “want that training to be thorough and based on understanding. The child must be given a school with a religious atmosphere, with a religious spirit, and since the public school is not, and must not, be the place for that, there is no other way than to create separate schools after the public school hours or to send their children to special schools where religious subjects are taught together with general subjects, that is, parochial schools.
“The desire to introduce the reading of the Ten Commandments in the schools does not solve the problem of religious training. It is something that has no importance in regard to the purpose for which it is put forth, and it can only result in an attempt to introduce into the schools a teaching which is forbidden by the Constitution.
“Those who think that children must have a religious training–and that is our conviction–should know that that cannot be achieved by a reading of the Ten Commandments, but by sending the children to special schools.”
A similar view of the subject is taken by Jacob Fishman, in the “Jewish Morning Journal,” who calls the proposal “a dangerous precedent” and urges the minority religions to combat it.
“What assurance is there.” asks Mr. Fishman “that later the majority would not impose its religion upon the schools?”
Julius Hilbern Cohn, a lawyer who has practiced in New York County for more than thirty years, died Saturday at the age of fifty-five. He started his practice in the office of the late Justice David Leventritt.
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