Jewish Congress Disavows Approval of Non-sectarian School Prayer

The American Jewish Congress announced here today that its Long Island branch still opposes the introduction of prayers in the public schools, in spite of a statement by Rabbi Abraham V. Goodman, of Lawrence, L. I., who agreed to a compromise for the use of a “non-sectarian” prayer in the public schools.

The dispute involves a public school district, covering several Long Island townships where-parents are objecting to prayers in the schools. Rabbi Goodman, in a compromise with a Catholic priest, the Rev. William Galloway, agreed to cancel protests against use of the prayer. Under the compromise between the rabbi and the priest, school children in the district would be required each day to recite the fourth stanza of “America,” singing to “Our Father’s God.”

In a statement, Abraham H. Klugsberg, executive director of the local American Jewish Congress unit, said: “Rabbi Goodman was speaking for himself only–and not for the South Shore Jewish Community Council–in voicing approval of the Board of Regents prayer. We wish to express emphatically our opposition to all prayers in public schools, whether they be called sectarian or non-sectarian. Prayer belongs in the home and in houses of worship; it has no place in a public school. Of course, there can be no objection to the singing of ‘America’ or any other patriotic hymn in the public schools. Patriotic songs belong in the public schools, just as prayers do not.”