The American Jewish Congress today filed a brief as a friend of the court with the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that a New Jersey law providing for Bible reading in the public schools violates the Constitutional principles of religious liberty and separation of Church and State.
The suit, which was brought by Donald R. Doremus and Mrs. Anna E. Klein against the Board of Education of Hawthorne, New Jersey, is expected to be argued before the Supreme Court sometime in December. The Supreme Court of New Jersey had previously held that the statute was legal and Constitutional.
The American Jewish Congress brief pointed out that although the organization and the Jewish community generally strongly favored’ religious education and Bible study, it felt that such education was the responsibility of the home, the church and the synagogue. The brief said that whenever sectarianism is brought into the public school the result is conflict and bitterness among the children and their parents along religious lines.
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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.
