Jewish Congress Warns on Chanukah and Christmas Observances in Schools

The American Jewish Congress charged today that Christmas and Chanukah observances in the public schools violated recent U. S. Supreme Court decisions and were “actionable” under the law. The statement came from the organization’s policy-making Governing Council at the close of a two-day national meeting here. The statement read:

“Religion in the home, in the church and in the synagogue serves incomparably to ennoble the spirit of mankind. But religion in the public schools — no matter how dressed up or watered down — serves only to harass, hurt and dislocate children of minority faiths and to impair wholesome classroom relationships.

“Public school officials, both lay and professional, are generally persons of good will who would not knowingly hurt any child committed to their care. Often, however, they are completely unaware of the harm caused to children of the Jewish and other minority faiths by sectarian intrusions.

“The observance of religious holidays in the public schools constitutes a violation of religious freedom and the traditional American principle of separation of church and state as contained in the First Amendment to the Constitution. Joint religious observances such as Christmas-Chanukah and Easter-Passover are no less a breach of the Constitution and violate the conscience of many religious persons, Jews and Christians alike. The impropriety of sectarian practices in the schools is not cured by adding to them. They are, in our view, actionable under the law.”