The Senate has adopted its version of President Clinton’s national service program, including provisions that have drawn special attention from Jewish groups.
The program, which was adopted Tuesday by a vote of 58-41, is designed to give tuition assistance to college students in exchange for their participation in two years of community service.
The American Jewish Committee has been among the groups pushing for the amendments, voted into the Senate version, that would ensure greater separation of church and state in the program’s implementation.
The amendments, which are not in the version passed by the House of Representatives last week, bar participants in the program from constructing facilities used for religious worship or from participating in aspects of an overall religious education program.
Both the House and Senate versions contain three other provisions relating to church-state separation.
Participants in the program would not be allowed in the course of their work to conduct religious worship, engage in religious instruction or proselytize.
AJCommittee is hoping the House-Senate conference committee will produce a bill closer to the Senate version. A vote could come as soon as this week, before the August congressional recess.
Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox group, has also been active in trying to shape the bill. The group led a successful effort to include religious institutions among the community groups eligible to participate in the program.
Among other Jewish groups supporting the national service plan are the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council and B’nai B’rith.
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