The American Jewish Congress and the St. Louis Rabbinical Association asked the Missouri Supreme Court today for permission to file a brief as friend of the court in support of the right of Temple Israel here to build a chapel and Sunday school in suburban Creve Coeur.
The two organizations filed a joint motion for leave to appear as amicus curiae in the case, which is scheduled for the September ’58 term of the court. Similar motions to appear in the case were filed this week by the Metropolitan Church Federation of St. Louis and Catholic Archbishop Joseph Ritter, head of the St. Louis Archdiocese.
Both the Protestant church group and Archbishop Ritter filed briefs supporting Temple Israel when the case was tried by St. Louis County Circuit Judge Raymond LaDriere last year. Judge LaDriere’s decision, handed down August 5, 1957, ruled in favor of Temple Israel and held that two zoning ordinance amendments under which Creve Coeur denied a building permit to the Temple were invalid.
Judge LaDriere also ruled the amendments violated the right of free exercise of religion guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitutions and by the Missouri Constitution. Creve Coeur officials then decided to appeal the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court, despite wide favorable comment on the lower court’s decision.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
