Jewish Groups Laud U.S. Supreme Court Decision Barring Religion from Public School

Speaking in behalf of all major Jewish communal Organizations and for a number of local Jewish Community Councils, the National Community Relations Advisory Council today hailed the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court this week which declared as unconstitutional the teaching of sectarian religion in public schools during school hours, or the use of public school buildings for this purpose.

The N.C.R.A.C. and the Synagogue Council of America, coordinating bodies respectively for Jewish secular and religious groups, had argued against the constitutionality of released time practices in a brief which they had filed as “friends ? the court.” In a joint statement issued here they said that the U.S. Supreme ?urt decision was “so sweeping as to make it appear that released time, in and of ?self, is inconsistent with the Court’s opinion.” The statement was signed by Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, president of the Synagogue Council, and Henry Epstein, chairman the J.C.R.A.C.

“All who cherish the American tradition of separation of church and state must ?el themselves upheld by the decision of the Supreme Court in the Champaign, Ill., released time case,” the statement said. “In that decision, the Court reiterated earlier interpretation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments, as applied to the ?e of tax-supported facilities for the furtherance of sectarian religious indoctrination. The First Amendment, it says, has erected a wall between Church and State which must be kept high and impregnable.

“The Court now has characterized as unconstitutional all arrangements whereby pupils compelled by law to go to school for secular education are released in part from their legal duty upon the condition that they attend the religious classes. The decision is so sweeping as to mate it appear that released time, in and of itself, ?s inconsistent with the Court’s opinion.”

She Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in a similar statement expressed ?he view that the decision “helps to preserve the intent of the First Amendment and safeguards freedom of religion for all Americans,” adding that the “integrity of fee religion and free public education has been strengthened.”