Leaders of various Jewish organizations today issued statements bailing as a victory for the cause of religious liberty a “unanimous decision yesterday of the New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that the King James version of the Bible cannot be distributed in the State’s public schools.
The court issued a permanent injunction in favor of a Jewish parent against the Gideon Society, and international Bible distributing agency, blocking the use of Ruther-ford, N.J., public schools for free distribution of Bibles to students.
Chief Justice Arthur T. Vanderbilt said, in a decision written for the court, that school distribution of New Testament Bibles would violate constitutional provisions for the separation of church and state. The use of schools to distribute such religious materials, he pointed out. “would cast aside all progress made in the United States and throughout New Jersey in the field of religious tolerance and freedom.”
“We would be renewing the ancient struggles among the various religious faiths to the detriment of all; this we must decline to do,” the Chief Justice declared. The Supreme Court ruling set aside a lower court verdict which permitted the Bible program.
The Jewish leaders who praised the ruling of the court included Dr. Israel Goldstein, president of the American Jewish Congress; Bernard H. Trager. chairman of the National Community Relations Advisory Council; Norman Salit, president of the Synagogue Council of America, and others.
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.
