Jewish Organizations Protest Christmas Stamp

This year’s Christmas stamp issued by the Post Office has been objected to by major national Jewish religious and civic organizations as unconstitutional and as bad public policy. The stamp is a reproduction of the painting, “The Nativity,” by Lorenzo Lotto. Through the Joint Advisory Committee of the Synagogue Council of America and the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, the Jewish organizations wrote to Postmaster General Winton M. Blount, repeating the view previously expressed to former Postmaster Generals that the issuance of stamps with a religious theme “is unconstitutional as a matter of law and unwise as a matter of policy.” The views of the organizations were stated in a letter to the Postmaster General over the signatures of Jerry Wagner and Rabbi Mordecai Waxman, co-chairmen of the Joint Advisory Committee. The issuance of “Christmas stamps,” they contended, has the effect of placing the “power, prestige and financial support of government behind a particular religious belief,” which is prohibited by the Religion Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution. Even if other stamps in the same denomination are available, giving purchasers a choice, this prohibition is violated, they maintained. They argued, aside from the point of constitutionality, that incorporating religious elements in stamps invites “pressures and divisiveness.” Wagner and Rabbi Waxman urged that the Post Office “halt altogether the issuance of stamps commemorating religious holidays.”