Jewish Religious and Communal Groups Reply to Jesuit ‘warning’

A collective reply on the warning voiced by the Jesuit magazine “America” to Jews in the United States against supporting the United States Supreme Court decision banning the New York Regents’ Prayer in public schools, was issued here today by a joint committee of national American Jewish rabbinic and congregational associations and of national and local Jewish communal organizations.

The statement, reacting to an editorial in the September 1 issue of the magazine “America,” was issued by the Joint Advisory Committee of the Synagogue Council of America and the National Community Relations Advisory Council over the names of its co-chairmen, Rabbi Julius Mark and Mortimer Brenner. The National Council of Jewish Women also subscribed to it.

The Synagogue Council of America comprises the national congregational and rabbinic bodies of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Judaism. The National Community Relations Advisory Council is made up of Jewish congregational councils in major cities throughout the United States. The two councils coordinate their policies and activities relating to religion and public schools through the Joint Advisory Committee.

The text of the joint Jewish statement to the editorial in the Jesuit publication reads:

“We address ourselves in this statement only to that portion of the editorial that referred to the consequences that might follow from vigorous public advocacy by Jewish groups of their viewpoint on the issue of officially prescribed prayers and other religious observances in public schools.

“The editorial asks the Jews of America ‘what bargain they are willing to strike as one of the minorities in a pluralistic society.’ We find the implication repugnant. We remind ‘America’ magazine that the American heritage guarantees to every individual and to every group the right to defend and advocate its views of what is true and good.

REJECT THE ‘BARTER IDEA’ OF THE JESUIT PUBLICATION

“The idea that any group in this land must barter its right to free speech in exchange for its security is offensive to everything for which our country stands. Whatever differences there may be among American Jews on any issue, there is complete unanimity among us on this score.

“The American community is made up of many groups, each with its own convictions as to what is right and best for the whole society. Each of these groups, regardless of numbers, is equally entitled to give public support and expression to its convictions. Out of the interplay and competition among the variety of viewpoints thus advanced emerge the standards and criteria by which our society is governed. This process is indispensable to democratic decision.

“The editorial in ‘America’ can only have been intended, it seems to us, to impede that process. It plainly seeks to persuade Jews to cease their advocacy of a view antagonistic to that of the editors of ‘America’ by warning that their continued advocacy of such adverse views will invite dire consequences. We reject the idea that we–or any group–must remain silent in order to be tolerated.

CONTRAST JESUIT STAND WITH VIEWS OF OTHER CATHOLICS

“We have larger confidence than the writers of the editorial in the commitment of the American people to our tradition of freedom of expression and spirit of fair play. We have observed with much gratification the reflections of that commitment and that spirit in comments on the ‘America’ editorial by responsible Catholic and Protestant spokesmen, particularly in ‘The Commonweal’ and ‘The Christian Century.’

“A number of those spokesmen have detected in the editorial a veiled threat of anti-Semitism. We are troubled by these intimations, which we, too, find in the editorial. We find them so inconsistent with the outlook that has characterized ‘America’ magazine over the years that we can scarcely credit the unmistakable meaning of the words in which they are couched.

“However Americans may differ on issues, it is of the utmost importance that the debate over those issues be conducted in an atmosphere of reasoned discourse, of mutual good faith, free from any hint of intimidation or threat. Only thus will we realize the aim of our American democracy and achieve the harmony within diversity that is its hallmark,” the Joint Jewish statement concluded.

The United Synagogue of America and the Rabbinical Assembly, the lay and rabbinical arms of the Conservative movement, issued a separate statement lauding the lay Catholic publication “Commonweal” for its editorial which contradicted the “advice” given by the Jesuit organ “America” to American Jewry.

The two Conservative central Jewish bodies pointed out in their statement that the editors of “Commonweal” disclaim knowledge of any increase in anti-Semitism following upon the recent Supreme Court decision on prayer in the public schools. “If,” these editors asserted, “there is any real danger of anti-Semitism among Catholics, then it is Catholics who ought to be warned. Indeed, ‘warned’ is too mild a word: they ought to be told as sharply as possible of the sin of any form of anti-Semitism.”