Jewish groups retreating from their traditional opposition to Federal aid to parochial schools were sharply criticized by Israel Breslow, president of the Workmen’s Circle, the 65,000 member Jewish fraternal and cultural organization, at a meeting of the organization’s national executive at the Hotel Astor.
“A number of Jewish agencies have come out, or are preparing to come out, for Federal aid to parochial schools in the obvious expectation that their own schools will be among the beneficiaries. This is a clear sacrifice of principle to expediency,” he charged.
He said that the Workmen’s Circle, which operates a total of 80 secular Jewish schools in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit and other cities, “understands very well that rising school costs are becoming increasingly burdensome;” But if we wish to perpetuate our culture and religion within the American family, we must be willing to foot the bill,” he said.
The Workmen’s Circle president noted that there has recently been an upsurge of interest in Jewish culture among second and third generation Americans of Jewish ancestry, and that this has resulted in a growing demand for Workmen’s Circle schools in suburban areas. He said that, within the past year alone, two such new school centers had been completed in the New York City area, and that construction on a third has begun.
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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.
