A jurist who is one of America’s leading Constitutional authorities has warned against “tinkering with the fundamental law of our land” to permit prayer in the public schools.
California Supreme Court Justice Stanley Mosk said that advocates of a proposed Constitutional amendment to introduce prayer in public schools are steering this country towards a form of state-sanctioned religion.
Mosk said that the concept of prayer in the public schools is “wholly extraneous to secular public education” and added that it is “particularly unwise” to bring up this issue “in a day when public schools are hurting economically as well as in scholastic attainment.”
Mosk was the principal speaker of a luncheon tribute during ADL’s 69th annual meeting to Maxwell Greenberg, retiring after four years as national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. President Ronald Reagan and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin of Israel were among a host of national and international dignitaries who sent personal tributes to Greenberg, a Los Angeles lawyer.
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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.
