Minneapolis Crc Offers Guidelines on Holiday Observances in Public Schools

The observance of religious festivals in public schools, including Christmas-Chanukah or Easter-Passover services, and the display of any religious symbols, whether the Star of David or the Christian Nativity scene, crucifixes or menorahs, “have no proper place in the public schools,” the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota declared here today.

Samuel Scheiner, executive director of the state’s JCRC, issued a set of guidelines regarding the desired principles for the Jewish community at this season. He requested that Jewish parents consult with the JCRC or their rabbis concerning any actions pertaining to religious observances in the public schools, and cautioned that “unwise or poorly-timed action by an individual parent may create community relations problems without producing results,” In the guidelines, he declared that, among the non-desirable phenomena for Jews are:

“The recitation of prayers or any use of Biblical excerpts in a devotional manner; the distribution of Bibles or religious tracts; religious holiday observances by visiting clergymen; the singing of religious hymns, including Christmas carols of a religious nature.”

The JCRC also took exception to religious holiday programs in the form of public school assemblies or in school corridors or over a school’s public address system. On the other hand, it stated that the following may be permitted in the public schools:

“The use of religious and Biblical themes in the teaching of art, literature and music, avoiding religious indoctrination; the role of religion in history; examining religion as a cultural phenomenon; descriptions by teachers of how other religious groups in the community and in the world may celebrate their particular holidays which happen to fall during the same season of the year.”