A Jewish group here and the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union have expressed concern over what they consider to be the evasion by two New Jersey townships of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1962 decision barring prayers in public schools.
The ACLU said it was preparing a suit against the Netcong, N.J. school board. Yesterday, a non-denominational prayer was recited to 300 students assembled in the Netcong high school gymnasium before classes started. Similarly in Sayreville, N.J., classes started in all eight public schools with a two-minute “meditation” period in which the 6,500 students were given time to pray silently if they chose.
According to state ACLU director Stephen M. Nagler, the use of the non-denominational prayer culled from the Congressional Record was “simply a dodge” that violated the doctrine of separation of church and state.
The New Jersey Ad Hoc Committee on Church and State, which represents 16 Jewish organizations, secular and religious groups, condemned the use of non-denominational prayers and meditation periods because they “place great pressures on those students whose conscience or religion does not permit them to participate in a religious service not of their own faith.”
John Kaufman, chairman, and Meyer Fine, secretary of the Ad Hoc committee, claimed in a statement issued here that the “voluntary” aspect of the religious exercises in Netcong did not alleviate the pressure because “it is clear that the school is sponsoring and encouraging a form of worship and those who do not participate will be under great pressure to do so.”
The statement said, “We do not recognize a neutral religious service. The variety of religions has enriched American life and the imposition of, or encouragement for, a neutral religious exercise is similar to the form of state worship from which the Pilgrims fled and whose experience led to the prohibition of establishment of religion by the state in the First Amendment.”
The Netcong school superintendent. Joseph M. Stracco, said yesterday that it was not the intention of the school board to violate the Constitution or defy the Supreme Court. He said the prayer service before the school day was intended to encourage “the love of one’s neighbor, brotherhood and respect for the individual,” Netcong is a predominantly Roman Catholic and Italian community of 3,500 whose residents apparently supported the school board’s decision.
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