N.Y. Board of Rabbis Head Affirms Group’s Intent to Reconsider School Aid

The split in the Jewish community over state aid to private schools was widened today by a statement of support for such aid by the president of the New York Board of Rabbis, an association which includes representatives of the three branches of Judaism and which has consistently opposed such aid on grounds of church-state separation. Rabbi Harold I. Saperstein, the president, is a member of the Reform movement, which has been one of the strongest foes in organized Jewish life to such use of government funds. Speaking at the board’s 90th annual meeting yesterday, Rabbi Saperstein said there was now need for “an intensified search for means” by which help could be given to private schools “within the framework of our constitution and without violating the principle of separation of church and state.”

Rabbi Saperstein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that he regretted press accounts which interpreted his remarks at the meeting as an abandonment of the board’s long-standing opposition to such aid. He said that when he meant to convey was that the time was ripe to search for methods to solve the serious financial problems of private and parochial schools and that his remarks reflected the “spirit and feeling” of most board members, though he expected to hear dissenting views. He added that his statement represented a “consensus of opinion” of the leadership of the rabbinical group, not a format resolution by its membership of 1,000 Reform, Conservative and Orthodox rabbis in the metropolitan area. He also told the JTA that the board leadership was not at this point committed to any specific measure, such as the plan for cash assistance for private school families in a parent-aid bill now before the New York state legislature. He said that if that, or any other proposed measure for that purpose, turned out to be unconstitutional, the board would not support it but that it would give careful evaluation to any measure which proved to be legal.

A number of anti-aid Jewish groups promptly joined in a statement reiterating their opposition to “state financing of sectarian schools,” asserting that the current effort to obtain such funds “poses a profound threat to the independence of religion and to the stability of government.” The statement declared that such financing “would do injury to the state by entangling it in religious controversy and competition for public funds would do harm to religion by subjecting church-operated schools to government control.” The statement also rejected “the argument that religious schools are entitled to state aid because they are facing increasing financial problems.” asserting that “the religious communities” must find their own means for such purposes. The signatory organizations were the American Jewish Congress, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the (Reform) Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Jewish War Veterans, the New York Department of the National Council of Jewish Women, the New York chapter of the American Jewish Committee, the New York Jewish Labor Committee, the (Reform) Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Workmen’s Circle.

Support for the board’s apparent readiness to reconsider its opposition came from Julius Berman, president of the Orthodox National Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA). He said that COLPA regarded the development “as an indication that substantial segments of the non-Orthodox Jewish community are at last beginning to appreciate the importance of the yeshiva education to society as a whole, as well as the dire economic situation in which yeshivas find themselves.”

Another Orthodox group, Agudath Israel of America, announced plans today for a statewide drive for action to help assure passage of the parent-aid bill which would provide grants to parents of children in non-public elementary and high schools, ranging from $50 to $250 per child annually depending on family income, according to Rabbi Moshe Sherer, Agudath Israel’s executive president. Rabbi Sherer said that rabbis, community leaders, heads of Jewish educational institutions and Orthodox leaders had joined in the effort to obtain adoption of the bill in the current legislature. He said that the bill, which failed in committee in the 1970 legislature because of “Gov. Rockefeller’s objections, has now been revised as a model of constitutional legislation helping the sorely-pressed non-public schools.” He asserted that because the bill directs aid to parents and not to schools, “legal authorities have declared that it does not violate New York’s Blaine Amendment,” which bars aid to non-public schools. Rabbi Sherer said that parents of children attending Jewish day schools in the state could get $4 million in grants each year if the bill was adopted and that families with several children in such a school “will benefit even more from this measure.”