The New York Board of Rabbis, representing 750 Orthodox, Conservative and Reform Jewish clergymen, voted yesterday to seek appointments with Mayor Wagner, the Board of Education and the Board of Superintendents to voice their opposition to a proposal by the superintendents for a guide to spiritual and moral values for public school teachers.
The meeting decided to demand of the mayor public hearings on the proposal, which introduces the teaching of “religious values” in the schools under the pretext of inculcating moral values in pupils. Several hundred rabbis will preach this week-end on the “dangers of religion in the public schools.”
The rabbis stressed that they were in favor of imbuing youngsters with moral and spiritual values and belief in God. However, they asserted that the inculcation and religious beliefs and values is the job of the home and the church or synagogue. To weave religious values into teaching in public schools would be a violation of the separation of church and state, the meeting stressed.
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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.
