The City Council of New York voted today to ask the State Legislature to authorize businessmen who close their establishments on Saturdays, in observance of the Sabbath, to remain open on Sundays. The vote was 14 to 7, much higher than the simple majority which had been expected in view of the opposition that had developed earlier.
The action, under the home rule provisions of the city charter, clears the way for action in the Legislature for a bill changing the city’s Sunday blue law. The council vote came on a request by Mayor Robert F. Wagner. The formal request by the Mayor helped assure the victory today, because without it a two-thirds vote would have been required in the council.
The change had been urged by a variety of Jewish groups, including the Synagogue Council of America, representing Orthodox. Conservative and Reform Jews, a variety of Orthodox organizations and the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League. These groups had argued that forcing observant Jews to remain closed on Sundays as well as Saturdays put them at an economic disadvantage in relation to their competitors. It was also noted that giving a citizen the choice of which day to observe and which day to close was in keeping with constitutional guarantees of religious freedom.
Rabbi Theodore L. Adams, president of the Synagogue Council, hailed the City Council’s action as an important reaffirmation of the fundamental democratic principle of religious liberty. He noted that the Synagogue Council has been active in urging the passage of this measure for two reasons; “First, the Jewish community of New York represents the largest Jewish population group in America; second, the precedent created by New York legislation in this area of Jewish religious concern will affect profoundly similar legislation in communities across the nation,”
(In Trenton, N. J. , representatives of Jewish and other religious groups which observe the Sabbath on Saturday urged today the defeat in committee of bills before the New Jersey Assembly calling for regulation by law of Sunday observance. The groups, which will testify at a public hearing here next Wednesday, are: American Jewish Congress, Seventh Day Baptists and Seventh Day Adventists. In their statement, the three voiced their opposition to “Sunday legislation as being un-American and un-Constitutional.”)
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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.
