The New York City Board of Education was criticized today for leasing an unused portion of a public school in Brooklyn to two yeshivas. The Rev. Milton A. Galamison, pastor of the Siloam Baptist Church and president of the Parents’ Workshop for Equality in New York City Schools, attacked the lease arrangement as “a diametrical contradiction of the principle of Church and State separation and a misappropriation of public school facilities.”
The two Jewish day schools, Yeshiva Beth Jacob of Boro Park and Yeshiva Toras Emes, have been given permission to rent eight classrooms in Public School 103 in Brooklyn on a temporary basis until permanent quarters are built or acquired by the yeshivas. In defending the action by the Board of Education, Dr. John T. Theobald, superintendent of schools, said that the rented facilities were not being used by the public school and would be kept entirely separate from the rest of the building. “If I can collect rent for them, I would be remiss not to do so,” he declared.
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