Four national, Orthodox Jewish Organizations called today for the American Jewish community’s broadest support of the new federal aid-to-education act, signed into law by President Johnson yesterday. They also voiced strong criticism of the American Jewish Congress, which had announced it would seek prompt court action to test the constitutionality of the law on the grounds that it violates the traditional American principle of separation of Church and State, by offering aid to parochial schools and by other provisions.
The statements were issued on behalf of the organizations by Rabbi Morris Sherer, executive vice-president of Agudath Israel; Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the Rabbinical Council of America; Moses I. Feuerstein, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish congregations of America; and Amos Bunim, national chairman of Torah Umesorah, the national society for Hebrew day schools, which represents 300 such schools in the United States. The ruling bodies of all the Orthodox groups held special, emergency meetings today on the issue.
All the organizations criticized the AJC for its stand on the new law, asserting that the AJC does not speak for the entire Jewish community in this country. They hailed the new act as a historic milestone in providing for aid to the educational needs of all children, without discrimination as to the type of school they attend.
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