Gov. Raymond T. Shafer has signed into law a bill permitting Pennsylvania businessmen to do business on Sunday if they observe their Sabbath on a different day of the week. The measure had long been sought by Pennsylvania Jewish organizations.
In signing the measure. Gov. Shafer said that “too many of our citizens have been penalized because they worship God on a day other than Sunday.” He added that “all businessmen may now worship on their Sabbath according to their beliefs, without fear of undue hardship to their businesses.”
The law amends an act of June 24, 1939 concerning selling certain personal property on Sunday. It now reads: “No individual who by reason of his religious convictions observes a day other than Sunday as his day of rest and actually refrains from labor or secular business on that day shall be prohibited from selling the above enumerated articles on Sunday in a business establishment which is closed on such other day.”
Attending the signing ceremony were representatives of the Pennsylvania Jewish Community Relations Council, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, the Pennsylvania Council of Churches, the Pennsylvania Catholic Conference and the National Fair Sabbath Committee.
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