A proposal that the State of Ponnsylvania should legalize Bible reading in the public schools but permit individual children to be excused upon written request of the parents, is denounced editorially in the current issue of the American Jewish Outlook as “downright vicious” and as a plan that would create “ghettoes” within classrooms.
The paper declared that “each day it would point out to the ‘Protestants’ in the classroom that the Jewish children and the Catholic children and the children of certain Protestant denominations are different. For children, anything ‘different’ is ‘peculiar.’ What is peculiar around Bible reading time at nine in the morning is going to remain peculiar during recess and lunch and after school.”
The Jewish Community Relations Council said that the public reaction to a Federal Court decision holding Bible-reading in the public schools to be unconstitutional, had been “very sharp.” It noted that many people had expressed unwillingness to abide by the decision. “Those of us who are concerned about the good health of the public relations of the Jewish community must look with grave concern,” the JCRC declared, “upon the vehemence of the reaction of the Christian community to this legal decision.”
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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.
