A State Senate bill to provide busing for children attending public, private, and religiously sponsored schools continued today to evoke conflicting stands from Jewish spokesmen.
A group of 50 Philadelphia rabbis issued a statement supporting the measure, a move which has not been endorsed by the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia. The Board has announced publicly it is not taking any stand on the matter. At the same time, the Jewish Labor Committee announced its opposition to the bill. Previously the local Community Relations Committee had testified against the bill in Harrisburg.
The rabbis’ statement urged the State Senate “to act promptly to move for enactment of a school bus law that will provide safe transportation and protection for all the school children of the state in public, private and parochial schools.” Fifteen of the signers are Orthodox rabbis, 17 serve Conservative congregations but are considered to be personally Orthodox, 14 are full-time teachers and four are retired.
The Jewish Labor Committee, in a letter to State Senator Preston Davis, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said approval of the bill would “impair the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.”
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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.
