Rockefeller Submits Bill Enabling Yeshivot to Obtain Funds for Sunday Classes

A bill to permit the yeshivot to count their Sunday secular classes in computing the funds to which they are entitled under the Mandated Services Act was submitted to the New York State Legislature this week by Governor Nelson Rockefeller, it was announced today by Rabbi Moshe Sherer, executive president of Agudath Israel of America. According to Rabbi Sherer, the governor’s new amendment will enable New York State yeshivot to obtain more than $200,000 which the present law denied them. The governor took this unusual step of introducing an amendment to the Mandated Services Act, which reimburses non-public schools for their examination and inspection activities, after Rabbi Sherer brought to his attention that under existing law most yeshivot would be deprived of one-sixth of the monies to which they are entitled because the State Education Department refuses to recognize Sunday classes for appointment of funds. In a memorandum to the Legislature in support of his bill, Rockefeller points out that the Jewish schools hold their secular classes on Sundays instead of Friday afternoons, because the schools must close early on Fridays in order to enable their students and faculty to observe the Jewish Sabbath which begins at sundown. This new bill declared that “attendance days may include Sundays in a non-public school operated by a religious body, the members of which observe a day other than Sunday as their Sabbath.” Rabbi Sherer commended the Rockefeller for displaying “sensitivity to the needs of the Jewish educational community,” and for “taking firm action to prevent the yeshivot from suffering an injustice had the Sunday classes remained ineligible for funding.”