Jewish groups were unanimous, in their testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, that its proposed bill to amend the Constitution to allow prayer in the public schools constitutes a threat to religious minorities and would be a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution if it passed.
Among those testifying for the Jewish groups were Leonard Steinborn, presenting the testimony of Warren Eisenberg, director of the International Council of B’nai B’rith, who was unable to testify because of illness; Sam Rabinove, director of the legal affairs department of the American Jewish Committee; Esther Pryor, Capitol Committee chairwoman of the National Council of Jewish Women; Rabbi Bruce Kahn, Union of American Hebrew Congregations; and Rita Salberg, B’nai B’rith Women Public Affairs Committee.
Eisenberg’s statement pointed out that legalizing organized voluntary prayer in public schools, an amendment supported by President Reagan, would “strike at the very heart of our constitution and our democratic, pluralistic society.”
Eisenberg asked “who will decide the content of the prayer” and whether it was possible to develop a prayer that “would not offend a particular religious minority, if the amendment is passed?”
LITTLE DIFFERNCE BETWEEN AMENDMENTS
Eisenberg also stated that the second amendment approving silent prayer, as proposed by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R. Utah), is “no less threatening” and that the difference between the two amendments is “spurious. “Eisenberg stressed that it is not the state’s role to “legitimize any form of worship or to impose it on its citizens.”
Concerning a third proposal for an amendment, also proposed by Hatch, to give religious groups the same access to school facilities that secular groups have, Eisenberg said the government would thereby “implicitly accept religious groups as having a legitimate place in the schools.”
Salberg said that there is surely a place for prayer in children’s lives and “that place is the home, in the church, synagogue, mosque, and many places — but not in our public schools.” She stated that her group’s position is that it would “be bad government policy, bad religious practice, and bad educational programming.”
Rabinove testified that the AJCommittee opposes the Hatch amendment on silent prayer and also the administration’s voluntary proposal.
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