Seeks Federal Aid for Secular Departments of Hebrew Day Schools

Rabbi Hersh Ginsberg, president of the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, said tonight that any Federal program of aid to schools should include the secular departments of Hebrew day schools ” since these departments have essentially no religious content at all and are literally private day schools.”

Addressing the fourth annual convention of the National Conference of Yeshiva Principals, which opened here today, Rabbi Ginsberg said that the Hebrew day school has a “sharp delineation between its secular department and its Hebrew department. ” He pointed out that the secular departments had their own principals, followed the local Board of Education curricula and used standard public school textbooks. Furthermore, Rabbi Ginsberg said, teachers are licensed by the local Boards and abide by all rules and directives of these Boards.

Rabbi Ginsberg, who is also principal of the Rabbi Jacob Joseph School in New York, said that teacher recruitment for the secular department was on the basis of qualification without regard to race, creed or color. “In fact, ” he added, “day school officials would be quite happy to permit the Board of Education to directly recruit teachers for these departments and assume the entire budget and supervision of these departments. . . ” For these reasons, he said, any Federal aid to public schools should include the secular departments of Hebrew day schools.