Sen. Howard Metzenbaum (D.Ohio) criticized President Reagan Wednesday for calling for a return to school prayer in his State of the Union address.
But Metzenbaum, speaking to some 200 Jewish leaders from across the country, participating in the United Jewish Appeal’s Washington Connection II Mission, also castigated the American Jewish community for not challenging more strongly the efforts to return prayer to the public schools.
“I am concerned that the New Right is taking over the government more and more each day,” he said. “I am concerned that the American Jewish community is not reacting.”
Metzenbaum said he supports Israel as much as any other American Jew. “But Israel is not our only issue,” he stressed. “We must be concerned about the kind of America in which we live.”
Declaring that American Jews “have an obligation, each of us in our own community,” to uphold the principle of separation of church and state, Metzenbaum said, “You and I together have a responsibility to protect our grandchildren from this invasion of religious freedom.”
Reagan, in his nationally televised address from the Capitol Tuesday night, urged Congress to permit voluntary prayer in the schools.
“Our nation could not have been conceived without divine help,” Reagan said. “Why is it that we can build a nation with our prayers but we can’t use a schoolroom for voluntary prayer? The 100th Congress of the United States should be remembered as the one that ended the expulsion of God from America’s classrooms.”
VOWS THAT REAGAN WON’T SUCCEED
Metzenbaum said he was concerned that the President, who he had expected to “give us a new message of hope” used the State of the Union address to call for prayer in the schools. “He is not going to succeed,” Metzenbaum vowed.
The Jewish leaders, after an off-the-record speech from Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, heard from 20 Senators Wednesday.
EFFORTS TO SCAPEGOAT ISRAEL ATTACKED
Both Sens. Claiborne Pell (D. RI) and Frank Lautenberg (D. NJ) criticized efforts to blame Israel for the Reagan Administration’s decision to sell arms to Iran.
“The inclination of some in this Administration to slough off the blame for an embarrassing policy failure onto Israel a cynical attempt to make her the scapegoat,” said Pell, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“Whatever the facts concerning who broached the idea of arms-for-hostages to Iran, the clear fact of the matter is that the White House gave its approval–over the objections of the Secretaries of State and Defense–to the fateful decision to ‘deal’ with Teheran,” Pell stressed.
Sen. Rudy Boschwitz (R. Minn.) stressed that the demonstration of a united Jewish community “really has an impact on what happens in this country in relations between Israel and the United States.” Lautenberg also said that the “uncompromising” support of Israel by the Jewish community does affect Congress and is something Jews “never need to be shy about.”
Reps. Jack Kemp (R. NY) and Richard Gephardt (D. Mo.), both potential candidates for the Presidency in 1988, said that the tax reform bill adopted in 1986 should increase donations to charity rather that decrease it as some have feared.
They stressed that people will have more income in which to give to charity. Kemp added that people do not give to charities based on tax benefits.
At a dinner at the Israel Embassy Tuesday night, Martin Stein, the UJA’s national chairman, presented an award to Israeli Ambassador Meir Rosenne for his efforts on behalf of the UJA. Rosenne said the UJA “is one of the strengths of Israel.”
Samuel Lewis, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, told the Jewish leaders that the strategic security of Israel has never been better than it is now. He also said that the relation between the U.S. and Israel “has never been stronger.”
Jerome Dick, of Washington, was the chairman for the Mission to Washington. Sens. Lautenberg and Arlen Specter (R. Pa.) hosted the luncheon Wednesday at which many of their colleagues appeared.
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