Two Jewish Groups Oppose Bork for Supreme Court, Others Quiet

Two national Jewish organizations have announced their opposition to President Reagan’s nomination of Federal Judge Robert Bork to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Irma Gertler, president of B’nai B’rith Women, said, “The appointment of Judge Bork would seriously jeopardize important gains made by women in recent years.”

Theodore Mann, president of the American Jewish Congress, called Bork’s nomination “an explicitly ideological decision” by the President.

He said the AJCongress opposed Bork “because of his stand on such issues as privacy, free speech, civil rights and church-state separation.”

But two other major Jewish organizations contacted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency declined to make a statement on Bork’s nomination. The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith said it didn’t know if it would comment. The American Jewish Committee said it would not comment.

DISAGREE WITH DECISIONS

Gertler noted that Bork “has spoken out publicly against abortion rights and laws against sexual harassment of women. His public position on public funding of religious schools threatens the separation of church and state, a matter of deep concern to our 120,000 members throughout the United States.”

Mann said in a statement released Friday: “President Reagan’s nomination of Judge Robert Bork…is regrettable. We urge the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject this nomination. Judge Bork obviously has the legal and intellectual qualifications to sit on the court.

“Nevertheless, in a series of law review articles and speeches over the years he has expressed disagreement with a long series of significant precedents which are now deeply embedded in American law and which have significantly expanded the rights of citizens with respect to such crucial areas as privacy, free speech, civil rights and church-state separation.”