Two rabbis started their 60-day jail terms here today, after refusing as a matter of principle to pay $500 fines upon conviction of “unlawful assembly” in connection with a sit-in at a bus terminal here during an effort to desegregate the terminal in 1961. Six Christian clergymen, white and Negro, were also in jail with the rabbis. The latter are Rabbi Israel Dresner, spiritual leader of Temple Sharey Shalom, Springfield, N. J.; and Rabbi Martin Freedman, spiritual leader of Temple B’nai Jeshurun, Paterson, N. J.
The eight clergymen were convicted in Municipal Court here in 1961. They appealed their convictions to the United States Supreme Court add, after three years of repeated petitions to the high court, their appeals were rejected on technical grounds.
The clergymen surrendered yesterday. Their attorney petitioned the Federal District Court here for their release or, alternately, for setting bond pending further Federal appeals. U. S. Judge G. Harold Carswell rejected both petitions, telling the attorney that his appeals should be taken to the local Municipal Court. However, Municipal Judge John Rudd ordered the clergymen to start serving their sentences unless they paid their fines–which they refused to do.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
