Washington Jews Seek Ban on Religious Observances in Public Schools

The District of Columbia school board and the school boards in the surrounding Maryland and Virginia communities were studying today a request by the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington that they issue directives prohibiting public school religious observances of any kind.

In identical letters to the school boards, the council asked for “a policy that clearly prohibits the conduct of religious holiday observances and other religious practices under public school auspices, whether optional or compulsory.” The Council did not spell out what it meant by “other religious practices” but it is interpreted to mean Bible reading, recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and similar prayers recited in classrooms or school assemblies.

The council charged that religious observance in the public schools tends to undermine the schools curriculum because it subjects “all children to divisive influences, personal embarrassment and psychological confusion.” It pointed out that “children of majority religions are conditioned to perceive the children of other religions as somehow odd non-conformists who depart from a dominant school-imposed norm.”

In addition to affecting the schools’ curriculum, the council said religious observances in public schools are: 1. “A major hindrance to authentic religion and meaningful religious education”; and 2. “Unconstitutional violation of the traditional American principles of separation of church and state and of religious freedom.” The council asserted that school religious observances make for a “watered down, anemic, empty kind of religiosity.” It said that the prime responsibility for religious education “must fall exclusively upon the clergy, the religious educators and parents.”