Dr. Isaac Franck, executive vice-president of the Jewish Community Council of Greater Washington, charged a columnist in the Washington Evening Star and Daily News today with “false assumptions” for attacking the criticisms of the singing of Christmas carols in public schools. James J. Kilpatrick, a politically conservative columnist, wrote that “the great Christmas carols long ago lost whatever purely religious significance they may once have held” and “are now part of a cultural inheritance.”
Kilpatrick said that after Dr. Franck had complained, Prince George’s County Superintendent Carl W. Hassel issued guidelines that “no songs or music programs that have a significance for a particular religion should be performed during the period which coincides with the specific religious celebration.”
Charging Dr. Franck with having taken “a sound principle” and “beat it into the ground,” Kilpatrick wrote: “A better approach might be to urge the Jewish children to join in the singing. Many of them have beautiful voices. They wouldn’t be corrupted by the experience and it probably would improve the chorus.”
Dr. Franck protested that “public schools have no right to coerce any child into participating in any religious ceremony or religious hymns which are inconsistent with that child’s or that child’s parents’ religious conscience.” The Jewish leader added: “There is no question of these particular hymns being Christian religious hymns. If these are only great music, then they could be studied at a time other than a religious holiday with which they are associated.” The hymns in question include “Adeste Fidelis.” “Silent Night” and “O Little Town of Bethlehem.”
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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.
