The Milford Board of Education has decided to retain the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in Milford’s public schools pending a study by a subcommittee of clergymen.
The action of the board was in response to a petition submitted by five parents, several of them Jewish and three of them teachers in the Milford school system. The petition asked that the morning prayers, which have been a part of morning school exercises since 1918, be eliminated as a “sectarian religious observance.” The petitioners were Mr. and Mrs. Bertram Cohen, Elayne Landau, Robert Pinco and Joseph Kaschmann.
The Milford Clergy Association issued a statement recommending such a study and offering the services of its members for that purpose. Rabbi Leon Weinberger of the Milford Jewish Center, who is association secretary, subscribed to the statement.
The statement also deplored “distortions of fact and personal vilification” developing from the petition and said the clergymen respected “the courage and integrity of those who have brought this problem to the attention of the community.” Adding a reminder that “ours is a pluralistic society,” the clergymen urged Milford residents to accept the “responsibility to respect the views of others.”
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.
