A delegation representing 21 national and New York Jewish groups told a New York State legislative committee today that the state’s compulsory Sunday-closing law forces Orthodox Jews, Seventh-day Adventists and other Sabbatarians to make a “cruel choice” between violating their religious beliefs or suffering economic hardship.
The statement was made at a hearing of the State Assembly Codes Committee on proposals to amend the state Sunday law. Speaking on behalf of the delegation, Leo Pfeffer of New York, general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, said that enforcement of the law against such Sabbatarians “constitutes a serious infringement of their civil, religious and economic rights.” He urged legislation which would exempt “all those who observe another day as their Sabbath” from the state Sunday closing law.
The AJ Congress representative noted that among the 34 states with general Sunday closing laws, “no less than 23 provide some form of exemption for Sabbatarians.” He cited such exemptions in the laws of Connecticut, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Oklahoma and Vermont.”
(In New York, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America declared in a resolution today that the New York state Sunday closing law was “patently discriminatory” and that it “penalizes religious observance by imposing upon firms operated by observant Jews economic sanctions.” The Orthodox Union urged the New York Legislature “to enact without further delay measures to exempt from the restrictions of the Sunday closing law establishments which are closed on the seventh day of the week in observance of the Jewish Sabbath.”)
PROTESTANT COUNCIL OF CHURCHES SUPPORTS JEWISH DEMAND
Theodore Conklin, speaking for the Protestant Council of New York City and the New York Council of Churches, told the legislators that “because of our belief in the freedom of religion for all, we shall support legislation for the protection of those who regularly keep another day of the week as Holy time and do not labor or engage in business on that day.”
Other speakers in the delegation included Hyman Fliegel, former president of B’nai Zion; Rabbi David Hollander, Religious Zionists of America; Rabbi Herman Kieval of Albany, for the United Synagogue of America; Rabbi Elihu Kasten, legislative chairman of the Rabbinical Council of America; Adolph Stern, grand secretary of the B’rith Abraham; and Rabbi Samuel Walkin of New York, Poale Agudath Israel of America.
The organizations represented also included the Brooklyn Jewish Community Council; the Farband-Labor Zionist Order; Jewish War Veterans; Labor Zionist Organization of America; Mizrachi Women’s Organization of America; New York Association of Reform Rabbis; New York Board of Rabbis; New York Federation of Reform Synagogues; Pioneer Women of America; Rabbinical Assembly of America; Synagogue Council of America; Union of American Hebrew Congregations; Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the Zionist Organization of America.
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.
