2,000 Orthodox Teachers Affected by Integration Plan in N.Y. Schools

Over 2,000 Orthodox Jewish teachers in the New York public school system are facing a serious dilemma in connection with the introduction of dual sessions in the schools to enhance the quality of education of all children within the framework of forward-looking integration. Rabbi Israel Miller, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, stated tonight at the annual dinner of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

Addressing the more than 1,000 guests at the dinner, the president of the Council, which represents 900 Orthodox rabbis, said that these teachers will be forced to violate their religious beliefs and practices if they are assigned to late Friday sessions during the winter season. He also indicated that the proposed integration policy of the New York City Board of Education, reinstituting the four-year high school, will affect thousands of Jewish students who–because the dual sessions will be run in many cases to as late as 6:00 p.m. — will be compelled to violate the observance of Sabbath, which begins as early as 4:00 p.m. during the winter months.

Moses I. Feuerstein, president of the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, also referred to the complications which the plan for dual sessions presents for Orthodox Jewry. “These dual sessions,” he said, “will also interfere with the whole program of early after-school religious classes sponsored by virtually every synagogue in the New York City area. These classes usually commence around 3:30 p.m. in order to accommodate the traditional three-o’clock dismissal time of the public schools. This supplementary education is essential not only to Judaism but to the whole structure of society, which is based on the moral bedrock of deep religious value.”

Mr. Feuerstein appealed to the New York City Board of Education “to look into the seriousness of this problem and to suggest concrete plans to fit the new proposals into a scheme which will not conflict with the needs of Orthodox teachers and students in the public school system. We wholeheartedly back any sound proposals for an integrated public school system as long as it does not interfere with the religious rights of the members of the Jewish religious community,” be stressed.