Arnold Forster, general counsel of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, warned here today that “increasing tensions” will take place among American religious groups over the issues of separation of church and state. He made his prediction as the principal speaker of an all-day conference held by the Metropolitan Council of B’nai B’rith, attended by 1,500 leaders of 320 B’nai B’rith lodges and chapters in the Greater New York area.
Noting that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review cases involving recitation of the Lord’s Prayer and Bible reading in public schools, he said that, based upon reactions throughout the country to the High Court’s June ruling against the use of official prayers in the public schools, “it appears inevitable that, no matter what the Supreme Court now decides, there will be much more expression of hostile intergroup feelings. The decisions, no matter which way they go, may force an even wider cleavage than now exists among religious groups in the United States.”
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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.