Jewish Education Body Calls for Defeat of Proposed New York Constitution

The American Association for Jewish Education, the national service agency in the field of Jewish education, said today that the elimination of the Blaine Amendment from the proposed State Constitution for New York was “contrary to the public interest and the common needs of Jewish education.” The statement was unanimously adopted at a meeting of the national officers of the agency which is the parent body for bureaus of Jewish education in 40 communities and coordinates the educational activities of 17 national religious and fraternal bodies.

The statement pointed out that while the AAJE has advocated greater support of Jewish parochial education, “we regard the doctrinal objectives of religious education as the exclusive responsibility of the religious and ethnic groups that desire them.” The statement warned that to charge the state with financial responsibility for the parochial educational system would “intensify organized separatist religious pressure on the uses of public educational budgets” and would be “an invitation to government to involve itself acrimoniously in the sacred precincts of religion.”

The Blaine Amendment, Article XI, Section 3 of the present Constitution, forbids the use of public funds for the support of religious schools. The 73-year-old provision was eliminated from the draft of the new constitution being submitted to the electorate on Nov. 7. In its stead is the language of the First Amendment of the Federal Bill of Rights and a provise giving the taxpayer the right to challenge expenditures made for religious schools.