Jewish Groups Hail Decision That School Prayer Reading is Unconstitutional

Twenty Jewish organizations have welcomed Monday’s unanimous decision by the New Jersey Supreme Court that daily prayer readings at Netcong High School are unconstitutional even if voluntary. The New Jersey Ad Hoc Committee on Church and State, representing the organizations, said the ruling was an advance toward “strengthening the wall of separation between church and state. John Kaufman and Meyer Fine, chairman and executive secretary of the Ad Hoc Committee, stressed that “such prayer practices in the public schools are divisive and harmful to all faiths by diluting the value of prayer.” The Ad Hoc Committee represents the Rabbinical Council of New Jersey (Orthodox), the Rabbinical Assembly of Northern New Jersey (Conservative), the New Jersey Association of Reform Rabbis, the American Jewish Congress, the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith and 14 Jewish community councils.

The legal opinion that first barred the voluntary prayer-readings in the Netcong school system was issued last year by then-Attorney General Arthur Sills at the instigation of the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Community Council of Essex County. Monday’s 7-0 Supreme Court ruling upheld the State Board of Education’s suit against the Netcong school board. The case arose from the reading of a nondenominational prayer before school hours on Sept. 16, 1969, by the Netcong H.S. principal in the school gymnasium. The prayer had been delivered on the floor of the United States Senate on Aug. 8. Students were not required to attend the reading of what the principal called “inspirational remarks.” On Feb. 9 this year, Superior Court Judge Joseph H. Stamler prohibited further readings, declaring: “To call some of the beautiful prayers in the Congressional Record ‘remarks’ for a deceptive purpose is to peddle religion in a very cheap manner under an assumed name. This type of subterfuge is degrading to all religions.”