Vital Factors in Church-State Separation Idea:
American Jewish Congress Pursues an Ideal

later in Miami. Among the
religious practices challenged
in the Miami suit was an
Easter program which, like
the Oberamergau Passion
Play, depicted the crucifixion
of Jesus. The evidence
brought forth by the con-
gress in the trial showed not
only that this program was
presented in schools with
substantial Jewish enroll-
ment, but that attendance
was compulsory, and that
some Jewish children were
actually made ill by witness.
ing it.
Ten years after the Su-
preme Court decisions, the
situation was vastly different.
The court reversed itself and
forbade religion in the public
schools. It also overturned
the previous denial of un-
employment benefits to Sab-
bath observers. The Sunday-
closing decision was not
overruled but there was little
need for it, since all of the
states with substantial Jew-
ish populations already had
exempted or were in the
process of exemptik Sab-
bath observers from Sunday-
closing laws.
It was at this time that the
major Orthodox organizations
— specifically the Union of
Orthodox Jewish Congrega-
tions and the Rabbinical
Council of America — broke
away from the position of
strict separation of church
and state which for years
they had previously shared
with the rest of the organized
Jewish community. They
joined with the Catholic
Church in the campaign to
obtain governmental funds
for parochial schools, justi-
fying their change of position
on the ground that there was
a great need for tax-raised
funds in order that the yeshi-
vot and_Jewish day schools
could expand' and take care
of more Jewish children.
The position of the con-
gress and of the non-Ortho-
dox Jewish community has
not changed. We remain
deeply commited not only to
church-state separation and
religious liberty but also to

By LEO PFEFFER
Special Counsel
American Jewish Congress

(Copyright 1974, JTA, Inc.)

,

Just over 20 years ago, the
American Jewish Congress
was involved in three cases
before the United States
Supreme Court. One of them
was in defense of Sam Fried-
man, an Orthodox owner of
a small kosher butcher shop
on the Lower East Side of
New York who was prose-
cuted and found guilty of
keeping his store open on
Sunday. The second was on
behalf of Mary Jane Heisler,
an unemployed Orthodox Jew
living in Youngstown, Ohio,
who was denied unemploy-
ment benefits because she
refused to take a job which
required her to work on
Saturday. The third, in which
AJCongiess filed a "friend
of the court" brief, was a
suit brought by two atheist
residents of New Jersey who
objected to public school pro-
grams of Bible reading ..and
recitation of the "Lord's
Prayer," which is taken
from the New Testament and
refers to the prayer for-
mulated by Jesus.
In all three cases the con-
gress- argued that the chal-
lenged law violated the con-
stitutional guarantee of the
separation of church and
state by imposing upon reli-
gious minorities or nonreli-
gious groups the standards
and vahies of Christianity.
Practically all of American
Jewry supported the position
taken by the congress in
these cases. (The only ex-
ception was in respect to
Bible reading, prayer recita-
tion and religious instruction
in the public schools, favored
by the Lubavitcher Rebbe).
In all three cases the court
decided against the Jewish
position. The direct effect of
the store-closing and unem-
ployment benefits decisions
on Jewish rights was obvious,
but the effect of the religion-
in-school decision was dram-
atized by a lawsuit brought
by AJCongress several years

Jewish education. We believe
that responsibility for it
rests not upon the govern-
ment — nor upon non-Jews
who would be compelled by
the tax laws to contribute to
it — but upon the Jewish
community itself. The Amer-
ican Jewish Congress, along
with other Jewish organiza-
tions, has been urging the
Jewish federations and wel-
fare funds to assume greater
responsibility for financing
Jewish education, and these
urgings are bearing fruit.
Substantial - allocations are
made by the federations and
welfare funds to Jewish edu-
cation, and the amounts are
increasing year by year. We
are convinced that the Jew-
ish community can and will
support Jewish education
without the need to seek
governmental funds. -
There is another aspect to
the matter. The crucifixion
of Jesus and Jewish respon-
sibility for it are still part
of the New Testament. St.
Matthew still states: "Then
answered all the (Jewish)
people and said, 'His blood
be on us, and on our chil-
dren.' " It is the New Testa-
ment which is taught in the
Christian religious schools,
and because the First
Amendment to our Constitu-
tion guarantees religious
freedom, no government can
censor these passages out.
But the same amendment,
also declares the separation
of church and state, which
guarantees that Jews cannot
be compelled by the tax laws
to support the schools which
teach these passages and
many others that defame the
Jews and are contrary to
Jewish beliefs.
There is only one Consti-
tution and only one First
Amendment. If we as Jews
seeking tax-funds for our
schools weaken it, we
weaken the protection we
have had against compulsory
closing of stores on Sunday,
against loss of unemploy-
ment. benefits for refusal to
work on the Sabbath, against
sectarian teachings and prac-
tices in the public---schools
which are attended by most
Jewish children.
portant, too, to the Moslems,
There is a lawsuit now
but the Jewish claim on the pending in a. federal court
city is nearly 2,000 years
older than the Moslem one.
Islam was born in the 7th
Century CE, and Muham-
mad, its founder, spent many
years in close contact with
the Jewish tribes living in
South Arabia, so as it comes
as no surprise that Jerusa-
lem, the holy city of the
Jews, became a holy city for
the Moslems as well.
The adoration of Jerusa-
lem in Islam is primarily
based on Muhammad's night
journey. Encyclopedia Ju-
daica's section on the Mus-
lim faith recounts how Mu-
hammad went to heaven to
meet Abraham, Moses and
Jesus. In accordance with
accepted opinion, his point
of departure was the Tem-
ple Mount in Jerusalem—
and Jerusalem was original-
ly the direction to be faced in
prayer, a concession by Mu-
hammad to the Jews whom
he wanted to acknowledge
him as prophet.

JertBalem's 3,500-Year Record

_Jerusalem is truly "The
Holy City." Three of the
world's five great religions
look to it as a focal point in
the development of Chris-
tianity, Judaism and Islam.
The uniqueness of Jefusa-
lem as the center of worship
for Jews dates from the pe-
riod of David, more than 1,-
500 years before the birth of
Islam. The erection of the
Temple during the reign of
Solomon invested the site as
well as the monarchy with
an aura of holiness. "In
Psalm 132," the authoritative
Encyclopedia Judaica states,
"Zion is conceived not only
as a city chOsen by the Lord
for the monarchy, but also
the place and seat of the
Lord, His resting place and
His abode."
"If I forget thee, 0 Jeru-
salem," is the outcry for
Jerusalem as the eternal
capital of the 'Jewish Peo-
ple, the eternal city of Da-
vid, the eternal city of the
Temple."
Jerusalem has been im-

.

48 Friday, April 5, 1974

—

seeking to outlaw shehita.
The Jewish organizations are
defending their right to prac_
tice shehita on the ground
that interference with it by
the government would vio-
late both guarantees of the
First Amendment — freedom
of religion and separation of
church and state. If we were
to take the position that the
government has the right to
involve itself in religious af-
fairs in a way which we may
like — namely financing re-
ligious schools — how can
we deny government the
right to involve itself in a
way which we don't like,
such as - interfering with
shehita or controlling what
is taught in our religious
schools, and how it is taught?
The lesson of history is
that the separation of church
and state is the surest and
indeed the only protection
Jews and - other religious
minorities can safely rely on
it. It would be a grave mis-
fortune if it were bargained
away for a few government
dollars.

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An original art rendering by-the Israeli-French artist, Nissan Engel, depicts the
Morranos observing Passover in secret during the Spanish Inquisition. This also
serves as a reinnder of the oppression of three million Soviet Jews during the
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Hermelin, Colburn Colburn

314 Fisher Building

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