NEWS I SNEAKER WEEK 1ST PR. REG. PRICE 2ND PR. Largest Selection Sizes & Widths EQUAL OR LESSER VALUE NOW THRU MAY 20th CHILDNfll :HOC DAILY TIL 6 FRI. TIL 9 SUN. 12-5 Court's Peyote Case Hurts Jewish Rituals firm quality price fit FARMINGTON GRAND RIVER NEAR FARMINGTON RD. 478-7611 , UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON. BENETTON AT THE BOARDWALK • WEST BLOOMFIELD Orchard Lake Road • South of Maple • 73 7-3 73 7 Advertising in The Jewish News Gets Results Place Your Ad Today. Call 354-6060 1 --- 44 FRIDAY, MAY 18, 1990 Washington (JTA) — The Supreme Court decision allowing American Indians to be prosecuted for the use of illegal drugs in religious rituals could result in mak- ing illegal such Jewish ritual practices as drinking wine for kiddush, the slaughter of kosher meat and circumcision, a Jewish leader warns. Henry Siegman, executive director of the American Jewish Congress, issued the warning at a news con- ference after the American Jewish Congress and 15 other religious and civil lib- erties organizations filed a petition with the Supreme Court asking for a rehearing of the case, popularly known as the "Peyote case." The court ruled 6-3 on April 17 that two members of an American Indian chur- ch could not be exempted from an Oregon law that makes it a crime to possess or use peyote, even though they used it only for sacramental purposes. Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the majority opi- nion, rejected the Oregon Supreme Court's ruling that the First Amendment free exercise of religion clause required that the two men, Alfred Smith and Galen Black, be exempted from the Oregon law. "For all practical pur- poses, a majority of the Supreme Court has elim- inated the free exercise clause of the First Amend- ment from our Bill of Rights," Siegman said. The Rev. Dean Kelley, di- rector for religious liberty of the National Council of Churches, said the court's decision "gutted" the free exercise clause. He compared the Scalia ruling with the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which said that a black slave was prop- erty and not a U.S. citizen. "Justice Scala said in effect that religious minorities have no rights to religious practices that majorities are bound to respect," Kelley said. He charged the decision "not only devastated the Na- tive American Church but struck a serious blow at all religious groups in this country." The petition for a rehear- ing was signed by such a di- verse group of organizations as the American Civil Liber- ties Union and the National Association of Evangelicals. "I doubt that these groups have ever been in the same room together, much less in a joint project of this magnitude," said Oliver Thomas, general counsel for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. "These individuals and organizations agree on very little," Thomas said. "They all agree, however, that the Smith decision is disastrous for the free exercise of re- ligion." On specific Jewish ritual practices, the petition noted that under the ruling, the ‘`government could, for ex- ample, without constitu- tional impediment, bar all `non-humane' slaughter, and thus effectively outlaw Jew- ish and Moslem ritual slaughter; (and) outlaw as medically unnecessary all circumcision, including that practiced for religious reasons by Jews, Moslems and Coptic. Christians." The news conference was to have been held on the steps of the Supreme Court, but a dren- ching rain forced it to move. All the speakers expressed dismay that neither the American public nor the media has realized the seri- ousness of the Peyote deci- sion. Some suggested that this was because it dealt with il- legal drugs, which has become a major concern in the United States. Thomas said that Ameri- cans do not realize yet that this ruling could impact on their own churches and syn- agogues. "What is affecting Native Americans today will affect Catholics and Jews and Baptists tomorrow," he said. Atlas Seeking Help In Israel Tel Aviv (JTA) — Allison Atlas, a 20-year-old leukemia victim from Bethesda, Md., has turned to Israel as the last hope to find a compatible donor of bone marrow which may still save her life. Doctors say the best chance is to locate an unknown distant relative of Eastern European Jewish origin. None has been found in the eastern United States, although more than 20,000 persons have volunteered to be tested since November. More than 200 people have found potential donors through the efforts of Atlas.