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KESHET - Jewish Families of Children with Special Needs
presents
AN V
ING ©7
Accommodating
Religion
at
C
A
/
EDY
CASTL E
ARON U. RASKAS SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
269 E. 4th Street • South of 11 Mile Rd. • Royal Oak, Michigan
Wednesday, June 8, 1994
L
ast month, the Supreme
Court heard arguments on
a case that may drastical-
ly alter how "establish-
ment clause" cases will be
decided. The case ofKityas Joel
concerns legislation that New
York state enacted to facilitate
The present case arose from
the decision by New Yorks leg-
islature to create a special
school district in Orange Coun-
ty, N.Y., that would be coter-
minous with Kiryas Joel. The
dress, appearance and primary
language of Kiryas Joel's Sat-
Light Dinner Buffet 6:30 p.m.
Show 8:00 p.m.
Valet Par F/n{g Available
Honoree:
RONELLE GRIER
Founder of Keshet
Co-Chairpersons:
RABBI DAVID and ALICIA NELSON
Tickets:
$36 per person: Show at 8:00 p.m.
$50 per person: Light Dinner Buffet & Show Follows
$100 per person: Buffet & Reserved Seating at Show
A special education teacher and two students at the Kiryas Joel public school.
For additional information and reservations call (810) 258-9575
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the delivery of secular public
school special education to the
handicapped children of a com-
munity that happens to be en-
tirely religious. That
community is the Satmar Cha-
sidic village of Kiryas Joel.
Many organizations have
urged the Supreme Court to
find New York's law unconsti-
tutional. But an objective as-
sessment of the facts
demonstrates that the law does
not implicate the constitution's
"establishment clause" and that
it is, at most, a constitutionally
appropriate accommodation of
a community's religious prac-
tices.
Indeed, many liberal groups
challenging the legislation's con-
stitutionality do not recognize
that a "government may [and
sometimes must] accommodate
religious practices and ... may
do so without violating the 'es-
tablishment clause,'" as such
"liberal" justices as William
Brennan and Thurgood Mar-
shall have held in Supreme
Court opinions.
Baltimore attorney Aron Raskas
is a member of the National
Jewish Commission on Law
and Public Affairs. He also
serves on the Law and
Legislation Committee of the
Union of Orthodox Jewish
Congregations of America.
mar Chasidim are different
from those of contemporary
American communities. The
school district was created to ac-
commodate handicapped Sat-
mar children who were
traumatized by their experience
at schools outside the village
where the environment had
been at odds with their own
unique culture.
A majority of New York's
Court of Appeals struck down
legislation establishing the
school district. Despite the fact
that the school district is open
to all persons, the court con-
cluded that "only Chasidic chil-
dren will attend the public
schools in the newly established
school district, and only mem-
bers of the Chasidic sect will
likely serve on the school
board."
It concluded that establish-
ing the school district created
the type of "symbolic union of
church and state" that is "suffi-
ciently likely to be perceived" as
endorsing religion. This would
violate the First Amendment's
"establishment clause."
The court also observed,
again incorrectly, that creating
the school district amounted to
accommodating the Satmar
community's "separatist tenets"
— and that this could be seen
as a governmental establish-
ment of religion.