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Send address changes to The Jewish I Observer, 5 Beekman St., N.Y., N.Y. 10038. Printed in the U.S.A. Bringing G-d ... Into The Classroom, Chaim David Zwiebel . 4 Civilization and The Jews, a media report by RABBI NISSON WOLl'lN Dr. Bernard Fryshman . • . • • . • . • . B Editor Junkies Without Drugs, Nehama Consuelo Nahmoud • . 13 Editorial Board Who Will Live and Who Will Die (Tra-La-La), OR. ERNST BODENHEIMER Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin . • . 18 Chairman L. RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS Hacham Shaya's Simhat Tora, M. Reisman . 22 JOSEPH fR!EDENSON Openings, a poem by Judith Benoliel Belsky. 17 RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN RABBI MOSHE SHERER Second Looks on the Jewish Scene "Everybody's Going," Melvin Kalter . • . 29 Management Board NAFTOU HIRSCH Israel's New "Baseball Cards," Hanoch Teller . • . 33 ISAAC K1RZNER Letters to the Editor . 37 NACHUM 5TE!N l Business Manager YOSEF CHAIM GOLDING THE JrwtsH OBSERVER does not assume responsibility for the Kashrus of any product or ser+ vice advertised in its pages. © Copyright 1984 SEPT. 84, VOL. XVI, NO. 10 Chaim David Zwiebel From the Capitol steps to the rooms of America's public schools? Bringing G-d (and G-d Only Knows What Else) Into The Public School Classroom: The Dangers and Opportunities of "Equal Access" and Prayer in the Classroom Orthodox Jews need little persuasion that only au­ that resides within each Jew. Little wonder, therefore, thentic, intensive Torah education can ensure Jewish that organized Orthodoxy has placed such heavy em­ survival in the United States. Even the most indigent in phasis in recent years on reaching out to Jewish public our community understand that the alternative to school students in an attempt to ignite that spark. expensive Yeshiva and Bais Yaakov education-free But there are others who are attempting to generate public education-is no alternative at all. sparks of their own. The alarming rise of the so-called Yet tens upon tens of thousands of American Jewish religious cults, coupled with the increasingly aggressive children do attend public schools. And a staggering posture of Christian Fundamentalist missionary groups, number of young neshamos emerge each year from the make Jewish public school children attractive prey for vast wasteland of American public education with nary dangerous religious sharks. Tragically, the sharks have an inkling of what it means to be a Jew. been all too successful in devouring their targets. That the Torah community cannot write these chil­ Recently enacted legislation has raised the ante con­ dren off as forever lost to Yiddishkeil is self-evident. The siderably in the battle for the soul of the Jewish public growth in recent years of the Baal Teshuva phenomenon school student. is eloquent testimony to the eternal spark of Divinity What the Law Says Chaim Dovid Zwiebel is Direcfor of the Office of Government Affairs of Agudalh Israel of Amrrica. His article on "The Yeshivos' Educational Independence Most public schools permit students to use school Under Threat" appeared in the May '84 JO. facilities during non-instructional hours of the school 4 The Jewish Obseroer!Seplember, 1984 day to conduct meetings and discussions on a broad (Proposed School Prayer Amendment:) range of extra-curricular activities. Student math clubs, chess clubs, drama clubs and the like are perceived as "Nothing in this Constitution shall be construed to prohibit enhancing a schooYs educational mission and are widely individual or group prayer in public schools or other public l encouraged. Some courts have held, however, that the institutions. No person shall be required by the United States First Amendment's proscription against the establish­ or by any state to participate in prayer. Neither the United ment of religion forbids public schools from allowing States nor any state shall compose the words of any prayer to be student religious clubs to use school facilities to conduct said in public schools." their activities. Earlier this year, Congress responded with the "Equal Access Act." The proposed amendment, and several alternative Under the newly enacted legislation, a public high formulations, were defeated. school that permits student groups to conduct meetings Opposition to the school prayer amendments was led on school facilities may not "deny equal access or a fair by congressional civil libertarians who perceived prayer opportunity to, or disciminate against, any students in the public schools as a breach in the wall separating who wish to conduct a meeting within that [school] on church and state in this country. Prayer proponents hit the basis of the religious, political, philosophical, or other con­ upon an ingenious way to overcome such opposition: tent of the speech at such meeting." [Emphasis added.] equal access. If student groups can get together to dis­ Stated simply, no student group may be denied access to cuss poetry, why not religion? By portraying the prayer public high school facilities if any student group is per­ issue in terms of advancing not religion but free mitted access. If the school allows on-campus meetings speech-a principle dear to the heart of civil libertarians of chess clubs, for example, it must allow on-campus (remember Skokie?)-those who sought to "bring G-d meetings of New Testament study clubs, gay rights back into the classroom" enlisted the support of the very clubs, Moonie clubs, Marxist clubs, atheist clubs-and, groups that had successfully killed the proposed school yes, Torah clubs-so long as "the meeting does not prayer amendments. materially and substantially interfere with the orderly conduct of educational activities within the school." Neutralizing the Civil Libertarians The Equal Access Law does contain certain safe­ guards designed to ensure that the school's involvement The civil liberties groups were not easily won over. in religious meetings is minimal. Meetings must be The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, voluntary and student initiated. The school may not opposed the original version of the Equal Access Bill, sponsor the meetings. School employees may attend which provided that schools could not discriminate religious meetings only in a "non-participatory capa­ against a student group meeting "on the basis of the city." Nothing in the law, however, precludes the use of religious content of the speech at such meeting." This school bulletin boards or publications to publicize stu­ language, according to the ACLU, "on its face would dent meetings. give a privileged position to 'religious'·speech. Such In addition, the new law prohibits non-school persons status would impermissibly benefit religious groups and from "regularly" attending on-campus student meet­ create the grave constitutional problem of having ings. Presumably, therefore, the Reverends Falwell and school officials determine what student meeting re­ F arakhan can-on an irregular basis-participate per­ quests were 'religious'." The initial Equal Access Bill sonally in the respectively meetings of high school failed to muster the requisite majority in the House of Youth for Christian Values and Black Muslim groups. Representatives, and it was back to the drawing board The aforementioned men of the cloth have not been again for school prayer proponents. heard to complain about the limitations of this impend­ They finally achieved their objective when they ing state of affairs. introduced the second version of equal access legisla­ tion. The new bill prohibited schools from discriminat­ The Evolution of Equal Access ing not only on the basis of the religious content of the student group speech, but also on the "political, philoso­ l The Equal Access Act is best understood when phical or other basis of the speech." The ACLU still ~ viewed against the background of the broader issues of could not bring itself actively to support the bill, but school prayer and free speech. called it "a significant improvement" over the initial l Since the early'60s, when the United States Supreme version of equal accessr "a serious students rights initia­ Court held-that organized prayer in the public schools tive [which] would be of real benefit to many political was unconstitutional, there have been frequent at­ and other student groups which seek ACLU assistance." tempts to amend the constitution to permit such prayer. The bill passed Congress by an overwhelming majority, Matters came to a head early this year. The White and President Reagan signed it into law late this House pushed hard for a constitutional amendment summer. that would have allowed public school students to par­ Those who hailed passage of the Equal Access Law ticipate in organized prayer sessions during class hours: represented a curious group of bedfellows. The Presi- The Jewish Observer/September, 1984 5 dent and many other conservative political and religious letter noted that "high school students are not adults groups hailed the legislation as an important break­ [but rather] impressionable teenagers, compelled by I through for the cause of religion in the public schools.