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March 4, 2005/Adar I 23 5765, Volume 57, No. 27
Cracks seen in church-state wall
MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
As American Jewish organizations struggle to find funds for all their priorities, some are considering climbing the wall that separates church and state.
Officials of Jewish Community Relations Councils (JCRC) from around the country met this week to discuss a wide range of issues affecting the Jewish community at the Jewish Council for Public Affair's annual plenum in Washington, D.C.
Michelle Steinberg, director of the JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, represented the Valley and said the "church-state issues are always in the forefront when it comes to these kinds of conferences."
For years, Jews have been among the strongest advocates for a strict separation, arguing that any federal aid to houses of worship could be perceived as governmental endorsement or could lead to Christian proselytizing supported by tax dollars.
But those concerns seem to be fading in some segments of the Jewish world, as cash-strapped Jewish communities begin to think about alternative funding sources for their social service needs.
A change in direction could be especially important in smaller Jewish communities, which rely more on synagogues than on federations and outside Jewish organizations to provide social services. Synagogues that perform social services by and large have not sought federal funding in order to maintain the traditional church-state separation.
The debate is intensifying as the Bush administration continues to offer federal funding for social service programming under faith-based auspices.
The umbrella organization, ending a yearlong examination into the issue, voted Feb. 28 to support a resolution affirming the separation of church and state and rejecting efforts to insert language that suggested potential benefits for Jewish interests from federal dollars.
A majority of the delegates favored continuing strong support for the separation of church and state and remain wary of increased government intervention in religious-based social service programming.
While many Jewish social service agencies, especially federation-funded agencies, accept federal funding, the programs for which the funds are used are not religious and the funding requires them to be open to non-Jews as well as Jews.
The real objections are to federal funding of programs in houses of worship and religious schools.
In a telephone interview with the Jewish News from the nation's capital, Steinberg said that part of what the Jewish community on a national level deals with on a regular basis is "combating efforts to blur the wall between church and state."
Only the Orthodox community specifically advocates for more government engagement in religion, and has backed President Bush's faith-based initiative program, which allows churches and synagogues to accept federal funds for social service programming.
But even as the delegates of the policy organization as a whole stood firm in its traditional position, several suggested that certain circumstances might require flexibility.
Nathan Lewin, a prominent Orthodox attorney, said the battles the Jewish community has been fighting for decades on the separation of church and state are "obsolete."
"The United States is phenomenal in the way it has treated and the rights it has given Jews," Lewin said during a debate at the plenum.
But Martin Belsky, a professor of law at the University of Tulsa, said large Jewish organizations are forgetting about Jews in smaller communities, where the fear of misuse is more real.
"You can't have an agenda based on whether it is true in Washington, D.C., New York and Philadelphia," he said. "You have to think about what is best for Jews across the country."
Speaking on a panel on the subject, Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of the Reform movement, chastised Jewish community relations councils for coaxing Reform synagogues to take federal homeland security money, against the Reform movement directive.
Tevi Troy, a former White House liaison to the Jewish community, joked that the Jewish community is trying to have it both ways, speaking out against faith-based initiatives while seeking funding at the same time.
He said he admired what he called Saperstein's "philosophical purity, but I wonder if we as a Jewish community really want to say we are not going to accept this money that is needed."
Contributing Editor Hank Neyer contributed to this report.
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