Press Releases
June 23, 1997

The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America the nation's largest Orthodox Jewish umbrella organization through its Institute for Public Affairs, hailed today's decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that public school teachers can offer remedial education classes at parochial schools. In reversing it's 1985 decision in the case of Aguilar v. Felton (today, under the name of Agostini v. Felton), the Justice O'Connor, writing for the Court, stated that "New York City's program does not run a foul of advancing religion."

Nathan Diament, Director of the Institute for Public Affairs, issued the following statement:

"Today's decision by the Supreme Court is a very welcome one. We appreciate the fact that the Court has come to recognize that the First Amendment's proscription upon the establishment of religion does not mean that the government must be hostile to religion or refrain fromgiving even secular assistance to religious citizens and institutions when they meet the same neutral criteria that entitle non-religious institutions to a government benefit. Justice O'Connor's recognition that the Court's view of church-state relations has significantly changed since the 1985 ruling, makes us hope that this is the first step by which the Court returns its church-state rulings to a more sensible middle path. That middle path sees the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses of the Constitution as ensuring that the United States is a religiously pluralistic society in which there is freedom for religion, and religious citizens and institutions are able to participate in government programs to the same degree as the non-religious."