Religious Freedom Coalition
717 2nd Street NE, Suite 100, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 543-0300 Fax (202) 543-8447
THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE AND THE NEW YORK SCHOOLS
Statement of William J. Murray, Chairman
December 14, 1999
If the Catholic Diocese or the National Association of Evangelicals had
sent a letter to the New York City Board of Education stating
"rules" of conduct for Christmas, would that letter have been
distributed to all school principals and associated PTA’s?
The answer of course is no, not even if the letter were identical down
to every comma of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) letter which was
distributed at tax payer expense. The Board’s automatic response to
anything Christian is "NO".
The distribution of the ADL letter by the New York Board of Education
raises numerous concerns. First among these is the concept of
"separation of church and state" which the ADL claims to
champion. The ADL represents one specific faith and claims to protect that
faith from "persecution". The ADL does not represent Catholics
or Protestants and it surely does not represent Muslims. Is the
distribution of the ADL letter in itself a violation of "separation
of church and state"?
The second concern is that an advocacy group which claims to represents
only one faith is setting official policy for the New York Board of
Education. This is particularly alarming as some schools in the New York
City school district are predominately Jewish. What does this endorsement
of the ADL letter by the New York Board of Education say to the Christian
and Muslims students who are a minority in those schools?
The last line of the ADL letter makes it clear that the organization
expected the New York Board of Education to post the letter in public
schools. The letter promoted the ADL and its Internet site; thus, the ADL
was asking for and did receive free advertising for itself and its beliefs
from the New York Board of Education.
If the Christmas rules of conduct in the ADL letter represent the
decisions of the Board, then those rules should have been outlined on the
letterhead of the Board and not on an ADL letterhead as was done on
October 30th of this year. |