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.