U.S. Department of Education Honors AJC

American Jewish Committee
Friday, 14 July 2000

The American Jewish Committee's support for Catholic schools 75 years ago was singled out this week by the U.S. Department of Education.

At a conference commemorating the U.S. Supreme Court's 1925 ruling in Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, the Education Department presented AJC with a certificate of appreciation for AJC's "significant contributions" the case.

AJC was the only Jewish organization to file an amicus brief on behalf of the Catholic society that brought the suit challenging the Oregon law that imposed criminal penalties on parents who failed to send their children to public school.

The court struck down the law as an unconstitutional interference in the right of parents to send their children to Catholic schools, and the right of all parents to enroll their children in religious and secular private schools.

"The Pierce case stands as a monument to the ongoing need to strenuously defend religious liberty and other precious freedoms from encroachment by a sometimes indifferent, or even hostile, majority," said David A. Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee.

In its first amicus brief ever filed, AJC argued: "The State may (not) come in and take away from (parents) that sacred right and the performance of the duty which they conscientiously believe that they owe to their children and to future generations. Our children do not belong to the State."

The brief, written by AJC president and distinguished attorney Louis Marshall, marked the beginning of nearly a century of advocacy, through legislation and the courts, to protect the rights of all faith groups as well as efforts to advance Catholic-Jewish relations.

For more information, or to contact American Jewish Committee, see their website at: www.ajc.org