Jews & the Separation of Church and State

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Jews in America have played a crucial role in the development of the American understanding of the separation of church and state. They have been involved in test-case litigation, filing amicus curiae briefs, and influencing legal scholarship. How and why has this role developed, and how do Jews themselves perceive it?

These are some of the questions addressed in the many excellent essays collected in the recently published volume Jews and the American Public Square. Experts themselves on Judaism and law, Alan Mittleman, Robert Licht, and Jonathan D. Sarna have selected articles on a wide variety of topics: historical issues, sociological dimensions, constitutional debates, and more.

There are obvious historical forces which have helped lead American Jews toward their staunch support for the separation of church and state. Although America has long had religious freedom for all in theory, in practice that freedom has existed more extensively for Protestant Christians than for anyone else; Jews in particular were often relegated to something of a second-class status. Such obvious historical factors are not, however, all of the story:

The sources of ...American Jewish liberalism flow partially from historical Jewish feelings of vulnerability during centuries of intolerance and overt persecution in diaspora Jewish communities. In the twentieth-century American Jewish experience, Jewish liberalism has no doubt been influenced by the involvement of Jews in socialist and union movements. However, neither psychological nor historical factors which have helped to produce coalesced American-Jewish liberalism obviate the very real Jewish attraction to activities which express altruistic social ideals.

At the same time, there has always been some tension between Jews' public commitment to American liberalism and church/state separation on the one hand and private commitment to Judaism on the other. A Jewish identity is very much religious in nature, so how can that be reconciled with political support for a secular society? In his essay on the problem, Jonathan D. Sarna explains:

On the one hand, history teaches Jews to favor strict church-state separation as the only defense against a Christian-dominated state. ...On the other hand, history also teaches Jews to oppose secularization as a force leading to assimilation, social decay, and sometimes to persecution of all religions, Judaism included.

Because of Jews' emphasis on individual rights and the protection of minority religions over communal attitudes, the official and state-sanctioned influence of their own holy book has been reduced on the road towards secularization. For many, it's a necessary exchange in order to secure a freer society for all; others, however, regard it as a tragedy which needs to be fixed.

Although support for secularism remains higher among Jews than among the general population in America, there is a growing force of Orthodox and Conservative Jews who are pushing against the separation of church and state. The Jewish community in America has never been monolithic and there have always been groups and religious leaders who have spoken out against things like the end of official, state-supported prayers in school. Their influence is on the rise, however.

As Jack Wertheimer explains in his essay, one of the crucial issues in the coming years may be the status of Jewish day schools. Mostly run by Orthodox Jewish groups, the cost of attendance in these schools is outstripping the ability of even middle-class Jews to readily pay for. As a consequence, the prospect of financial assistance from the government is quite tempting. Funneling taxpayer dollars for religious education would, however, be a breach of the separation of church and state which so many Jews have fought for.

There is already a great deal of public support for the government support of religious schools in some fashion; reduced Jewish opposition to such public financing of religion, even if it means no more than neutrality, could have an important effect on the outcome, both in terms of immediate court decisions and in long-range constitutional scholarship. Interestingly, Jewish involvement - or lack thereof - in this issue could demonstrate just how much Jews have meant to the separation of church and state in America.

Although there are many books about the separation of church and state, there are very few which address the specific question of Jewish involvement in that developing and controversial legal issue, and how Jewish involvement might affect its future. This volume is a much-needed addition to our historical, cultural, and sociological understanding both of American Judaism and the way America addresses the relationship between personal religious beliefs and public, government policies.