The First Amendment’s protection of the free practice of religion has played a major role in the history of American Jewry. The courts are still struggling to define the boundaries between those rights and the official neutrality of government on issues of religion in a society whose basic concepts of morality were originally defined by religious beliefs. This is the source of the tension in the ongoing debate over limits of the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.
As religious Jews, we have a major stake in the definition and enforcement of state and local kashrut laws that offer us protections as kosher consumers against products and institutions that falsely claim to be kosher. For hundreds of years religious Jews in many cities and states had to fight the so-called blue laws that made it illegal for them to operate businesses on Sundays even if their businesses had been closed on Shabbos, putting them at a severe competitive disadvantage.
As supporters of Israel we all have a stake in the pending outcome of the Zivotofsky case, in which the State Department has been sued for refusing to list Israel as the country of birth for American citizens born in Jerusalem, despite a law passed by Congress requiring it to do so.
Our yeshiva students need to be aware of the historical context and contemporary significance of these issues and disputes. Every American Jew needs a solid understanding of how our government works and of our rights and obligations as citizens of the larger society.
By adding civics to our yeshiva curriculums, we will give our children the information they will need as adults to protect our vital interests as Jews, both for ourselves here in the United States and for our fellow Jews in Israel and throughout the world.
