Christian Teachers : Rabbi Supports School-Faith Rule

In a sermon delivered to the congregation at Sinai Temple in Westwood, a rabbi congratulated the First Presbyterian Church in Sherman Oaks for requiring all of its nursery school teachers, more than a third of whom are Jewish, to be practicing Christians.

The church’s controversial requirement that all workers at Sherman Oaks Presbyterian Nursery School profess faith in Jesus Christ or quit by September, 1989, brought anger from many parents and resignations of the entire staff and the school’s director, effective later this month. Nearly half the school’s pupils and five of 14 staff members are Jewish.

Zvi Dershowitz, associate rabbi of Sinai Temple, which with 1,500 families is one of the largest in Los Angeles, said Monday that he sent a letter of congratulations to the First Presbyterian Church’s co-pastor, the Rev. John Powell.

And in a Friday evening sermon, he told his congregation that he applauded the church’s requirement because each religion has the right to promote its own beliefs in its own schools.

“This is not a subject like math,” Dershowitz said Monday. “It is a question of attaching a child to his or her own religious roots. That is the role of the church or synagogue.

“I congratulated the church for making its decision. I got tremendous positive response from the congregation here. “

Charlene Baldwin, a deacon and spokeswoman for the First Presbyterian Church, said Powell read parts of a letter of support from Dershowitz to his own congregation Sunday.

“He was most appreciative of that support and he shared that in his sermon,” said Baldwin, who added that the church has received several letters of support from Los Angeles-area congregations.

“Some of the most meaningful support has come from rabbis,” she said.

Dershowitz said he is sympathetic to the fact that Jewish teachers would be dismissed and Jewish pupils, if they remained, would be subject to Christian instruction under the church’s new policy. But he said the principle that churches and synagogues be allowed to staff their schools with teachers who have “deep personal commitment” to their religion was far greater.

“For a church-run school to engage Jewish teachers simply because a number of its students are Jewish would be folly,” Dershowitz said in his Friday evening sermon. “Only those with a firm commitment to the school ideology should be hired.”

In the sermon, Dershowitz pointed out that Sinai Temple’s own nursery program follows that principle.

“We have an outstanding school with a fine reputation and with a commitment to teaching Jewish prayer and values and observance,” he said. “Any suggestion that we should feel obliged to hire teachers who are not committed to these goals would, in my judgment, be outrageous.

“Any suggestion that the First Presbyterian Church should hire any but committed Christians would be equally outrageous.”

While controversy continues to surround the church’s May 26 decision, a group of parents said last week it will open another nursery school, using teachers who resigned.

At a meeting attended by 130 parents of former and current students at the First Presbyterian school, organizers of the new school said they had found another church willing to provide space for summer classes and were negotiating for a site.