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Dating back to its support of the 1962 U.S. Supreme Court decision of Engel v. Vitale, when the high court ruled that prayer in public schools violated the First Amendment, the Anti-Defamation League has been a fierce advocate of the separation of church and state.

In line with that priority, the ADL has been a vocal opponent of school vouchers, which the national organization argues violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment by providing state funds to religious schools.

This stance is being challenged by the Philadelphia chapter of the ADL, of which in February the local executive committee, a lay-led board, voted 13-4 in favor of adopting a resolution in support of school vouchers. At the chapter's request, the national organization will reconsider its long-standing policy against vouchers at its upcoming executive committee meeting June 13.

"I believe the educational system in place primarily in inner cities and other distressed areas has failed for generations and unless there's radical change in what were doing, we're going to condemn segments of our population," David Pudlin, a Philadelphia attorney who sits on both the local executive committee of the Philadelphia chapter as well as the ADL's national board, told The Jewish State.

The debate over school vouchers has also been heating up in New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie has pushed toward enacting legislation that would move the state in the direction of vouchers.

Christie endorsed a bill (S1872) currently going through the state legislature that he called the "the first step" that will "lead to school vouchers across the state of New Jersey." The bill, if passed, would permit a limited number of low-income students in "chronically failing" schools to receive scholarships they could use to pay tuition at private schools or public schools in other municipalities.

The ADL's New Jersey chapter's stance on school vouchers is the same as the national organization, according to its director Etzion Neuer.

While the issue of school vouchers is often discussed in relation to poorer, inner-city residents, the families who send their children to parochial schools (including Jewish day schools) and incur the high costs of a private education are also potentially affected. That is why leading Orthodox organizations including Agudath Israel of America and the Orthodox Union have come out strongly in favor of school vouchers.

The challenge to the ADL's longstanding policy against vouchers comes as Jewish day school enrollment has increased exponentially over the past decade. In the 2008-2009 school year there were 228,174 students in Jewish elementary and secondary schools (4-year-olds through 12th grade), according to the Avi Chai Foundation. This represents an increase of 23,000 students or 11 percent from 2003-04, and an increase of more than 43,000 students or nearly 25 percent since 1998-99.

Pudlin supported the resolution in favor of school vouchers. Rather than violating the Constitution, Pudlin suggested that school vouchers should be supported because of the Constitution, under the Equal Protection Clause.

Pudlin added that similar to other "faith-based" initiatives by the government, school vouchers could be enacted in way that upholds the First Amendment.

The separation of church and state, also known as the Establishment Clause, Pudlin said, "has always been very important to the ADL and we're not advocating that we disregard the separation of church and state; we're advocating in adopting a voucher program in which the government imposes safeguards to make sure they don't run afoul of the First Amendment's separation of church and state."

The ADL, according to a section of the Web site devoted to criticizing school vouchers on both policy and constitution grounds, rejects those arguments.

"Superficially, school vouchers might seem a relatively benign way to increase the options poor parents have for educating their children," the ADL Web site reads. "In fact, vouchers pose a serious threat to values that are vital to the health of American democracy. These programs subvert the constitutional principle of separation of church and state and threaten to undermine our system of public education."

Pudlin said that while he hopes the national ADL will adapt the Philadelphia resolution at its upcoming meeting, he's not getting his hopes up.

"Short of that, we would hope that people in leadership positions think about the issue," he said. "It often takes a while before a long-standing policy changes. ... Obviously, our goal is to change the policy and if were not successful to go around and get people to start thinking about the problem and hopefully the view of the ADL on this issue will evolve."