Economic Discrimination Real Seminar on Christian Jewish Relations Finds

That the Jews and Catholics are the most discriminated against groups and that many difficulties are so grave and so deeply rooted psychologically, as to prevent unity on the part of the Catholic, Jewish and Protestant faiths, but not respect for and to a degree cooperation with each other was the finding of the Seminar on the relations between Jews and Christians which closed its two day session Thursday night with a dinner at the Hotel Roosevelt.

While no specific program of action was adopted, it was the consensus of opinion on the part of spokesmen of the three beliefs, that the occasion was unique and beneficial in that for perhaps the first time representatives of the three faiths had faced the prejudices current against each other. It is planned to hold similar Seminars at college centers throughout the country.

In the course of the session Thursday afternoon, summarizing the Round Table Discussions, it was admitted that there is vocational discrimination against Jews and Catholics. In particular Jewish lawyers and girl stenographers are discriminated against. In the Middle West it is impossible for the Jew to secure a university post, or a Catholic to obtain a position as a teacher, it was stated. New York, it was charged, bars Jews from most of its public utility corporations and Jews from interneships unless in a hospital (Continued on Page 4)

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under Jewish auspices. This discussion was led by Rabbi Edward Israel of Baltimore.

As an experiment in remedying this situation, it was suggested that Bureaus of Vocational Guidance dissuade members of their own groups from going into certain professions which are already overcrowded. The overtaxed field of Jewish lawyers was mentioned.

Another suggestion to overcome the prejudice against Jewish employes was that a group representing the three faiths go to certain concerns and ask them, as an experiment, to employ Jews for a certain period to prove to themselves that their prejudice is ill-founded.

The considerable difficulty in solving this problem, it was stated, is further complicated by the lack of statistics on the extent and variety of the discrimination.

The prejudice against the Jew, it was stated, is due in a considerable measure to a self-imposed barrier. The Jew, it was said, lives in a self-imposed ghetto, a sort of "Island Within." The necessity for a Jew remaining Jewish his abhorrence of inter-marriage, was ununderstandable to many Christians.

Dr. Edmund Davison Soper, President of the Ohio Wesleyan University, was the spokesman for the Protestant faith at the dinner Thursday evening which heard also the Catholic view point expressed by Hon. Martin Conboy, a Knight of St. Gregory and one of the most prominent members of the Catholic laity in the United States; and the Jewish viewpoint from Dr. David Philipson of Cincinnati, one of the most prominent members of the Reform Rabbinate Hon. George W. Wickersham, presided.

"The Conference," said Dr. Soper, is not a failure, because it has achieved no unity. We wanted to find out where we stood in relation to each other. Now we are beginning to realize how honest and sincere are those who differ from us."

The so-called "Jewish traits" are not of race or blood or belief, declared Dr. Philipson, but those of historic conditions. The same thing would have happened to any other people placed in ghettos for 1000 years. He appealed for greater emphasis upon the qualities Jews and Christians have in common.

"There is no better way to get respect for rights than by compelling in" said Mr. Conboy. "Many a stream of prejudice is bridged by respect."

Among guests at the dinner were Paul Warburg, Max J. Kohler, Rabbi Max Hoffman, Bernard Edelbertz, Rabbi Isaac Landman, Rabbi N. Stern Rabbi Max Raisen, Rabbi Israel Gold stein, Rabbi Charles Martinbend, and Rabbi Jacob Sonderling.