Manufacturers Cancel Plan to Hold Parley at Hotel Practicing Bias

The National Association of Ice Cream Manufacturers has cancelled plans to hold its spring board meeting at the Camelback Inn here because of the resort’s anti-Jewish discrimination policy, it was reported by the Phoenix Jewish News. The decision was prompted by protests by members of the Association’s directorate. The paper reported that only a tiny minority of the board is Jewish, but it was felt that the group should not hold its parley in a resort with such a policy.

The Camelback Inn figured similarly in the news last year when the National Association of Attorneys General cancelled its convention there. Shortly afterward, Senator Leverett Saltonstall of Massachusetts cancelled a booking at the Inn when he came here to address Arizona Republicans. Both cancellations followed notification by Phoenix Jewish community leaders of the Inn’s policy.

Asked whether the Camelback Inn had lost many conventions because of its anti-Jewish policy, Bert Shoemaker, assistant manager, said, “Bookings have been so heavy that when we lose one, we get two. That seems to be the trend.” The Inn has accepted off-season convention reservations where Jews were included in the group, while it declines to accept individual “Jewish reservations” during the busy season.