Charges of discrimination against Jewish students at Princeton University were made public here today following a report that for the first time in their nine-year history Princeton’s supper clubs had failed to invite 23 sophomores–half of them Jews–to join. The supper clubs offer the same social facilities, except for lodging, found in fraternities on other campuses.
Last Saturday, during “bicker week” when bids are offered, 43 sophomores who had not yet received invitations called a meeting at which 15 Jewish students signed a statement saying: “I feel I have been discriminated against because of race or religion.” By the next night, when “bicker week” closed, 20 of the 43 had received and accepted invitations. Of the remaining 23, eleven or twelve were believed to be Jewish students.
Fifteen of the 23 are meeting today with University president Dr. Robert F. Goheen to “explain to him why we were disappointed,” as one student put it. The delegation will also make suggestions for changing the supper club system, a spokesman said. Meanwhile, University officials have made no comment.
The Interclub Committee, composed of officers of the supper clubs, stated that while it did not agree with racial or religious discrimination it could not force any supper club to accept the unaffiliated sophomores. The committee said it recognized the right of each club to be selective in choosing its membership and that “selectivity implies the right to impose a religious quota if it so desires.”
When the situation became clear the Prospect Club, considered by the rejected students the least desirable, offered them bids; the other 17 clubs announced they had completed their membership selections. The 23 refused the bids to Prospect on the grounds that they were being “railroaded” into a “catch-all.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
