N.Y. City Charges Cooperative Apartment Owners with Anti-jewish Bias

The New York City Commission on Human Rights sustained yesterday the contention of one of the city’s leading Jewish citizens that his bid to buy a cooperative apartment in Manhattan had been rejected because he was a Jew.

The plaintiff is Alfred R. Bachrach, president of Temple Emanu-El, the largest Reform synagogue in the world, a director of the Federation or Jewish Philanthropies, a member of the board of the Associated YM and YWHA’s and a director of the Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx.

The commission asked City Corporation Counsel Leo A. Larkin to seek a permanent injunction against the 1001 Tenants Corporation which operates the cooperative apartment, located about a mile from Temple Emanu-El. Mr. Larkin said the effect of the move, if granted, would be to give Mr. Bachrach first consideration on any new vacancies.

The move for legal action was the first by the commission in the case of a cooperative apartment. It will be filed under the city’s Fair Housing Practices Law which bans such discrimination.

According to testimony before the commission, Mr. Bachrach made a $5, 000 deposit on the $33, 000 cooperative apartment. He was informed later that the directors of the cooperative had refused to approve his bid. He filed a complaint with the city commission and a hearing was held which upheld his contention he had been denied ownership of the apartment because of religious prejudice.