The community relations committee of the Atlanta Jewish Community Council will meet to consider a policy statement by the board of trustees of Agnes Scott College here reaffirming a long-standing policy of hiring Christians only for the faculty of the women’s school. The 78-year-old Presbyterian-oriented institution has a number of Jewish students.
The board’s position was reported in the current issue of The Profile, the college newspaper. It stressed the board’s policy of maintaining an environment “distinctly favorable to the maintenance of the faith and practice of the Christian religion.” Wallace McPherson Alston, president of Agnes Scott College, in defending the board’s position, said it was his impression that many church-related colleges had similar restrictions on their faculty appointments.
Charles F. Wittenstein, southeastern area director of the American Jewish Committee, said the Board’s reaffirmation of its hiring policy had “surprised and dismayed” many in Atlanta’s Jewish community. He added that it was “difficult to understand why a religious test is required of teachers of such non-religious subjects as French, English literature and mathematics.”
Another Jewish community official pointed out that the college has had many outstanding Jewish students whom its faculty had always encouraged to join Jewish organizations, including the Hillel Foundation at nearby Emory College. He also said that Dr. Paul L. Garber, Professor of Bible at the college was an ardent friend of Israel and of the Jewish people.
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.
