The New Jersey State Civil Rights Division upheld the contention of B’nai B’rith that, as a “religious fellowship,” it has a right to limit membership to persons of the Jewish faith, and has not violated the state’s law by refusing to admit a member of the John Birch Society to B’nai B’rith membership.
George Demetry, of Jackson Township, had filed a complaint against the Lakewood chapter of B’nai B’rith, contending that the lodge had violated the state’s civil rights law by not allowing him to join B’nai B’rith. He stated in his petition that the John Birch Society was not anti-Semitic.
Ruling only on whether or not B’nai B’rith is a “religious fellowship,” as it contended in a reply to the Demetry complaint, George S. Pfaus, director of the Civil Rights Division, decided that the B’nai B’rith is exempt, as a group of the kind it claims to be, from the law against discrimination. The B’nai B’rith had acknowledged in its reply that Demetry’s membership application had been rejected because he was not a Jew.
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.
