The rabbi of the East Midwood Jewish Center in Brooklyn sharply rebuked a crowd who booed and jeered Mayor John V. Dindsay Tuesday night as the mayor attempted to address an audience in the temple on the dispute between the teachers’ union and the largely Negro Ocean Hill-Brownsville school district which precipitated New York’s third city-wide teachers’ strike since school opened on Sept. 9.
The mayor was shouted down when he said that both sides in the dispute were guilty of “acts of vigilantism.” Rabbi Harry Halpern took the microphone and declared, “As Jews you have no right to be in this synagogue acting the way you are acting. Is this the exemplification of the Jewish faith?’ Shouts of “yes, yes” were the answer. Some members of the audience belonged to the congregation and others were members of the community at large which is white, middle class and predominantly Jewish. Observers said a large part of the audience was clearly composed of teachers. The rabbi said he had seen no Negroes in the center.
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.
