A New York City School official has warned that the exodus of Jews from the city because of fear of Negroes in the public school system could turn New York into “a series of ghettoes with the police protecting one group against another.” Dr. Nathan Brown, acting superintendent of schools, addressed an alumni meeting of the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University. He urged rabbis to tell their congregants that they must participate in running the school system rather than flee from the city and from their responsibilities. He said rabbis had a great stake in school reorganization because the majority of Jewish children–some 500,000–attend public schools.
“The election of members to the community boards of education has the potential of disastrous ethnic conflicts,” Dr. Brown warned. He said that “each board will have its own budget and have the power of giving out para-professional jobs. If there is going to be manipulation on the part of parent groups, teachers and principals, there is going to be a lot of trouble.” Dr. Brown said the only way to successfully fight school power politics is to have parents involved in the educational process.
Dr. Brown said that experiences in such predominantly white neighborhoods such as Bay Ridge and the northwest Bronx proved that the education of white children does not suffer “when poor Hack children are placed in their schools.”
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.
