The Chicago Board of Rabbis has proposed a three-point program to end racial disturbances in this city and called for the creation of dialogues aimed at racial amity. “Outbreaks of racial violence on the Southwest Side of our city and in other areas are a source of pain and anguish to all.” especially during the year of America’s bicentennial celebration, the Board of Rabbis said in a statement released this week.
It called for the following action: “Law enforcement agencies should stringently enforce a court injunction restraining the provocation by the Nazi Party in our city; Black and white officers should patrol troubled areas together to symbolize the racial cooperation that is possible and is indeed present in our community; groups such as the Conference on Race and Religion, the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Housing and other groups of good will should once again create conditions for dialogue which will help people of all races to understand the dangers of racial hatred and the possibility for racial amity.”
The Board of Rabbis, which includes Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist and Orthodox rabbis, noted “that groups which have been historically anti-Semitic are now fomenting hatred of Black people. As a result of these actions, the possibilities of open racial warfare has become a threat to the very fiber of our society. In our bicentennial year, this threat must be met and people of good will must prevail.”
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.
