The central committee of Hebrew Teachers’ Organizations has declared a one-day stoppage in all the Hebrew schools of Greater New York. The stoppage will take place on Thursday, May 23, and will involve 1,500 Jewish teachers and more than 60,000 Jewish children, it was announced yesterday by the committee.
The committee issued the following statement:
“During the past few years of the depression the situation of the Jewish teacher grew continually worse. Teachers with fifteen to twenty years of experience have been forced to teach at a salary of $25 or $20 per week. Many of these schools have enforced a salary of $15 per week, and still others have hired non-licensed teachers to do the service of regular teachers. Because of a continual increase in the cost of living, their condition is becoming worse. Despite a recognition throughout industry that salaries ought to be increased, salaries of the teachers have been decreased. Besides direct cuts, various indirect methods have been instituted such as forced vacations without pay, withholding salaries for several months.
“The continuation of this miserable condition must cease. Teachers cannot perform their educational duties under such conditions. Although individuals active in Jewish communal affairs and responsible directors were fully aware of the situation, hardly anything was done to improve it.
“The Central Committee was, therefore, compelled to resort to this move of calling a stoppage, in order to arouse the Jewish citizens of New York to this horrible condition, and to take definite steps to improve the situation.”
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