An accelerated program of activities to combat various forms of discrimination against American Jews was announced here today by the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith following the release of a survey by the organization covering bias patterns in major areas of cultural, economic and social life during the past five years.
The ADL program, as outlined at a press conference today by Benjamin R. Epstein, national director of the League, and Arnold Forster, the organization’s civil rights director, will concentrate on securing civil rights legislation with particular emphasis on the elimination of bias in housing and will include a series of publications and educational activities “to arouse community action to a problem which has become so much a part of the scene that it is virtually a built-in part of modern American living.”
The League’s review of anti-Jewish bias, which was conducted by Mr. Epstein and Mr. Forster, stresses the fact that the current patterns of discrimination are “pervasive, furtively practiced and, thus far, only slowly yielding to the educational process.” Among the findings noted in the survey were the fact that 22 percent of 1,065 resort hotels studied “clearly discriminate against Jews”; and that 67 percent of 1,152 private clubs investigated use religion as a barrier to membership.
Other results in the survey showed substantial evidence of job discrimination in executive positions in the insurance industry and banking and in major industries in such cities as San Francisco. Citing evidence of discrimination against Jews in housing in New York City, Washington, D. C. and a number of suburban communities, the ADL officials expressed the view that it was “a little bit past due” for President Kennedy to sign a necessary executive order which would rectify certain abuses in this area.
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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.
