Ajcommittee Charges Pattern of Discrimination Against Jews in NY Co-op Housing

An American Jewish Committee report has concluded that 91 of 139 East Side cooperative apartment buildings surveyed “appear to engage” in discriminatory rental policies which Frederic S. Berman, chairman of a special committee on the subject, described at a press conference today as directed at “various minority groups and particularly Jews.” Mr. Berman a lawyer who recently served as New York City Rent Commissioner, said that from the data collected it was “quite clear” that there “indeed exist patterns” of discrimination intolerable especially in light of the city’s “serious, critical housing shortage.” Mr. Berman reported that of the 139 representative co-op buildings–comprising some 4,200 apartments–48 “apparently follow a principle of non-discrimination.” The 91 apparently discriminatory ones, he said, have either no Jewish tenants or “token” ones. The boards of 44 buildings failed to answer his committee’s three letters of inquiry, Mr. Berman reported.

It was disclosed that the committee findings have been submitted to the New York City Commission on Human Rights. The report will also be submitted to the New York State Commission on Human Rights and the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Berman, calling current anti-discriminatory laws “not sufficient,” recommended legislation requiring co-op buildings and agents to file data on applicants, acceptances and rejections and to notify rejected applicants within 10 days as to the reasons; expansion of laws to include penalties for discrimination on the basis of sex, occupation and children; and creating an AJCommittee Cooperative Mediation Committee. Mr. Berman described the area surveyed as from Fifth Avenue east and from 50th to 96th Streets in Manhattan.