Ajcommittee Sees Slow Progress in Implementation of Kerner Commission Recommendations

The American Jewish Committee said today that progress toward bridging the growing gap between white and black societies in America cited by the Kerner Commission report exactly a year ago has been slow but “private efforts, while insufficient to the need, have increased.” The assessment was made in a summary, prepared by the AJCommittee, of actions taken by private business and voluntary organizations over the past 12 months, and released by Mervin H. Riseman, chairman of the organization’s domestic affairs committee. The document said that while the general commitment to eliminate bigotry and poverty has not been “on a scale equal to the dimensions of the problems…many business, labor and religious leaders are now more conscious of community responsibility, aware of urban and social problems and eager to work on their solution.”

In the area of Negro-Jewish relations and black anti-Semitism, the AJCommittee concluded that while in some communities where black extremists were most visible there may have been a “slowdown in Jewish participation in anti-poverty and civil rights work,” there remains among AJCommittee members a conviction that “black extremists formed a small but raucous minority” and that “Jews must continue to help the disadvantaged.” The study cited the joint statement of February. 1969 by its president. Arthur J. Goldberg, and Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP, which appealed to all groups to move quickly against manifestations of prejudice. The statement, signed by other prominent Negro, Christian and Jewish organization leaders, announced the creation of a cooperative effort “to respond quickly and firmly to counter intergroup conflict and to develop programs to prevent such flareups.” The AJCommittee survey cited actions by its chapters in a score of American cities and communities designed to respond to the disaffections cited by the Kerner Commission.