Anti-jewis Bias in Clubs is Highest in Mid West, A.d.l. Official Reports

A regional Anti-Defamation League official reported today that bias against Jews by private clubs in the midwest is significantly higher than in other regions of the United States, as well as in comparison with the situation nationally.

Dr. Harold B. Barrie, chairman of the Minnesota-Dakota regional advisory board of the ADL, said the regional office had collected information on 17 country clubs and eight city clubs as part of the ADL national survey of 1,152 such clubs. Total membership of such clubs in the Minnesota-Dakotas area exceeded 20, 000 of the more than 700,000 members of the clubs surveyed nationally.

He reported that 76 percent of the clubs in the midwest area practiced religious discrimination in admission of members, compared with 67 percent nationally. “The higher percentage of religious discrimination in a state noted for its progressive attitud toward civil rights legislation is particularly disturbing and requires further study, ” he declared.

Dr. Barrie noted that 90 percent of the discriminatory clubs nationally maintained the restrictions on an “unofficial basis,” that is, he said, there was nothing restrictive in their constitutions or by-laws. Among the 19 clubs in the Minnesota-Dakotas area practicing such bias, he reported, all did so on an “unofficial” basis. As on the national level, most of the private clubs in the region practiced total exclusion of Jews as members while seven permitted “token” membership from other faiths.

The clubs studied nationally included 693 which were rated as having prestige in their communities and 60 percent were found to bar Jews. At the regional level, there were 12 such clubs and of these 90 percent discriminated against Jews.