Anti-jewish Bias Still Exists in Rural Areas, Surveys Show

The results of two long-term sociological studies probing public attitudes toward Jews in rural areas and in middle towns’ U.S. cities of 25,000 to 100,000 population, were released by Benjamin R. Epstein, national director of the Anti Defamation League of B’nai B’rith in connection with the 42nd annual meeting of the ADL which opened today at the Wa’dorf Astoria.

The two groups of studies, each a continuing research project begun several years ago, find that Jews are successfully integrated in the community life of smaller urban areas-except on the social contact” level where discrimination by Gentiles and withdrawal by Jews remains an accepted if sensitive practice But rural dwellers, with few opportunities for face to face contact are much more unfavorably prejudiced and show a widespread acceptance of common myths and stereotypes about Jews.

The rural studies, subsidized in part by the ADL were made at Michigan State College where they were directed by Drs. W B. Brookover and J.B. Holland of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. Their ### disclosed that however extreme our rural notions of what Jews are like, there is little active discrimination towards Jews and fewer opportunities to express such hostility this was not interpreted to mean that a greater influx of Jews in rural areas would result in greater discrimination toward them. Instead Mr. Epstein in his report on the studies characterized rural prejudice as “fear of the unseen and unheard” and listed these findings.

1. While more than one half of the persons interviewed in a rural sampling were opposed to Jews moving in whatever favorable attitudes they did express were reserved for Jewish families living in their own country.

2. Among rural dwellers who have had some contact with Jews, many more described such contact as “pleasant” rather that “unpleasant.” Rural dwellers also expressed disapproval of “foreigners” yet accepted with cordiality the entry of displaced persons as farm workers in their region.

PERSONS AGED 26 TO 40 INDULGE LEAST IN ANTI-SEMITISM

Another poll found rural dwellers in Southern and Midwest states more hostile than those in the North and East. This poll also showed that rural anti-Semitism was least indulged in by persons between 26 and 40 years of age. The “middle town” studies of smaller communities whose population is from one to three percent Jewish, found that Jews in such areas form a separate community not in the physical sense of living in a single part of town, but in that they have a shared culture and heritage a sense of psycho logical unity and an established organizational and leadership structure of their own.”

This self-identity does not exclude them from the life of the general community, except in the area of “social relationships with non Jews which remains on a restricted basis. Thus, the study discloses, communities that score low on social acceptability of Jews; score high on Jewish participation in community affairs. The “middle town” studies, directed by Dr. John F. Dean of Cornell University, also reported:

1. Jews in smaller communities are in a sound economic position and there are relatively few areas of economic life from which they are excluded. There are exceptions: if the town’s economic power rests in the hands of an historically entrenched old guard, Jewish participation is almost non-existed in prominent locally owned industries and in local basking finance and law firms which draw their business from these industries. Also there are few Jews in the labor force and, therefore few in labor union leadership.

2. Jews play a minor role in local polities. Here, the anti-Semitic factor is not to be discounted in the party councils that select candidates. Only when the Jewish population becomes large enough are these anti Semite tendencies outweighed by practical political considerations.

3. Jews in smaller towns are more likely to be “joiners.” This was pointed up in the sampling of an upstate New York town where 90 percent belonged to some organization. Contact between Jews and Gentiles ###### organizations and civic, charitable and business groups. On the whole these contained are pleasant and comfortable only occasionally disturbed by feelings of ###### anti-Semitism.

4. Intimate social friendships hovered Most Jews in “middle town” seem to have all-Jewish social circles ### special sampling this was true for 85 out of 150 families.

One conclusion of this study was that “it is the absence of contact opportunities between Gentiles and Jews more than anti-Semitic prejudice that places a serious limitation on the formation of mixed friendships. Jews who socialize with Gentiles express more friendly feelings toward them, but avoidance patterns tend to develop and there are rebuffs which make a Jew feel ill at ease.”