Anti-jewish Discrimination Matter of Policy at Kings County Hospital, is Charge Made at Mayor’s Hear

That discrimination against Jews in Kings County Hospital was practiced as a matter of policy and that the authorities were fully aware of it, was emphasized yesterday by Rabbi Louis Gross of Brooklyn Union Temple, at the hearing in City Hall conducted by Mayor Walker.

Rabbi Gross, who personally investigated conditions at the hospital, was the first witness to appear at the hearing. He made the series of charges illustrating to what extent anti-Semitism is practiced in the City hospitals.

“There is not a single member of the Jewish faith in any responsible position in the hospital,” Rabbi Gross charged.

The Rabbi also told about the existence of segregated tables in the staff dining room for Jewish internes and said the Gentile internes refuse to admit them to their tables; Jewish internes are excluded from the recreation facilities of the hospital; nurses are insubordinate and insulting and refuse to carry out the medical instructions of the Jewish internes; the Gentiles are arrogant and insulting in their attitude in social relations with the Jewish internes; Gentile internes refuse to cooperate with the Jews while in service at the wards; Jewish internes are given humiliating assignments; they are hampered in their training as physicians. Dr. Oldstein, a Jewish doctor in the hospital in 1916, was attacked by Gentile internes in April of that year and forced to leave the hospital. He later enlisted in the United States Army and was killed in the battlefield. Jewish patients have complained that they are mistreated, neglected and insulted; statistics of bed charts indicate that where Gentiles stay in hospital four days Jewish patients are allowed only one day although they are affected by the same diseases; not one Jewish interne has been on the hospital staff for nine years between 1916 and 1926; the four Jewish internes now at the hospital were required to resort to exceptional political influence before they were admitted; religious tests for Jewish nurses and internes exist only in this particular hospital; appointments of Jewish internes were always made known in advance to the Gentile internes before the Jews arrived; frequent complaints were made by Jewish internes to the superintendent and no efforts were made to rectify them; Dr. Jones admitted that he knew about the existence of segregated tables, about Dr. Oldstein and about an attack upon a Jewish nurse by other nurses in October, 1922.

Rabbi Gross further charged that Dr. Jones had made the statement to him that “Jewish internes should go to Jewish institutions.” In auother statement which Dr. Jones made to the Rabbi, he expressed his belief that internes who speak with a foreign accent should not be admitted to the hospital. Dr. Jones further stated to a committee of five rabbis that he himself had placed the word religion on application blanks; also that he could not guarantee protection to Jewish internes. Rabbi Gross also charged that Dr. Jones had told Dr. Soloway, one of the hazed internes, on June 16 before the hazing that “Jewish internes migh the careful, otherwise Gentiles will get them.”

The second witness to testify yesterday was Dr. Louis Borow, one of the three Jewish internes. He told how uncomfortable conditions were made for Jewish internes at the hospital. He told that when he first sat at a table with Gentiles they took their forks and knives and left the table without any explanation. He also stated that nurses ignored his instructions because of anti-Jewish spirit.

The appointment of a committee of six persons of different creeds to make periodical inspections of all city hospitals to determine true conditions was suggested by Nathan Sweedler, counsel for the three Jewish internes.

Mr. Sweedler said he was considering asking for a Federal Court or Supreme Court order which would empower him to have a member of the Kings County Hospital staff, who is now in Columbus, Ohio, questioned at the inquiry.

In this connection Mr. Sweedler recalled that Dr. Louis Borow, one of the hazed internes, declared that he had bitten the thumb of one hazer. Inspection of the hands of the six accused internes, Mr. Sweedler pointed out, failed to reveal any bruised or bitten thumbs.

The missing member of the hospital staff, according to Mr. Sweedler, “signed out” from the Kings County institution at 6 P.M. June 19. The hazing took place the following morning.