Apprehension among Virginia’s Jews is mounting as additional schools are closed and racial tension heightened by Gov. J. Lindsay. Almond’s “massive resistance” against U.S. Supreme Court rulings. The 35 Jewish families residing in Charlottesville, Va., where two schools were closed, were reported “very nervous.”
A rise in anti-Semitism was reported in some of the Virginia schools which are open. In one instance the principal of a junior high school exhibited anti-Semitic prejudice, in another it was an athletic coach. Teachers were involved in other cases. But such bias was deplored generally by school boards and administrators who do not wish Virginia accused of religious bigotry.
In Portsmouth, Va., an eleven-year-old Jewish girl was called “Jew-face,” tormented by classmates, and beaten. She was the only Jewish pupil in the class. The school’s principal sternly reprimanded the 13-year-old non-Jewish girl who attacked and struck the Jewish child. He threatened her with expulsion.
Printed propaganda distributed in Norfolk and other cities was traced in instances to the state-wide segregationist front, the so-called “Defenders of State Sovereignty and Individual Liberties. ” One hate sheet distributed widely is the slick bi-monthly, the “Virginian,” printed in Newport News.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
