Anti-Jewish discrimination in this country with regard to employment and in colleges was among the subjects discussed at a conference of the New York Council of the American Jewish Congress which was held on Sunday at the Hotel Pennsylvania. United action by American Jewry to fight anti-Semitism both in this country and abroad was urged by several speakers.
The conference, which was presided over by Herman G. Robbins, president of the New York Council, and at which more than 300 Jewish organizations were represented, selected the 125 delegates from New York City who will attend the fifteenth annual convention of the American Jewish Congress which will be held at Washington, D. C., on Oct. 19 and 20.
While industrial discrimination against the Jew in America is not countenanced by the government, such discrimination in private life nevertheless exists, declared the Hon. Nathan D. Perlman, chairman of the executive committee, at the conference. Mr. Perlman urged that the American Jewish Congress continue the measures it has inaugurated for the purpose of counteracting discrimination against Jews. He also stressed the need of a study of the alleged discrimination against Jewish applicants to American universities and colleges.
The “wealthy, polo-playing Jews” who are members of the Long Island polo clubs and who try to conceal their Jewish ancestry were attacked in a speech by Dr. Stephen S. Wise, who declared that these were not the sort of persons whom the American Jewish Congress desired to have. “We have no desire to further the fortunes of Jews whose highest purpose is to gain admission to the more exclusive social sets,” he said.
Among the resolutions which the conference adopted was one voicing gratification at the action of the Mandates Commission in recognizing the rights of the Jews in Palestine. On the subject of Roumania the conference voted a resolution protesting against the Roumanian government for failing to take proper measures to curb the continued anti-Semitic excesses in that country.
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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.
