A Michigan Anti-Defamation League official said today he planned to ask the national office of the ADL to fight a screening and rating system for home buyers in a wealthy Detroit suburban area under which Jews are required to score-twice the minimum number of points.
Sol Littman, Michigan ADL director, said he planned to go to New York tomorrow to ask national ADL officials to intervene in a court suit which revealed the existence of the point rating system for prospective home buyers in the Grosse Pointe area east of Detroit, He said he had asked the Michigan Securities Commission to revoke the licenses of the Grosse Point Brokers Association on grounds of “unethical conduct.” He called the point system “a policy of discrimination.”
The point system was called “morally corrupt” by Attorney General Paul L. Adams, who threatened legal action against the brokers association. The Attorney General said the point system had been in operation since 1945. Negroes and Orientals cannot receive any points. When a real estate salesman or broker has any doubts about a prospective buyer for a home in the area, a private investigator checks the buyer who must score 50 points to qualify. If he is Polish, he must score 55 points, if southern European, 65 and if he is Jewish, he must score 85 points.
The association, in a statement commenting on the Attorney General’s criticism, said that if there were limitations against buyers of homes, “they arise from the prejudices of the public who do not yet live up to the aims of our Founding Fathers.”
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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.
