Mayor Abraham Beame of New York and Mayor Kenneth Gibson of Newark called last night for an end to inter-group “confrontation” and a renewal of Black-Jewish cooperation in obtaining federal assistance for the nation’s ailing cities. Beame, New York’s first Jewish Mayor, told 500 delegates attending the American Jewish Congress national convention banquet at the Roosevelt Hotel here that “the politics of confrontation and conflict are no longer applicable. I believe that more and more officials and community leaders will be engaging in a politics of conciliation and agreement,” he said, adding: “What will be missing from the new coalition will be the old need to find a scapegoat.”
Beame voiced confidence about the future of American cities. He said he was “optimistic” after his recent talks with President Nixon and Presidential aides Leonard Garment and James Falk about the prospects for increased federal aid to New York for narcotics, transportation and housing programs. Noting that “We are entering a new age of cooperation between the cities and the federal government, and between the cities and the states.” Beame declared: “The sooner we see that, the sooner will Black and white groups, labor and management, Protestant and Catholic and Jewish, old and young, and rich and middle-income and poor groups work together for the common good of all.”
Gibson, Newark’s first Black Mayor, said that “as long as we point the finger at each other, the longer the true culprits can continue their devilish business. I am here to join with the American Jewish Congress in emphasizing the need for constructive, interdependent and empathetic relations between the Black and Jewish communities,” he told the banquet audience.
The Newark Mayor warned, however, that “There are always self-styled leaders waiting in the wings to fan the sparks of distrust, prejudice, bigotry, harmful generalizations and violent confrontations until they become socially damaging flames.” These “negative social phenomena,” Gibson said, “are created by unreal fears and a false sense of being threatened.” Gibson asked: “Does social and economic well being of the Black community honestly threaten the quality of life in the Jewish community? Does the Jewish community present an actual threat to Black people? My answer to both these questions is an emphatic No!”
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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.
