Brooklyn Jews have formed an. organization under the name “The Brooklyn Jewish Democracy, Inc.” and have declared that tho organization is “frankly Jewish and undisguisedly political.” They are embarking upon a dangerous adventure.
One of the speakers at the meeting of the new organization declared:
“We are being discriminated against, In and outside our party. We are not getting the number of teachers, high school principals, and office holders that we proportionately rate. But this will end when we band together and become a power in this largest Jewish city of the world, where every one in three is a Jew.”
Judge Strahl, a member of the new organization, deplored the fact that the Jewish population in Brooklyn has so little representation in office,” and added:
“We Jews should respect ourselves, if we expect to win the respect of others. We should join together in every possible way, politically and otherwise.”
It would be a sad state of affairs if school teachers, high school principals, judges or other important public officials were to be chosen along religious or x-acial lines in this country. The Jews would be the worst sufferers under such a scheme. Proportionate representation in public office in New York would give the Jews a larger share than they now have. But what would happen to the Jews in the smaller communities, where they constitute but an insignificant proportion of the ## of the population?
The only test for public office should be ability, experience and character, for Gentile and Jew alike. There should, of course, be no discrimination against any candidate for public office on religious or racial grounds.
As far as the Jews are concerned, the high standard of qualifications of Jews in public office is more important than a larger number of unrepresentative and inferior Jewish office holders. There is serious danger in Jews banding together as Jews in an organization identified with any particular political party. Louis Marshall denounced such political organizations as “undignified, un-American and un-Jewish.”
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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.
