“More than any place in the world, New York takes a man on his own merits, regardless of his racial or religious affiliations. New York is particularly free of prejudices.”
This is the opinion of Dr. Frederick B. Robinson, president of the College of the City of New York, expressed in an interview with Evelyn Seeley and published in Thursday’s New York Telegram. Miss Seeley has been interviewing several prominent New Yorkers on the subject of discrimination against Jews in New York with regard to employment and other matters.
“I think the extent of discrimination is exaggerated,” Dr. Robinson stated in the interview. “Certain individual Jews, unsuccessful, blame their failure on their race. They say, ‘I didn’t get the job because I am a Jew’, when often there were many other reasons. But the ablest, finest Jews never hide behind their race.”
Paying tribute to the Jewish student’s seriousness, Dr. Robinson said. “He has a traditional reverence for learning that most Gentiles lack. He is sensitive to the sacrifice his parents have made in many cases to give the younger generation maximum opportunity. Realizing more clearly the value of knowledge in his future life he sluffs off earlier the desire to play. There is an early maturity among Jews in sensing values, intellectual and spiritual and material. The young Jew is fortunate indeed in his glorious background of culture, learning and morality, in his heritage of the traditions of the prophets. I would not say however that he is brighter than other boys; I would only say that he makes more of his opportunities.”
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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.
