Canada was described as a bright spot in the emigration plans of the United Hias Service for Jews from North Africa at the concluding session here today of the convention of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service. The convention, attended by more than 1,000 Jewish social workers from all parts of the country, heard a report on Jewish migration from James P. Rice, acting executive director of United Hias. Edward M. Kahn, executive director of the Jewish Social Service Federation and the Jewish Welfare Fund of Atlanta, Ga., was elected president of the Conference.
During the last two days the convention discussed anti-Jewish discrimination and heard reports on attempts to introduce religious instruction into the public schools. Leo Pfeffer, associate general counsel of the American Jewish Congress, told the parley that there is great pressure developing to evade the U. S. Supreme Court’s decision banning religious instruction from the public schools. Opposition to this decision, he noted, was widespread although the majority of Americans are opposed to sectarianism in the schools.
The problem of discrimination against the admission of Jewish students to colleges and universities is not as great now as it has been in the past. A. Abbot Rosen, executive director of the mid-west region of the Anti-Defamation League, told the convention. With the lessening of bias in industry against Jews and other minorities, Mr. Rosen said, schools which discriminate have lost the props of the argument that they train students for specific fields and that they do not accept students who cannot be placed in such fields for reasons beyond the colleges’ responsibility.
Moishe Barsella, director general of the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare, told the convention that social welfare plays a vital role in Israel’s domestic life. He reported that last year the government gave special welfare assistance to 200,000 persons, including 54,000 Arabs. He appealed to American social workers to contribute “their experience and their American technical know-how to strengthen and expand Israeli social services.”
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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.
