Charge Western Reserve U. Discriminates Against Jews

The reiterated charges by Cleveland Jews that the Western Reserve University in this city was openly discriminating against Jewish students, charges constantly denied by the University authorities, are now said to be borne out by a letter in the possession of some local Jews. Written on the stationery of the University’s school of education and addressed to a Jewish woman desirous of enrolling her child in the nursery school conducted by the Western Reserve University and financed jointly by the University and the Cleveland school board, the letter admits undeniable discrimination.

Signed by Miss Amy Hostler, the directing teacher, it reads: “It is with great regret I am writing to tell you that we shall be unable to take your child into the Western Reserve University nursery school next year. When the school was organized the executive committee formally set up regulations, one of which established a percentage quota for Jewish enrollment. This second year we are organizing with a second unit and the quota has been cut. It simply means that the number of Jewish children who were with us during the past year fill the quota and no new ones can be accepted. Such discrimination unfortunately is an arbitrary ruling over which I have no control.”

Since the school of education, of which the nursery school is a department, is conducted by the same officials as Western Reserve University, Jewish spokesmen here charge that this reveals the anti-Semitic policy of the institution which it has long denied and often taken indignantly as an unjustified attack upon the University. Alfred A. Benesch, the only Jewish member of the school board, is reported to be ready to persuade the board to break its contract with the University and withdraw the city’s financial support unless the discrimination is eliminated.