Pointing out that Jewish people are rarely found in executive positions in American heavy industry, in utilities, insurance firms and banks, Dr. John Slawson, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, told the more than 1,000 Jewish social workers assembled here at the 61st annual meeting of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service that “social discrimination is related to the problem of anti-Semitism” in this country.
Dr. Slawson said that there is a direct connection between belonging to the “right” club, and living in the “right” neighborhood, and obtaining a top job in an industrial corporation. The Jewish communal workers parley, which is taking place at the Penn Sheraton Hotel, will last five days during which all phases of service in social work, education, community relations and community center activity will be discussed in more than 90 group sessions.
Donald B. Hurwitz, executive director of the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Philadelphia, told the members of the social work profession that in their zeal to enrich Jewish life they often made the tragic error of disapproving of the different, insisting on uniformity and excluding ideas foreign to their own. “If we want really to be strong as a Jewish community,” he said, “it is necessary to have a positive but not an exclusive approach to Jewish life.”
George Rabinoff, assistant director of the National Social Welfare Assembly, told delegates to the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service last night that the welfare state is here to stay, and that the major function of the voluntary agencies will be in setting standards and keeping public welfare alert and progressing.
“The Jewish agency serving the family, children, or the aged, no longer holds an exclusive franchise,” he said. “It starts where the government leaves off; it carries residual rather than a primary load. The ‘welfare’ state has conditioned the Jewish communal services in about the same manner as all other voluntary associations.”
At a clinic on current community relations problems, Seymour Samet, of the American Jewish Committee, predicted that if White Citizens Councils get into significant political power, Jews and Jewish life in the South will suffer. He said that, since Jews in the South are not able to fight effectively for their civil rights, they must depend upon their northern co-religionists.
Problems concerning Jewish teen-agers were discussed at three separate sessions during the week-end. The Conference also discussed juvenile periodicals as aids in teaching Jewish contemporary affairs, as well as the role of the teen-ager in Jewish Center activities.
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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.
