Defeat of three Jewish candidates for offices in the University of Wisconsin student election held recently is openly laid to race prejudice-by the Dally Cardinal, student newspaper, and by officers of both the Y. W. C. A. and Y. M. C. A.
An article printed in the Cardinal quoted students as expressing dissatisfaction because race differences were permitted to “distort honest opinions of voting students.”
Anti-Jewish prejudice directly influenced the outcome of the election in three cases, Melvin Wunsch, managing editor of the paper declared.
“Presence of race prejudice on the American college campus can unfortunately not be denied,” Wunsch said. “It is most surprising. however, to see the extent to which such prejudice can arise on a campus which is supposedly the most liberal in the country. There can be no doubt that if the elections had been decided purely on record and ability rather than upon racial prejudice the results in several contests would have been much different.”
CONDEMN RACE PREJUDICE
Mary Mackechnie, new president of the university Y.M. C. A. declared “it is a disgrace to the campus that race should be considered before actual qualifications that a candidate possesses.”
Joseph Werner, president of the university Y. M. C. A., added that “it is useless to deny such an attitude (toward Jews) exists and I was sorry to see it expressed in such a way in the political campaign.”
Meanwhile, efforts at fostering good will between Jews and non-Jews in Madison are being promoted by the Madison Conference of Jews and Christians.
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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.
