End of Anti-jewish Bias at Western Reserve U. Asked

The immediate abrogation of discrimination against Jewish children in the nursery school maintained by the school of education of Western Reserve University, a discrimination admitted by virtue of the existence of a percentage quota for Jewish children, was demanded today by R. J. Jones, superintendent of the Cleveland school board.

In a letter to Charles W. Hunt, dean of the school of education, Mr. Jones voiced his protest, and called attention to the fact that the nursery school is jointly financed by the University and the school board. Mr. Hunt replied that the entire matter was based on a mistake, adding that there is no policy which has been determined that would reflect upon any group that seeks admission to the nursery school, the efforts of the school being directed towards securing a cosmopolitan school “which is desirable from the point of view of any race or economic group.”

Dr. Robert E. Vinson, president of the University, in a letter to Alfred A. Benesch, the Jewish member of the school board, expressed surprise at the agitation over the quota, and denied knowledge of the quota. Dr. Vinson and Mr. Hunt both promised an investigation. The letters of neither Dr. Vinson or Mr. Hunt are satisfactory to Mr. Benesch or Mr. Jones who will demand the abrogation of the school board’s contract with the University, unless an absolute guarantee that the discrimination against the Jews will be removed is given.

The matter of the quota for Jewish children became public when a letter from Miss Amy Hostler, the directing teacher of the nursery school, to a Jewish mother desirous of enrolling her child, admitting that a percentage quota for Jewish children existed, was published in the local Jewish press. The letter pointed out that a quota had been set when the school was organized and that this year with the establishment of a second unit the quota had been cut.