The Ford Foundation has asked City University to re-study a $60,000 grant earmarked for use by a community committee headed by Albert Vann, president of the militant African-American Teachers Association, who is under fire for anti-Semitic remarks. The Ford Foundation requested the university to review its relationship with Mr. Vann’s committee following expressions of concern by faculty members over some of Mr. Vann’s public statements.
The 60,000 grant is part of a $442,000 grant approved by the Ford Foundation last December for the Bedford-Stuyvesant Community Coalition. The Coalition is cooperating with City University in planning a new two-year community college in the predominantly Negro section of Brooklyn.
Mr. Vann, an administrator of the Ocean Hill-Brownsville School District, has denied anti-Semitic intent in an editorial published in the organ of the African-American Teachers Association, and has been cleared of charges of harassing union teachers during last year’s school strike. Other charges of anti-Semitism brought against him are under investigation by Superintendent of Schools, Bernard E. Donovon.
Nathan Perlmutter, associate director of the American Jewish Committee, yesterday welcomed the news that the Ford Foundation “is reviewing a grant that, if made, might be construed as a reward and subsidization of truculent prejudice.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
