Health Department Denies Bias in Job Recruitment

City Health Commissioner Mary C. McLaughlin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency today that there was no recruitment of personnel by her department on the basis of “racial and ethnic oratorio” as charged yesterday by the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League. Dr. Mc-Laughlin said she was pot responsible for an advertisement recently published in the Queens County Medical Society Dulletin which said the Health Department was “particularly anxious to get qualified black or Puerto Rican staff” for listed “top management” positions.

Dr. McLaughlin said her department was “desperately:” in need of qualified personnel and would hire any applicant with the proper qualifications irregardless of color or ethnic origin. She said the department would not hire an unqualified applicant because of color or ethnic background.

Milton A. Seymour, chairman of the ADL’s New York Board claimed that the recruitment announcement would inevitably result in “reverse discrimination” and claimed that the ADL had received “outraged protests” from individuals who read the announcement and took it to mean that “only blacks and Puerto Ricans need apply.”

SIX OFFICIALS JEWISH

Dr. McLaughlin told the JTA that there was no recruitment announcement. She said that in search of qualified personnel she had written recently to a number of public health figures in the city listing the job openings in her department. Near the end of her letter, she said, she noted that the department was “particularly anxious to get qualified black or Puerto Rican staff.” Dr. McLaughlin said she referred to those groups specifically because the Health Department has been subjected to severe criticism in recent years for not having ethnic minorities in high level positions. She told the JTA that there is presently only one black in the category of director or above.

Dr. Lowell Bellin, First Deputy Health Commissioner, told the JTA that of six assistant commissioners in the Health Department, all are Jewish. Dr. Bellin, who is Jewish, said he received a telephone call from Rabbi Bruce Cole of the ADL protesting the ad which appeared in the Queens County Medical Society Bulletin. He said the ad was not prepared by the Health Department but was apparently worded by someone at the Medical Society on the basis of Dr. McLaughlin’s earlier letter.

Dr. Bellin, who said he is a Jewish activist, speaks Hebrew and sent his children to yeshivas, assailed the ADL for “sounding off on phony issues.” He said there were many areas of vital concern to Jewish survival toward which it could direct its energies. According to Dr. Bellin, there is as much justification for the Health Department to seek qualified black and Puerto Rican staff as there is for Jewish groups to demand that major corporations recruit qualified Jews for top executive positions.