The First National City Bank of New York will station a “job mobile” in front of the Williamsburg YM and YWHA next Thursday to offer job opportunities to Jewish, Negro and Puerto Rican residents of the Brooklyn area. The bank’s Mobile Employment Center will be stationed in front of the Y from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. to interview job applicants.
Arrangements for the visit of the unit were worked out through Rabbi Bernard Weinberger, religious consultant for the Williamsburg Y. Sol Levy, its executive director, and Harold Braverman of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. They met with Joseph P. Yambor, assistant vice-president of the bank, at the offices in Williamsburg of the United Jewish Organizations, (UJO), a Brooklyn agency to aid poor Jews in the area. The visit of the Mobile Employment unit will be the first to a poverty area, according to Rabbi Weinberger. The project was started by the bank, one of the nation’s largest, in an effort to cope with severe personnel shortages by bringing the preliminary screening of job applicants to the area where such applicants live. The first visit of the “job mobile” was made in July to Jericho, Long Island.
Bank officials said that a variety of positions were available, including openings for guards, clerks, secretaries, tellers and data processors. Rabbi Weinberger, who initiated the contact with the bank for the visit of the mobile unit, said that placements have been made for Williamsburg area residents in the bank, among other employers, through individual referrals. He added that the mobile unit would hopefully speed the process of such placements. He said he hoped that 50 Orthodox Jews would be placed in bank positions as a result of the Thursday visit of the unit.
Information on the scheduled visit is being made known to all minority group members in the Williamsburg area through the Y. which carries out many programs for Negro and Puerto Rican poor, the UJO and the Williamsburg Community Corporation, one of the city’s 26 locally-elected agencies to funnel anti-poverty funds to each area.
Bank officials said the 50-foot, air-conditioned van has senior personnel experts to provide preliminary screening of job applicants. Applicants will be told of the jobs and the pay and be helped to fill out necessary forms for employment. The forms will be processed at the bank and successful applicants will be invited to report to the personnel office in Manhattan for final procedures before being hired. Rabbi Weinberger said bank officials understood the special early quitting needs of Orthodox Jews for Fridays and holidays and had indicated their readiness to cooperate fully.
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