Following a decision by the Kansas City Club, the largest of the downtown business clubs, to accept Jewish members last fall, there are now at least five Jewish members in the club and “applications are apparently being processed in a routine manner,” according to the Community Relations Bureau of the Jewish Federation and Council.
Disclosure that several of the city’s major business clubs barred Jews was made by the National Catholic Reporter. One response was that of the Kansas City Club to end its anti-Jewish policy. Howard F. Sachs, chairman of the Community Relations Bureau, in a statement to the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, said that he hoped that “the major breakthrough” at the Kansas City Club had “set a new and more wholesome pattern” for the city and that it was also hoped “that more democratic practices will now be widely adopted in the immediate future.”
He also reported that members of organizations interested in the problem “have volunteered to speak on social discrimination at Jewish and non-Jewish meetings to increase awareness and understanding of this problem.” He also disclosed that many persons had adopted a practice of protesting the scheduling of meetings at clubs which discriminate. He cited the situation of a member of the Community Relations Bureau, an alumnus of Yale University, who objected this month to a Yale University meeting at the University Club which bars Jews. The member notified the Yale University Club that he would not attend any meetings of the club held under such circumstances.
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.
