Major Corporations in Pittsburgh Told of Bias in Promoting Jews to Top Positions

Thirty-five major corporations in the Pittsburgh area were told by the local chapter of the American Jewish Committee that large companies are not placing Jews in management positions to the extent warranted by their numbers and ability, despite considerable good will and freedom from prejudice on the part of corporate policy-makers.

At a meeting sponsored by the Greater Pittsburgh Plans for Progress Council, Harold S. Bigler, chapter chairman, told the company executives that recent studies revealed that, while Jews constituted 8 percent of the college graduates in the United States, fewer than one-half of 1 percent of the individuals in the upper management and policy-making ranks of American corporations were Jewish.

Mr. Bigler pointed out that, in many companies, where there is a clear policy of non-discrimination, this policy has not filtered down from top management. Moreover, he added, the university studies have indicated that in many cases there is emphasis on social considerations rather than on ability. There is an assumption, he said, that managerial efficiency requires everyone to resemble everyone else in outlook and in background, with a resultant feeling among Jewish college graduates that the doors of corporate management are closed to them.

“A study conducted by the Graduate School of Business at Harvard,” Mr. Bigler said, “explodes the myth that Jewish college graduates have different goals from their Christian peers. While business has in recent years grown increasingly sensitive to the problems of minority groups in general, there is still a need for corporations to take affirmative action in recruiting employees from among Jewish ranks. When such a policy is determined by top management, steps must be taken to see that it is carried out on all levels of management,”