Major U.S. Industries Reported Practicing Anti-jewish Discrimination

Discriminatory barriers against the promotion of Jews to management personnel levels have been erected in the automobile manufacturing industry, as well as in the steel, oil and coal industries, Dr. John Slawson, executive vice president of the American Jewish Committee, reported today on the basis of a recent study. Such barriers also exist in banks, insurance companies and public utilities, the study found.

The report said that in these major industries, Jewish personnel comprise only about one-half of one percent of the management executives. “This proportion exists despite the fact that about eight percent of the college trained population in this country is Jewish and the managerial staffs are chosen almost exclusively from the ranks of college graduates,”Dr. Slawson declared.

Dr. Slawson warned that discriminatory barriers “prevent the most effective use of our human resources in developing our national economy, and are in effect a threat to our security. ” In view of this situation, he urged the initiation of a series of conferences of American industrial and financial leaders and college educators to explore the dimensions of the problem and seek out reasonable methods of resolving It. He also outlined basic guidelines for the conference.

Dr. Slawson pointed out that in the banking industry the barriers were gradually being lowered and that “research opportunities tend to be available on an equal basis.” He emphasized, however, that promotional opportunities in management in these major American endeavors “were very limited.”