N.c.r.a.c. Asks No Prejudging of Maciver Report on Jewish Groups Fighting Bias

An appeal to interested groups not to prejudge the report by Prof. Robert M. MacIver on the activities of Jewish organizations engaged in combatting anti-Semitism in the United States was issued here today by Irving Kane, chairman of the National Community Relations Advisory Council which sponsored the MacIver report.

“The widespread comment and discussion evoked by Professor Robert M. MacIver’s report on the Jewish community relations agencies is a recognition that the issues and problems with which the report deals are of vital concern to the entire Jewish community,” Mr. Kane said. “It is precisely because the resolution of these issues does so directly concern the total community that I deplore the tendency to quote excerpts of the MacIver report out of context, to attribute judgments to Dr. MacIver which are not borne out by the full text of his report and, on the basis of partial and incomplete evidence, to prejudge the conclusions which he sets forth.

“Such a tendency is grossly unfair to Professor MacIver, whose objectivity and scholarship in the field of human relations made him the unanimous choice to head the study; to those organizations participating in the study which are giving the report the serious and careful attention which it merits; and above all to the Jewish community which is being misinformed and confused.

“The report submitted by Dr. MacIver is but the initial step in a process which was begun on January 12, 1950, when the executive committee of the N.C.R.A.C. authorized a study of the field of Jewish community relations work and created a special committee on Evaluation Studies, comprising representatives of the constituent national and local agencies of the N.C.R.A.C. and of the Large City Budgeting Conference, to plan and supervise the study process. The study process called for a report by Dr. MacIver, comments on his report by all the agencies concerned, both N.C.R.A.C. and L.C.B.C., and findings and recommendations by the Evaluative Studies Committee itself, based upon both the report and the attendant comments.

“In accordance with that process, Professor MacIver’s report is presently receiving the concentrated attention of the agencies and of the Evaluative Studies Committee. The committee has spent two days in meetings with Dr. MacIver to clarify various points in his report and additional meetings have already been scheduled for September and October. At those meetings, the agencies will express their opinions on the issues dealt with by Dr. MacIver and the Committee will draft its findings and recommendations for consideration and action by the executive committee and plenum of the N.C.R.A.C. Thus, the study process will not be completed until the plenary session scheduled for November 24 through 26.

“Until then, and during the present period of discussion and preparation of the final report by the widely representative Committee on Evaluative Studies, I urge all to maintain an attitude of suspended judgment regarding the report and to refrain from precipitate action.”