Two members of the New York City Council announce this weekend that they planned to introduce a local bill at the Council’s next meeting, on Wednesday, requiring that city funds be deposited only in banks and trust companies that do not discriminate in their hiring practices. The move followed recent disclosures by the American Jewish Committee that, in the nine major banks in the city, only one of the 173 senior executives was Jewish — and only nine of the 927 middle-level executives were Jewish — in spite of the fact that nearly one-third of the city’s general population and half of the college graduates are Jewish.
Council Majority Leader David Ross, from the Bronx, and Councilman Edward L. Sadowsky, of Queens, both Democrats, proposed in the measure that the city withdraw its funds deposited from any bank where prejudice in hiring was found. They noted that the A.J. Committee report stated that interviews with bank officials brought responses that ranged from overt expressions of prejudice against Jews to acknowledgements of failure to reach out for available Jewish talent.
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.
