Njcrac for Affirmative Action Which Does Not Bring Reverse Bias

Jewish community relations agencies endorsed today “affirmative action policies” that advance educational and employment opportunities without imposing “reverse discrimination.” A policy statement adopted at the annual plenary of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council here proposed that special provisions be made through government facilities and public funding to industry, for compensatory education, job training and in placement and other forms of help for the deprived “to realize their potential capabilities.”

But the sole criterion of eligibility for such assistance must be individual need and not “offered preferentially” on a racial, ethnic or other group basis, the NJCRAC constituents agreed. The 250 representatives of the constituent agencies acted after a long session at which speakers agreed that the Supreme Court decision in the De Funis case, although mooted, had opened the way for a “new consensus on affirmative action guidelines that could both avoid preferential quotas and help ease strained relations between the Jewish and Black communities” and that “the surest path” was by expansion of opportunities “rather than in competition for scarce ones.”

Benjamin R. Epstein, director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, said the ADL and other national Jewish agencies were ready to join with Black and Chicano groups in support of affirmative action programs “that can push the disadvantaged ahead without pushing someone else aside.”

But Epstein dismissed calls for a revival of the civil rights coalition of liberals, labor, ethnics, Jewish and Black groups of the 1960s. He said if it means “sacrificing Jewish interests merely to achieve coalition, it is not worth the price.” Epstein said it was possible in the 1960s to identify common goals “and much harder” now.