NYU President Regrets His Defense of Hatchett Seen As Support of Article

The president of New York University expressed regrets today that comments he made in defending John F. Hatchett against charges of anti-Semitism were misinterpreted as a defense of an article by Mr. Hatchett critical of Jewish teachers in the New York City public school system. Mr. Hatchett is the recently named director of the university’s new Martin Luther King Jr. Afro-American Student Center, Dr. James M. Hester, in a statement issued here, said that he recognized "the oversimplification in my reference to the complex phenomenon of anti-Semitism," that he considered all forms of anti-Semitism "abhorrent" and strongly opposed them wherever they appeared and that "I do not condone Mr. Hatchett’s article about the public schools."

Dr. Hester was assailed this week by the Synagogue Council of America for his alleged "apologia" for a "scurrilous anti-Semitic article." The Council, representative body of six national synagogue and rabbinic organizations, took issue with a remark by the NYU president, published in the New York Times, that while he did not subscribe to the views expressed in the Hatchett article, he could understand how they might have been written without the author being anti-Semitic in the classical sense. The controversial article, which appeared in a Negro teachers periodical in 1967, charged that Jewish teachers dominated the New York public school system and that they and Negro imitators were mentally poisoning Negro pupils. Mr. Hatchett disclaimed any anti-Semitic intent but defended his right to identify the ethnic group of which he was critical. Dr. Hester, in effect, upheld that right when he noted in the New York Times interview that Jewish teachers were organized in a Jewish teachers association.

In his statement issued today. Dr. Hester said, "I want to affirm that New York University is determined to work to overcome all forms of prejudice, injustice and misunderstanding. In pursuing this goal in this difficult time, we may make mistakes in judgment on individual matters, and there will be differences of opinion about the best way to handle complex issues. I reassure the community that New York University’s abiding commitment is to help build a society in which there is no prejudice and in which all members live together with mutual respect."