Because three singers purportedly were discharged for the sole reason that they were Jewish, Harold Stern, Jewish orchestra leader, yesterday agreed to abrogate his contract with the Hotel Montclair, Lexington avenue and Forty-ninth street.
In an interview with the Jewish Daily Bulletin, Stern said J. H. Clowes, manager of the hotel, who ordered the discharge of the singers, was probably not responsible. Two banks which he said own the hotel “in all likelihood” had something to do with the discharges.
“There have been complaints,” Clowes told a reporter. “Why, guests have come up into my office and said, ‘Why do you have those Jews up there on the platform?'”
He hastened to add that “personally, I’m more for the Jews than for the Germans, for two of my brothers were killed in the war. But I’m in the hotel business.”
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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.
