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Senate Group Hears Report on Anti-Jewish Discrimination on Jobs

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Jews are "not wanted" in such American industries and professions as banks, insurance companies, breweries and engineering firms, William Stern, a representative of the Jewish Labor Committee, today told a United States Senate Labor-Management Sub-Committee hearing. He emphasized that the Jewish Labor Committee, which represents more than 500,000 organized Jewish workers, is now conducting a survey on discrimination against Jews in employment.

Mr. Stern said that although the survey is not completed and has only "scratched the surface" it already shows that "the roots beneath are sunk deep in the mire of racial and religious discrimination." Not only are Jews being discriminated against, but many other minorities are affected, he testified. In engineering and mechanical trades there is a code "NIW" which means "No Italians Wanted," he revealed.

The Jewish Labor Committee representative said that his group considered that the prerequisite to any civil rights legislation is a majority cloture rule in the Senate. He called for the enactment of Fair Employment Practices legislation with enforcement powers. He said that failure to enact such legislation would be a negation of the principles on which this country was founded.

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