The Ford Foundation has granted $54,500 to the Synagogue Council of America for a program that will bring Negro and Jewish clergymen together to discuss religious and racial tensions in New York City. The program will be sponsored jointly by the Synagogue Council, which is the representative body of Conservative, Reform and Orthodox rabbis and synagogue organizations, and the Inter-Faith Citywide Coordinating Committee Against Poverty, an organization of black and white clergymen involved in anti-poverty and community action programs.
According to Rabbi Jacob P. Rudin, president of the Synagogue Council, the program is the outgrowth of a Dec. 5 meeting at which 250 rabbis and Negro clergymen met to discuss community tensions growing out of last fall’s New York City teachers’ strike. The strike pitted the predominantly Jewish United Federation of Teachers against the largely Negro Ocean Hill-Brownsville experimental school district.
McGeorge Bundy, president of the Ford Foundation, described the Synagogue Council’s program as “both constructive and encouraging” and said that the Foundation was “glad to assist it as we have a number of other inter-racial and inter-faith efforts to reduce racial tensions and build mutual respect.” Rabbi Henry Siegman, executive vice president of the Synagogue Council, disclosed that a series of planning sessions have already been held in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.
Rabbi Siegman said that the funds will make it possible for Synagogue Council staff involved in the New York project to be available for consultations with Jewish religious leaders in other communities facing similar racial and religious tensions.
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.
