The great masses of the Jewish people in America have been shaken from their economic moorings, Mr. Bernard S. Deutsch, the President of the American Jewish Congress, said at the first meeting of the newly-elected Executive Committee of the Congress held here, attended by about a hundred delegates.
Some of the fundamental industries in which Jews have been engaged and in which they have built up a basis of a livelihood for a large part of the Jewish community are in a process of disintegration, he went on. The needle (tailoring) industry, which ten or fifteen years ago was almost completely in Jewish hands, he said, is now no longer an exclusive Jewish industry. The growth of chain stores and mail order houses has uprooted the small retailer and storekeeper, who is unable to compete with billion dollar concerns. The Jewish workingman, too, finds himself confronted with an unemployment situation which threatens to become permanent.
Judge Julian W. Mack, speaking on discrimination against Jews in employment, said that this constituted a major problem for the Jews of America.
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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.
