Leaders of American Jewish groups affiliated with the National Community Relations Advisory Council will start a two-day conference tomorrow on discrimination against Jews in employment, it was announced today by Bernard H. Trager, NCRAC chairman.
Major questions to be considered at the conference will include: 1. The effect of legislation and government regulation on discrimination against Jews; 2. How Jewish community relations agencies and vocational service agencies can interrelate their programs; 3. What research and statistical data are needed, and 4. How to discover cases of discrimination in employment against Jews and how to use the information thus gathered.
In a statement issued today, Nathan L. Edelstein, chairman of the NCRAC Employment Discrimination Committee, said: “The subtleties with which discrimination against Jews is practiced are numerous and ingenious, and it is difficult to assemble objective evidence of such discrimination. Nevertheless, it has been possible to establish that in Chicago in a recent period, 25 percent of 2, 000 orders for white collar workers placed with commercial employment agencies specified that Jews were not wanted. We intend to explore methods of gathering additional such information and other data throwing light on the extent and seriousness of the problem. “
Mr. Edelstein observed that many Jews who encounter discrimination fail to report their experience. Governmental agencies charged with enforcing non-discrimination, he pointed out, need verified cases in order to proceed. How to develop such material for the use of the enforcement agencies is to be another problem dealt with by the conference, he said.
The NCRAC is the joint planning, policy-formulating and coordinating body for the American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, United Synagogue of America and 30 Jewish councils throughout the country.
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