A New York housing expert declared yesterday that despite the fact that Jews moving into New York suburbs do not want segregation, “gilded ghettoes” were developing in those areas.
Edward Rutledge, Housing Director of the New York State Commission Against Discrimination, reported this development in an address to the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials meeting here. He estimated that two-thirds of the 5,000,000 American Jews now live in suburbs.
He disclosed that as Jews move into Westchester and Long Island communities, earlier residents move out and some Jewish neighborhoods have become exclusively Jewish, “conservative middle-class ghettoes.”
“The gilded ghettoes are not developed by choice” of the Jewish suburbanites, he added. “The Jews went to the suburbs with the same motivation which influenced other middle class groups.” He also disclosed that despite many new state and city laws banning bias in housing, more people were living in segregated neighborhoods now than four years ago.
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.
