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Warns Leaders Not to Accept College Quotas

January 28, 1935
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Acquiescence of Jewish leaders to the quota principle in universities and medical and other professional schools of the United States was described as “a grave error” by Rabbi Louis I. Newman, of Congregation Rodeph Sholom, speaking Saturday at Temple Beth-El, Great Neck, L. I.

“The majority groups who privately control these institutions may be able to enforce their will upon the Jewish minority,” Dr. Newman said, “but we should not give them any cooperation or justification.

“Jews should have free, untrammeled opportunity to express themselves according to their talents, and if they are able to excel in the professions, such as law, medicine, business and the arts, they must not be subjected to artificial restrictions.”

Declaring the situation “intolerable,” Dr. Newman advised Jews to do nothing to encourage the Gentile belief that by the quota the standards of medicine and other professions are elevated.

“American Jewry may be forced to submit to the quota,” he said, “but it should do so only over protest, and then with a determination to change the situation as soon as possible.”

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