Study Shows Negroes More Friendly Toward Jews Than to Other Whites

A scientific study of Negro attitudes shows that Negroes feel more friendly toward Jews than toward other whites in the United States, according to a preliminary report on a survey made here by Benjamin R. Epstein, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. The survey, made by the University of California Survey Research Center, had been commissioned by the ADL. Mr. Epstein spoke here at the ADL national executive committee’s annual meeting.

Noting that he was releasing the interim report because talk of Negro antagonism toward Jews had seriously disturbed the Jewish community, Mr. Epstein said that the study disclosed that the attitudes of most Negroes towards Jews were comparable to their attitudes toward whites in general. But, where they are differences, he said, they tend to be in favor of Jews. He said that Negroes seemed to feel that they shared minority group status with Jews, and that the Negro position as a persecuted minority had led Negroes to reject discriminatory behavior against other minorities.

The survey had been taken chiefly in non-Southern urban areas, and special samples were studied in New York and Chicago as well as in Atlanta and Birmingham. According to the survey, Negroes are more opposed to discrimination against Jews in employment and social clubs than are non-Jewish whites. The study also showed that Negroes, more frequently than non-Jewish whites, said they would not vote for a political candidate who had an anti-Semitic platform, and that they would oppose any legislation to curtail Jewish immigration.

In response to individual questions in the national survey, 24 percent of the Negroes polled said that Jewish landlords were better than other white landlords, while 7 percent said they were worse; 20 percent said Jewish store owners were better than other white store owners, while 7 percent said they were worse; 34 percent said Jews were better to work for than other whites, while 19 percent said they were worse; 70 percent said Jews were better than other whites regarding the hiring of Negroes; and 45 percent believed Jews were more in favor of civil rights than other whites, while only 3 percent felt Jews were less in favor.