The American Jewish Congress has hailed the decision of two banks both subsidiaries of American corporations to withdraw from a syndicate organizing a $33 million loan to Algeria after the Bank Rothschild of Zurich was excluded because of its Jewish ownership. The two banks that withdrew from the syndicate were Citicorp International Finance of Geneva and the Dow Banking Corporation of Geneva.
Shortly after the syndicate’s blacklisting of Bank Rothschild was disclosed, Will Maslow, general counsel of the AJCongress, wrote to the subsidiaries parent corporations, Citicorp and Dow Chemical Company. Noting that Treasury Department guidelines expressly forbade participation by. American firms in syndicates that excluded banks on the basis of race, religion or national origin, Maslow also cited public declarations by both corporations to their shareholders stating company policy of non-participation in discriminatory arrangements. Officers at Dow and Citicorp immediately replied that they had withdrawn from the syndicate.
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.
