American Jewish Committee Opens Conference on Intergroup Relations

A three-day conference on intergroup relations opened here today at the American Jewish Committee’s Institute of Human Relations, marking the dedication of the Institute. The parley is part of a seven-day series of conferences and seminars at the Institute on every phase of prejudice, discrimination and intergroup relations.

Participants in the conference, which is arranged by the National Association of Intergroup Relations Officials, reported that a “new look” is emerging in dealing with intergroup tensions resulting from profound population shifts in the United States. Legislative activity and city-wide educational programs are giving way to the neighborhood organizational approach, particularly where residential segregation is involved.

They predicted that future private and governmental intergroup relations efforts should “shift increasingly from legislative activity and city-wide educational programs to neighborhood organization–especially where residential desegregation has occurred.” The group stated that “the intergroup relations situation throughout the nation” reflects the attitude of the American people on this problem.

The intergroup officials pointed out that this “new look” in their work is already apparent “in the programs of municipal intergroup relations agencies in New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Philadelphia.”