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Bias Against Jews in Employment Still Strong in Philadelphia

August 2, 1956
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
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Fifteen percent of all employment cases received by the Commission on Human Relations between June, 1948 and September, 1955 involved Jews, according to the Commission’s report submitted to Mayor Richardson Dilworth here. Discrimination against Jews was charged or implied in Ill cases involving unlawful application forms and advertisements in which discrimination against Jewish applicants was alleged or implied. In addition, there were 98 instances of charges of other forms of bias against Jews.

About two-thirds of the cases involving Jews concerned refusal to employ, while 28 percent of Jewish complainants alleged dismissal from employment. Only 4 percent of the Jewish complaints charged discriminatory conditions of employment. Complaints against insurance and financial establishments were three times greater among Jews than among the total of all cases. The Commission’s report also revealed that about nine out of every ten cases alleging discriminatory application forms or advertisements resulted in the finding and adjustment of biased practices. In the other categories, however, about 70 percent of all cases ended with no finding of an unlawful practice.

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