New York City Conference Discusses Action on Anti-semitism

A five-point program for dealing with anti-Semitic activities in the New York area was proposed yesterday at an emergency conference called by Mayor Wagner’s Commission on Intergroup Relations. Participants found that the current anti-Semitic incidents had “the dangerous potential of an outbreak. “

Commission chairman Alfred J. Marrow, who summarized the findings of the four-hour conference, said that police action must be stern and based on the premise that “any aggressions against any minority group will not be tolerated by the community.” The meeting was attended by leaders of 68 religious, educational, civic, labor, industry and veterans groups.

General conference agreement was reported on a finding by Deputy Police Commissioner Walter Arm that only one of the 50 cases of anti-Semitism listed by police since December 20 had evidence of “organized” neo-Nazism. That was the arrest in Queens of three young men found with swastika arm bands and Nazi literature. The three are awaiting a hearing.

Commissioner Arm reported that of the 37 individuals arrested in 15 incidents, the majority were under 16 years of age and none were over 21. The suggestions of the conference to meet the problem included these points:

1. Police must be stern in cases of anti-religious and anti-racial demonstrations. The hatred shown in such incidents is a fact which was in existence before the current outburst of incidents and it is not a problem only for the Jewish population.

2. The schools must do a better job in fostering human relationships. More attention to modern European history, with proper emphasis on the Nazi regime, was suggested for high school curricula.

3. Clergymen of all faiths should give more attention to community behavior. Congregations could be brought together on a neighborhood basis to promote mutual respect.

4. The press should report all the facts but avoid sensationalizing such incidents.

5. Brotherhood parades on a neighborhood basis might be one way to foster respect and tolerance between different faiths and races.

There was no general agreement on whether existing laws were severe enough to halt impulses of extremists. Some of the conference participants favored stiffer penalties for organised hate-peddling.

Mrs. Harriette Lubow, an officer of the city commission, told the conference that a number of Columbia University students have been wearing swastika pins or armbands and that a “virulent swastika fad “existed at the university’s John Jay Hall. A Columbia University spokesman said the university had no information about the alleged swastika fad.

While the meeting was underway, 200 persons picketed the West German Consulate General here to protest anti-Semitic incidents in West Germany. Deputy Consul Frane Hoffman invited in a delegation and gave the pickets a statement prepared by Consul General Georg A. Federer which declared that the Federal Republic was “determined to crush any resurgence of neo-Nazism.”