A new case of anti-Jewish discrimination in Argentina’s Catholic-dominated school system was exposed here last night on a television program by news commentator Dr. Augustin Cuzzani.
The telecaster revealed that in School Number 16, a state commercial high school in this city, the principal, Mrs. Maria Teresa Quiroga de Nocetti had forced Jewish and Catholic girls to sit in separate sections in the classes. The school is situated in the heart of a Jewish residential district.
The entire parent membership of the school’s parent-teacher committee resigned in protest and both Catholic and Jewish parents have urged their children to stay away from school until the principal resigns. The Jewish students have voiced demands that the school system be returned to lay control.
Parliament’s action last week in approving a Catholic-controlled university system aroused so much opposition that the population has been split and students protesting the move have battled police in a series of bloody encounters.
Dr. Cuzzani, in reporting the incident, the second case of bias in the schools in recent days, expressed the hope that this was an isolated “Nazi-Fascist” type outburst. Critics of the religious controlled school system noted that these incidents clashed with: President Arturo Frondizi’s pledges that there would be no racial or religious discrimination in this country.
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.
