Newspaper Page Text
Page 9
The Southern Israelite
Economic
The
Discrimination
Jew Exist f
By J. X. COHEN
Against
o
s by J. X. Cohen,
Rabbi, Free Syna-
, sident, Alumni As
ian'sh Institute of
Xav Y ork, and
Xational Commit-
onomic Discrimina-
\ meric a n Jewish
!->ri* the Free Synagogue at
II.ill services Sunday morn-
I'Ul. Rahhi Cohen said:
is ago, at the Philadelphia
e t'nion of American Hc-
ati< »ns, a prominent Jewish
1 that the spreading ‘Good-
nt has brought about a de-
Semitism in America. More
lire has hcen published the an-
• i the American Jewish Com-
i declares that the Jew is
actnrily integrated in the
■ >n«>mic structure. Now coti-
’\v<i Jewish opinions with the
f facts assembled by the two
mthors of ‘Christians Only.’
r"mi. the noted columnist, and
ntt. staff writer of the New
1 Telegram, have packed an
<■ mass of information within
t their book. They say, in
e Union of American He-
gations and American Jew-
e rapporteurs, that ‘the Jew
who is looking for a job,
faces odds of about ten to
ut hi a long, intensive per-
"f the situation, it is my
at an economic embargo
\\ exists in New York, with
' racing an area much larger
illy realized. Previous to the
of general economic sub-
1 imw to a greatly intensi-
n >in> Jewish men and women
and are suffering th_*
devastation of im-employ-
d with the burden and hor-
tnployment because they are
"Us growth, that may reach
"Utficient to choke the eco-
' a large part of the Jewish
' city if allowed to develop
' in process of formation,
hould be true in this period
and in this great metropolis
'Urprising paradox. In all of
^ and checkered career there
been assembled anywhere on
ie metropolitan center, so large
Imputation as we find in New
never, in all our history, have
much actual and potential
economic power as at present
r command. - -
"ddle Ages, heaping many
burdens and indignities ujion Jews, denied
us the opportunity to engage in agricul
ture and industry, so that our ancestors
were forced, by elemental human needs,
to engage in commerce and finance. To
day, in the modern age, we see a re
versal. with the Jew admitted to agricul
ture and industry, and a very marked
tendency appearing to deny him the right
to work in commercial and financial
fields.
“I will have to confine myself, this
morning, because of the ramifications of
economic discrimination—and also in
order not unduly to trespass on Dr.
Wise’s time—to those whose work is done
in offices, who are euphemistically clas
sified as “white collar” workers. Though
women, through the dictates of better
sense or, perhaps, the rule of fashion,
have emancipated themselves from the
white collar as an article of garb, they
are, if anything, the sorrier victims of
this new economic policy. Young men
and women seeking work turn to the
‘Help Wanted’ columns of the daily press.
But these advertisements have become
fewer in number in the past decade, not
because the volume of business has de
creased, but because employers have
learned to transfer the burden of inter
viewing applicants to the commercial em
ployment agencies. But even in the ‘ads’
which do appear, so many carry the
phrase, “state religionor some other
euphemism as a warning sign that ‘No
Jews Need Apply.’ Conversely, with the
decline in the volume of newspaper ‘ads,’
employment agencies have multiplied dur
ing the past decade, so that more and
more the applicant for work must deal
with them. And here is where his
troubles begin.
“One investigator reported that he had
applied to exactly 100 agencies for a
position as bookkeeper, clerk, etc., and in
91 cases was told a Jew would be un
acceptable. The files of an agency serv
ing 400 representative corporations and
business establishments came recently
under my scrutiny, disclosing that 89 per
cent of them preferred Christian appli
cants. These two instances give startling
verification to the Broun-Britt declaration
that the chances against the Jew out of
work arc as ten to one.
“Some agencies frankly declare,
through printed slips, handed out to cal
lers, that Jewish applicants will not even
be registered for employment, let alone
given a chance to sec prospective employ
ers. And some have had the brazen ef
frontery to post placards declaring: ‘For
the present, Jewish applications not ac
cepted.’ One agency manager, the more
quickly to dispose of a roomful of ap
plicants ( told them en masse, “I’m sorry,
hut we have no jobs open for book
keepers,—or Jews.’
“In a large measure the present dif
ficulties faced by Jewish applicants arc
due to the prejudiced attitude of some
agency managers. They sow the seed of
discrimination in the minds of otherwise
unoffending employers, and by flattery
assume them, ‘of course you wouldn’t
have a Jew around.’ The sorriest aspect
of the whole frightful situation is that
some Jrtoish employers fall victims to this
flattery, multiplying the horror of non-
employmcnt by a policy which becomes a
justification and a defense for Christian
discriminators.
"Some agencies, in turn, place the blame
upon employers, declaring with a measure
of correctness that, after all, they arc
merely agents fulfilling the calls of their
employer-clients, and they are not re
sponsible if these clients demand ‘Chris
tians only.’
“Speaking out of the experiences ac
cumulated during a careful, objective
study of this economic discrimination,
may I declare most emphatically that the
blame is not to be assessed as falling
largely upon the shoulders of the agencies,
nor even U]x>n the employers. The great
est measure of responsibility is to be
assessed as falling upon our Jewish com
munal leaders, who have allowed this
hurtful situation to develop unnoticed and
unhindered. When some of these leaders
have been chided and rebuked for neglect
of duty, their response and defense has
been that their eyes had been turned east
ward to the awful plight of Jewry over
seas. Ah, but it bodes ill for the Jews
of Eastern Europe, and of Palestine too,
if economic strangulation should overtake
any large segment of American Jewry.
“What is the most feared question
posed to a Jewish applicant for a job?
It is ‘What is your religion?’ Not train
ing, talents, or experience, but faith seems
to be the primary requisite in getting
a job. Agencies use the semi-secret terms,
—No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3—to describe
applicants. A One is a Protestant; a
Two is a Catholic; a Three is a Jew.
Recently, in the course of my investiga
tion, I applied for a position with a
great-corporation, with over 34,000 em
ployes in New York, and reputed to dis
criminate against Jewish applicants. A
careful scrutiny of the 4-page, 78-question
application blank showed no basis for rc~
(Continued on Page 18)
Hunts Elusive Prosperity
Paul M- Warburg, internationally famous financier and economist, on whom
Occidental University has conferred the honorary degrees of Doctor of Laws in
recognition of his services to the economic and financial development of the
United States. Doctor Warburg, who devised our Federal Reserve System, is
now busy seeking an economic..solution . for the world crisis.