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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.