AJCongress Condemns an Editorial in Teacher Magazine as Black Racism

NEW YORK. (JTA)—An editor-
ial in the African-American Teach-
ers Forum charging Jews. with
responsibility 'for "stifling" the
education of black children was
criticized Smiday by the American
Jewish flOngress as a . "vicious
piece of racism that can serve
only to .debase any rational ap-
proach to .tlie school problem."
Shad.Polier, - Uhairman of the na-
tional goverriing council, noted
that the magaiine was -the same
publication that had "opened its
columns - last year to - the malign
ignorance of John F. Hatchett' and
described- the editorial as "an
obvious and calculated attempt to
stoke the fires of racial and reli-
gious tension that are already
burning in our city."
Hatchett became involved in con-
troversy after writing in the
magazine that Jewish teachers
dominated the New York public
school system and were mentally

poisoning Negro pupils. This and
other incidents led to his being
fired by New York University- as
director of its Marthr Luther King
Jr. Afro-American Student - Center.
"The inadequacies , of the city
school system," he said, "are ac-
knowledged by Men and .women of
all religions and races who are
concerned with improving public
education in New York. To ,charge
that these inadequacies are the re-
'suit of a specific policy and design
by_ JeWs is a disheartening ex-
ample of extremist tactics and in-
sults the great mass of Jews who
are concerned about the very evils
of racism, discrimination and the
failure of our schools,"_Polier said.
"I am confident that the Jew-
ish community will not be deter-
red by this attack from the great
effort that must be launched to
strengthen and improve the edu-
cation of all our children. We
are equally confident that the

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Lindsay Responds to New Arson
With Creation of Special Police

NEW YORK—A recreation room
was destroyed and 300 religious
books charred in a suspicious fire
Monday at the Young Israel of the
West Side, a four-story building at
210 W. 91st St.

Pearl Shapiro, an employe of the
Orthodox synagogue, said she saw
two teen-agers running out of the
building shortly before the blaze
was reported.
It was the 14th blaze reported
in the last several months in
Jewish institutions.
On Sunday, Mayor John Lind-
say announced the establishment
of a special police unit to inves-
tigate fires and acts of vandalism
against religious institutions. Sev-
eral hours before his announce-
ment, two more small fires had
broken out at the Manhattan
Beach Jewish Center in Brooklyn.
The mayor said they were "defin-
itely cases of arson." A 10-year-
old boy was taken into custody in
connection with the latter.
The police commissioner said
police would post patrolmen at
synagogues requesting special pro-
tection.
The Monday fire burned for 10
minutes before it was discovered
and firemen called. The superin-
tendent's family in the apartment
next door were unharmed. A yes-
hiva on the second floor was in
session; 20 students rushed into the
synagogue on the main floor and
removed several Tora scrolls from
the Ark.
A Roman Catholic priest and 25
parishioners helped restore 300
Jewish manuscripts and rare books
damaged by fire last Friday in a
Queens synagogue. Three faiths
were represented in a joint state-
ment condemning recent vandal–
isms and fires at houses of wor-
ship.
Meanwhile, the dean of a
Brooklyn yeshiva that was sev-
erely damaged by a fire attribu-
ted to vandals last Thanksgiving
Day described how a "kitchen
dollar" campaign started by the
mother of two students has
mushroomed into a nationwide
drive to help the school rebuild

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its damaged classrooms and
other facilities.
According to Rabbi Meilich Sil-
ber of the Yeshiva of Eastern
Parkway, more than $4,000 was
raised in the first 10 days of the
campaign. The yeshiva is seeking
$200,000 to restore its building. He
said that the mother, a New York
public school teacher, approached
fellow teachers with the request,
"Give me a dollar—just one dol-
lar" to rebuild the school.
Teachers—Jewish and non-Jew-
ish, white and black—responded,
Rabbi Silber said. The campaign
was taken up by the Association of
Orthodox Jewish Teachers in - New
York and later by the principals of
a half dozen schools who organized
Hanuka campaigns to raise funds
for repairs. Through Dr. Joseph
Kaminetsky, director of Torah
Umesora, the national society for
Hebrew day schools, the fund-
raising campaign was extended to
other states and to Canada, Rabbi
Silber said. He said that in many
instances kindergarten children
have joined in.
The Yeshiva of Eastern Park-
way is one of three Orthodox Jew-
ish day schools damaged by fires
that are beneficiaries of a special
$200,000 grant from the Federation
of Jewish Philanthropies of New
York.

black citizens of our city will
reject this blatant appeal to bigo-
try," he said.
The Negro teachers' magazine
bitterly attacked the "Jewish dom-
inated United Federation of
Teachers" and the New York City
Board of Examiners for allegedly
preventing Negroes and Puerto
Ricans from becoming teachers
and principals and for keeping
"our children ignorant."
The African-American Teachers
Forum, a bimonthly publication,
also charged in an editorial that
"the Jew, our liberal friend of
yesterday, whose cries of anguish
still resound from the steppes of
Russia to the tennis courts of
Forest Hills, is now our exploiter."
The magazine said "the time has
come for a great responsible voice
to speak up in the Jewish com-
munity. It is time to right these
grave wrongs."
The African-American Teachers
Forum said it is now fashionable
not to criticize Jews "who have
hidden behind the cloak of anti-
Semitism as a broad shield against
criticism."
The editorial said, "Don't tell us
any more about the six million
destroyed by Hitler: Tell us instead
about the 12 million blacks slaugh-
tered in 300 years of black geno-
cide. The Jews have recovered
and now prosper. We blacks . . .
hampered by vicious laws, beaten
by sadistic police, exploited by
employers, landlords and mer-
chants, still exist in the stifling
slums of our poverty-ridden ghet-
toes."
The editorial specifically ac-
cused the board of examiners of
systematically disqualifying Ne-
gro and Puerto Rican applicants
for licenses as teachers and
charged UFT President Albert
Shanker with "racist diatribes"
that "do a disservice to the en-
tire Jewish community."
A spokesman for the teachers'
union refused to answer the
charge. Paul Denn, a member of
the board of examiners, denied
that discrimination existed. He
pointed out that all applicants for
licenses were assigned numbers,
and their identities were unknown
until their examination papers
were rated.

The African-American Teachers
Forum declared, "It is time to
pour water on the growing fires
of religious and racial hatreds in
New York City by finally facing
up to the truth; most Jewish
teachers and administrators here
have failed a grave public trust:
They have kept us functionally
illiterate."

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 10, 1969-5

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