10—Friday, May 30, 1969
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Boris Smolar's
'Between You
...and Me'
(Copyright 1969, JTA Inc.)
THE "BLACK MANIFESTO": The "manifesto" of the National
Black Economic Development Conference, demanding $500,000,000 in
"reparations' from churches and synagogues. has given Jewish leaders
in this country much food for thought. I will not be surprised if it will
lead to a break between the American Jewish Committee and the
Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization (IFCO) which
authorized and funded the calling of the conference.
The American Jewish Committee was the only Jewish organiza-
tion invited to join the Interreligious Foundation for Community Or-
ianization which was established about three years ago by major Pro-
testant denominational bodies following the ghetto riots in the sum-
mer of 1966. The Protestant leadership felt the need to widen its co-
operation with Catholics and Jews. It thus invited two Roman Catholic
a gencies and the AJCommittee to join IFCO, the budget of which was
largely provided by the Protestant denominations.
Last year, approximately $1,200,000 was distributed through IFCO
in support of community programs among 50 indigenous community
organizations in various parts of the country. The financial involve-
ment of the Catholic and Jewish groups has been based on minimal
membership fees owing in part to the different structures for funding
social ae.tion programs. IFCO funds distributed last year were used
or the establishment of cooperative supermarkets in poor areas, co-
operative gasoline stations, cooperative dress factories, low income
housing corporations. and leadership training institutes.
The presence of the AJCommittee in IFCO served to demonstrate
concretely to both white and black Christian leaders the commitment
of Jewish leadership to the cause of effective social change in the
country. It opened a whole new network of relationships with central
Protestant. Catholic and black leadership around the country and pro-
% '<led a large number of opportunities for interpreting Jewish interests
k these relationships, like anti-Semitism in the churches, pro-Arab
1.roisaganda in the churches and among black extremists.
*
JEWISH OBJECTIONS: When the Interreligious Foundation for
Community Organization authorized the convening of a national black
sonornic conference — and voted $50,000 for this purpose — it hardly
peeled that oat of that conference would come a manifesto calling
for S500,000,000 in "reparations" from churches and synagogues. It
certainly did not expect the conference to issue a call for "black
domination of America," for guerrilla warfare, and for "the use of
force and power of the gun" to bring down the government.
Representatives of the American Jewish Committee immediately
re acted at a meeting of the IFCO board demanding that the IFCO, as
sponsor of the conference, should come out openly against the ideo-
lotiical principles and the specific tactics contained in the "manifesto"
issued by the conference, to which white persons were not admitted.
Rabbi Marc Tanenbaum, the AJCommittee representative—who is also
the IFCO president — bald the board members that he strongly dis-
approved of the Black Manifesto, and indicated that his organization
might have to leave the IFCO if the latter did not repudiate the policies
of the Black Manifesto.
The 37 members of the IFCO board—among whom there is a large
proportion of black people—however refused to take a position on the
ideological principles or rhetoric of the Black Manifesto. Nor did they
take a clear stand on the demand for $500,000,000 "reparations" from
churches and synagogues. They merely voted to note in the minutes of
their meeting that the IFCO does not support "the tactics of disrupting
churches and synagogues." At the same time, they also voted "to con-
sider support" for the programatic aspects of the manifesto and the
other resolutions of the black conference.
This was not satisfactory to the American Jewish Committee,
hich expressed disagreement with the Black Manifesto, The AJCom-
mittee demanded that the IFCO board should repudiate both the "re-
volutionary ideology" and the "racist rhetoric" of the Black Manifesto.
.1 formal letter was sent by the AJCommittee to the IFCO declaring
that the Jewish organization "cannot support the ideological principles
and the specific tactics contained in the Black Manifesto."
Other leading Jewish organizations--which have not been invited
by the IFCO to membership of its board—have similarly rejected the
"substance" and the "tactics" of the Black Manifesto both on moral
and practical grounds. Their sentiments were voiced in a public state-
ment issued jointly by the National Jewish Community Relations Advi-
sory Council—the coordinating body of six national Jewish organiza-
tions and more than 80' Rica! Jewish councils—and the Synagoue Coun-
cil of America which represents all religious denominations of Ameri-
can Jewry.
THE CRISIS: The crisis within the IFCO—the organization func-
tioning as an ecumenical channel and clearing house for churches and
synagogues to use in helping Negroes in the ghettos—broke out imme-
diately after IFCO's full board meeting, when Rabbi Tanenbaum, as
president of the organization, differed significantly with Rev. Lucius
NValker Jr., the salaried executive. Rev. Walker is a black Baptist
clergyman who was the chairman of the black economic conference
which issued the Black Manifesto.
The disagreement between the two top officials came as a result
of "difference of interpretation" of the decisions of the IFCO board.
Rabbi Tanenbaum considered that the board did not support the "prin-
ciples" of the Black Manifesto; Rev, Walker indicated otherwise. The
latter rushed to tell the press that the IFCO supported the demand of
.5500.000,000 "reparation," and added that the IFCO would seek to
raise $270,000 to finance the black economic conference which, follow-
ing the adoption of the Black Manifesto, proclaimed itself as an auto-
nomous agency.
Rev. Walker has been a supporter of the Black Manifesto from the
outset. His name appeared in the manifesto as a member of the steer-
ing committee of the black economic conference. It is interesting to
note that about half of the 700 registered delegates to the black eco-
nomic conference—which was held in Detroit at the end of April—
marched out of the hall when the Black Manifesto was read at the
parley for adoption. Of those who remained, only 168 voted in favor
of the manifesto, while 48 voted against it.
New York Co-Op Owners Charged
With Bias Against Minority Groups
NEW YORK (JTA)—Charges of
discrimination against Jews and
members of other minority groups
seeking apartments in more than
100 privately owned cooperative
apartment buildings in Manhattan,
have been made by Frederic S.
Berman, former commissioner of
rent and housing maintenance.
The charge followed a year of
investigation by the American Jew-
ish Committee. Berman, chairman
of a new committee of the AJCom-
mittee's New York chapter which
will tackle the problem, made the
charge at a press conference.
"Discrimination is always repre-
hensible," Berman said, "but it is
particularly evil in this form in
New York today, when housing is
shorter than it has been in 18
years. This aggravates a shortage
already critical enough to force
many good citizens of various in-
come levels to leave our city and
look for housing elsewhere."
Berman said the instances of
discrimination were found main-
ly in older buildings on the East
Side, managed by large realty
firms. "Many of those who con-
trol these buildings and who prac-
tice exclusion are persons in
positions of community leader-
ship," Edward D. Moldover,
chapter president said.
Many prospective tenants, Ber-
man said, are told outright that
Jews are not wanted. Others are
informed that "we have a chtirch-
going crowd and you wouldn't be
happy here," or "We prefer social-
register type people. What the own-
ers are doing," Berman said, "runs
completely contrary to the temper
of our city and our times. Even
worse, they are violating city and
state laws, and thereby weaken the
over-all effort to secure respect for
and compliance with the law."
Berman said his new committee
is pursuing a program to end the
discrimination. Thee program in-
cludes: the announcement, which
he hoped would draw attention to
offending buildings; private discus-
Direct Talks Urged
by AJCommittee;
Soviet Bias Hit
NEW YORK—The American Jew-
ish Committee in a resolution
adopted at its 63rd annual meeting
at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, called
on the U.S. government to continue
"to insist that the particulars of a
peace settlement (in the Middle
East) be determined by negotia-
tions between the parties them-
selves."
The AJC cautioned that "our own
national interests require that any
settlement be free of the seeds of
continuing war in the area. Our fail-
ure to insist upon this in 1957 made
the 1967 war inevitable."
In another resolution, the Com-
mittee condemned increased anti-
Semitic manifestations in some
Communist countries of Eastern
Europe, and called for a united
front of "people and nations of
differing ideological views and
social systems" to prevent the
spread of anti-Semitism in that
area.
The statement warned that "Mos-
cow-inspired anti-Semitism is be-
coming an integral part of the
domestic and foreign policy of the
Soviet Union and several East
European nations," a program "de-
signed to obscure the real internal
problems besetting these Warsaw
Pact nations." It called on the peo-
ple of the world to awaken to the
danger of the use of anti-Semitism
as a weapon of Soviet-initiated
policies to suppress progressive
and liberalizing forces in Warsaw
Pact nations.
MANNERS
Good manners is the art of mak-
ing those people easy with whom
we converse. Whoever makes the
fewest persons uneasy, is the best
bred in the company,—Jonathan
Swift.
DON'T BE LATE !
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Wasildno or Bar Mitzvah ONO
sions with tenant boards of direc-
tors; discussions with the leadership
of the real estate industry, specific-
ally those involved in cooperative
management, urging them to in-
fluence boards of directors to dis-
continue discrimination; bringing
evidence of persistent discrimina-
tin to city and state agencies with
jurisdiction over enforcement of
anti-discrimination laws; and bring-
ing test cases to court to force
compliance.
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