The Denver Jewish news., 1924-04-10
THE JEW SEEKING A JOB IN
NEW YORK CITY
Second of Series of Six articles OH
the Employment Situation in New
York as ii Affects Jews.
BY SIDNEY ID. KLUGER
Copyright, 1924. Jewish Telegraphic
Agency
Self lf-PreseryatiOn Is Cause of Prejudice
Against Jews

Self-preservation, in the opinion or
Jack Nadel, Director of the Young
Mems Hebrew Association Employment
Bureau, is the outstanding cause of the
prejudice against the Jewish people as
n whole in the commercial field. New
York City. Mr. Nadel points out, is di-
vided into three classes, Protestnnts,
| Catholics and Jews, and it appears to
be case of survival of the fittest
with many of them. There are about
a million and half Jews in the
metropolis and like number of Cath
olics. The Protestants out number
these two by about 100000. And so 1t
has resolved itself, Mr.. Nadel believes,
in Protestants hoping to best protect
and preserve their interests by em-
ploying Protestants and many Catholic
| firms want Catholics only. The under
lying reason for the wholesale discrim-
| inaticn, lie is convinced. is matter
of relgion-the fact that one is
jew, why the Jewish lad is having
such difficult time TO find suitable
employment
The employment situation is extreme
ly bad at the present time, according
to Mr.. Nadci, and that is why this
matter of discrimination Is worse than
ever. There seems to be plenty of
Christians to fill every job. The En-
ployment Bureau of the Young Mems
Hebrew Association, which is located
| in the Association building at East
Ninety-Second street and Lexington
avenue, caters exclusively to the Jew
ish young men. About $500 are plnc-
ed in good positions by this bureau
} every year The Y. NJ. H. A. has a
clientele of about 5000 employers who
are not unkindly to the type of boy
or young man that Mr.. Nadel sends
them. At the present time Mr.. Nadel
has n list of more than 400, mostly
professionally trained young men,
ready to step into any position. But
the position isn't there for them. Rec
emily Mr.. Nadel could place only five
out Of 100 applicants in n single morn
| ing. This gives one an idea just how
bad employment conditions are, espe-
cially- for Jews when the y. NJ. ii. A.
Bureau boasts of record of placing
one. out of every two applicants for a
position.
| Jack Nadcl has been with the U.
NJ. II. A. Employment Bureau for
| more than twelve years and knows the
situation which confronts the Jewish
young man in quest of a position per-
haps as thoroughly as any other en-
| pioyment expert. He has watched hun
drcds of boys grow up within the or
ganization and knows them like faith
err. When Jack Nadel sends one of
his boys to an employer, he may rest
assured that is the one for the job
or Jack wouldn't have sent him.
at is impossible to break down the
prejudice but it can be alleviatcd to
some extent" said Mr.. Nadel. / hear
"A great deal of talk that the solution
of the problem lies with the large en-
ployment agencies. / don't think that
they are to blame for the discrimin-
alton. That comes from the employer.
Employment agencies who charge the
applicant n commission, usually the
cidedly lucrative to place n few OF
the long list of Jewish applicants they
have on file. However, / do believe
that many of them employ the wrong
tactics in regard to the delicate task
of placing Jewish applicants. Jacob
Schiff, at one time a member of the
Beard of Directors of the National
Employment Exchange withdrew from
that organization because of alleged
discrimination within the employment
agency against the Jewish applicants.
At that time the employment agency
when questioning an employer as to
the type of help he wanted, would ask
if he had any objection to a nice Jew
ish boy. Put the question to the en-
ployer in this negative manner and if
he is the least bit undecided, he will
cvade the issue by stating that he
would rather have a Christian This
condition has been remedied to a great
extent and only the insignificant en-
ployment agencies cater to Christians
which makes the employment exchanges
appear as though they give no atten-
tion at all to the hundreds of Jew
ish applicants.
After the signing OF the Armistice
and the return of the soldiers from
France hundreds of doushboys had no