The Phoenix Jewish news., 1957-05-10

e Antl-De1amatlOn League OF
fB'nai Birth.
Bernard Nath, Chicago attorney
and chairman of the Leagues ma
tional executive committee, said
the survey encompassed 3,O14 no
tells in the United States, Canada,
Mexico, Hawaii, Alaska, and the
Caribbean.
HE SAID THE survey revealed
that vigorous enforcement of state
laws against discrimination in pub
lie accommodations is the princi-
pal key to the elimination of the
problem of hotel bias and discrim-
ination in the United States is less
than in Canada, but greater than
in Mexico or Hawaii.
He said the figures obtained by
the survey "are, if anything, an
understatement of the problem.
THE SURVEY team examined
1,O65 hotels. OF this group, 237 or
22.7%, the evidence showed, clearly
discriminate against Jews. The re-
naming 1913 were classed by the
survey as non-discrimipatory, but
11% of this group have past rec
ords of discrimination.
"The core of the problem" Nath
declared, "lies in the 1,949 hotels or
nearly two-thirds of the total num-
Der, on which we were unable to
obtain current information. Many
of these have consistently declined
to clarity their policies toward
Jewish guests, and 525 of them
have been the subjects Of COM
plant in the past"
Henry Edward Schultz, league ma
tional chairman, pointed out that
"the evasiveness Of many of the
resorts about religious standards is
motivated not only by feelings of
guilt, but by hard economic facts
which require that they retain out
of-season convention trade"
SCHULTZ DECLARED that the
growing resistance among business
and professional organizations to
discriminatory hotels was sparked
by the National Association of. At
torneys General which two years
ago cancelled out of such resort,
Phoenix's Camelback Inn. Since
then, Schultz said, hundreds of 9th
er convention groups have ex-
pressed their intention not to go
to hotels that raise religious bars.
In three New England states
which have laws against discrimi-
nation by places of public accom-
mediation = Connecticut, Massachu-
sets, and Rhode Island - the sur
vey establishes that only 1490 of
the hotels discriminate against
Jews. In the adjacent Maine, Ver-
mont, and New Hampshire, which
have no such legal bars, the sur
vey placed the discrimination rate
at 500. The Vermont state legisla-
ture. last week passed an anti-d1S-
elimination law.
IN NEW YORK State, which Wig
orously enforces it's anti-discrimina-
ton law, the survey team found
that only 80 of the resorts exam
ined are discriminatory, but the ho-
tells of Vermont, which abuts on
principal New York area, show a
45% anti-JewiSh discriminatory
rate.
Two winter resort states tested
were Arizona and Florida, in both
of which the figures are above the
national average. In Arizona, the
survey found 44.6% of the hotels
for which information was obtain
able discriminate against Jews
while in Florida the figure is 24.2%o.
The report cited vigorous educa-
tional work" that has been carried
on in Florida in recent years as
probably responsible for the ere
markable improvement in Florida" "
1T MADE special note of Miami
Beach where tremendous ad-
vances have been made against
religious discrimination and which
has no real counterpart community
in Arizona"
The survey found that 28.3% of
the hotels upon which it obtained
information in Canada discriminate,
while in Mevico the figure was
only go and in Hawaii only / of
the IA hotels examined bars Jews.