Jewish Community Relations Council Boston-MacIver Report

The MacIver Report was commissioned by the National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) in order to ascertain the efficacy of services and interrelationships of specific Jewish community services organizations under the umbrella of NCRAC, which served as their policy making body. These organizations included the American Jewish Committee, Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, American Jewish Congress, Jewish Labor Committee, Jewish War Veterans, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. The Executive Committee of NCRAC adopted a resolution on January 12, 1950 that enabled representatives of the Evaluative Studies Committee (with support from the Large City Budgeting Conference) to select a social scientist, not associated with any Jewish organization, to objectively evaluate the activities, objectives, methodology and results of these particular organizations.

This Evaluative Studies Committee included NCRAC representatives from community Jewish relations councils, who shared four votes between them, including Harry I. Barron of Cleveland (Chairman), Mortimer Brenner of Brooklyn, Sidney Hollander of Baltimore, Leon Mesirov of Philadelphia, Sidney Shevitz of Detroit, Bernard H. Trager of Bridgeport, Connecticut, and Lewis H. Weinstein of Boston. National agency representatives, also sharing four votes, included John Slawson of the American Jewish Committee, David Petegorsky of the American Jewish Congress, Samuel H. Nerlove of the Anti-Defamation League of B’Nai B’rith (Benjamin R. Epstein was an alternative), and Emanuel Muravchik of the Jewish Labor Committee. Also participating in the Committee without voting privileges were Ben Kaufman of the Jewish War Veterans and Rabbi Jay Kaufman of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations. Participating from the Large City Budgeting Conference, and sharing two votes, were Louis J. Cohen of Newark, Samuel A. Goldsmith of Chicago, Ephraim Gomberg of Philadelphia, Arnold Gurin and Harry L. Lurie of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, Isidore Sobeloff of Detroit, Benjamin Ulin of Boston, and Edwin Wolf II of Philadelphia.

Eventually, they chose Dr. Robert M. MacIver, Professor Emeritus and former head of the Sociology Department at Columbia University, to implement and write the evaluative report. As part of the process, Dr. MacIver led a Technical Study Committee of fellow social scientists who were associated with the Jewish organizations under evaluation. The Committee included Dr. Isidor Chein, Director of Research, Commission on Community Interrelations of the American Jewish Congress; Dr. Samuel H. Flowerman, Director of the Scientific Research Department of the American Jewish Committee; Dr. Leo Srole, Director of the Department of Scientific Analysis and Evaluation of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith; Dr. Daniel Bell, Social Science Consultant of the Jewish Labor Committee; and Harry L. Lurie, Executive Director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds. The latter was not evaluated by the Committee.

The final report examined the relationship of the national organizations to the local community relations councils as well as NCRAC (which provided leadership to the local community relations councils.) Recommendations were lengthy and focused primarily on the programmatic efforts of the organizations, as well as the relationships between the national organizations, the local community relations councils and local offices of national organizations, and the national and local agencies to NCRAC. Compiled in three sections, Section I contained the process, evaluation and recommendation of Dr. MacIver, and was submitted to NCRAC in May 1951. Section II focused on the reactions of the participating organizations, and Section III identified NCRAC’s action steps based on the recommendations presented in the report.

When the report was released, there was considerable discomfort and disagreement amongst the evaluated Jewish organizations. The American Jewish Committee was particularly unhappy with both the methodology and results of the report, arguing that Dr. MacIver never spoke directly to the directors of the national organizations, and therefore the extent of his recommendations were inappropriate. The organization was also concerned that the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds utilized the report’s recommendations to make funding decisions. The Anti-Defamation League was also quite concerned that Dr. MacIver’s report did not clearly stipulate that the ADL was, first and foremost, a defense organization, and their objectives must be evaluated with this framework. However, the Jewish Labor Committee, the Jewish War Veterans, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations viewed the recommendations favorably. The Large Budgeting Conference accepted the findings and recommendations in the report, and commended Dr. MacIver for his work. However, the American Jewish Committee withdrew from NCRAC in 1952 as a result of the MacIver Report’s findings.

• January 12, 1950: NCRAC adopts resolution to evaluate its constituent organizations
• June 9, 1950: Dr. Robert MacIver meets with the NCRAC Special Committee on Evaluative Studies to identify scope and procedures for the study
• May 1951: Dr. MacIver submits Section I of the report to the NCRAC Special Committee on Evaluative Studies
• November 24 - 26, 1951 : NCRAC Plenum meets in Atlantic City to discuss recommendations of the report
• September 22, 1952: The American Jewish Committee withdraws from NCRAC

From the guide to the Jewish Community Relations Council Boston-MacIver Report, records, 1949-1953 (bulk 1951-1952), (American Jewish Historical Society)