Yale Group May Take Over Jarba Despite Anti-Jewish Discrimination

An ad hoc committee based at Yale may carry out Project Jarba. No definite plans have been made, but the Rev. William sloane Coffin, the Yale chaplain, said yesterday that he was "impressed by the worthiness of the project," and had written to CARE about details.

The Faculty Committee of Harvard's Phillips Brooks House voted on Dec. 14 not to approve the project when it became clear that Jewish students would not be able to participate. Project Jarba was to initiate the building of villages for five million Bedouins now living in Jordan. It would have sent 20-30 students to Jordan this summer to help settle the Bedouins.

A week before the Faculty Committee decision, the PBH cabinet voted 13-1 in favor of the project despite the Jordanian government's determination to exclude Jews from the country.

Coffin said yesterday that he doubted that Yale or any Yale organization would officially approve the project. "My personal feeling is that Yale shouldn't sponsor the project," Coffin said. "Even a Christian students' organization wouldn't do it if it had to hang out a sign saying, 'Jews need not apply."

Thus, "the question of principle enters into the question of sponsorship," Coffin said. "But the project should be done--it sounds like a good project." The best way to do it, Coffin said, would be through some sort of ad hoc committee.

Coffin said he had talked to Dean Monro about Harvard's decision, and that he recognized the project's unattractive factors. 'A more creative way of dealing with the negative aspects is to go ahead and do the project," he said.