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The article focuses on a study which explored the problems associated with ethnic assimilation in Omaha, Nebraska. Assimilation is considered as an educational process which involves the incorporation of individuals or group of individuals into a common cultural life. Various theories are associated with ethnic assimilation, including the melting point theory, Prussian theory and the theory of ethnic federation. The study examined the cultural background of immigrant groups. It also explored the processes and progress of ethnic assimilation in the state.

The article focuses on the impact of war on minority groups. Immigrant groups constitute but one of many specific forms of minority groups. Minorities include religious groups, racial groups, economic or political groups. Immigrants and their descendants are not necessarily minority peoples. Susceptibility to enemy propaganda is closely related to the degree of social distance between the majority and specific minority groups. Given a specific degree of assimilation, the effect of the war on various minority groups will depend upon the present relation with the immigrant's home country, as well as the present conditions prevailing there. The speed of assimilation, as pointed out above, which determines the effect of the war or foreign events generally on a minority group, depends upon a variety of factors. Foremost among these are the cultural similarity to American culture, the occupational distribution and the educational level of the group at the time of immigration, as well as the economic situation in the country of emigration prior to departure.

The article reports that inter-ethnic relations play a significant part in national and international politics. These relations may be peaceful, but often they become conflict situations and processes and thus appear as difficult social problems. The White-Negro relationship has received the shape of a durable, almost hopeless, conflict. The relationship between the native American and the immigrant is generally peaceful, but the rise of an acute conflict situation on the basis of growing anti-Semitism is not out of the question. The relations just mentioned have been studied frequently and carefully. A substantial defect is, however, inherent in the majority of these studies: they are studies of concrete situations which seldom permit any generalizations, the discovery of a causal background or the formulation of a scientific, i.e., causally-functionally based, plan of social action. A necessary step toward the improvement of scientific research in this field is to proceed comparatively and to locate sociologically the relations which present actual or virtual problems.

The article focuses on issues related to ethnic conflict between two ethnic communities--Italians and Jews--in the United States. According to the author, ethnic relations based on harmony and cooperation has often not been the norm in the United States. Many studies detail the clashes, which have occurred between successive waves of immigrant groups. However, even between outwardly friendly groups, who shared a common immigrant experience, the same disruptive forces are at work. Forever lurking beneath the surface, in all ethnic relationships, are tensions, resentments and frictions associated with living together in a competitive society. These groups had enjoyed friendly relations since the end of the nineteenth century, the period of first arrival in the United States. There was a feeling of having shared a common immigrant experience that drew them together. Yet all was not well in Italian-Jewish relations. Beneath the surface of friendship the usual ethnic tensions and jealousies were beginning slowly to strain the relationship between the two groups. The 1930's represented difficult times. This decade was an era of attacks on Jewry around the world, which made Jews in ethnically pluralistic New York City sensitive and defensive about any hint of antagonism from another group.

The article presents abstracts of various papers related to the migration that were published in several periodicals. One of the papers discussed is "Talent That Won't Stay Put," by Walter Adams. The author of "The Brain Drain" attempts to present the facts about the brain drain and to raise serious questions about the conventional interpretation of these facts, emphasizing once more that the brain drain is a fascinatingly intricate movement which warrants far more clear- headed attention than it has heretofore received. Another paper discussed is "Contact Hypothesis in Ethnic Relations," by Yehuda Amir. Research regarding the effects of inter-group contact on ethnic relations is reviewed. The investigations discussed include both intra-and cross-cultural studies involving contact between various ethnic groups. The principles and generalizations emerging from these studies are categorized under the following topics: opportunities for contact, the principle of equal status, contact with high-status representatives of a minority group, cooperative and competitive factors, casual versus intimate contact, institutional support, personality factors, and direction and intensity of initial attitude.

This article reports that the Commission on Race Relations of the National Conference on the Christian Way of Life in the U.S. will issue soon a try-out edition of a study course for the use of discussion groups and classes. The outline will cover a wide range of relations between different racial and national groups in the United States, with emphasis on those misunderstandings and traditional attitudes which underlie prejudices and are responsible for discriminations and maladjustments of problems rather than to discover solutions. The second part is to be based on the reports of the persons and discussion groups who take part in the study of the first division. In other words, the reports of findings and of experiments by the groups which undertake these studies will become an integral part of the course.