Posted on 04/29/2023 12:33:15 PM PDT by Twotone
Kemp Mill Synagogue is a spiritual home to lobbyists, policy scholars, and White House staffers. It looks out over the opening of a lushly wooded forest valley in suburban Maryland, just down the street from a horse farm. One of its common nicknames used to be Congregation Bnei Ivy—the people of the Ivy League.
The name alludes to an enduring way of life for an influential segment of American Jews. The eight Ivy League schools are a collective stand-in for the meritocratic system that turned the children and grandchildren of penniless Yiddish-speakers into some of the richest and most important people in America. In Kemp Mill Synagogue’s case, it really did seem as if everyone there had gone to an Ivy League school, or had sent several of their children to one. But that was almost a generation ago. “I’m not sure the nickname fits anymore,” said Tevi Troy, a congregant, historian, Cornell alumnus, and former Bush administration official.
For Jews, an Ivy League degree was both a status symbol and a crucial element in a functioning and merit-based system of social mobility. An Ivy education was proof of a durable theory that Jews—like other immigrant communities—could become normalized in American society through sheer ability, which could be recognized, nurtured, and rewarded through institutions that everyone still trusted and even admired. Like other elite realms, the Ivies became places where Jews were numerous and comfortable. Some 25% of the Harvard student body was Jewish from the 1960s onward. Yale was perhaps as much as one-third Jewish in the ’70s and ’80s. The University of Pennsylvania was always mythologized as being 40% or even a half Jewish, though the best numbers indicate the high-water mark was more in the 35% range.
(Excerpt) Read more at tabletmag.com ...
Comment?
Re: Jewish enrollment in U of P
I bet the medical and dental schools are still 90% Jewish.
I didn’t read the whole article, but I can say that U of Chicago (not an Ivy, but prestigious) had a very sizable Jewish presence in both student body and faculty when I attended in the early ‘80s. In fact three of my better friends in freshman year were Jewish guys who lived on my floor, and we took a road trip together for New Haven pizza.
Saul Bellow and Alan Bloom were the most famous Jewish faculty members when I attended (Milton Friedman had left for Stanford). I took courses from able teachers with names like Kass (Amy) and Weiss.
But here’s the thing, they were not Orthodox, and those three Jewish friends have maybe three offspring among them, with at least one having mutilated her body in the current fad. They loved their Chinese pork fried rice and shrimp and cheeseburgers. Their outlook was shaped by reform Judaism, and they are intelligent and financially successful, but not much in the way offspring.
Chicago, all the Ivies, and most private Universities have plenty of spots available for legacy students. Maybe the number of Jews enrolling is declining because the number of Jews is declining in the U.S.
Thoughts:
I and my wife are both Jewish Ivy grads, different schools.
Whereas these schools now offer tremendous scholarships and (as we watch our friends’ kids admissions) seem to almost freely admit kids of certain races, (skin colors,) we are assuredly not on that preferential list.
Charitable, involved, and with kids who eclipse us in terms of academic and even athletic performance (and we were good,) we are nevertheless middle-class.
When these big schools are finished with admitting the rich legacies (I went to college with a halfwit who was a SEVENTH GENERATION legacy,) and after they have fulfilled their (often openly stated) will to have incoming classes to be, (in one case,) “50% minority,” we see there really isn’t much room for us.
And the opportunity, after all, is this: to get into massive debt and/or liquidate some or all major assets in order to send your kid to a four-year program largely focused on leftist social indoctrination.
In fine, we hope that certain institutions stay merit-focused. I, for one, hope my physical science-focused kids go MIT, Navy, or USCG... But there are so many great schools.
I will always love my school, though. We’ll see. The important thing, as my pal Herb Cohen famously said, is to “care, but not THAT much.”
The Lord makes ‘em and blesses ‘em. We just do the best we can while we’re on this beautiful Earth.
And the Ivies also had quotas for Jewish faculty members.
Two of the greatest economists in the mid 20th century were Milton Friedman and Paul Samuelson. Professor Samuelson was liberal and a Keynesian and should have felt at home at Harvard where he earned his Ph.D. His work in mathematical economics and pure international trade theory are ledgend.
He was unable to obtain a position in the economics department at Harvard; he went across the river and help built the world class doctorate program in economics at MIT!
Jess like Asians have a quota.
I don’t mind that the M.D, who took 14 bites out of my prostate was a Joo. I’d be worried if he was in that room because of a quota.
“after they have fulfilled their (often openly stated) will to have incoming classes to be, (in one case,) “50% minority,” we see there really isn’t much room for us.”
And don’t forget athletic admissions (20% of class at Harvard).
Once all the groups (legacy, racial, donors, athletic, first gen, international, etc..) have been admitted, there aren’t many space left for just a plain normal smart good kid.
Not as many as in the olden days. You have to be a major donor or seriously active alumnus (or alumna) to think you'll get a legacy spot for one of your kids. Your odds are much better if you are black and a good athlete.
If you look at some of the data from the Harvard-UNC court case you'll find: "Most African Americans fell into the bottom 20 percent of all applicants to both Harvard and UNC, but they were admitted at the highest rate for almost every performance decile, followed by Hispanic, white, and Asian applicants.
Many schools are secretly hoping the Supreme Court rules against Harvard because they have been scooping up all the talented black applicants. Less prestigious school have to work hard to even get marginal minority students. Harvard and Stanford get the top ones.
“Re: Jewish enrollment in U of P - I bet the medical and dental schools are still 90% Jewish.”
You are way out of date my friend!
Incoming medical school class at U Penn is:
36% Asian
13% Black
13% Latino
So 62% “minority”
I’d guess ~20% Jewish.
The reputations of these prestigious schools were originally established with the intention of having one such school in each of the original northern U.S. states — Dartmouth in New Hampshire, Harvard in Massachusetts, Brown in Rhode Island, Yale in Connecticut, Columbia in New York, Princeton in New Jersey, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Cornell wasn’t among the original institutions that are now considered the “Ivy League.” It was established later as a land grant school in the 1860s.
Many American campuses nowadays are infiltrated by communists, Nazis, Islamonazis, Islamists, and other anti- American (and anti-Christian and antiSemitic) rotten trash.
The golden age of America and its educational system are, most regrettably, a thing of the past.
How ‘bout ‘straight white???”
The way legacy works at my Ivy alma mater is that it might tip the balance for an applicant if all other things were equal, legacy could be a deciding factor. This of course doesn’t include those legacy applicants whose family donate big bucks etc. I’m sure those are in a different category :-)
As an MIT grad I can tell you these schools are committing suicide and deserve it.
MIT has not been as bad as the others but they are still messing up. I know many including myself who withhold donations now. Sure they are filthy endowment rich but new grads aren’t the givers and won’t be. Death spiral unless they change their ways
I guess I mean a reverse quota. Like Asians r
They are backto not letting too many in
My Dad went to U Penn for his orthopedic surgery education (back a long long time ago)
My MIT donation is sent entirely to their cancer research center.
The previous MIT president (from Venezuela) was an extreme wokester (requiring “diversity” training, etc.). I hope that the new woman president (a biologist like me) will be better!
Meanwhile, Harvard (my Ph.D. alma mater) goes downhill, with incoming president Claudine Gay, a non-scholarly ideologue. Only a Supreme Court ruling against race-based admission policies, followed by Ms. Gay resigning in disgust, can save Harvard!!
I had never met so many jews in my life until I started working at MIT. Jews all over the place. Not Ivy League but in the same vein.
But hey, they apply themselves how can you argue with that?
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