Comments on: Where the Jews are http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/ "She is very powerful, so be nice to her." Former Chancellor, Ohio Board of Regents, Eric Fingerhut Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:51:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Jill Miller Zimon http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/comment-page-1/#comment-35277 Jill Miller Zimon Sun, 25 Nov 2007 01:44:12 +0000 http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/#comment-35277 Well - you raise what I know you know is a good point: saying you are ethnically and culturally Jewish can be very separate from affiliating with the religion. I don't know how the college numbers reflect that at all - I don't know what they ask on student questionnaires etc. I can tell you that when I filled out my app for GU, I checked "other" - I didn't want to be counted as a Jew or get stuff from the Jewish student group. I wouldn't be surprised if other Jews there felt the same - so that 5% number might have been under also - or over, if those Jews were more ethnic/cultural than religious. Well – you raise what I know you know is a good point: saying you are ethnically and culturally Jewish can be very separate from affiliating with the religion. I don’t know how the college numbers reflect that at all – I don’t know what they ask on student questionnaires etc. I can tell you that when I filled out my app for GU, I checked “other” – I didn’t want to be counted as a Jew or get stuff from the Jewish student group. I wouldn’t be surprised if other Jews there felt the same – so that 5% number might have been under also – or over, if those Jews were more ethnic/cultural than religious.

]]> By: Bill Callahan http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/comment-page-1/#comment-35210 Bill Callahan Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:43:36 +0000 http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/#comment-35210 Jill, I heard the same story as your father about the alumni-driven push for more Jewishness, but the supposed stimulus was the Six Day War. When I started there in '65 the school was still in its initial secular/ecumenical phase (after all it was just seventeen years old at that point -- Abram Sachar was stll running the place). But I could have sworn the student body at that point was at least 80% Jewish, by ethnic identity if not by religious practice. Jill,

I heard the same story as your father about the alumni-driven push for more Jewishness, but the supposed stimulus was the Six Day War. When I started there in ’65 the school was still in its initial secular/ecumenical phase (after all it was just seventeen years old at that point — Abram Sachar was stll running the place). But I could have sworn the student body at that point was at least 80% Jewish, by ethnic identity if not by religious practice.

]]> By: Jill Miller Zimon http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/comment-page-1/#comment-35194 Jill Miller Zimon Sat, 24 Nov 2007 15:00:47 +0000 http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/#comment-35194 I know! Bill - I was talking with my father-in-law who is in Boston about this just last night and he said that yes, in the 50s and 60s it was well-known that there were NOT many Jews at Brandeis, or not as many as one might think or hope there'd be, depending on who you were. He's Harvard/Harvard (M.D.) in the 1950s, but he says that Brandeis' alumni were very unhappy with the trend away from a more Jewish undergrad population and weren't giving money. Soooo, no surprise, the school started to change what it was doing with recruitment. You know, Bellefaire has had similar issues over the years - having been this big time Jewish orphanage and then changing over to a treatment facility but having an all Jewish board. I don't know what's going on with all that there, but I would guess that any entity that seeks to serve or appear to be secular, but at its core is connected to a religion, faces this kind of thing cyclically, no? I know! Bill – I was talking with my father-in-law who is in Boston about this just last night and he said that yes, in the 50s and 60s it was well-known that there were NOT many Jews at Brandeis, or not as many as one might think or hope there’d be, depending on who you were.

He’s Harvard/Harvard (M.D.) in the 1950s, but he says that Brandeis’ alumni were very unhappy with the trend away from a more Jewish undergrad population and weren’t giving money. Soooo, no surprise, the school started to change what it was doing with recruitment.

You know, Bellefaire has had similar issues over the years – having been this big time Jewish orphanage and then changing over to a treatment facility but having an all Jewish board. I don’t know what’s going on with all that there, but I would guess that any entity that seeks to serve or appear to be secular, but at its core is connected to a religion, faces this kind of thing cyclically, no?

]]> By: Bill Callahan http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/comment-page-1/#comment-35189 Bill Callahan Sat, 24 Nov 2007 14:44:40 +0000 http://www.writeslikeshetalks.com/2007/11/23/where-the-jews-are/#comment-35189 39% of the students at Brandeis are <i>goyim</i>? Huh. That's a lot more than when I was there in the late '60s. 39% of the students at Brandeis are goyim? Huh. That’s a lot more than when I was there in the late ’60s.

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