From: MattNF#aol.com
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 03:39:03 EST
Subject: Jewish overrepresentation (this a fairly long e-mail)


Dear Mr. Hu,


Despite the fact that I disagree you politically in many areas, I have found 
your website to be an excellent reference point nonetheless.  Unfortunately, 
it is not easy to get figures for Jews in many areas.  Nonetheless, I think 
your page underestimates Jewish overrepresentation in some areas.


For example, you had an Ivy League survey showing that Jews were 27 percent 
of the Ivy League vs. 2.7 percent of the US population.  I know in most 
places you have it at 2 percent, which is the current figure.  I estimate 
Jews to be only 1.5 percent of the college-age population.  My own research 
of Ivy League schools shows Jews at 21 percent of undergrads (14 times 
overrepresentation) and the figure is higher at the graduate level (at Yale, 
for example, 60 percent of graduate students are Jewish - an astonishing 
figure).  Asians are about 16 percent (4 times overrepresentation) and let's 
double that for Chinese and maybe Indians as well.  I got my figures from the 
1999 Princeton Review Best 331 Colleges and the Hillel Guide to Jewish Life 
on Campus.


The median household income at $37,000 for Jews is way off.   
Italian-Americans, for example, have a median household income of around 
$36,000, and most other white ethnic groups aren't far behind (Despite their 
blue-collar image, Italians are one of the most affluent groups in the US.  
Yet Italian-Americans are only 2 percent of the Ivy League, vs. 6 percent of 
the population).  The median household income for Russian ancestry (mostly 
Jewish) is $45,778.  The per capita income for "Russians" is $32,292, more 
than twice the national average, and far and away the highest of all ethnic 
groups.  I'd like to see MEAN household income figures for the different 
Asian groups, but I can't find them anywhere!  For "Russians" the figure is 
$69,005.  


I think affirmative action programs for the Ivy League are necessary for 
blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans, but in addition, poor whites and 
Asians should also be given more support.  The real problem, and I hope 
you'll agree with me here, is the "legacy slots."  I don't think 
Episcopalians would be doing that well if it weren't for those.  George W. 
Bush opposes "quotas," even though it was fine for him to get into Yale with 
a C average, so that "rich quota" was fine.  I think getting rid of legacy 
quotas would be beneficial to Asians, as well as to white ethnic groups such 
as Italian- and Polish-Americans and born-again Christians.  I'm not sure how 
Jews would do.  I know you're a Republican, you're not backing Bush though 
are you?


Here are some more interesting statistics:


More than a tenth of college professors are Jewish, and that figure rises to 
about 30 percent at elite schools.  According to Alan Dershowitz in his book, 
The Vanishing American Jew, 76 percent (!) of the 200 most influential 
intellectuals are of Jewish background.


About 40 percent of the lawyers at the most prestigious New York and 
Washington law firms are Jewish (this is from Seymour Martin Lipset, a highly 
respected, but ridiculously centrist and uninnovative, sociologist).  


23 percent of the 500 wealthiest Americans are Jewish, according to Lipset.  
In Canada, as many as 23 of the 100 wealthiest Canadians are Jewish, 
according to the Rich 100 list in Canadian Business magazine (23 times their 
share of the population).  Chinese are on par with their share of the 
population, at 3 percent.  There is 1 Indian.  5 are of Italian ancestry, and 
9 are French-Canadian.  No blacks or Native people appear, there are 3 women.


About 85 percent of college-age Jews are in college (Lipset again)


The majority of the leading 60s radicals were Jewish, as were the majority of 
whites who participated in the Mississippi Freedom Summer.


In Canada, the South Asian population is proportionately much larger than the 
American (2.4 vs. 0.5 percent), but not nearly as successful as its American 
counterpart.  


The proportion of Canadians aged 18-34 with university degrees by ethnicity 
(Jews, Chinese lead), this is from the 1991 census.


Jewish              53%
Chinese         33%
Filipino                25%
South Asian (est.)  25%
Greek               22%
Polish              19%
Italian             19%
Ukrainian                17%
All groups          16%
British                     14%
German                   13%
French                     13%
Black                       11%
Portuguese               5%
Aboriginal                 2%


Anyway, I hope you find this information useful.


Matt


(I'm a Canadian studying in the US)


P.S.  Jews can be won over to the conservative side.  That happened in 
England under Thatcher.  She was a real Judeophile - she represented 
Britain's most Jewish district in Parliament, appointed 5 Jews to her 
Cabinet, and served as president of the Anglo-Israel Society.  




.