<p>Foe those interested in UCLAri's observation, a very interesting treatment of historical uses of a Jewish identity can be found in the first book of Hannah Arendt's trilogy "The Origins of Totalitarianism." </p>
<p>An historical and unique culture maintained over many generations, even with isolated populations giving rise to certain genetic variations (e.g. Tay-Sachs) from time-to-time, is not a "race." For that matter, there is no biological basis for this concept for any group.</p>
<p>No, it's not a race. But it is an ethnicity.</p>
<p>Agreed. Ethnicity: the fact or state of belonging to a social group that has a common national or cultural tradition.</p>
<p>Calmom, I live in an area that is heavily Jewish. Some of my children went to catholic schools, and BC was a favorite on college lists. Lots of stellar kids turned down by BC from here. When I lived in the Midwest, where BC is not such a hot draw, the only kids I knew going there were catholic kids; they were not the top kids in their school, and there weren't that many of them. One who was a good student, but still nothing I would categorize as Ivy likely, not only got in, but got one of their big awards. Something that has eluded some vals and sals here in this NYC suburb. Yes, they would get in, but I don't know anyone from here who got their half tuition scholarship. When I saw a neighboring school district, which is predominantly Jewish, Indian, and Asian , with few Catholics there, the only BC bound kid was a catholic one. I saw their applicaton spread sheet from prior years, and there are very few kids applying to BC. Fordham, however, appeared frequently. I think many of the parents here have taken professional/graduate courses at Fordham and can see that though it is a Catholic university, religionis not an issue there. Also the NYC location of Fordham has a strong enough appeal to transcend the catholic identity. </p>
<p>Strangely enough, many of my Jewish friends (moms) complain that their kids reject Brandeis out of hand, as too Jewish, something you don't hear from too many catholic kids about catholic colleges (except for mine who had a thing about some of the names like Holy Cross, Sacred Heart, Salve Regina, that turned him off sight unseen). The two kids I know who went to Brandeis are catholic and they loved their experience there. </p>
<p>One of my closest friend who is Jewish has a daughter graduating from BC law school this year, and the young lady really enjoyed her years there. Also getting some wonderful and lucrative offers. The mom had some trepidation about her daughter going to BC for undergrad because she felt it was too Catholic; her daughter concurred, but both feel now that if there were younger siblings, the school would likely be on the college list, and they would recommend it to other Jewish students. </p>
<p>I don't know about how good BC is to the Catholic "feeder" highschools. I have seen kids rejected or waitlisted from BC from such schools that have gotten into ivies. Another Catholic kid from Westchester county is not considered a prize for BC. That stack of apps probably hits the ceiling of the admissions office.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Pays to be a Jewish Smith, or other innocuous last name, and not have lots of synagogue activities. Then they never know!
[/quote]
That is a very said statement. I hope you are joking to say that it's a good thing to be able to able to disguise one'd identity, whether it's a religion, ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, national origin, etc. just so people in positions of authority won't be able to identify it. Many years of struggle have taken place to enable this not to happen.</p>
<p>OMgosh Benny! It was pure sarcasm. I am a Jew who lost half her family in the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Sorry if you were offended.</p>
<p>DespSeekingPhD:</p>
<p>Ah well, a little more evidence that we may inhabit parallel realities. Let me make myself plain: I have never seen "Hebrew" used as a positive or neutral term to describe a contemporary ethnic Jew, notwithstanding its possible usefulness to the ethnic/religious distinction. To my ears, based on my experience, that use of "Hebrew" is denigratory, and associated with European anti-Semitism, albeit not necessarily a particularly virulent variety. I am not unfamiliar with "humanities fields"; if "Hebrew" is a common term, post-1945, to refer to contemporary ethnic Jews, I have never seen it. I may be wrong, but I am pretty confident my sense of the nuances is not unique, so you should probably be judicious in using the term.</p>
<p>I wasn't offended, Allmusic. Rather saddened at your shallowness.</p>
<p>It's a stupid joke. Not funny or anything to joke about, especially for someone who lost half their family in the holocaust. I guess you haven't learned much from history.</p>
<p>JHS:
As a history grad student, you'll have to trust me on this one. When historians are making the distinction between ethnicity and religion, the term Hebrew comes up. It's not in any way derogatory. And this from several Jewish friends of mine.</p>
<p>And if you need a more contemporary example - perhaps Hebrew National Franks? ;)</p>
<p>This is a very interesting (but sad) thread. Based on the Gladwell article, observations on this board and else where, I do believe that many college adcoms are less likely to admit Jews. </p>
<p>It makes me glad we have Brandeis now and forever as a non-Secterian Jewish-founded University that admits everyone regardless of color or religion. In addition, it's great that Jews have a Brandeis to go to so they can go ahead and express their Jewishness. (And, as I'm posting on Shabbat, you obviously don't even need to be a very religious Jew to love being a Jew at the 'Deis.)</p>
<p>DespSeekPhd -- sorry, I agree with JHS. I have never seen the term "Hebrew" used to refer to contemporary Jews or people of Jewish ancestry. I've just done some quick internet research and it seems to verify my view and JHS's.... the contemporary term uses to refer to ethnicity (as opposed to religion) is "Semitic". I am aware of that the term "Semitic" also encompasses other Near Eastern people -- for example, Palestinians are also "Semitic" - see: <a href="http://www.holylandalternatives.net/palestinians.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.holylandalternatives.net/palestinians.html</a></p>
<p>However, that is the term that is properly used - hence the term, antisemitism to refer to racism against Jews. </p>
<p>Perhaps because you are a history student, you are making the mistake of applying a term correctly used to apply to ancient peoples to contemporary groupings. That would certainly explain why you commonly encounter the term in your readings.</p>
<p>Sulsk -- actually, as many CC families learned last year, Brandeis is working very hard to increase diversity, and one way they have been doing that is to give non-Jewish minority groups (hispanic and Asian) extremely favorable treatment in merit awards. The evidence is anecdotal only, but last year we saw hispanic and Asian applicants reporting that they were offered generous merit awards, whereas some Jewish applicants with GPA, test scores, and EC's that were much more impressive received no offers at all. Since merit money is often used for enrollment management, there is nothing at all wrong with that strategy -- but the point is, if you want merit money at Brandeis, it helps to be a URM. </p>
<p>My own daughter was turned down by Brandeis (waitlisted), but admitted to Barnard, NYU, Chicago.... and, as noted, Fordham with an offer of a merit scholarship. Obviously Fordham is easier to get into than Brandeis -- but my point is merely that it is mistake to look at Brandeis as being a "Jewish" college where Jews will get a better shot at admission than anywhere else. Brandeis is a non-sectarian college that receives substantial financial support from the Jewish community; it is not a religiously affiliated college. </p>
<p>To cptofthehouse -- my comments about Boston College were NOT meant to suggest that they are in any way biased against Jewish applicants -- I was trying to make the point that they would be within their rights as a Catholic-affiliated college to favor Catholic students, if they chose to do. A significant percentage of colleges and universities are affiliated with various Christian denominations, and I would expect that many would consider the student's shared religious beliefs as a favorable factor in admissions - and thus as a Jew, I would not feel that my children are <em>entitled</em> to an unbiased admissions decision at those colleges, even though they may in fact receive one. </p>
<p>I honestly have seen no evidence whatsoever of an antisemitic or anti-Jewish bias in college admissions practices, in general. I certainly believe that it is possible -- but certainly as a Jewish parent it never once entered into my mind that my kids would encounter either bias or benefit when applying to colleges as a result of their religion or ethnicity, at least not at any of the colleges they expressed interest in attending.</p>
<p>Perhaps - but perhaps years of reading and studying and researching are not quite the same as quick internet research.</p>
<p>Use the term you are most comfortable with. As I have already said, it's used to make a distinction in academic circles - not a term I throw around on the street (because the term "Jewish" fits as a casual reference). In most cases, "Jewish" also works for academia. There are few times the term Hebrew is used, but when it is, it's for that purpose and is not derogatory. The reason Semitic is not as often used is, as you pointed out, that it is not limited to said population. Some still use it, but it's not the only term. Of course Hebrew refers to an ancient people. But those ancient people are the ancestors of most Jews. Again, we're talking ethnicity, not nationality.</p>
<p>Haven't read any of the posts and don't need to hear the typical bs, but the title makes me burn inside.</p>
<p>Cry Pretty Please.</p>
<p>Regardless of the "true" and technical definitions of being Jewish or Hebrew, in terms of college admissions, it is a moot point. You are not asked to identify yourself as such, though there are some schools that ask for your religious affilation. Leaving that blank is not going to jeopardize your status. I doubt adcoms have "Jew detectors" present in their office. These days, trying to identify by name and address is not at all accurate. I live in an area with a large Jewish population, and there are many with names that bear no affiliation to being Jewish. I know several families (good friends) who have no Jewish affiliation that they know of, with names that are usually Jewish, and they live in a predominently Jewish neighborhood. Many German and Russian names are in many Jewish famiies as well as non Jewish. Also many Jewish friends of mine have decidedly non Jewish names as marriages to Italians, Hispanics, Irish, Asian, any ethnic group is not so uncommon. But the mother is carrying the Jewish thread into the next generation, and the families are practicing Jews. There are so many mixed marriages these days, that it is a futile exercise trying to figure out who is Jewish. I doubt the Hillel has a true count. In my day, many of my Jewish friends did not bother to let the Hillel know that they were Jewish. In fact, many of them did not think of themselves as Jewish or observe the religion and were under no pressure from their parents to do so. And so it is with a number of families I know today. So unless the applicant identifies himself as being Jewish, or Catholic or Muslim, the adcoms can only guess at his religion, and I don't think they spend their time doing that. There are categories of interest that are scrutinized in the app that the adcoms want for the university community, and if the applicant has them, it'll give him the edge for admissions regardless of religion. Otherwise, there are the regular over represented categories, including geographics, and interests where it becomes a crap shoot who is picked.</p>
<p>Well said, Cpt.</p>
<p>calmmom is right. Whether Brandeis officially admits it or not, it is, as is every school, trying to increase its diversity. In Brandeis's case, this means increasing the percentage of non-Jewish students. </p>
<p>kreeker, you might learn something if you read beyound titles and did not assume that there is just b.s.</p>
<p>I'm a student at UVA. I did my high school senior research paper on anti semitism in the US and it might interest you to know that legacy practices started because of this, Jewish quotas at colleges (specifically I think Yale came first). Kind of scary if it's coming back to that, though I know a lot more colleges recruiting Jewish people than the other way around.</p>
<p>Also... The ethnicity question... I think it's more of a "culture" if that makes sense? I am Reconstructionist ( <a href="http://www.jrf.org%5B/url%5D">http://www.jrf.org</a> ) and that is one of the main parts of our beliefs in choosing to brach off of the main sects of Judaism, that Judaism is an "evolving civilization" or something to that effect - I mean, we have our own diseases, foods, holidays, etc. And yes we identify ourselves as Jewish American or American Jews (a debate in itself), either way it is definitely something we identify ourselves as.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, S has a friend with a distinctly Jewish last name. She is also an observant Jew. She is also African-American and was adopted by her Caucasian Jewish mother. Would she be considered a URM on account of her race? Or an ORM on account of her Jewish last name and religion? We also know of several Asians who were adopted by Jewish parents.
Just to suggest that ethnicity, race and religion are not easy to disentangle but do not necessarily go together, either.</p>
<p>Marite, your friend's daughter is African-American. She is religiously & culturally Jewish, but colleges don't ask religion. Despite speculation to the contrary, there is no evidence that I am aware of that a Jewish surname or religious activities would be in any way negative as far as college admissions goes.</p>