I'm pretty sure the "47% Jewish" stat is codswallop

Colleges and Universities A-Z Brandeis University
1

(Isn’t ‘codswallop’ a fun word?)

OK, so all over the internet (and IRL, too) I’ve seen the 47% or “slightly under half” Jewish stat bandied about. It seems to come from this Hillel site (http://www.hillel.org/college-guide/list/record/brandeis-university). People use it in a multitude of ways - to argue that Brandeis isn’t all that Jewish, or is really Jewish, or whatever.

Now, quite apart from the question of whether the amount of Judaism in a school should really be that big a deal, I’m pretty sure this number is fiction.

Brandeis doesn’t keep track of religion, but it does keep track of race. Over here (http://www.brandeis.edu/about/facts/schools.html) we see that the school is 46.9% white.

If 47% of Brandeis is Jewish, literally every. single. white kid on campus HAS to be Jewish - and even then, it still wouldn’t be enough. Given that I know a bunch of white gentiles just from my tiny school considering Brandeis, I find this extremely unlikely.

(Also: It’s true that it’s possible for non-whites to be Jewish, but as a Jew who has met a lot of other Jews, I feel fairly confident in stating that the vast majoirty of Northeast Jews are white, and for the purposes of Brandeis non-white Jews are not going to be present in enough numbers to make the 47% statistic make sense.)

So, it seems that Hillel is inflating their numbers a least a little, and probably a lot. I’d make a WAG that at most, Brandeis is maybe 25 to 30% Jewish - and even then, that would leave only 17% for non-Jewish whites, which seems a little low. And that’s not even factoring in that this is probably considering people who have a Jewish mom but can’t tell a menorah from a seder plate Jewish.

In short: if you’re hesitant about Brandeis because you think it’ll be Hebrew school all over again, chill out.

2

Very true, the school barley has a Jewish population (and if it does it’s only the undergraduate side of the campus). Otherwise you will find a whole lot of Chinese on this campus.

3

So, there are hardly any Jews there, and Brandeis is now where the Chinese go to meet other Chinese?
Seems like there should be a middle ground here.

4

Why don’t you call up the school, the Hillel, or both and ask the question and rationale rather than just assume it is a fabrication?

When looking at ethnic breakdown at Brandeis, about 18% are listed as “non-resident aliens” (international students). A good portion of those might be Jewish.

Bottom line: ask instead of making assumptions.

5

You’re obviously not a current student, since I am and know that there’s a lot of Jews at Brandeis. Sure it’s ~15% Asian too, but there’s definitely a fair amount of Jews (both undergrad and grad), who come from a variety of denominations. Stop kidding around.

6

"tell me how many jews you see in that building "

You can tell a Jew by looking at them?! 8-}

7

New accounts specifically made to bash a certain school will always draw a bit of suspicion here.

8

Just saying- there is a population of Chinese girls adopted by Jewish families in the Northeast who identify as Jewish.

9

Closing thread. Nothing left to say.