<p>This comes up from time to time about Tulane, Wash U, and a few others. The percentage of people that list their religion as Jewish is about 25-30%, that is accurate. Few are orthodox, and few are observant to the nth degree, but many feel a strong tie to their Jewish identity. Having grown up in an area that was heavily Jewish (virtually all non-orthodox), I think it is an accurate observation to say that Jewishness is a combination of an ethnic identity and a religious identity, and at these campuses it is at least as much the former as the latter. I don’t think this is a radical or even controversial point of view, many prominent Jewish people have analyzed this in different ways such as novels, art, and of course scholarly articles. In any case, my point is that on these campuses you will have a very active Hillel, as well as popular fraternities/sororities that have historically been predominently Jewish.</p>
<p>Finally, the percentage of Jewish students at American universities is significantly in excess of the percentage of Jewish people in the general population. To that extent it is not surprising that some schools have larger Jewish representation than one might otherwise expect.</p>