Jews Live Longer Than Others, Says Dr. Dublin, Statistician

Stand by, Aryans, while Dr. Louis I. Dublin, vice-president of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and famous statistician announces: That the Jews live longer and sounder lives than any other race in the world!

Statistics carefully mapped out over a number of years prove that out of every 1,000 people of the same age, the mortality rate is ten to twenty per cent in favor of the Jews.

The doctor waded through a mire of statistics yesterday at his office in the New Building on Twenty-fourth street. Charts confronted all comers with threatening prophesies printed in black and red: “Excessive mortality of overweight men!” “Chances of orphanhood by order of birth!” “Tubercular mortality by reason of inheritance!” Every little graphic line seemed to have a meaning of its own. Inside of two minutes visitors are apt to take their pulse, check up mentally on their weight, try frantically to remember how old Dad was when the children were born.

But the rotund little doctor seems to take it all in his stride. He looks remarkably cheerful and complacent in the face of all those grim posters hung menacingly over him. Like all good philosophers he appears to take them with a grain of salt. So the reporter thought there was still time left before passing out to ask: How do you account for the Jews being so long-lived?

“Well, first of all,” returned Dr. Dublin, “they are more concerned about their health; they pay more attention to medical discoveries; they take better care of their babies and have a closer knit family life which is a source of protection to the young. The Jews, too, are a more moderate people than any other race. They do not die of alcoholism nor do they go in for any other excesses. They are less exposed to hazardous occupations; they choose work in the fields of commerce and learning. Finally, they rarely go in for any wild sprees.” So says the doctor.

“They are well endowed physically,” he continued. “They have been able to withstand trial and hardship as have few other peoples. Possibly these very trials and tribulations have been a selective force which has eliminated weaklings. It may well be that the modern Jews illustrate most effectively the result of natural selection or the survival of the fittest members of the group. For centuries they have been city dwellers and are more immune than any other race to the ravages of infectious diseases.”

PREVALENT DISEASES

“What particular disease causing death is more prevalent among Jews as compared with other races?” asked the reporter.

“Heart disease is the chief single cause of death among Jews, accounting for about a quarter of the total mortality. Cancer deaths are also much more marked among Jews than in the general population. The most characteristic disease of the Jews, however, is diabetes. It assumes importance after the forty-fifth year and from that age upward the death rate among Jews, especially among women, is considerably higher than that of the general population. Undoubtedly this condition reflects the dietary habits, the frequent sedentary life and the whole complex of the daily routine, typical of the Jewish race.”

“What other constitutional predisposition is found among Jews?” was the next question.

“One more,” answered Dr. Dublin with a laugh (statisticians laugh, too). “You can tell a Jew from the rest of the people by his concern over anything. He is always worried about something, either this, that or the other social problem. His nervous instability is his predominant characteristic and keeps him chronically unhappy.”