Denials were made by leading Eastern universities of the charges that they were discriminating against Jewish students in the consideration of entrance applications, made by Adolph Lewisohn and Gustave A. Rogers at a luncheon a discuss the raising of funds for the proposed Yeshiva of America.
Mr. Rogers asserted that several eastern universities had discreetly informed heads of preparatory schools that it would be wise for them to leave Jews out in filling their quotas of applications. Mr. Lewisohn said that his own grandmas had been excluded from a large Eastern university.
Dr. Ernest M. Hopkins, President of Dartmouth, in reply to an inquiry, telegraphed:
“Believe charges that universities in general are discriminating against Jews to be false and the reasons ascribed for this to be ingenious hypotheses but nothing else. Statement of these gentlemen, so far as Dartmouth is concerned has no semblance of truth and no basis in fact. Am becoming somewhat impatient at gratuitous interpretation of entrance systems of respective colleges from different groups who see in these systems principles never existent and purposes never considered.
“Five years ago we began restriction of enrollment to 2,000, the number then enrolled, beyond which we could not go without diluting educational advantage which Dartmouth could offer. This has necessitated refusal of hundreds of applications each year and for present year applications for admission to freshman class number more than 1,800 and represent ratio of three to one to number which can be accepted. There are undoubtedly many Jews in number declined, but we have no reason to suppose and do not believe percentage varies from percentage declined in other groups.”
President W. H. P. Faunce, of Brown University, was reported by the Associated Press to have said:
“Brown University has never excluded, and never will excluded, any man on sectarian or racial grounds.”
Yale University officials affirmed that a man of any race or creed who had proper credentials and training was digible for enrolment, according to Associated Press despatches. Columbia University made an official statement to the same effect.
Jacob Freedman, Social Director of the Jewish Students’ House at Columbia University, denied that he had said that the Thorndike psychological test was used at the university to eliminate Jewish students, as he was quoted in the New York “Times.”
“What I did say,” Mr. Freedman declared, “was that the Thorndike test cannot gauge the personality of social desirability of the student, and so can not be used as a means for exclusion on social grounds.
“The statement attributed to me that ‘the blame for the discrimination in admitting students rests with the Board of Trustees’ of Columbia University was also incorrect. I have no official knowledge which would warrant any statement of the kind. Whether or not there is a religious quota at the university I do not know, as I am in no way connected with the Board of Admissions. I do know that for the past three or four years the percentage of Jewish students has hovered about the 20 per cent line. I did not give any exact or official figures, but specifically said ‘about’ with each set of figures quoted.”
The charge that the great American colleges and universities are discriminating against Jews in completing the personnel of entrance quotas assigned various preparatory schools, was made by Adolph Lewisohn and Gustavus A. Rogers, lawyer, at a luncheon Mr. Lewisohn gave at the Bankers’ Club to discuss the program to raise $1,000,000 for the proposed Yeshiva of America.
Mr. Rogers stated to a representative of the New York “World,” that the charges in the information given him “included Harvard. Dartmouth, Prince-ton, Columbia and many others of the country’s great institutions of learning.”
“It is not a matter of absolute exclusion so much as restriction and discrimination,” he said. “The universities themselves are not opposed, exactly, to having Jews in their student body, but they want only what they consider the Jew who is up to their social standard. In other words, the intelligent but irreligious Jew who does not follow Jewish doctrines. They do not want the pious Jew. Their attitude is not a racial one, in my opinion, but rather a fear of revolt by the Christian student body and the Christian parents.
“The schools fear a Christian rebellion by students who do not care to associate with Jews and they fear a pre-dominance of Jews in their student bodies. They wish to bring the number of Jewish students to an irreduceable minimum and keep it there. It is a social rather than a racial matter.”
Mr. Rogers said he thought eventually each religious group would have to have its own schools–colleges specifically for Protestants, specifically for Catholics, and so on.
“Yeshiva, however, will set up no bars,” he continued. “The Catholic, for example, who wishes to take a course in Hebrew literature will be welcome. We will cater, however, to the Jews who have been barred from Christian schools for non-scholastic reasons.
“This barring is not carried on any announced anti-Jew platform. The Jewish boy is restricted from entrance in many universities for no assigned reason. His name, or the asking in intelligence tests of the name of his church pastor, reveal that he is a Jew and he is simply crossed off the list and a Christian substituted, for the applicants always far outnumber the quotas.
“I know of one big Eastern school which has 2,400 applicants for a quota of 650 for Greater New York, and it could easily fill this quota entirely with Jews, yet very few get into it.”
In view of the contradictory reports concerning the Jewish students’ situation in American universities, the “Jewish Daily Bulletin” undertook some time ago, a survey of conditions in this regard. The inquiry was addressed to many leading educators, student bodies and Jewish student fraternities and is conducted along non-partisan lines, aiming at revealing all the facts in the situation. A comprehensive summary of the many interesting replies which have already been received will be published shortly.
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