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"For Jews at Yale, a struggle to be accepted," 4/4/01 Yale Daily News
BY ELYSSA FOLK, YDN Staff Reporter
No one knows exactly how many Jewish students will be admitted to Yale
this year -- because the days of mandatory quotas on Jewish students
admitted to Yale are over.
But for the majority of Yale's history, the number of Jews enrolled was
a very important figure. Administrators, faculty and alumni wanted to
preserve the preparatory-school, Christian student tradition at Yale. Through
unofficial quotas, Yale administrators kept the Jewish student
population to a minimum.
It was not until the 1960s, under the leadership of Dean of Admissions
R. Inslee Clark, that the quota was lifted, and the student body was drawn
from wider sources such as public schools and urban areas.
And after centuries of being marginalized and excluded from social
organizations, the Jewish presence on campus was finally accepted.
Early years
The first Jewish student to attend Yale came to the University more
than 100 years after the school's establishment in 1701.
Moses Simon holds the distinction of being the first Jewish Yale
student, followed 17 years later by Judah Benjamin, who never graduated because
his father could not afford the tuition.
Benjamin's departure from Yale is symbolic of the problems of the
student body. Admission was largely given to preparatory school students from
wealthy families. But Jews were rarely among that group.
By the 1890s, strong feelings of anti-Semitism pervaded the campus and
were reflected in the denial of Jews to any of the fraternities and secret
societies.
In Dan Oren's book, "Joining the Club -- A History of Jews and Yale,"
Oren writes that the members of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity put on an
anti-Semitic play as part of their initiation process for the pledges.
Ironically, although Yale administrators sought to protect the student
body from Jewish infiltration, the city of New Haven had a strong
working-class Jewish community had that settled in the city in the 19th century.
Limitation of numbers
Admissions was a sticky subject for Yale at the turn of the 20th
century. Latin proficiency was a requirement for admission, although this would
not jibe well with the nation's public school curriculum.
Complaints from public school parents resulted in fairer admissions to
the University during the early 1920s, and Jews seized upon this openness
to attend Yale, applying in droves. But fear mounted quickly among
conservative Yale alumni that Yale might turn into Columbia University, where about
half of the students were Jewish at this time.
The Jewish students, though few in number, thrived academically. In the
1920s their grades were higher on average than non-Jews, and they received
more academic awards. This bothered Yale administrators tremendously,
according to Oren's book.
By 1923, the University had decided to limit the number of Jews entering
Yale, but not overtly. By declaring a post-World War I housing shortage,
administrators could tighten the reigns on admissions without having to
publicly deny Jews acceptance.
"It was clearly a veiled attempt to limit the number of Jews at Yale,"
Oren said. "I was particularly struck by a University committed to light and
truth having a secret policy."
Those Jews that were accepted in to Yale still faced discrimination from
social clubs and were forced to live together.
Judaism goes underground
The Hillel foundation, an organization centered on Jewish life, came to
Yale in 1941.
But until the 1990s, the Hillel was housed underground in the basements
of various buildings on Old Campus.
"If you came to the Yale campus and asked if there were Jews here,
you'd have no above ground sign that there were," said James Ponet '68, now a
rabbi at the Slifka Center.
But it wasn't only the physical structures that were underground. Many
Jews tried to hide their identities to gain acceptance to extracurricular
organizations.
Daniel Rose '51 said he remembers trying to solicit money for the
United Jewish Appeal from the Jewish students at Yale -- he had gotten a list
of all the Jewish students from the admissions office -- and being turned
down because the students were denying being Jewish.
"I am not of that persuasion. My parents are, but I am not," Rose said was a
typical response from the students he called.
But it wasn't the chilly response he received that disturbed Rose the most.
Rather it was the list of Jewish students that the admissions office compiled.
"My recollection is that there were 1,100 students in my class, and there
were exactly 110 names on that list," Rose said. He said this list convinced
him how precise the quota system was.
The Jewish presence was also missing from the academic curriculum.
"The role of the Jew in western civilization was not a factor to be
studied," Ponet said. "I remember studying the Crusades, and there was zero
mention of Jews."
The days of R. Inslee Clark
After World War II, there was a rising sentiment at Yale that there should be
a shift in admissions criteria to emphasize intellectual capacity rather than
social status. Oren said the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther
King Jr. and the launch of Sputnik spurred this change.
"Americans were shocked that our educational system was not up to
snuff," Oren said.
University administrators convoked the Doob committee, a faculty group
that was to review Yale's housing policy. But psychology professor Leonard
Doob, who served as chairman of the committee, took his mandate one step
further -- to explore the fairness of the admissions policy.
But Yale's doors did not truly open until the leadership of R. Inslee Clark
'57, the public high school graduate who became dean of admissions
under President Kingman Brewster. Clark increased the admissions staff,
recruited public school students and urged Yale's peer institutions to end
preferential treatment for prep school males. Clark decided that the University
had favored too many other factors rather than scholarship to admit students.
The influx of Jewish students that followed these new policies was not received
well by everyone. Many alumni exaggerated the numbers, claiming that Jews were
in the majority.
In 1985, President A. Bartlett Giammati did away with the formal records that
the admissions office used to keep track of Jews.
From underground to Wall Street
Kenneth Davis '69 knows how different it was to be Jewish in the 1960s than
today. He need only look at the experiences of his children, Daniel Davis '99
and Jordanna Davis '03.
"When my children are there, being Jewish is hardly a unique status," Davis
said. "It was unusual when I came to Yale to have a Jewish roommate. It's so
different [now] it brings tears to my eyes."
Today, Jews at Yale are not just more visible in number. The Slifka Center
for Jewish Life, built in 1995, is the first building of its kind at Yale, a structure
providing kosher food for students as well as a place to have many cultural events.
"I thought, and still do, that religious beliefs and practices should not be put on the
shelf when students enroll as freshmen," said Alan Slifka '51, the Slifka's Center
major benefactor. "I believe that spirit and matter belong on a university campus."
Copyright 2001 Yale Daily News. All rights reserved. |
