Page Six
THE JEWISH NEWS
Friday, January 8, 1943
`Appraisal' of U. S. Jews Draws Sharp Criticism
Comparisons with nonjews Encourage Differentiation in Public Mind, Foster Discrimination, Social Worker
Charges; Denies Jews Are Any Better or Worse Than Other Average Americans
By PHILIP L. SEMAN
General Director of Jewish People's Institute of Chicago
I
N THE INTERESTS of accuracy and statements
of "fact," particularly now, when confusion is
rampant and mis-information is on the increase, it is
astonishing to find in the August Scientific Monthly, a
journal published by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science and edited by scholars and sci-
entists, an article on "Jewish Production of American
Leaders," written by Dr. Maphous Smith of the Univer-
sity of Kansas and Dr. Rachey B. Moton of Lincoln Uni-
versity. I regard that article as faulty in many grave
respects.
My purpose is to call attention to a number of the
items in the article by Doctors Smith and Moton and to
answer some of the misstatements. In order to validate
the refutations of the article, the author consulted orig-
inal sources, to which he will refer; in most instances
refutations were culled from reports issued by authori-
tative agencies.
Quotes Roback, Sorokin and Davis
The writers of the article, "Jewish Production of
American Leaders," begin in a customary, flattering
manner, offering the names of eminent men in history
of Jewish extraction. These names were taken from A.
A. Roback's "Jewish Influence on Modern Thought"
published in Cambridge, Mass., in 1929 for a discussion
of eminent Jews. There is also a reference to Prof. P.
A. Sorokin's article in the "Journal of Social Forces,"
published in 1925, wherein he refers to Jews as being
well represented among American millionaires, and
other reference in a book by Jerome Davis, a study of
"163 Communist Leaders" published in the American
Sociological Review of 1930, wherein Dr. Davis found
that Jews are three times as numerous among Russian
Communist leaders as their proportion to the total pop-
ulation.
The Doctors Smith and Moton aver that throughout
the years, since prominent people have been studied as
a class, no attempt has been made to determine the con-
tribution• of American Jews to the total list of eminent
personages in the United States. They then refer to
data which they obtained from "Who's Who in America,
1938-1939" and "Who's Who in American Jewry" of the
same year, suggesting that this data was for the first
time available; they checked the entire "Who's Who in
America" list against the entries in "Who's Who in
American Jewry" and found 1,112 names in both lists,
as well as 20 additional persons not listed in "Who's
Who is American Jewry" who reported Jewish religious
affiliations in "Who's Who in America," making a total
of 1,132 Jews included in this larger list.
One Jew in 'Who's Who' Out of
Every 4,220
This total, they say, is to be considered a minimum
figure, and is equivalent to one Jew listed in "Who's
Who in America" for every 4,220 Jews in the population
of the United States in 1938. They make the further ob-
servation that since the corresponding ratio between the
total names listed in "Who's Who in America" and the
estimated United States population of 1938, was 4,140,
therefore Jews are approximately as well represented
as non-Jews.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In the following article Mr. Seman
points out that—all popular fancies to the contrary Jews
in America produce their normal quota of leaders in nearly
all fields, neither greatly surpassing or lagging behind any
other religious or ethnic group in the population.
—
been forced out of certain vocations and positions. They
point specifically to the positions of teachers, govern-
ment workers and militarists, ignoring the fact that to-
day we have more Jews in prominent government posi-
tions and fairly high offices in the Army and Navy,
than in any other time in the history of this nation.
Furthermore, the attempt to demonstrate that Jews
are of superior mentality, is a rather negative approach
and may very likely tend to increase latent anti-Semit-
ism among the readers of such material.
The statement that the Jews are or were represented
in the Communist Party far beyond their proportion is
utterly and unequivocally false. For example, of the
100,000 Communists in the United States today, accord-
ing to a Dies Committee report, there are not more than
2,000 or 2,500 Jews in he party, and none of them oc-
cupy any place of prominence. When one considers that
this figure represents between two and two and one-
half per cent, and that the percentage of Jews to the
population of the United States is over four per cent, he
will realize that there is little or no basis for the au-
thors' conclusion. Even in Russia, we find that out of
Feature of the Week
The Jewish News presents this scholarly
article by Mr. Seman as one of a series of spe-
cial features which will be published weekly
in our columns.
Additional special features will be found
on Pages 2 and 14 in this issue.
17 members of the supreme directing body in the Soviet
Union, there is only one Jew, Lazar Kagonovich. The
official records show a total number of 124,000 Bolshe-
viks in Russia in 1918, of whom 75 per cent were Rus-
sians, 101/2 per cent Latvians, 6.3 per cent Poles, 3.7 per
cent Estonians and only 2.6 per cent Jews.
The authors also make the point that few American
Jews live in rural districts and practically no large scale
agricultural operators are found among them. Accord-
ing to the Jewish Agricultural Society report there are
100,000 Jewish ,farmers spread over at least 14 states,
and so far as the rural districts are concerned, Dr. H.
Linfield reports in the American Jewish Year Book of
In developing their thesis they indicate that Jews
should be expected to surpass the average of the United
States population in contributing to the list of eminent
personages and that the reason they fail is because they
must overcome a variety of serious handicaps. Among
these they include poverty, discrimination of minority
peoples, differences in social status, such as existed be-
tween the German groups which arrived early, and the
Russian groups, which came later, etc.
Apparently, the only opportunities that the Jews
have, according to the authors, are the gifts of higher
mentalities and the advantage of being primarily an
urban population, but in the very next breath it• is sug-
gested that because of .discrimination the Jews • have
The authors point out further that leadership in
banking and business is to some extent explained by
Jewish leadership in these fields during the ancient
medieval times and the traditional extension to the
present. It seems to be unfair to say that Jews have as-
sumed a disproportionate leadership in banking and
business, since the facts are that out of 362 directors
and trustees in various banks belonging to the New
York Clearing House Association as listed in "Poor's
Financial Records" 1940 Fiscal Manual, only 12 or 3.31
per cent are Jews. When one considers the fact that
more than 40 per cent of the Jewish population of the
United States is concentrated in the City of New York,
and that the Jewish population of that city constitutes
approximately 30 per cent of the entire population of
that city, then one can indeed appreciate how small is
the figure of 3.31 per cent. Of the 12 Jewish directors
and trustees, about half of that number were in the
Public National Bank and Trust Company and none in
the larger banks of the city. As a matter of fact, there
are practically no Jewish employees in the larger com-
mercial banks in spite of the fact that many of their
customers are Jews.
Jews in the .Investment Field
There are a number of Jewish houses in the invest-
ment field, of which Kuhn Loeb & Company, Speyer &
Co., J. W. Seligman & Co., and The Lehmann Bros. are
the best known, but these houses do not compare in
power with the great investment companies owned by
non-Jews, as for example: J. P. Morgan, National City
Bank, The Chase National Bank, The Harris Bank, the
Guarantee Trust Company, etc. In addition to these
facts, it must be considered that of the so-called Jewish
houses not all of them are wholly Jewish. Several of
their active members are non-Jews. Thus, control of
J. W. Seligman & Co. is shared by Earl Bailey and
Francis Randolph.
It is essential in this writer's judgment to call to the
attention of the readers of this article, and it • is the
writer's hope that the Scientific Monthly will make this
possible for their readers, that they ought to bear in
mind the fact that the authors are writing about promi-
nent people—leaders. Perhaps the fairest comparison
between prominent Jews and non-Jews could have been
made by taking another group of approximately the
same number, or taking various denominations and
placing them side by side to see how they compare. Yet,
in spite of the fact that this has not been done, the Jews
still compare favorably with the total elements of the
general population.
`Compensation for'Deficieno,
in Fact'
The authors' concluding thought somewhat compen-
sates for the deficiencies in fact. They assert that they
have no reason to suppose that the Jewish group has
any more pride in its accomplishments than has any
other religion, ethnic, or language component of the
American population, or' that it is more interested in
having itself singled out for comment than any other
part of the population.
Although the authors have apparently allowed for
some error in their statistical data, there is no reliabil-
ity in the figures they use, because they cannot know,
without incurring great effort and lengthy research, the
percentage of errors in the listing of religions of the in-
dividuals found in "Who's Who in America." A great
many of these people have no religious preferences and
many of them may have denied their Jewish ancestors.
However, even with the unreliable source used, the au-
thors reached the conclusion that there is approximate-
ly a proportionate representation of Jews among promi-
nent Americans. Yet they are inconsistent enough to
advance the theory that the 'Jewish contribution of
prominent Americans is not as high as should be ex-
pected. having their opportunities.
Record in Government, Armed
Services
1940, that whereas in the 1927 census Jewish families
were listed in only 3,150 communities, in 1937 they were
to be found in 4.500 commua 1:Ns. As a matter of fact,
from 1911 to 1913 the writer was Associate Director of
the Industrial Removal Office, during which time he
visited more than 1,100 communities where Jews had
found residence and were helpful in welcoming newly
arrived immigrants prior to and during the peak year
of immigration. Certainly, this would seem indicative
of the fact that Jews are ever more widely distributed
and are moving in increasing numbers to smaller com-
munities. It is unfair, therefore, to expect any Jews of
prominence to spring from rural backgrounds, particu-
larly since the agricultural development was almost nil
in 1900, and in a short span of 40 years reached the
amazing growth that it has today.
Their interest in the contributions of any part of the
American population, they claim, should be purely a
historical and academic one, especially in view of the
fact that • all religious minorities seem to be equally
loyal to the principles of all national minorities, except
those attached to some of the aggressive, international
and military movement, which, however, in no respect
applies to the Jews.
These words, part of our National
Anthem, snoken in a moment of great
national peril are, in themselves, a call
to all men of good-will to defend the
American ideal of equality.
"Thus be it e'er where free men shall stand"
In all fairness to the authors, mention should like-
wise be made of their final statement. They say that
there is no reason indeed to believe that the assimila-
tion of the Jews in this country will proceed until
studies of the sort reviewed in their article will cease
to have even academic interest, which will happen if
the rest of the American people put no emphasis on. re-
ligious, national and cultural differences and cease to
discriminate against the Jews.
(Copyright, 1943, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
.