However, the AJCommittee
report found that Jews are
making it in corporate
America. But, as Korman
also found, the AJCommittee
discovered that the most suc-
cessful Jews in corporations
were those who had
assimilated — often who were
married to non-Jews, were
non-observant or observant
of Christian holidays, and
were unaffiliated with Jewish
organizations.
"I'm not at all convinced
that my research indicates
overt anti-Semitism," Kor-
man cautioned. "It's just that
employers don't think about
it."
He said, however, he
believes the AJCommittee's
report is flawed in a number
of respects. He noted the
report was based on only one-

They apparently
do not feel
comfortable with
Jews, especially
those who are
noticeably Jewish
through their
religious
observances...

';=•-•

third response from its mail
survey, "an extremely poor
return. You normally don't
publish results without at
least 50 percent response, and
you aim for 75 percent. The
smaller the response, the
more atypical it is."
Additionally, he said, the
AJCommittee took a "nar-
row, elite sample — graduates
of three schools who were go-
ing onto Wall Street, not into
corporate America. These are
the gunslingers — in mergers
and acquisitions."
The graduates were from
Columbia University
Graduate School of Business,
Harvard. Business School and
Drexel University School of
Business, "very elite schools,"
Korman says. "It was an elite
subsample. These are the
MBAs running to Wall Street
— people running away from
corporate America."
Korman says he met with
Irving Levine, the AJCom-
mittee's director of national
affairs, to express his
concerns.
From his New York office,
Levine confirmed the meet-
ing, adding that he had read
Korman's book and did not
agree with its general
outlook.
The AJCommittee con-
ducted another study on the

number of Jews in executive
suites 25 years ago, Levine
said, and the recent study
shows "things are better.
There has been a tremendous
amount of improvement, and
there is more opportunity for
Jews, especially in middle
management, compared to 25
years ago."
Levine said he thinks one-
third return of the mail
survey is "very good,"
although he added that he is
not a research methodologist,
as is Korman. But he says the
AJCommittee's study shows
that there are "a lot more
Jewish CEOs (chief executive
officers) than there have been
before."
He said he thinks the situa-
tion probably is better for
Jews now than it was a
generation ago because "the
economy is doing better, and
Americans are more tolerant
of diversity. Major national
studies have shown less anti-
Semitism. It doesn't mean
there still isn't a lot of bigotry
— you can have progress and
problems at the same time."
In assessing areas where
Jews are most successful,
Levine supported Korman's
contention that the legal,
medical, accounting and en-
trepreneurial fields at present
are most important. "To a
degree," Levine says, Jewish
success "does come from cer-
tain sectors of the economy,
but not because Jews are ex-
cluded from the other sec-
tors."
Korman expressed concern
about the AJCommittee
report not only because he
wants the American Jewish
community to become more
active in seeking equality for
Jews in corporations.
The Jewish community
largely has been silent on the
issue, he said.
Those few Jews who have
made it in major corpora-
tions, such as Irving Shapiro,
who was CEO of Dupont in
the 1970's and early 80's, and
Lawrence Tisch, head of CBS,
are not really corporate men,
Korman said.
"Shapiro is an outsider, and
there have been no major
changes in Dupont (in hiring
other Jewish executives). If
you look at Tisch, you see
that he bought CBS.
"People look at these two
prominent cases and maybe
think things are fine," Kor-
man observed. "They're
not." ❑

Elaine DeRosa is a writer for
the Greater Phoenix Jewish
News where this story
appeared.

Jewish. MBAs: Another View

Published by the American
Jewish Committee 1988
The conclusions published
in The Outsiders by Abraham
Korman conflict with a study
released last year by Samuel
Z. Klausner. The report, "Suc-
ceeding in Corporate
America: The Experience of
Jewish MBAs" was publish-
ed by the American Jewish
Committee. Excerpts follow:

There is no evidence of
widespread discrimination
against Jews in the executive
suite: This judgment derives
from failing to find the follow-
ing conditions: a notable
absence of Jews in a par-
ticular class of firms; Jews
clustered in a narrow range of
positions within firms; Jews
occupying positions of lower
authority and earning lower
salaries than Protestants and
Catholics; a correlation be-
tween the religion of Jewish
corporate officers and the
number of Jews hired; a
refusal by Christian senior ex-
ecutives to mentor Jewish
junior executives; and a belief
on the part of the respond-
ents that religious discrimin-
ation is practiced in their
firms.
The Jewish culture of the
Jewish MBAs is quite thin:
Half the Jewish MBAs were
unable to decode the letters of
the Hebrew alphabet, a
handicap precluding most
liturgical participation, and
few had any vocabulary in the
language. Ritual observance,
on the average, did not extend
much beyond attendance at a
seder (which might be little
more than a family meal) and
lighting candles on Chanu-
kah. At the same time, the
majority participated in
Christmas observances, with
a not-insignificant number
having Christmas trees in
their homes. Among the in-
termarried population,
almost all marriages were
nonconversionary, that is,
neither spouse renounced his
or her faith. The new house-
holds did not adhere to either
one of the faith groups.
The Jews' emphasis on
education, especially on
liberal arts, contributes to
their executive success:
Whereas technical vocational
education leads to technical
support roles in the corpora-
tion, the pursuit of a liberal-
arts education anticipates the
general managerial roles that
are the key to corporate suc-

cess, and individuals who
follow that track advance
more rapidly in both salary
and authority. The Jewish ex-
ecutives were the most likely
to adhere to this educational
pattern and their success was
further enhanced by the fact
that they had embarked on
their MBA studies directly
after completing their
undergraduate education.
Jews with a more intense
Jewish culture are more like-
ly to be working in Gentile
than Jewish firms: Gentile
firms displayed a positive at-
titude toward religion
generally and their Jewish ex-
ecutives were more culturally
Jewish, in terms of knowledge
of Hebrew and ritual obser-
vance, than Jews who worked
for Jewish firms. Involvement
with Israel was no deeper
among Jewish MBAs in Gen-

tile than Jewish firms,
perhaps because a secular
and nationalist attitude is
not necessarily welcomed in a
climate otherwise receptive to
religion.
Finally, the tenuous
Jewishness of the Jewish
MBAs does not bode well for
the future of the American
Jewish community. These ex-
ecutives have compromised
Jewish culture, not because
they had to do so to gain Gen-
tile acceptance, but willingly,
for broader societal reasons.
The children in mixed-religion
families, especially in those
that practice elements of both
faiths, tend to marry Chris-
tian. Corporate success by
Jews is not "Jewish" if suc-
cessful MBAs or their
children enter the Christian
community.

Where Recruiters Don't Go

In his book, The Out-
siders: Jews and Corporate
America, Abraham Kor-
man offers evidence that
major corporate employers
recruit primarily at univer-
sities where Jewish
students are not found in
abundance, appearing to
avoid institutions where
they are:
"Emory and 'Rifts are
fine private universities
with a number of different
undergraduate schools and
a significant percentage of
Jewish students; Vander-
bilt and Notre Dame are
fine private universities
with few Jewish under-
graduates; and Brandeis
and Oberlin are fine,
basically liberal arts in-
stitutions with a signifi-
cant Jewish undergrad-
uate student body.. .
1. A total of six Fortune
100 companies recruited at
Emory during 1983-84 for
students in business, com-
puter sciences and liberal
arts; 20 companies from
the same group recruited
in the same areas at
Vanderbilt during the
following academic year.
The latter group included
companies from such in-
dustries as petroleum,
chemicals and automobile
manufacturing, none of
which recruited at Emory.
So far as could be deter-
mined, there were no
radical business changes

one year later that would
account for such a dif-
ference. Furthermore, year-
to-year changes in the
economy would not ac-
count for the fact that,
during the same year, six
Fortune 100 companies
recruited at Emory, 45
such companies recruited
at Notre Dame, while only
one recruited at Brandeis
and four recruited at
Oberlin the following year.
2. A comparison of re-
cruiting patterns at
Vanderbilt and Tufts,
schools very similar to one
another in size and struc-
ture and both with schools
of engineering, showed
that a total of 43 Fortune
100 companies visited the
former, while only 10
recruited at the latter.
The available evidence
shows that college
recruiters from large
segments of corporate
America are far more like-
ly to go to schools where
there are few Jewish under-
graduates than they are to
go to schools where Jews
are a significant part of the
undergraduate student
body. ❑
Reprinted by permission of

the publisher from the book,

The Outsiders: Jews and
Corporate America, by

Abraham K. Korman. (Lex-
ington, Mass. Lexington
Books, D.C. Health and Co.,
copyright 1988.)

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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