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"Freedom of religion does not exist if you
are not a Christian," one Jewish cadet said,
according to the report, which also found that
the academy's top commanders had shown a
"lack of awareness" of diverse religious prac-
tices.
Contrast that to the atmosphere at the
Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., where a
$16 million Jewish chapel and conference cen-
ter will be dedicated on Sept. 18, and to what
happened recently at the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point, N.Y., where Ari
Fleischer, former White House press secretary,
gave 18 Jewish graduates Kiddush cups or
candlesticks in a special baccalaure-
ate ceremony and told them, "you
provide a double mitzvah," The
Forward reported. "The epaulets on
your shoulders tell the world you are
Americans; the faith in your hearts tells the
world you are Jews."
The Air Force must follow the Army and
Navy's policies of tolerance and inclusiveness.
And we're pleased that a rabbi has been
appointed to verify that the Air Force moves
wholeheartedly to correct what Rep. Barney
Frank, D-Mass., rightly called a shanda.
Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, former national director of
inter-religious affairs for the American Jewish
Committee and a former Navy chaplain, will advise
Air Force officials for the next year on issues like
expressing faith on duty and how to create an atmos-
phere where all religions are respected. Rabbi
Resnicoff has called the academy's problems "fixable"
and says he hopes to make the Air Force a model for

EDIT ORIAL

E-mail your opinion in a letter to the editor of no
more than 150 words to: letters@thejewishnews. corn.

Smart Set

et's be honest. What did you think when
you read, or heard about, the recent New
York Times article about how smart Jews are?
According to the newspaper, a team of researchers
has determined that a recessive gene present
among the Ashkenazim promotes high intel-
ligence. Those Jews who were drawn to intel-
lectual occupations during the deadly fury of
the Middle Ages managed to survive and
passed on this gene to their descendants.
The theory has been attacked on several grounds
by many scholars. They argue that the Ashkenazim
were not a closed genetic group during this period,
that Sephardic Jews share many of the same intellec-
tual accomplishments, and that it is traceable mostly
to the tradition of written rabbinic law during a
time of widespread illiteracy.
A people who valued education did have an edge.
But it was rooted in culture, not biology
Different route, same destination. In terms of IQ

N p.p. ■■ •• ■ •qq‘

U.S. AND INTERNA-
TIONAL LEADERS
HAVE STARTED TO
ASSEMBLE AN

Wings And Prayers

hat do you call someone who recently criti-
cized House Democrats for waging a "war
on Christianity" after many of them
defended Jewish cadets at the Air Force Academy?
The Jewish cadets' complaint: several Evangelical
Christian cadets routinely called them "(expletive)
Jews," accused them of killing Jesus and created a per-
vasive atmosphere of religious intolerance on the vast
Colorado Springs campus. Nonreligious cadets also
complained that they have been pressured to take part
in Christian prayers.
You can call that critic Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind.,
who tried to gloss over the school's corrosive social
atmosphere — which also includes scores of sexual-
harassment complaints filed by female cadets
in recent years — during a heated debate on
defense spending.
Now that we can toss Hostetettler's divi-
sive and intemperate responses in the trash where they
belong, we're happy to cite a new report by an Air
Force task force and by the National Conference on
Ministry to the Armed Forces. The two panels con-
cluded that the cadets' complaints of bias must be
taken seriously and rectified.
According to Jewish students interviewed for the
report, the burden has been squarely on them to seek
out religious accommodation, and that the Air Force
Academy doesn't always make that easy. For example,
one Jewish cadet who kept kosher reportedly was given
a refrigerator in his room because the dining hall could
not meet his dietary needs.

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all of the armed forces on issues of respect and values.
How long will it take to correct the problems at the
Air Force Academy? The outgoing superintendent, Lt.
Gen. John Rosa Jr., warned recently that it could take
six years to solve what he called the academy's "insidi-
ous" bias problems.
But if Israel can win a war in six days, does the Air
Force Academy really need six years? ❑

below it. That's what makes an average.
tests, professional accomplishment, advanced
When a book called The Bell Curve came
degrees — any way you want to measure it
out a decade ago and identified certain
— Jews do much better than the general
groups as consistently foiling below that aver-
population.
age by one standard statistical deviation, its
So how did that make you feel? Did you
authors were pilloried. That chapter took up
smile and say to yourself, "Nu, so what else
about 10 pages of a 500-page book. But the
is new?" Were you uneasy, feeling that these
work
was attacked almost universally, includ-
are things we say among our-
ing by many who never bothered to read it.
selves but shouldn't repeat out
GE ORGE
So this is very dangerous turf we're on here.
loud?
CAN TOR
It is a basis of contemporary liberal ideology
Let's be honest.
Colu mnist
that given an equal opportunity every group
Have you ever used the expres-
will have the same chance of success as every
sion goyishe kop (gentile head)? An
other. Conservative writers such as Thomas
unpleasant phrase and as politically incorrect as
Sowell
have
ridiculed the notion, conducting research
you can get.
that shows the talents of different groups lie in differ-
But how many of us seek out Jewish physicians,
ent directions, according to their cultural histories.
attorneys, dentists, accountants? To give our busi-
Not many people want to hear that, and it is
ness to others within the community, sure. But is it
political death to say it out loud in America. But
also because we feel a sense of enhanced security in
that is the flip side of the article in the Times.
dealing with a professional we believe to be smarter
Of course, not all Jews are that bright. Lord
than the average?
knows,
I once worked for some of them. But that
People at many Jewish organizations are very
quality skews far higher on the distribution chart
unhappy about such assertions. They believe it is
than random chance can account for.
simply stereotyping and that it works against us.
So let's be honest. Is this good or bad for the
There is also the bothersome idea that if one
Jews? ❑
group is so far above the average, others have to be

RE ALITY
C HECK

George Cantor's e-mail address
is gcantor@thtjewishnews.corn.

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7/ 7
2005

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