A unique people in an exceptional country

T O understand American Jewry it is important to recognize that their experience on this continent differs qualitatively from those of their coreligionists in other countries. Jews won acceptance as fully equal citizens earlier here than dsewhere. They have faced much less discrimination in the United States than in any other Christian nation. Although never more than 3.7 percent of the population (at present 2.5 percen0, they have been given one third of the religious representation. Many public ceremonies are attended by one priest, one minister, and one rabbi. In 1989, there were thirty-one Representatives and eight Senators in Congress who are Jewish. Many represent areas with few Jewish constituents. Studies of national origin and religious groups, using census and sample survey data, find that "Jews, regardless of ethnic ancestry, attain higher levels of education, occupation and income than all other subgroups. " A national survey of American Jews and non-Jews, completed for the American Jewish Committee in April 1988 by Steve M. Ocean, also leads to the conclusion that Jews are among the wealthiest groups in America and that per capita Jewish income may actually be almost double that of nonJews. More than twice as many Jews as non-Jewish whites report household incomes in excess of $50,000. At the other end of the spectrum, almost twice as many non-Jews as Jews indicate incomes of less than $20,000. These generalizations have been abundantly documented for various high-level groups. An analysis of the 400 richest Americans, as reported by Forbes magazine, finds that two-fifths of the wealthiest forty are Jews, as are twenty-three percent of the total list. Jews are disproportionately present among many sections of the elite, largely drawn from the college educated. Data gathered for an American Leadership Study in ten major sectors in 1971/72 indicated that Jews "comprise[d] over 11 percent of the overall sample, compared to only 3 percent of the national population." No other group did as well. An analysis of those listed in Who's Who in America, as of 1974, found 8.4 percent were Jewish, up from two percent in 1944. Jews have been overrepresented, as compared to all other ethnic groups, except the English, from the early 1920s on. By the mid-1970s, they were far ahead of those of English descent as well. More specialized studies point to their heavy presence among the top two hundred intellectuals, American Nobel Prize winners in science and economics professors at the leading universities high level civil servants, partners in the leading law firms in New York and Washington, reporters, editors and executives of the major print and broadcast media directors, writers, and producers of the fifty top grossing motion pictures from 1965 to 1982, and the same level people in two or more prime time television series. These achievements are related to the extraordinary scholastic accomplishments of American Jews. As of the beginning of the 1970s, four-fifths of college-age Jews were enrolled in higher education, as compared to half that proportion, two-fifths, for the population at large. And, like the faculty, they are heavily concentrated in the more selective schools. An American Council on Education survey of college freshmen found that Jewish students had significantly higher secondary school grades than their Gentile counterparts. Moreover, Jews seemingly perform better as undergraduates; by a considerable margin, they are disproportionately elected to Phi Beta Kappa.