I grew up hearing about quotas on Jewish students. These quotas helped to form American Jewish identity as an outsider identity; the quotas enraged my father’s generation and fostered the rise of neoconservatism.
Well how will Jewish identity absorb this truth? From the JTA, Sue Fishkoff, a piece about how colleges are now recruiting Jewish students, apparently in good measure because Jewish wealth is now such a significant factor in the Jewish presence in American society:
Schools large and small with few Jewish students are actively working to recruit more by building Jewish student centers and creating kosher dining options as part of a “build it and they will come” recruitment strategy.
Admissions officers and deans at these schools rarely say they are actively recruiting Jewish students; instead they say they are looking to “increase diversity.” But off the record, many admit that Jewish students bring certain assets, from leadership skills and good academic records while they are on campus, to a propensity for donating to the school once they graduate.
