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Article: The friendly university: Jews in academia since World War II.
- Article from:
- Judaism
- Article date:
- June 22, 1997
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1997 American Jewish Congress. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In the movie Pete and Tillie, the character played by Walter Matthau was asked why, since he was three-quarters Lutheran and only one-quarter Jewish, he insisted on calling himself Jewish. "I'm a social climber," he replied. The rapid economic and social mobility of Jews since World War II has presented a challenge to both scholars and laymen alike in understanding recent American Jewish history, wedded as many of them have been to interpretations of Jewish history emphasizing anti-Semitism and victimhood. What Salo Baron termed the "lachrymose" paradigm of Jewish history still resonates in certain sectors of American Jewry, although such an interpretation is unable to ...