Jewish problems (2011)
arxiv.org
Jewish problems (2011)
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Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#2A similar story[1] was told by the mathematician Edward Frenkel. He was a Jew in Russia and took an exam with "hard" math problems designed to prevent his admission into Moscow State University. It's possible the problems shown in the paper are the ones Frenkel saw since he was a teenager during that time period. (The Cornell paper does not specifically mention Frenkel.)
[1]http://www.amazon.com/Love-Math-Heart-Hidden-Reality/dp/0465...
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#3This is a well-known fact, actually.
My math teacher in Lithuania mentioned that back in his days (50-s) it was practically impossible for a non-Jewish student to get into any math- or physics-related faculty: Jewish families had a very strong multi-generational tradition of both in-school and additional education. He also said he was the only non-jewish in his group in Moscow State University that year.
So at some point it was decided to, ehm, discriminate jewish - they were supposed to be a minority in all the main universities/institutes, under 10%, I think, although this is not a precise number.
Note that I don't advocate anything or anyone, this is just the way it was.
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#4This is a well-known fact, actually. My math teacher in Lithuania mentioned that back in his days (50-s) it was practically impossible for a non-Jewish student to get into any math- or physics-related faculty: Jewish families had a very strong multi-generational tradition of both in-school and additional education. He also said he was the only non-jewish in his group in Moscow State University that year. So at some p…
Wouldn't that be called "affirmative action" in the US?
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#5Having graduated math-oriented Moscow high school that, on one hand, had a lot of graduates go to the math department (roughly translated as MechMath) of MSU (usually, most of the math class alumni goes there), and on the other, had untypical amount of jewish students, these rings so close to home. Hell, I think they actually gave us most part of these problems in math lessons.
Edit: another curious source
> Mikhail Brin decided to study mathematics instead, and was offered a place although the entry exams for Jews were sat separately, in rooms that were notoriously known as "the gas chambers."
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2.209/google-co-founder-my-fam...
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#6US had something similar, Isaac Asimov started writing sci-fi, after he was not accepted to medical university.
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#7This is a well-known fact, actually. My math teacher in Lithuania mentioned that back in his days (50-s) it was practically impossible for a non-Jewish student to get into any math- or physics-related faculty: Jewish families had a very strong multi-generational tradition of both in-school and additional education. He also said he was the only non-jewish in his group in Moscow State University that year. So at some p…
Wouldn't that be called "affirmative action" in the US?
Yep, sounds like it to me. The fact that Jews are involved sometimes clouds the issue.
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#8This is a well-known fact, actually. My math teacher in Lithuania mentioned that back in his days (50-s) it was practically impossible for a non-Jewish student to get into any math- or physics-related faculty: Jewish families had a very strong multi-generational tradition of both in-school and additional education. He also said he was the only non-jewish in his group in Moscow State University that year. So at some p…
Wouldn't that be called "affirmative action" in the US?
The differences:
In the US, they'd ask everyone the same questions, but have different standards for the results. The practice would not be secret, and so there would not be subterfuge of this scope (the plausible-deniability angle is gone). Finally, the practice would be used to boost the effective scores of the select less-qualified candidates, instead of damaging the scores of select more-qualified candidates. (This is not strictly a difference of terminology: in a competitive assessment affirmative action on a less-successful candidate would consistently crowd out candidates from the bottom end of the 'successful' range, whereas the Jewish questions would sabotage everyone who got them, including those who would otherwise be at the top of the field).
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wouldn't that be called "affirmative action" in the US?
The differences: In the US, they'd ask everyone the same questions, but have different standards for the results. The practice would not be secret, and so there would not be subterfuge of this scope (the plausible-deniability angle is gone). Finally, the practice would be used to boost the effective scores of the select less-qualified candidates, instead of damaging the scores of select more-qualified candidates. (Th…
True, it's important, if ever a mechanism like this is applied, that it is made official and mandated by law. I don't agree that the system described works in a substantially different way from affirmative action, though, as you can consider the current admission tests to already include the "Jewish problems", for a number of points equivalent to the "score boosting" applied to the other candidates.
Most importantly, if things were like described by the GP, the intended effect is not to discriminate against an ethnic group, but balance its overwhelming predominance in a particular field. Which is precisely the objective of affirmative action.
Re: Jewish problems (2011)
#10were those offered only to undesired applicants or to everyone and somehow only the desired people knew how to solve?