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appeared in New York’s Sullivan County, about 90 miles northwest of New York
City.” 115 In fact, so many Jews vacationed in this area that it was later nicknamed the
“Borscht Belt.” 116
Jews also experienced exclusion in the educational arena. In the early
twentieth centuries, many university administrations established quotas for Jewish
admission out of fear that the university was becoming too Jewish. As Dinnerstein
wrote, the President of Harvard, Abbot Lawrence Lowell “thought that Harvard had
a ‘Jewish problem’ because the percentage of Jewish undergraduates had tripled
from 6 percent in 1908 to 22 percent in 1922.” 117 As a result, Lowell implemented a
Jewish admission quota, restricting the number of Jews admitted to the university to
only 15 percent of the student body. 118 Administrators at Columbia, Princeton,
Williams, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania echoed the same concern and
established Jewish admission quotas and vowed not to exceed the quota. According
to Dinnerstein, the Jewish quotas often ranged from 3 percent to 16 percent (by
university) of an incoming freshman class. 119 At Columbia, where 40 percent of
undergraduates were Jewish in 1920, administrators vowed to cut Jewish
enrollment to 22 percent in the span of two years. 120 Before the 1920s, most
universities admitted students based solely on academic performance. 121 In
response to mounting concerns from students, faculties, and the administrations
115 Ibid, 92.
116 Ibid, 92.
117 Ibid, 84.
118 “Harvard’s Jewish Problem,” Jewish Virtual Library, accessed January 9, 2013,
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/harvard.html
119 Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 86.
120 Bethel, A Promise To Keep, 98.
121 Jewish-American History and Culture: An Encyclopedia, 37 sv. Anti-semitism.
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