There was a feeling that without deliberate effort, the university would be dominated by a minority who were simply good at tests/human calculators but lacking in the customs, morals, and values that contribute to society.

This really was not limited to Soviet Union, but also lots of Europe and American/Canada too. See also the way Asians are treated in America now.

This is not the reason why Asian-Americans are discriminated against in college admissions, and this is not why Jews were discriminated against in the Soviet Union.

Could you elaborate on the reason?

> the university would be dominated by a minority who were simply good at tests/human calculators but lacking in the customs, morals, and values that contribute to society.

Relevant excerpt from "Why nerds are unpopular" [0]

> I mistrusted words like "character" and "integrity" because they had been so debased by adults. As they were used then, these words all seemed to mean the same thing: obedience. The kids who got praised for these qualities tended to be at best dull-witted prize bulls, and at worst facile schmoozers. If that was what character and integrity were, I wanted no part of them.

[0] http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

Europe in general has had a strong tradition of virulent antisemitism at least from the Middle Ages until the present day (but especially until the 1950s).

Beginning with Lutheranism, it was their unwillingness to convert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_and_antisemitism

Prior to Lutheranism it was their unwillingness to convert, see Spanish Inquisition: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_Inquisition

If you're seeking some negative stereotype that's true about them, you'll be disappointed to find out that the main one was their unwillingness to convert.

Religion was -at that time- just defining social norms, like the government defines them today (the church got kicked out at some point then, because science proofed them wrong with many things). If everyone lives by "rules A" (and are convinced those are the right rules, e.g. "don't lend money"), then just living by a different/opposing set of rules is asking for trouble.

They were forced in certain professions, such as banking, by making anything else unavailable to them. A very unlikeable profession for your average Joe, as having to interact with a banker is often bad news for people. They were also forced to keep to themselves in specific parts of the city -- combine that with looking different (mostly in hair and clothing), religious customs other than what the majority population was used to, difficult dialects bordering on being a different language altogether. The perfect scapegoat storm, so to speak, whenever there are fits of xenophobia.

Interestingly, banking and other professions associated with Jews, excluded Jews until relatively recently.

> The term originated in the Ivy League colleges and originally reflected a stereotype of old-line firms populated by White Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASPs). The term historically had antisemitic connotations, as many of the New York firms known as "white shoe" were considered off-limits to Jews until the 1960s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-shoe_firm

Apologies, it was late and English is not my native language so I used the term "banking" when I shouldn't have. What I wanted to refer to is this:

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_antisemitism#Restrict...>

in the medieval ages the church forbade certain types of lending, thats why in Crusader Kings 2 you can borrow money from the Jews, and then expel them so you dont have to pay them back (which actually gives you a negative economic bonus for a time)

It's like any other anti-competitive cartel.

The tradition of anti-Semitism probably began for a combination of religious reasons (Jews were for a very long time the main or only religious outgroup in much of Europe, and have traditionally been blamed for killing Jesus), and pure racism.

> Antisemitism has been explained in terms of racism, xenophobia, projected guilt, displaced aggression, and the search for a scapegoat.[243] Some explanations assign partial blame to the perception of Jewish people as unsociable. Such a perception may have arisen by many Jews having strictly kept to their own communities, with their own practices and laws.[244]

> It has also been suggested that parts of antisemitism arose from a perception of Jewish people as greedy (as often used in stereotypes of Jews), and this perception has probably evolved in Europe during Medieval times where a large portion of money lending was operated by Jews.[245] Factors contributing to this situation included that Jews were restricted from other professions,[245] while the Christian Church declared for their followers that money lending constituted immoral "usury".[246]

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemitism#Causes

Following the expulsion of Jews from Israel by the Roman's, Jews spent ~2000 years as smaller communities in Europe, never quite integrating. It seems a sad tendency of human nature to distrust and blame visible minorities for our problems. We have similar problems today, with different minorities, mostly.

Other examples where "Just integrate, problem solved." is extremely offensive.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apartheid

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_sc...

Not to mention that "just integrate" might mean abandoning your faith, language, customs, way of life etc.

Especially for Jews in Europe that would have meant abandoning their faith at a minimum.

That didnt work in the slightest with the jewish community in europe, they were identified and forced into specific areas of cities or countryside. Unless by integrate you meant they should have just converted to christianity? Those that were in more liberal communities and integrated were identified and hunted regardless.

If I was dumped 109 times I'd eventually start to wonder if maybe it was, at least partially, my fault...

Sounds like an anti-Semitic troll, but I'll respond with a related point:

It is very slightly surprising that these come from Soviet times. Weren't the Soviets supposed to have rid Russia of evils like this?

Turns out that the relationship between the Soviets and Judaism was complicated. There were "good Soviet" Jewish organizations, but these are not remembered fondly by the sources I read today. I guess it was a problem of loyalty related to totalitarianism: Your only really important identity was supposed to be "Party member".

I also note that "Jewish problems" is a (sick) pun.

This is the article I'd had in mind. It's sort of about Judaism during Soviet times, though it's also about other things (and one core metaphor is backwards, IMO). But still, it's interesting:

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/arts-letters/articles/the...

Buying any Soviet propaganda at face value is like buying a stretch of fine Pacific beach in Nevada.

People in the Eastern Bloc, with the exception of the very gullible, developed such cynicism against any official communication that even 30 years later we struggle with the concept of "whatever the government says and does is blatant lie / corruption / theft".

> It is very slightly surprising that these come from Soviet times. Weren't the Soviets supposed to have rid Russia of evils like this?

You surely can't be serious. You are either being very disingenuous, or have not spent much time looking at the history of the Soviet Union.

I believe that you are misreading FooBarBizBazz's point. They were supposed to have eliminated things like this, according to their propaganda. But their history completely refutes the propaganda. That was FooBarBizBazz's point (as I read it).

Thanks, yeah, I'd agree with that. Any other point I was making would have flowed from that one.

> or have not spent much time looking at the history of the Soviet Union.

Probably that.

I say "surprising" because there's a simplistic view in some places (particularly the US) that "antisemitism is Right" and "Communism is Left" and moreover "antisemitism is all due to Christianity" while at the same time "those godless Soviets were against Christianity" so automatically "the Soviets must have been pro-Jewish". I think this is believed in large swathes of the "Right" and "Left", but particularly on the "Right", where super-dumb Nazi types think "all those damn Jewish libtards" and so-on.

I am making a pot shot at all that kind of stupidity, so people know life is never as simple as whatever dichotomous cartoon lives in their heads.

>Sounds like an anti-Semitic troll

I'm just now realizing that I sound like this, lol. No, I'm Jewish, just curious about history.

...More like centuries of anti-Semitic discrimination. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=132...

Well, not really. In order to immigrate, or even simply travel outside, one had to get a permission first. And one was not usually granted to those who had access to any state secret.

I think at the root of it is genetic distance and competition for resources, amplified by culture.