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Comment by TchoBeer | Hacker News Reader

What reason did the Russian admissions have to prevent Jews from getting in? What about Jews were undesirable?

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).

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.

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

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