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The B'nai Khaim in America
Chapter 5 - Education and Occupations of Native-born B'nai Khaim
The high prestige which learning held among the B'nai Khaim
in Yustingrad they carried over into the United States. Here
they found the educational opportunities and likely possibilities
for professional advancement denied them in Tsarist Russia.
Most of them, however, came here too late in life to benefit
directly. Theirs was the necessity to earn a living and establish
family roots. By the time wives and children came to join husbands
and fathers after the First World War, the junk peddler
had become a scrap-yard dealer; the market stall had expanded
into a grocery store; and the cloak presser had opened an
independent hand laundry. By the time their children reached
high-school age, these families had moved out of the immigrant
slum areas and into open-air neighborhoods now being
abandoned by the affluent descendants of immigrants of an
earlier vintage.
The B'nai Khaim who came here after the war experienced
less of the trying beginnings of their forerunners. Established
relatives and landsmen helped them to a quicker and less
grueling start. Before long, both the pre- and post-war
immigrants established a more or less secure livelihood for
themselves, began to "take on American ways" and sent their
children to college. The age-old esteem for learning, only a
frustrating dream in the old country, took on reality in the new,
if not for themselves, then for their American-born children.
In the winter of 1963-64 we "took a census" by means of a
questionnaire of the education and occupations of these
American-born B'nai Khaim, 16 years of age and over, male and
female, of their spouses wherever born and of the 12 who came
here before age eight. Returns came from 227-approximately
90 per cent of the potential respondents. Following is the
distribution of these 227, by sex and marital status:
Married males 38
Their wives 34
Married females 44
Their husbands 43
Unmarrieds, age 16+ 46
Males, 25
Females, 21
B'nai Khaim who came here
before age 8 9
Native-born spouses of foreign
born B'nai Khaim 13
----
Total 227
Sub totals:
B'nai Khaim 137
Spouses 90
----
Total 227
The native-born married B'nai Khaim constitute our second
generation Americans. In 1963-64 they fell within the age range
25-45.
From the responses to our questionnaire we learn that all but
two of the 38 married B'nai Khaim males had graduated from
high school, and that 25, or 66 per cent, were college graduates.
In addition, seven had attended college one to two years.
Furthermore, five of the six married B'nai Khaim males who had
come here before the age of eight and whom in this regard we
treat as native-born, also had graduated from college. This
makes for a total of 68 per cent college graduates for the B'nai Khaim
males. These are exceedingly high percentages, in view of
the much smaller figures obtained in various sampling studies of
Jewish communities throughout the country. The B'nai Khaim
percentages are six times as high as for the urban native-born
whites of native parentage in the country as a whole. (See note #1)
Most intriguing is the fact that the husbands of B'nai Khaim females
scored about the same levels of education as the male
B'nai Khaim. All but one of the 43 husbands are high-school
graduates; 27, or 63 per cent, had completed four years of
college. In addition, six had attended college for one to two
years, paralleling the record of the B'nai Khaim males. Only one
other group of Jews is known to have reached similar levels of
education. This finding comes from a study which two young
sociologists conducted in the second half of the 1950's in the
Jewish community of "North City" -a town in the Midwest. (See note #2)
Two samples were used in that study, one each of 84 males of
the second and third generations. For the second generation the
sample yielded 14.5 per cent college graduates; for the third
generation, 63 per cent. The much lower figure for these
second-generation Jews than for the third and for our own
second generation may be explained by the inclusion in the
"North City" sample of 16 per cent foreign-born who came
here up to age 18. We know from our previous chapter that
immigrants who come here much after age eight do not - in fact,
cannot -- share in the educational opportunities available to
native-born children as do those who come here before age
eight.
It should be noted, furthermore, that these two samples are
not strictly comparable with ours. The "North City" samples
were drawn from groups with a built-in upward bias with
reference to educational attainments. Both the second - and the
third-generation samples were drawn from club memberships,
and the third-generation sample, in addition, was drawn from
"organizations and synagogues known to recruit younger
members of the community." These, therefore, were selected
from a predetermined favorable environment. Ours was a
random sample, except that the B'nai Khaim portion came from
a common immigrant stock. They were all free of the possible
influence of a single community environment; the "North City"
samples were not. The B'nai Khaim and their spouses were born
in a dozen different cities and were raised in a score or more.
Clearly, however, the B'nai Khaim are not the only Jews to have
attained high levels of education! The American Jewish Year
Book of 1964 reports that in 1963 more than 75 per cent of
college-age Jews were enrolled in colleges.
High educational attainments mean high professional
preferment. In the case of the Jews this has taken the form of
concentration in white-collar occupations and in the professions.
Community studies have shown that about 70 per cent
of American Jews are engaged in white-collar employment,
including the professions. (See note #3) In the general white population in
1964, white-collar workers constituted 47 per cent of the total,
and professional and technical personnel, 13 per cent. (See note #4) In our
case we find that 38 of the 44 second-generation B'nai Khaim,
or 66 per cent, engaged in white-collar work and 24, or 54 per
cent, in the professions: doctors, lawyers, dentists, engineers,
mathematicians. (See note #5) One B'nai Khaim is a Professor of Civil
Engineering in Illinois; one is a Professor of Regional Planning
and another is a Professor in Computer Control in Michigan. A
fourth is Professor and head of a Department of Mathematics in
New York State. Two of the M.D.'s, one in California and one
in the District of Columbia, are psychoanalysts. Another is an
anesthesiologist in Texas. Only four of the 44 engaged in
manual work, and three in industrial production. Of the three,
one, a graduate in engineering from M.I.T., has taken over his
father's jewelry manufacturing business; one, with an M.S. in
chemistry, manufactures a vitamin for poultry (which he has
isolated); the third is production manager in a men's clothing
factory. These three are the first of the B'nai Khaim to depart
from stereotype service occupations and professions.
Among the other white-collar workers there is a stockbroker,
a credit manager, a "business executive" and a jewelry auctioneer
in a Florida resort town. The B'nai Khaim have not yet
produced a Jonas Salk or a David Sarnoff. One of them, however,
is in Who's Who in America as "mathematician, educator." (See note #6)
Of the 27 college-graduate husbands of native-born B'nai Khaim
women, 19, or nearly 70 per cent, went on to earn
post-graduate and professional degrees. Five of them became
college professors: one in agricultural engineering, one in
political science, one in geography, one in education, and one in
bio-medical engineering. The husband of the Israeli-born
B'nai Khaim who came here at the age of nine is a Professor of
Physics.
We do not expect the same high ratio of college graduates for
our B'nai Khaim women as we do for B'nai Khaim males.
Women in America do not get the same ratio of higher education
men do: about 30 per cent fewer are college graduates. The
same, in general, is true of the B'nai Khaim. While all of the
native-born married B'nai Khaim women have graduated from
high school, only 20 of the 44, or 45 per cent graduated from a
four-year college-in contrast with 66 per cent for the males.
However, eight of these women who had not graduated from
college had attended college from one to three years, and one
was still attending at the time of our inquiry. At least ten of the
20 women college graduates went on to do graduate work,
mostly preparing to teach or do social work. One studied architecture
and is practicing that craft. One is a registered nurse;
one teaches art in a junior high school, and one teaches mathematics
in a senior high school. One studied interior design. A
B'nai Khaim mother, with three small children, and another,
with three children in high school, are doing post-graduate
work. Four others, with growing children, teach.
Of the 34 wives of our native-born B'nai Khaim, 94 per cent
graduated from high school and 35 per cent from college. Six
others attended college one to two years. Nearly all of them are
"housewives" and mothers and, as one of them wrote, "typical
suburban." Several are school teachers; one teaches ballet, and
one is a portrait painter.
The 13 native-born spouses of foreign-born B'nai Khaim
consisted of four males and nine females. Of the four males one is
the Professor of Physics cited previously, and one is a lawyer.
Of the other two, one runs a furniture store and one a scrap
iron yard. The furniture dealer has had two years of high
school; the scrap-iron dealer, none.
Of the nine females, eight completed high school and one
attended for two years, but only two of the nine graduated
from college. One of these holds an M.A. degree and is a clinical
psychologist; the other is a schoolteacher. Three others had had
one to two years of college. The remaining four had no college
training at all. It should be observed that six of the foreign-born
B'nai Khaim who married native-born spouses were in our select
group of nine who came here before age 8.
We count as our third generation the unmarried B'nai Khaim
who in 1963-64 were 16 years of age and over. Forty-six of
these, 25 boys and 21 girls, answered the questionnaire on
education and occupation. As would be expected, all of the 46
were attending or had already completed high school; 28 were
attending or had already completed college, and four were
planning to go there. This makes for a college potential of 70
per cent. The other 30 per cent were still undecided about their
future, except for one who planned to enter the family business.
Seven of the girls and 16 of the boys planned professional
careers: as a physician, dentist, teacher, librarian, or rabbi. Four
of the boys who have since graduated from college are now
doing post-graduate work: one is a Ph.D. candidate in mathematics;
one, an M.D., is in residency in pathology; another has a
fellowship in architectural engineering, and the fourth has a
fellowship in playwriting. Also, several have since joined the
married group.
Our findings for this chapter are presented here in the form
of a percentage summary. (See table below)
In addition to the facts on secular education we solicited
information also on the religious education and training the
native-born B'nai Khaim and their spouses received in their
childhood. We know the religious education and training their
immigrant fathers and grandfathers came with-Jewish
orthodox which they imbibed with their mothers' milk. From
the answers we learned that of the 38 American-born married
B'nai Khaim males, only 20, or a little more than one-half, had
received training in Judaism, apparently in preparation for Bar
Mitzvah, although only three of them said so specifically. The
amount of training ranges from "some" in a Sunday School to
eight years in a Hebrew School and to a formal education in a
"Hebrew College." The remaining 18 said "none" or put a dash
(-) for an answer. An even smaller percentage of their spouses
claimed such training. As many as 20 of the 34 wives, or 59 per
cent, reported not having had any Jewish education at all.
Percentage of B'nai Khaim High School and College Graduates
------------------------------------------------------------
Per Cent
--------------------
Group Number High School College
------------------------------------- ------ ----------- -------
Native-born married B'nai Khaim males 44* 95 68
Their wives 34 94 35
Native-born wives of foriegn-born
B'nai Khaim 9 90 22
Native-born married B'nai Khaim
Females 44 100 45
Their husband 43 97 63
Native-born husbands of foreign-born
B'nai Khaim 4 50 50
------------------------------
Total married 178 94 52
Married males 91 93 65
Married females 87 95 40
------------------------------
Unmarried group 46 100 70**
* Includes six foreign-born who came here before age 8
** Potential
The B'nai Khaim females and their husbands reported slightly
higher percentages. Over 50 per cent of the females and nearly
60 per cent of their husbands claimed to have had religious
instruction, four of the females as much as eight to ten years.
Fourteen of the husbands reported having been Bar Mitzvah
after considerable training - kheder in one case, ten years of
Sunday School in another, and eight grades in a Yeshiva in still
another. One female, who put a dash (-) for an answer, added:
"I strongly identify with traditional Judaism, but remain an
atheist."
Later, in our discussion of the younger generation we note
that all but eight of the 22 males over age 16, or 64 per cent,
had attended a Jewish Sunday School or a Jewish secular
school. This relatively high percentage may reflect the post
Hitlerian upsurge of Jewish consciousness and identification
among American Jews. Seven of the 22 had been Bar Mitzvah -
a much larger ratio than for their fathers.
The returns for the 17 third-generation females were almost
the same as for the second-generation females. Eleven, or 52 per
cent, had had from one to two years of SUnday School or
Hebrew School. The rest had no religious training at all or
answered "very little."
In sum, not much more than half of the second- and third
generation B'nai Khaim, and B'nai Khaim spouses, had been
introduced to the teachings of Judaism. In the succeeding
chapters we investigate their practices.
Notes to Chapter 5
(1) To a great extent the differences are due to differences in demographic
compositions of the samples. Many differ from one another in their college-
age components; in average family size; in occupational distribution
and in the size of the community. The large cities, for example, offer
greater educational opportunities than the small towns. The B'nai Khaim
"sample" comes from the big cities, was of the most favorable college age,
raised in a more or less economically and culturally homogeneous family
environment which by tradition is conducive to the pursuit of higher
learning.
(2) Children of the Gilded Ghetto, by Judith Kramer and Seymour
Leventman. Yale University Press, 1961.
(3) Dr. Joseph Fauman in The Jews: Social Patterns of an American
Group, a collection of community studies edited by Dr. Marshall Sklare of
the American Jewish Committee. The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill., Second
Printing, 1960, p. 119.
(4) Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1965 ed., p. 227, Table No.
312. Watch out, however, for the comparability of the samples! (See foot-
note 1 above.)
(5) In the spring of 1966, 55 per cent of college seniors in a nationwide
sample said they would prefer professional careers if they were free to
choose. Newsweek, May 2, 1966, p. 86.
(6) On B'nai Khaim male who has never filled out our questionnaires is
known to have been in and out of jail several times for burglary and
larceny.
CandleMaker Kaprov
E-Mail:
CandleMaker_Kaprov@Yahoo.com
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