Colman: ANTI-SEMITISM PERSISTS

The Oscar had dozens of Hollywood folks wearing buttons honoring the Hamas murdering of Israelis.  Then we had a director getting an Oscar denouncing Jews—even though he is Jewish.

“A major criticism of DEI is that it could use ethnic quotas to fill positions of employment and to gain admittance to certain universities.  While well intentioned, DEI could hamper scientific, educational, and industrial progress.

For many centuries, the Jews of Europe (and such continents as Asia and Africa) had to endure religious persecution and limited opportunities. 

America was different.  While Jews faced obstacles in employment and education in America, the nation was open enough to give Jews an opportunity.  In today’s America, 2.4 percent of the population is Jewish.”

ANTI-SEMITISM PERSISTS

By Richard Colman, Exclusive to the California Political News and Views,  3/21/24  www.capoliticalnewsandviews.com

At the 2024 Academy Awards, the film “Oppenheimer” received many important prizes:  best motion picture; best actor; best supporting actor; and best original score.

The three-hour film, brilliant as it is, does not emphasize an important subtext -– that many of the scientists who were associated with the Manhattan Project, the plan to build an atomic bomb, were Jewish.

Among the Jewish scientists involved -– directly or indirectly –- were Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, John von Neumann, Leo Szilard, and Edward Teller.

Both Oppenheimer and Teller were, at one time, professors of physics at the University of California, Berkeley.

Einstein was a catalyst for the Manhattan Project.  In August 1939, he wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt, stating that Nazi Germany might be building an atomic bomb.  Einstein himself was not involved in the actual making of the American atomic bomb.

The Manhattan Project was headed by Oppenheimer, an American-born Jew.  The first atomic bomb was exploded in July 1945 in the New Mexico desert.

If one looks at the backgrounds of the Manhattan Project’s scientists, one would find that virtually all the top scientists were all Caucasian (Jewish) men.

The Manhattan Project was not subject to such criteria as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).  If DEI criteria were used, Nazi Germany, not the United States, might have developed the atomic bomb first.

To work on the Manhattan Project, a scientist had to show merit.

DEI might be a great idea in some areas of endeavor.  But in highly specialized fields (such as scientific, mathematical, or engineering work), DEI might slow or eliminate progress.

A major criticism of DEI is that it could use ethnic quotas to fill positions of employment and to gain admittance to certain universities.  While well intentioned, DEI could hamper scientific, educational, and industrial progress.

For many centuries, the Jews of Europe (and such continents as Asia and Africa) had to endure religious persecution and limited opportunities. 

America was different.  While Jews faced obstacles in employment and education in America, the nation was open enough to give Jews an opportunity.  In today’s America, 2.4 percent of the population is Jewish.

In the early part of the 20^th century, the president of Harvard University, A. Lawrence Lowell, complained that his institution had too many Jewish students.  Lowell wanted to reduce Harvard’s population of Jewish students.

In today’s America, Jews have been and are holding key positions in academia, publishing, business, film-making, the professions (such as law, medicine, and dentistry), entertainment, and the media.

Also in today’s America, a Jewish applicant — male or female — for a job or for admission to a university might find that he or she is lumped in with other Caucasian applicants and denied acceptance regardless of ability. 

DEI should be phased out and replaced by a culture of merit.  Simultaneously, discrimination on the basis of religion, sex, creed, national origin, or ethnic background must be prohibited.

America must remain the land of opportunity for all deserving individuals.