EUGENICS IN JEWISH LIFE' 



Until Recently, Religious Customs Have Tended to Produce a Large Amount of 



Intellectual Ability, but Also a Large Amount of Defect — Changed Manner 



of Life Brings New Eugenic and Dysgenic Changes 



Maurice Fishberg 

 Attending Physician, Montefiore Hospital, New York City 



AMONG the many paradoxical 

 peculiarities of the contemporary 

 Jews there are some which are of 

 immense interest to those en- 

 gaged in the study of eugenics. The 

 striking phenomenon of their survival 

 as a religious and social group, despite 

 their dispersal in all parts of the habit- 

 able globe, under all varieties of climatic 

 conditions, is the more remarkable 

 when it is borne in mind that after 

 1,800 years of severe and cruel persecu- 

 tion there are at present more Jews 

 than there have ever been at one 

 time. C. W. Saleeby, one of the 

 best-known apostles of eugenics in 

 England, is inclined to the opinion 

 that it was the intense struggle for 

 existence that made up their greatest 

 source of unexampled strength; that 

 the Jew who was a weakling or a fool 

 had no chance at all. "The weaklings 

 and the fools being weeded out, intensity 

 and strength of mind became a common 

 heritage of this amazing people," says 

 Saleeby. To him the Jews, constituting 

 "the one human race of which we know 

 assuredly that it has persisted unim- 

 paired, have been the most continuously 

 and stringently selected of any race that 

 can be named." 



This theory of survival of the Jews, 

 not in spite of persecution, but because 

 of it, is not original with Saleeby. 

 Many others have propounded it before, 

 and some have even urged ruthless 

 persecution of the unfit as the best 

 means of improving certain elements of 

 hiimanity, thus assisting "selection" 

 through the survival of the fittest. 



What are the facts about the mimber 

 of able and talented Jews? It is well 



known that the proportion of persons of 

 marked ability, of individuals who have 

 gained distinction in any line of human 

 endeavor, is much greater among the 

 Jews than among the peoples of other 

 faiths in whose midst they live. There 

 is no need of burdening the reader with 

 statistical figures substantiating this 

 fact, which is well known to everyone 

 who has given some thought to the 

 subject. One has only to consider the 

 enormous number of financiers, mer- 

 chants, manufacturers, physicians, law- 

 yers, musicians, artists, journalists, 

 scientists, etc., of Jewish origin in 

 Europe and America, mid bear in mind 

 that the children of Rrael constitute 

 but a small fraction of 1% of the white 

 population of the world, to be convinced 

 that the number of talented, able and 

 successful persons among them is in 

 excess of what would be expected if 

 they did not excel in this direction. 



But there are facts, indeed, uncon- 

 trovertible facts, showing quite the 

 contrary. 



It is a matter of common observa- 

 tion that the Jews are physically puny 

 — a large proportion are feeble, under- 

 sized; their muscular system is of de- 

 ficient development with narrow, flat 

 chests, and of inferior capacity. They 

 make the appearance of a weakly 

 people, often actually decrepit, if only 

 because of the proverbial bent spine, 

 the "Ghetto bent." Moreover, physi- 

 cal defects, congenital and acquired, 

 are notoriously common among them. 



MANY DEFECTIVES 



It is noteworthy in connection with 

 the statement of Saleeby quoted alcove 



1 Extracts from an article published serially in five numbers (Jan. 26, Feb. 2, Feb. 9, Feb. 16 

 Feb. 23, 1917) of The American Hebreiv, 44 East 23d Street, New York. 



543 



