<p>Ummmmm, Schmaltz…:eek:</p>
<p>i guess someone had to take the bait about finding an avenue for their inherent jerkiness.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Sure, you sometimes see it right on here on CC on the Christian Colleges forum, where they argue over which schools qualify as Christian colleges based on the denomination they are affitlated with.<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/christian-colleges/[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/christian-colleges/</a> </p>
<p>Merely saying you are a Christian or follow Jesus isn’t enough for some people. They want to own the term Christian and apply it only religions meeting their particular criteria. Usually, the more strict and conservative the denomination the fussier they are going to be over who qualifies as their fellow Christians.</p>
<p>Jews are amazing. Never forget it!</p>
<p>Perhaps you can start a “Draft the Jews” movement, Schmaltz.</p>
<p>Ignoring political correctness for a moment, Schmaltz’s comment was actually interesting. Do Jews really shy out of military service? It is to my understanding that American Jews were heavily involved in the World War II European theatre.</p>
<p>Re: Jews in the American Military, check out:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><a href=“http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/brody_military.pdf[/url]”>http://www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/brody_military.pdf</a> = easy-read history article. </p></li>
<li><p>Google “Jews In Green” to tap into current activities that support today’s Jewish servicemen and their families.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Given that Jews tend to be more affluent than the population as a whole, I think the relevant comparison point would be non Jews of similar socioeconomic status, not the population as a whole.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>What about Hindus? and Buddhists?</p>
<p>What about them? They may very well be, too. I don’t know one way or the other. I was just commenting on Jewish socioeconomic status, and commenting that if there is a hypothesis on the table that Jews participate less in the military, there’s a confounding variable of high socioeconomic status and so you’d have to compare the sign-up rate among Jews to the sign-up rate of non-Jews of similar socioecon status.</p>
<p>My H was in the military for many years and is Commander of the local Jewish War Veterans post; my FIL was career military and then civil service; my BIL and SIL worked in civil service for most of their careers (SIL for all of hers, BIL for most of his). Jews are in the military. Perhaps the percentage in the military today is really not that much lower than the overall percentage of Jews in the US. Please don’t perpetuate stereotypes.</p>
<p>I am quite honestly just in shock at how racist some of these comments are.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>The point made above about socioeconomic status is an important one. Low socioeconomic status is one of the most important motivators for joining the military, at least in the United States, and Jews in the United States tend to be of at least middling socioeconomic status.</p>
<p>But there may also be a subtle cultural issue at play here – at least from what I’ve noticed from personal experience. There are some groups of people in the United States who believe that military experience is an essential part of the development of a young man into a fully contributing member of society. There are others who don’t share this view. From what I have observed, Jewish culture doesn’t emphasize the importance of military service as a way of developing maturity in young men. Thus, one might expect fewer young Jewish men to enlist than men from ethnic/social groups that have the other view.</p>
<p>None of this, of course, seems to apply to women in the military.</p>
<p>Back to the OP’s question. I grew up in a small city where there was a large Jewish population as well as a sizeable WASP population. The two groups basically had nothing to do with each other. What I heard as a kid from the Christian crowd had nothing to do with theology. For them it was cultural…behavior, demeanor. What I heard was, “They’re loud, overly materialistic and pushy.” That was it. That was enough.</p>
<p>Jews may be less likely to ENLIST in the military. The are usually officers, having gone through ROTC or the military (service) academies. Thus, the focus on education is combined with the committment to serve the country.</p>
<p>A big reason you may not see that many Jews in the services is the Christianity preached in them. Protestant Evangelism has been the subject of significant inquiry in the Air Force - which my father was in - and not only at the Academy. It’s less Christianity than the more militant Evangelical strain that’s an issue for Jews (and Muslims and Buddhists, etc.).</p>
<p>Going through it in my head, all my able-bodied relatives of age served in WWII. One of my cousins got a silver star. Another was on Guadalcanal. One was in the Aleutians. No one got killed. My dad was in the service after Korea. </p>
<p>The tablet in front of our town hall list all the KIA from WWI through Vietnam. I see a number of Jewish names on the list.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Also, the Copts (of Egypt).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It can come up other times. It comes up for patrilineals in Israel all the time. It can lead to children of Jewish intermarriage being treated poorly in <em>some</em> Jewish communities (and not just patrilineals - matrilineals may be considered halachic Jews, but that doesn’t mean that everyone will regard them as “real” in practice). It can be used as a weapon in political arguments. There are also people out there who sort of fetishize children of intermarriage - I have experienced this phenomenon in person - which can be problematic.</p>
<p>Here’s a piece about Jews in the military, and some of the problems they face:
[Raising</a> Jewish Military Morale : The United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism (USCJ)](<a href=“http://www.uscj.org/raising_jewish_milit6099.html]Raising”>http://www.uscj.org/raising_jewish_milit6099.html)</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ummm… military service aside, assimilation is not the goal - it actually is considered to be a major problem by many in the Jewish community.</p>
<p>And those who “run back to Israel every time there’s a crisis there to take up arms” are usually the Israeli citizens who live abroad, but go back to defend their country when it is in trouble.</p>
<p>Schmaltz: J’Accuse…!</p>