ABSTRACT
The Rev. Dr. Alphonse M. Schwitalla of the St. Louis University said in 1929 that the "selection of frcsllmen in our schools or medicine is based on other factors than scholarship alone." Dr. Richard B. Dillehunt, dean of the Uni\·ersity of Oregon Medical School, said: "I have been told that some medical schools have a policy of limiting the percentage of Jewish applicants, but I am not sure that it is true." According to Dr. 'A'illiam A. Pearson, dean of the Hahneman Medical College, Philadelphia, "it is unfair to admit a disproportionate number of Jewish students." Dr. Paul S. McKibben, dean of the University of Southern California Medical School, expressed himself that "it Is undesirable that too large a propot·tion of the prospective physicians should be \Jews." The opinion of Dr. H. E. French, dean of the University of North Dal{Qta School of Medicine, is that "there are too many Jewish students sPeking admisc<ion to medical schools." According to Dr . .John WyckuJT, dean of the Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York City, most of the medical schools "try to have a !';!\r;.tionship betweE'n the racial group population in the school and the population content of the country." His school, he said, admitted students on the basis of "scholarship, !ll'r~onality and character." 67
According to Frank Kingdon, who rf'eently mad•• a .Rtudy of discrimination In Anu•t·ican llll'dlcnl '""'""''"· "lht• t•vldt'tl<"<' of nnll-,Jewi!!h dii'ICriminatlou Is ovt•rwhl'ilniug. All.hough the annual applications for entrance by Jewish Americans has not declined, the number of Jewish students in medical schools has been reduced by roughly 50 percent in the last twenty years. 'The drop' has become precipitate in recent years. The class of 1937 included 794 Jewish students, the class of
1940 only 477-a 40 percent drop In three years." This decline was not In any way due to a decrease In the number of Jewish applicants. The survey shows that three out of every four non-Jewish applicants are given a chance to study medicine, while only one out of every thirteen Jewish applicants is admitted. "These ratios," says Kingdon "do not have the slightest relation to mental equipment, natural aptitudes and other rational, scientific standards of selection." 69 Jewish applicants are not admitted for the reason that they arc Jews.
