Follow-up to ethnic groups and military service: Readers asked some very fine questions about the earlier post. Here are the answers:
1. Mean score for Jews: .37 (about average)
2. West Indian IQ: the GSS does not have direct IQ data, but only 13% of all West Indians (ages 25-50) have completed at least a 4-year degree, compared to 26% of all Americans (in that age range).
3. Protestant vs. Catholic Irish: .42 for the former (above average, but not the highest) and .37 for the latter.
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(Ashkenazi) Jews, moreso than East Asians, participate in higher education. But beyond that, I suspect that Jews are extra sensitive to serving. My dad (I'm Jewish) told me he wouldn't want me in the military. make me go to Canada were there a draft, and he was ready to do the same.
ReplyDeleteThere may also be a geographical component, in that the rich & middle classes (and thus Jews) of the metropolises simply do not serve.
I live among Orthodox Jews. The ratio of Jewish volunteers for the Israeli Army to the American Army is high, at least 5 to 1, probably much higher. (Admittedly, some are themselves Israelis. But many are just American Zionists. I bet that American Zionists are more zealous and idealistic than their Israeli counterparts.) But this is probably only an Orthodox phenomenon.