Feb. 10, 1950

College Students Tell Opposition To Quotas

American college students show less anti-Jewish prejudice than the country’s population as a whole, according to a report made public this week by Supreme Court Justice Meier Steinbrink of New York, national chairman of the Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith.

Based on a study of attitudes among both college seniors and freshmen conducted for the League by the Elmo Roper organization, the report reveals that college students are overwhelmingly opposed to quota systems and other discriminatory admission policies which exist in many American colleges.

Only one out of 10 seniors expresses a preference for colleges which discriminate. By contrast, almost one-third of the general adult population — including college graduates and non-graduates — are so inclined.

“On the basis of this finding we know now what we have always suspected,” Justice Steinbrink said. “College quota systems have been defended by some as protection for non-Jewish students. It is now evident that these students themselves reject that bigotry of their protectors.”

One surprising conclusion of the survey is that the low index of prejudice among college students is not at all the result of attending college for a four-year period. Tests made of 50 American campuses in the first few weeks for the 1949 fall term show that the incidence of prejudice is the same for seniors who already have had the benefits of almost four years of college, as for freshmen who have yet to become acclimated to, or influenced by, college life.

Feb. 15, 1980

Fill In A 50-Year Dental Gap

There’s about half a world between Odessa in the Soviet Union and San Francsico and, it seems, about half a world between the dentistry Anatoly Khait learned in the Soviet Union and what he’s been learning here.

When he came to S.F. in 1977, Dr. Khait — who had practiced his profession for 16 years — went to UC Medical Center to see its Department of Dentistry and instruments dating from 1925-1930. These were the same ones he’d just left behind.

The retraining of this professional is not that unusual, however, it’s the first time Mt. Zion sponsored it through the Department of Labor’s training program.

Dr. Khait said the philosophy of dentistry in Russia is very different than here. Not only did he undergo dental schooling, but also intensive medical training. When he was assigned to work in a country medical facility, not only did he perform dental work but, on occasion, emergency procedures. He said that Russian dentistry has little to do with preventative work, especially that which hygienists do here, and this has been one area he’s beefing up for his upcoming state boards.

“When I first came here, I was destroyed,” he said. “It was terrible. I never thought I’d learn to do all those modern techniques.”

But that was just a thought. Alongside the staff at Mount Zion, Dr. Khait has learned these modern techniques, from cleaning teeth to the use of high power drills. Mt. Zion’s Dental Clinic provides care for hundreds of Soviet emigres. Dr. Harvey Brody, dental chief, said “Dr. Khait has been helpful to understand the system of dentistry in the Soviet Union and in translating for the many Russian emigres we see here.”