
Jewish Problems (2011) [pdf] - sillysaurusx
https://arxiv.org/abs/1110.1556
======
dang
A thread from 2017:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15424117](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15424117)

2016:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10923934](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10923934)

2012:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4759642](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4759642)

2011:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3096793](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3096793)

The title is a provocation of course but also the historical term, so it's
legit. If you're going to comment, please make sure you've fully metabolized
the provocation before posting. That way we can have curious reactions rather
than reflexive ones, which make discussion tedious. HN can do better than
those two earliest threads. 2012 was particularly a shitshow.

------
virtuous_signal
Does anyone think this happens nowadays in interviews? I am not in favor of
any kind of “standardized test” for software engineer interviews, but it seems
like the practice of picking just 1 or 2 problems could easily be used to
reject an undesirable candidate, under the veneer of meritocracy.

~~~
MyHypatia
I'm sure that happens sometimes in interviews. I think more often there are
multiple qualified people for a given position and the chosen candidate is the
one that the interviewers feel more comfortable interacting with. People
usually feel most comfortable interacting with people who have a similar
background to themselves. Also, a lot of people's sense of identity, self
worth, and community standing is based on their jobs. Hiring people from
groups that diminish or clash with that isn't in the interest of the people
doing the hiring. That's the main reason I don't think most hiring is
meritocratic, including in tech.

------
kingbirdy
The US instituted similar measures in the form of "literacy tests"[0] to
disenfranchise non-white voters during the Jim Crow era. The questions are
intentionally confusing and ambiguous, such that anyone taking them is likely
to fail no matter what[1][2]. Whites were exempted from taking the test thanks
to a grandfather clause (the origin of the term, incidentally, though now it
usually applies to cellphone contracts) that meant you were exempt from the
test if your grandfather could vote which of course was only true for well-off
white citizens, or other workarounds with similar end results.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_test)

[1] [https://allthatsinteresting.com/voting-literacy-
test](https://allthatsinteresting.com/voting-literacy-test)

[2]
[https://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm](https://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm)

~~~
JJMcJ
"Grandfathered" \- any time a preexisting status means newer rules don't
apply.

Another example, a licensed occupation, requirements made stricter, those
already licensed don't need to meet the new requirements.

The sinister origins of the phrase are now almost completely forgotten.

------
itin
I love Tanya Khovanova! She saved my ass when I was taking and failing linear
Algebra in my freshman year. Amazing TA with a kind heart, great sense of
humor, and lovely Eastern European accent.

------
ggm
This is also how the "white australia" policy was manipulated to exclude
"undesirables" -A famous instance was the use of gaelic as a language test on
somebody: and what do you know, it was a Jewish political activist!

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_exclusion_of_Egon_Ki...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempted_exclusion_of_Egon_Kisch_from_Australia)

~~~
rumanator
A representative of the Communist International trying to infiltrate a country
under false pretexted through a front organization is hardly a mere "Jewish
political activist". It's quite the stretch, and quite the spin, to try to
portray Egon Kisch's adventure as something related to jewishness.

~~~
ggm
The substantive point was the use of a language test, subject to manipulation
of what was the Anglo Celtic language.

~~~
rumanator
I referred to your gross misrepresentation of this case as "what do you know,
it was a Jewish political activist!".

A member of the Communist International trying to infiltrate a foreign nation
under false pretenses to further their geopolitical agenda is hardly related
to religion or race or cultural makeup of the agent.

~~~
tptacek
A quick skim of the Wikipedia article shows that the same technique was used
on other people who weren't communists; for instance, an Irish anti-war
activist was asked to complete a test in Dutch. Seems like a perfect example
of the phenomenon we're talking about.

------
nullifidian
In the US it's called "holistic admissions process".

------
sillysaurusx
The reason I submitted this was, incidentally, that I discovered I am Jewish.
My father was the first to marry outside of the faith, so it’s apparently a
long lineage.

I’m not sure how to feel. Reactions range from “So what?” to “I have a
culture?”

I’ve been at least trying to study some history.

It’s still kind of amazing it never came up once. It was almost accidental
that I found out at all. (Random census question my wife didn’t know the
answer to, which led to my father’s brother mentioning it.)

~~~
kingbirdy
I don't mean to attack your recent revelation, but my understanding was that
Judaism is matrilineal, so if your mother isn't Jewish and you don't practice
then you're not Jewish (unless this has made you want to convert). It's also
certainly possible I don't fully understand the situation or the custom.

~~~
kingkawn
That is true among the orthodox and some hardline conservatives, not reform or
reconstructionists

~~~
sek
Only reform Jews in America and they require jewish upbringing. I would
recommend sillysaurusx going trough the conversion process at your reform
Synagogue. (Reform is mostly about knowledge, basically classes). It’s there
for a reason, you learn a lot if you didn‘t have an upbringing.

My situation was similar, matrilineal but my mum is baptized. I wasn’t
required to, but I am glad to understand now what rabbinical judaism actually
is.

------
Taniwha
Of course similar things happened in the US (well things with a similar goal):

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/10/10/getting-
in](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/10/10/getting-in)

------
edflsafoiewq
Here, I have one. Let's see...

Given five numbers, prove that there are always two, x and y, such that
|(x-y)/(1+xy)| < 1.

Hint: rot13(sbhaq va n gevt obbx)

------
samdung
How many digits does the number 125^100 have? Im breaking my head here :(

~~~
mjfl
100*log10(125) ~ 210?

~~~
naniwaduni
We've reduced a tedious elementary problem to a slightly harder problem!

(We can observe that 125 = 1000/8, so 100log10(125) = 300 - 300log10(2) = 300
- 30log(1024). From here we merely need the bound 90 = 30log(1000) <
30log(1024) < 91, or equivalently 1 < 1.024^30 < 10\. There are probably
better approaches but I'm partial to 1.024^30 = (1.024^15)^2 < (1.024^16)^2 <
3^2 < 10, since 1.024^16 is easy to upper bound by repeated squaring and
rounding up: 1.024^16 < 1.03^16 < 1.1^8 < 1.3^4 < 1.7^2 < 2.9.)

~~~
mjfl
observe that log10(125) = log10(100) + log10(1.25)

log10(100) = 2

log10(1.25) = log(1 + 0.25) / log(10) ~ 0.25 / log(10) < 0.25 / 2 = 0.125

Thus log10(125) ~ 2.12 but probably a little less.

~~~
naniwaduni
The extra contortions are to get a bound tight enough to admit only one
integer.

------
ninetyfurr
I cannot solve any of them.

------
29athrowaway
How many correct answer did you need to pass? What was the passing rate?

~~~
kingbirdy
According to the paper, they would just keep asking questions until you
failed, there was no passing if they didn't want you to enroll.

~~~
29athrowaway
Something similar, but not as severe, existed in the US.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_quota#United_States](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_quota#United_States)

One of the people excluded due to that system was Richard Feynman.

