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Dartmouth College Restricts Admission of Jewish Students “to Prevent Anti-semitism”

August 8, 1945
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Jewish students who apply for admission to Dartmouth College are denied entrance simply because they are Jews, President Ernest M. Hopkins admitted in a statement today to the New York Post.

“We cut the quotas more on our Jewish applicants than we do the basis of applications from Anglo-Saxons,” he is quoted by the Post as declaring. “I think if you were to let Dartmouth become predominantly Jewish, it would lose its attraction for the Jews.” He added that “Dartmouth is a Christian college founded for the Christianization of its students.”

In a letter to Herman Shumlin, movie and theatrical producer, Dr. Hopkins had written: “I should not be willing to see the proportion of Jews in the college so greatly increased as to arouse widespread resentment and develop widespread prejudice in our own family.” He added that the Dartmouth quota system had been set up to prevent anti-Semitism. “I think that thing (anti-Semitism) is a definite possibility in this country,” he added.

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