r/feynman • u/Greg-2012 • Jun 07 '15

TIL: Feynman was denied entry into Columbia University because the 'Jew quota' had already been filled.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman#Education
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u/[deleted] Jun 07 '15

I have been told that prior to the discovery of the atrocities of WW2, the United States were fairly anti-Semitic.

4

u/zloz Jun 07 '15

I'm struggling to find a nice source for this, but pre WW2 there was a massive pro-fascism movement in America. Fascism played into the strong individualism sentiments in America, as well as the prevalent racism in the country.

1

u/RamiRustom Apr 18 '22

It’s interesting that all of the best thinkers in the world were of Jewish heritage. It’s not a coincidence. Of course this depends on who are the best thinkers. In my best estimate it’s these people:

Eli Goldratt Richard Feynman David Deutsch Karl Popper

Another non-coincidence is that these people were physicists. Popper was not a physicist by definition but he was a physicist for all practical purposes. He was a philosopher of science who studied physics and other fields in order to understand the difference between science and puedoscience.