Are Mormon's really taller than Jews? From the Prince of Our People, in this week's NYT Mag: "If anything, the systematic overrepresentation of Mormons among top businesspeople and lawyers affords LDS affiliation a certain cachet — rather like being Jewish, but taller." I should have known starting the cappuccino habit at a younger age than Jamie-Lynn was at conception was not the way to go.
But seriously, are Jews, in 2008 America, any shorter than anyone else? In 1930, probably, but now? I'm no giant (again, cappuccinos), but the men in my family tend to be upwards of 6'2". So how tall are Mormons? Are they like the Belgians and the Dutch? I'm picturing Salt Lake City as some kind of Antwerp minus the avant-garde fashion and abbey-made beer.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Mormons: sober and giant
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8 comments:
Mormons are very heavily of English descent. (Both from the northern US and by recruitment in England in the mid-nineteenth century.) The height comparison, therefore, ought to be Jewish vs. English. I don't know the statistics--though my own anecdotal impression, from family and friends, is that the English gene pool in America tends an inch or two higher than the Jewish one. I suspect Mormons are not quite Jolly Dutch Giants, though.
Note, however, that although most of my Jewish family is fairly tall, the Klein branch is well-described. And my English roots include a six-foot great-great grandmother described by her daughter-in-law (!) as a "whale of a woman."
Anecdotal evidence versus anecdotal evidence.
A quick google search finds various studies on Israelis (all that army induction data is helpful), but none (aside from the various Jew-hating sites) comparing American Jews with different American ethnic groups. All is anecdotage.
Israeli's couldn't have more different diets, not to mention are frequently a different ethnicity, than American Jews. Feldman's comment remains impossible to back up.
I'm 5'10", and I was a giant at Brandeis. But that's anecdotage. Still, I don't have any problem believing that American Jews are shorter than average.
I don't have a problem with it either, if it's true, I just don't know if it is.
You were joking about Salt Lake City?
Well,
Avg height Israeli male: 5'9.1"
Avg height white USA male: 5'10.1"
That can't be diet since we're talking 1st World nations, right?
As far as getting Mormon stats, if only I were ambitious enough to get this article:
http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/citation/15/2/55
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