Ep. 1: Columbia and Its Forgotten Jewish Campus
What was Seth Low Junior College, and why did the brilliant Jewish writer Isaac Asimov get sent there?
Isaac Asimov was one of the most prolific authors in history. He was best known as a pathbreaking sci-fi writer, but his more than 500 books also included volumes on the Greeks, the Romans, Shakespeare, the Bible, and much more. He was one of the most learned men in history.
But in 1935, 15-year-old Asimov was rejected by Columbia University. Admissions officials instead directed him to Seth Low Junior College, a separate campus in Brooklyn, 11 miles from Columbia’s Morningside Heights campus.
What was Seth Low Junior College, and why was the brilliant Isaac Asimov sent there instead? Seth Low Junior College, which existed from 1928 to 1938, was one of Columbia’s many attempts to deal with a changing student population that they felt was contaminating its pristine, Protestant campus. And it’s part of the bigger story of how the Ivy League resistance to outsiders shaped all of higher education as we know it.
On the first episode of Gatecrashers, our new podcast from Tablet Studios, you’ll hear about the lengths Columbia went to in order to limit the number of Jewish students in the 1920s and ’30s. The invention of the college application itself, the admissions interview, the push for geographical diversity, and more—all elements of the college admissions process as we know it today—trace back to Columbia’s effort to keep out the Jews. You’ll hear from NPR’s Robert Siegel, former Columbia College Dean Robert Pollack, historian Robert McCaughey, sci-fi scholar Alfred Guy, and Dr. Leeza Hirt, whose undergraduate reporting unearthed the history of Seth Low Junior College.
Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Check out the full series at tabletmag.com/gatecrashers. Email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at (917) 310-0456.
- GatecrashersIntroducing GatecrashersA podcast about the hidden history of Jews and the Ivy League, from Unorthodox co-host Mark OppenheimerSeptember 6, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 1: Columbia and Its Forgotten Jewish CampusWhat was Seth Low Junior College, and why did the brilliant Jewish writer Isaac Asimov get sent there?September 13, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 2: Princeton and the Dirty Bicker of 1958The curious social scandal that left Jews out of—and nearly upended—the school’s exclusive eating clubsSeptember 13, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 3: Dartmouth and the Jews Who Loved ItHow a laid-back college in the mountains became an unlikely oasis for midcentury JewsSeptember 20, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 4: Yale and the Slow Death of QuotasThe truth about historical caps on Jewish enrollment in the Ivy LeagueSeptember 23, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 5: Brown University and Mrs. Smith’s Kosher KitchenThe Providence, Rhode Island, family that fed observant Jewish students and the 1960s push for on-campus kosher dining optionsOctober 4, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 6: Cornell and Its Off-Campus, Off-Kilter Jewish CommuneThe Cornell Havurah, a countercultural ‘anti-establishment establishment’ that brought Jewish students togetherOctober 11, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 7: Penn and the Great Sorority Coup of 1987Jewish Greek life, stereotypes, and what it means to represent Jewish womanhoodOctober 18, 2022
- GatecrashersEp. 8: Harvard and the End of the Jewish Ivy LeagueDeclining Jewish student numbers, the changing face of the American university, and what happens in the generations after the gates are crashedOctober 25, 2022