Reuben Pulatov

Professor Fernando Duran

ENGL 11000 English & Rhetoric

Tuesday, October 29th, 2019 🎃

 

Inquiry-Based Essay, Final Draft

 

It is an old adage across Europe that “a Jewish drunk is hard to find.” It has spread to America and beyond, and has been the subject of some academic study over the decades. This subject deserves some looking into, as it may be important to understand what makes Jews in particular so special apart from other groups of people, and if whatever they are doing can be spread to others.

The first step is to look at the information gathered over many years of study and see the veracity of these claims. It’s possible that the whole thing could be one large common misconception, repeated over and over again until it took on a life of its own and became the true fact in many people’s minds. A study in the Journal of Drug and Alcohol Dependence in 2007 seemed to corroborate the findings in a more general research on the subject. Some of the things it measured included what percent of the polled demographic were affiliated with a religion, how closely they followed the tenets of that religion, if they felt that the religion actively discouraged drinking, and if they abstained from drinking. Of the thousands polled, Jews showed the lowest rate in prescriptiveness, being the feeling that Judaism actively discouraged drinking. They had only 16.3%, while most other sects of Christianity ranged from 25% to 90%. The amount of straight abstainers was 30.8% and heavy drinkers was only 12.5% the second lowest percent behind the European Free Church and tied with the Assembly of God.

Unlike those groups however, Jews reported a relatively low importance on religion and the need to abstain in general. Jews only felt a 33.7% religiosity, a 30.8% abstinence, and a 16.3% feeling like Judaism prohibited them from drinking. The EFC and AoG on the other hand report high religiosity (79.2% and 93.1% respectively), high abstinence (60.0% and 71.4% respectively), and high feeling of their religion discouraging drinking (86.7% and 92.9% respectively).

Another curious thing about this study is that those listed for Judaism, the European Free Church, and the Assembly of God were relatively small in regards to the larger sample sizes. Of the 7432 polled, only 120 were Jewish, making about 1.61% of the total group. Meanwhile, members of the EFC and AoG were only 42 (0.57%) and 25 (0.34%), respectively. The fact that from each of these groups there was only a very small sample size may result in a skewed set of data. It’s also possible that the very fact that they are such a small group of the population may be part of the reason they have such a small rate of alcoholism. However, while the idea of a small population dedicated to their faith works for the EFG and AoG, which have a very high rate of dedication and feel like that dedication discourages them, the Jews don’t have this same quality, which low rates in both of those metrics.

A similar study was published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, under the title “Religious-Ethnic Differences in Alcohol Consumption,” looking into the different alcoholic tendencies across religions and ethnicities. Across the board, Jews are listed as being one of the lowest sections of alcoholism. This study featured a smaller sample size, at 6,266, but within it had a larger percentage of Jews as part of the study, being 461 total individuals who contributed data, making up a larger ~7.36% of the sample size. However, this study focused mostly on more broad categories of religion, looking at different nationalities for white Catholics and Protestants, with Jews, black people, and ‘all others’ being listed separately, rather than the higher specificity of the previous study. Among those looked at, Jews had the highest negative rating for Breathalyzer test during interviews for the study, with 93.1% coming up negative. The only other group of similar measure was Italian Catholic participants, a group that the paper consistently notes along with Jews as having a low alcoholic rating. Also listed are charts showing the same categories of the sample size, but seperated for sex (male/female), age (16–25, 26–45, 46–65, >65), marital status (unmarried, married, previously married), and social class (based on Hollingshead Two-Factor Index of Social Position). What was found was that in every single category, the Jewish participants were listed as having a lower percentage of positive Breathalyzer readings that every other group (except frequently for Italian Catholics) by as much as half or a third. When asked to rank themselves on their general drinking habits, the Jewish participants had a 47.9% rate of abstaining, higher than the average of 40.2%. They had a similarly higher average of ‘very moderate drinkers’ with 42.6%, similarly higher than the average of 35.0%. For ‘moderate-heavy drinkers,’ they only had 9.4%, which was far lower than the average of 24.8%.

Those studies looked into alcoholic tendencies across many different religions and ethnicities, but more information could be gotten from a more specific regarding Jews in particular and their drinking habits, as done in “How Jews Avoid Alcohol Problems” in the American Sociological Review. The study interviewed Jewish participants from a variety of religious observances, ages, professions, and backgrounds. What was found was that, once again, Jews had a far lesser tendency to drink alcohol in excess, with “59% report having never been intoxicated, 23% report having been intoxicated only once or twice, and 18% report more frequent intoxication.”  There were a few consistent elements found among all of the participants in the study. One of the most common ones was having alcohol introduced to them at a very young age, with most (89%) stating that their first drink was recreationally, before the age of 13, with their families, with only 5% having it outside the family. Most of them also stated that the most common drink at home was wine. The study also notes that this drink is popular among Italians, which could connect to the previous study. This is notable because the study notes that wine “become[s] unpleasant in large quantities.”

This focus on wine also extends to the nature of when and how Jews use it. Most of the participants noted that wine was common when eating meals, and that it was not commonly drunk outside of that scenario. The study found that the majority of those interviewed still engaged in some sort of Passover celebration, Shabbat meal, or brit milah (briss), all of which customarily involve drinking wine, and in the case of Passover, as much as four cups. Parents would introduce wine to their children early on in their development, and associate it with eating at meals, without drinking it in most other situations. Many participants, when asked if they or people they knew drink, they would respond as though wine was not an alcoholic drink. “I don’t drink at all… I’ll just have some wine” (657). From an early age, the Jews would only consider wine and other alcohol as part of the ritual for certain days and meals. “Drinking has little chance of becoming substantive as well as symbolic, as among Irish men who demonstrate manhood by drunkenness or as among the Aztecs who seek intoxication in religious ceremonies.” As they grew older, the concept of drinking in excess for recreation was not something that could replace it in their minds.

Even later in life, when Jews leave their parents’ household and live their own lives among others, they still continue this matter of non-excess. Most stated that they had their first excessive alcoholic experience in college or the military, when they first leave their homes and surround themselves with countless peers of their own, many of which are gentiles. “Drinking rates during college and military service periods increased radically for at least one-fourth of those for whom the question applies. Several respondents report that nearly all of their intoxication experiences occurred during college or military service … Several interviewees became intoxicated for the first and last times in college” (658). Due to the nature of alcohol being “just another thing” for these Jews do to their upbringing in how it was treated in the home, and their first exposure to excess in unfavorable, they simply file it away as an unfavorable task, and avoid it later. Many participants, for some reason or another, had come up with ways to avoid drinking in social situations, such as refilling a mixer-drink with the non-alcoholic part over the course of the night, or a spouse telling them that they’ve already drunk too much when they had only had one or two.

One final curious part that the study found was how the “no such thing as a Jewish alcoholic” adage was an integral part of it. During the interviews, the Jewish participants themselves would bring up of their own volition the idea that Jews cannot become alcoholics. “52% of our respondents telling us, although we did not even ask them about this issue, that alcohol problems happen to non-Jews… 69% of the remaining sample told us, without any stimulus from the interviewer, that Jews are not problem drinkers” (655). The idea that because they were Jewish, they would not be able to become alcoholics was ingrained into the participants’ minds. It seemed to be involved in some manner of mass subconscious “placebo effect.” Due to the fact that, in addition to the previous reasons, they “knew” that drinking in excess for recreation or to lessen stress was not something that Jews did, it simply removed itself as an option from their minds. This powerful sociological trend may have been a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Now there is the question of how this exists and where did it come from. The study mentions “That Jews define alcohol problems as not Jewish is customarily interpreted within the literature as one way in which the pious Jew maintains his sense of moral superiority” (654). There are however, many documented cases of Jews throwing themselves into alcoholism, and in many cases being able to effectively hide it from others. The study’s authors mention how they “had each known an alcoholic Jew who managed to escape public detection” (651). A different paper, “‘A Jewish Drunk Is Hard to Find’:Jewish Drinking Practices and the Sobriety Stereotype in Eastern Europe,” published in The Jewish Quarterly Review, examines several individuals who’d done just that.

“Safe in the knowledge that their disclosures were for R. Guttmacher’s eyes only, petitioners and their wives disclosed the devastating effects of habitual drinking on themselves and their  families” (15). The paper gives examples of several rabbis and known members in their Jewish communities in nineteenth century Poland who would drink in excess and keep it from others for fear of being shamed. They add an economic incentive for some members of the community, as tavern owners would often lease them out to Jews, believing them to be the only ones who wouldn’t engage in the product (10). They too believed the myth of Judaic sobriety.

This idea of “a Jewish drunk is hard to find” preventing people from reporting their problems and not seeking help isn’t just anachronistic, but also exists in current times. In a report for The Jerusalem Post, Michael Gaubart told his story with alcoholism. “Few alcoholics or addicts easily admit to their compulsions. Indeed, as the old-timers in Alcoholics Anonymous say, ‘The denial is bigger than the disease.’ But for Jewish addicts and alcoholics, denial runs even deeper. That’s because we have been conditioned to believe that ‘shicker is a goy’ – meaning only gentiles, not Jews, can have drinking problems.” He cites problems like the fact that the way that Alcoholics Anonymous feels very Christian, leading Jews to not want to go deeper into it. He claims that what Jewish alcoholics there are avoid help due to the fact that it doesn’t feel right, that they shouldn’t be doing it. Of course, this is going on the assumption that there is no Jewish drunk. Despite the very small population of Jews compared to the rest of the world, and on top of that the small percentage of heavy drinkers, there are still some that are in that very small cross section. Despite this, these people are still the exception to the rule, as discussed previously, some researchers knew individuals who were Jewish alcoholics, but they found a larger group of Jews who managed to avoid it.

So far, the research has only focused on the psychological and sociological aspects of the trend, rather than any sort of chemical or physical. Aside from the concepts of Jewish society having an odd combination of elements that lead to a lower level of alcoholism, there is another theory that some tried to investigate. It was discovered that Jewish people have a chemical in their bodies known as ADH2*2 that appears in far greater quantities than Europeans. This results in Jewish people not having as much of a pleasurable experience when it comes to drinking alcohol. This may relate to the earlier point of how many Jews had an experience of drinking in excess in college and finding it undesirable. It’s possible that this common occurrence may be due to the ADH2*2 mutation, preventing them from experiencing it as the rest of the population does in terms of pleasurability. This may be how certain customs developed, such as using wine instead of other, stronger drinks. This hypothesis doesn’t address the secularization and assimilation of Jews in the modern era. The research shows that only 20% of Jews have this mutation, and should only result in Jews having 80% of the alcoholic rate as others, not the far lower rates that they have in various studies.

The research shows that, while many such bio- or sociological reasons may bolster the idea of Jewish sobriety, it is still very much a real thing. Elements such as the ADH2*2 mutation and Jewish alcoholics not wanting to admit their problem may lower the statistics when it comes to research, but all of the other information tells a different story. There is still far too much of a difference between Jews and the rest of the population in terms of alcoholism, regardless of demographic, location, or time, for it to be the result of that. ADH2*2 shows up in too few Jews to have that significant of an impact, and there are only so many people who will hide their problems. The combinations of different cultural practices of treating alcohol, and the societal idea that Jews cannot become drunks has lead to a group of people that simply have a lower level of alcoholism than the rest.

 

Works Cited

Dynner, Glenn. “‘A Jewish Drunk Is Hard to Find’: Jewish Drinking Practices and the Sobriety Stereotype in Eastern Europe.” Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. 104, no. 1, 2014, pp. 9–23., doi:10.1353/jqr.2014.0003.

 

Glassner, Barry, and Bruce Berg. “How Jews Avoid Alcohol Problems.” American Sociological Review, vol. 45, no. 4, Aug. 1980, pp. 647–664., doi:10.2307/2095014.

 

Religious-Ethnic Differences in Alcohol Consumption by Henry Wechsler, Denise Thum, Harold W. Demone, Jr. and Elizabeth H. Kasey; Journal of Health and Social Behavior Vol. 11, No. 1 (Mar., 1970), pp. 21-29 (9 pages)

 

Religion and alcohol in the U.S. National Alcohol Survey: How important is religion for abstention and drinking? by Laurence Michalak, Karen Trocki and Jason Bond; Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 2007-03-16, Volume 87, Issue 2, Pages 268-280

 

Botfeld, Amanda. “Are Jews Less Likely To Be Alcoholics?” The Forward, Scribe, 9 Jan. 2017, forward.com/scribe/359475/are-jews-less-likely-to-be-alcoholics/.

 

Graubart, Michael. “Jews Can’t Be Alcoholics or Addicts? Don’t Tell This Jewish Alcoholic.” The Jerusalem Post, 7 Feb. 2019.

Gene helps Jews resist alcoholism by David Derbyshire, Science Correspondent;  The Telegraph