”This is the slowest news week of the year, so many newspapers fill space by running articles about famous people who died during this year. So, here’s my contribution to that type of article.
The death of Henry Kissinger this year at age 100 got me wondering again if Jews live longer on average than most others. Of 1970s historical figures, I’m not surprised that the temperate Jimmy Carter might make it to 100, but Kissinger just got increasingly fatter as the decades wore on.
I found an article in The Journal of the American Medical Association:
Abstract
It is claimed that of all classes of New York City’s population, the Jews are the longest lived. Considering the manner in which the majority of the Jewish population of our great cities live, this is a remarkable showing, if true. The poorer Jews, as a rule, are rigid followers of the Mosaic law, and this would indicate to some extent the excellence of the sanitary provisions of that ancient code. Insurance men, however, it is alleged, while recognizing the temperance of the Jews as a factor, are inclined to think that this longevity is a result of natural selection, the weaker elements of the Jewish race having been gradually eliminated during centuries of persecution. There is still another possible factor to be considered. For centuries the Jews have become acclimatized, so to speak, to city life, and therefore may represent the class most resistant to such environment.
The data of the article: January 21, 1905.
Most of the more recent data I’ve uncovered similarly suggests that Jews remain especially long-lived, at least in the U.S. and Britain. For example, from an article in the Jewish Chronicle of the U.K. from some time in the current century:
David Graham, demographer at the Board of Deputies and co-author of Jews in Britain: A Snapshot from the 2001 Census (2007), said: “In the 2001 Census there were nearly 4,000 Jews aged 90 and above in England and Wales.
“Three out of every four were women. They represented 0.8 per cent of the Jewish population. Although that doesn’t sound like much, it was over twice the proportion of people in that age group in the general population, which was 0.3 per cent.
“I would estimate that, proportionately, there are nearly three times as many Jewish centenarians as there are in the general population of England and Wales.”
The long lifespan Jews enjoy could be to do with the level of wealth and education in the community as well as our strong social networks.
What other reasons might there be?
Less excessive drinking is probably part of the answer.
I’ve been watching Seinfeld reruns lately, and it strikes me that none of the four main characters seem to take much interest in alcohol—at least not for singles living in Manhattan who do a huge amount of socializing. (The title character works in nightclubs.)
A lot of people drink when socializing to get over their shyness—Nordics are especially notorious for this. Are Jews less shy on average?
[Comment at Unz.com]
