The history of the Jewish quota at McGill University, 1920s-1960s

In the decades between 1920 and 1960, McGill University limited the admission of Jewish medical students through a quota system. This discriminatory measure has never been fully documented or contextualized. Thomas and his team’s project will fill this gap. They will identify the archival material that documents and discusses this policy, find printed sources, conduct oral history interviews with witnesses, and analyze this material within the context of the existing research on similar quotas at other North American and European medical schools and the history of ethnic discrimination and antisemitism more generally. They will examine how such a policy was justified and contested, how it was put into practice and finally terminated. Their findings will shed light on the mechanisms of ethnic discrimination within medical training and the medical profession. Knowledge of the mechanisms of these practices’ discrimination is necessary to overcome such discrimination and promote diversity among medical staff.