The research, led by Stefan Stormer of the University of Kiel, is presented from Eureka<\/a> Alert<\/p>\n Ah, the classic "who would you help" conundrum. We were 16 or 17 at the time, in a desperate race The smart money was on disgrace, but a rich Draconian But before we could leave on what would be the We only realized years later that this interview We met in the Rabbi’s office, a sunny book-lined The audition "Now I’m going to ask you a question, and I want We thought about it. At this point in our impetuous "Well, Rabbi, it’s hard to really know, sitting What an idiot! If we had a dollar for every time Had we known that then, and not revealed ourself However, given Still, it’s never too late to dream<\/em><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feelings of empathy lead to actions of helping – but only between members of the same group – according to a recent study in the July issue of Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, an official publication of the Society for … Continue reading ![](\"http:\/\/cyber.law.harvard.edu\/blogs\/static\/dowbrigade\/derjude.gif\")
Feelings of empathy lead to actions of helping –
\n but only between members of the same group – according to a recent
\n study in the July issue of Personality
\n and Social Psychology Bulletin<\/a>,
\n an official publication of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology,
\n published by SAGE Publications.<\/p>\n
\n in the article "Empathy-Motivated Helping: The Moderating Role of
\n Group Membership." The article discusses two different studies,
\n one using a real-world, intercultural scenario and the other using a
\n mixture of people with no obvious differences besides gender. Researchers
\n concluded that, while all the people felt empathy for someone in distress,
\n they only tended to assist if the needy person was viewed as a member
\n of their own "in-group."<\/p>\n
\n It brings to mind a pivotal event in the Dowbrigade’s formative past
\n – our first and last chance to truly rank among the Chosen Ones.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n to see if we would ride out of town on a wave of awards and accolades
\n into
\n an elysian Ivy future, or be kicked out of high school first, into
\n a future of disgrace and vagrancy.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n aunt with shadowy connections deep and high in the Zionist power
\n structure of the day got it in her mind that we could be saved by
\n a stiff dose of discipline and a righteous return to our religious
\n roots. Accordingly, she arranged to ship us off, shortly after our 17th birthday,
\n to a border Kibbutz a few kilometers from the West Bank area of Israel\/Palestine.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n first of a lifelong series of epic adventures, missions, misadventures,
\n foreign jobs, narrow escapes, picaresque escapades and extended stints
\n as an expatriot, we were summoned into the presence of Rabbi Philip
\n Silverstein, the closest thing in upstate New York to a Cardinal
\n in the Jewish Church.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n was our first and last call audition for membership in the storied International
\n Jewish Conspiracy.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n room cluttered with thousands of objects like some sort of eclectic museum
\n of Hebraica: religious relics, framed photographs of the Rabbi with
\n Presidents, Prime Ministers
\n and
\n the
\n giants of Israel’s
\n creation,
\n Zionist memorabilia, menorahs, Mogen Davids, mezuzahs, Israeli archeological
\n artifacts, arcane and possibly Kabalistic knickknacks.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n consisted of a single question. After some ice-breaking small talk
\n about our upcoming trip to the Holy Land, the rabbi looked me in
\n the eye and his voice took on the timbre and gravitas we had previously
\n heard only from the pulpit on the High Holy Days.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n you to think before you answer. You are in a situation where
\n two people are in grave danger, but you might be able to same one of them. One of the people is Jewish and the other
\n is not. There is probably not time to save them both. What would
\n you do?"<\/em><\/p>\n
\n youth, we were a big fan of telling the truth at all cost and of saying the first
\n thing that popped into our head. When these sometimes conflicting
\n tendencies coincided, they were almost impossible to resist.<\/em><\/p>\n
\n here in your office, what one would actually do in a crisis. But my
\n instinct is that, if the chances of saving the two people were exactly
\n the same, I would save the Jew. But if I had a better chance of saving
\n the non-Jew, or if there was a chance to save both if I went after
\n the non-Jew first, that is what I would do."<\/em><\/p>\n
\n we’ve kicked ourself for blowing this chance, we wouldn’t NEED to
\n be a member of the IJC. Of course, the right answer was, "Under any
\n circumstances I would save the Jew. Even if I had hand only
\n a 1 % chance of saving the Jew and a 99% chance of saving the gentile,
\n I would go for the Jew first."<\/em><\/p>\n
\n as a dastardly secular humanist who believes in situational ethics,
\n the rest of our life might have been very different. <\/em><\/p>\n
\n that within a year of our rabbinical interview we were to be the
\n subject of a nationwide manhunt by Israeli security forces following
\n which
\n we were summarily deported from the motherland and told never to
\n come back, and that in the 36 years since Blogging is the closest
\n we have gotten to fame or influence, the Rabbi’s judgment is looking
\n pretty good.<\/em><\/p>\n