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"Jewish Mathematics"?

Quick math-personality quiz: What is seven-and-one-fourth minus three-fourths, expressed as a mixed number (a whole number plus a proper fraction)? What matters isn’t what answer you get but how yo…

Suppose for instance that a detailed study of classroom pedagogy in early 20th century Germany had revealed that it was in fact mostly Jewish students, not their Christian classmates, who preferred the second, quicker method of computing 7 1/4 minus 3/4. All Nazis do not think alike, even though it may externally seem as if they did!” If I had been in young Saunders’ shoes, I would have taken comfort in that diversity of opinion, expecting that a party made of such disparate bedfellows would dissipate its energy in internal squabbling and not accomplish much. Resentment of Germany’s humiliation twenty years earlier and a thirst for vengeance proved sufficiently cohesive to bind the movement together, especially as the regime learned which groups served as the best targets of the people’s rage.

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