The authors compared the rates of treated mental illness among
ethnically advantaged Ashkenazic Jews and ethnically disadvantaged
Sephardic Jews in four areas of Jerusalem defined by socioeconomic status.
They found that the rates of illness were higher in areas of lower
socioeconomic status, that the Ashkenazim had higher rates of illness than
the Sephardim in the areas of lower status, and that there was a
comparatively high rate of illness among the Ashkenazim in the very
religious Jewish neighborhoods. They interpret these findings on the basis
of the theories of social causation and social selection, including genetic
transmission.
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