American Jews have benefited greatly from access to higher education and the professional pathways it opened to them. Today, here is a great deal of concern about the culture and climate for Jews and Zionists on campus. But our students are still striving for acceptance into competitive universities, and we still see our students struggling with the endless demands of the college admissions process, one that seems to get more daunting with every year. Even as we reconsider whether our community should remain bought in to this system, is there any way to rethink how we define, demonstrate, and reward merit? Is it possible to enjoy the benefits of striving for excellence without all of the costs that our current system imposes? Professor Daniel Markovits of Yale Law School, author of The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, speaks with Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz about the nature of problem, how we got here, and what we might do about it. * This was recorded prior to October 7th, 2023.