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It's one of those sensitive facts that everyone in the industry on Long Island is aware of but generally shies away from discussing.
The top rung of the leadership ladder at Long Island's 20 biggest accounting firms is dominated by people with three heritages: Eleven of the 23 executives in top posts are Jewish, five have Italian backgrounds and four are of Irish descent.
It's no surprise to most people that these groups comprise the lion's share of local accounting leadership, given the region's population history.
Look back 40, 50 years ago, when you look back at the demographics, said David Bonagura, managing partner of Ernst & Young on Long Island, who followed in his father's footsteps into accounting. My father's Italian, grew up in Brooklyn, comes out here. It matches the demographics where there are a lot of Jewish and Italian people. A lot went into accounting.
The U.S. Census doesn't keep localized information regarding religion, but the 1960 Census, back when many of today's top accountants were growing up, showed 1.1 million people of Italian heritage in the New York City metropolitan statistical area. That was almost twice the number of people from the Soviet Union, who made up the second-biggest group with a total of 672,000. There were...