Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 per cent of the world population, but 54 per cent of the world chess champions, 27 per cent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 per cent of the medicine laureates.
Jews make up two per cent of the US population, but 21 per cent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 per cent of the Kennedy Centre honourees, 37 per cent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 per cent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 per cent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for non-fiction.
In his book, The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement, Steven L. Pease lists some of the explanations people have given for this record of achievement. The Jewish faith encourages a belief in progress and personal accountability. It is learning-based, not rite-based.
Most Jews gave up or were forced to give up farming in the Middle Ages; their descendents have been living off of their wits ever since. They have often migrated, with a migrant’s ambition and drive. They have congregated around global crossroads and have benefited from the creative tension endemic in such places.
No single explanation can account for the record of Jewish achievements. The odd thing is that Israel has not traditionally been strongest where the Jews in the diaspora were strongest. Instead of research and commerce, Israelis were forced to devote their energies to fighting and politics.
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8:25 PM
Moderate Islamist here
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