Jewish people have made and continue to make tremendous contributions to the world’s progress. In any area of the world’s development, the Jewish impact is extremely high despite the fact that Jews constitute under 0.2% of mankind.
There are two obvious factors contributing to Jewish people’s successes and advances:
First, there is a significant percentage of talented and gifted people among the Jewish people. (This statement is intended just to point out this fact and is not by any means intended as a comparison to any other people.)
Perhaps what explains this first factor is hidden in the Jewish DNA, and perhaps it can also be explained by thousands of years of difficult history. Our history of persecution and expulsion forced Jews to use and train their brain power to extreme limits in order to survive and find a way to feed their families, often in new countries, with unknown language, and most of the time, in unfriendly places.
The second factor that contributes to Jewish people’s success is the Jewish tradition of and respect for learning. Kids in Jewish families are encouraged and even forced to study hard from an early age and to strive for excellence in any profession they choose.
Interestingly enough, a quick Google search reveals that this 0.2% of the world’s population possesses 22-24% of overall Nobel Prize winners and 26% of Nobel Prize winners for scientific research.
There is no space in a small article to mention names of all the famous Jews, and there are many books written on the subject. But just to mention some names that readily come to mind:
Albert Einstein,
Irving Berlin,
Sigmund Freud,
Steven Spielberg,
Benjamin Disraeli, and
Niels Bohr.
Envy is one of the causes of antisemitism. Among other hateful, antisemitic nonsense that is circulated in popular culture, one can hear often enough that Jewish people “control” different areas of industry, arts, media, and so on.
The real truth is that a dedicated person, Jewish or not Jewish, always does his or her best for the success of the company or organization that he or she is part of. As a result, such a person, Jewish or not Jewish, moves up in the ranks and gains authority, responsibility, and influence.
But for the antisemites, this is one more chance to find something against the Jewish people.
Very often there is no Jewish response to this nonsense, or sometimes the response even sounds apologetic.
By all fairness, in response to the accomplishments of a good person, whether the person is Jewish or not Jewish, society should wish such a person the best. After all, any individual accomplishments, in the final run, are contributing to the common good.
Within the Jewish people, if a good Jewish person, thanks to his/her talent and hard work, makes significant accomplishments in any field, then the response should be pride and best wishes.
