Posted on 01/12/2010 10:10:30 PM PST by Smile-n-Win
Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.
Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.
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.
[...]
Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. Israel has more high-tech start-ups per capita than any other nation on earth, by far. It leads the world in civilian research-and-development spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U.S. in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined.
[...] between 1980 and 2000, Egyptians registered 77 patents in the U.S. Saudis registered 171. Israelis registered 7,652.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
A bookish people wins at intellectual pursuits.
And some people question why being Israel’s ally is to our benefit.
Yep, their achievements are top-notch. ...yet vote Democrap at every election.
I would like to see a closer scrutiny of how religious devotion influences this trend. Religious devotion is the chief reason why the Jews are bookish; the Jewish religion depends heavily upon large bodies of ever-discussed text of which what we know as scripture is only a small part. Religiously devout Jews also tend not to the Democrats but to the Republicans. Once devotion dwindles out in a group of Jews, I would expect to see more deleterious effects very quickly. By my theory, education should devolve into charade, and political affiliation should quickly lurch leftward.
maybe they can help us get rid of these commies in the U.S. capitol! If i dont post anything by tomorrow the U.S secret service, the C.I.A.,unions ..etc might have played a role :D
Iht’s changing. Believe me.
Bummer is more repulsive than the usual Democrat.
Progress? Socialist countries are ANYTHING but progressive. They are repressive and tend to lead to the extermination or prosecution of Jews. So... what is the fascination with the Left? If they are so brilliant why do they tend toward self destructive and repressive societies?
>yet vote Democrap at every election.
The Orthodox Jews vote like Evangelicals.
Chosen people ping!
An unfortunate blurring of ideas occurs here, I would agree.
Traditional Judaism and biblical Christianity largely concur on what comprises moral good for mankind. Progress towards that good (expressed in such pursuits as better medicine and better technology for the amelioration of needless human suffering and increase in legitimate human happiness) is very much different from the “progressivism” of socialism, which invents a goal out of mere whim.
I would say because education in the West has been dominated by the Left over the last century or so. The result is that the world's most successful nations have been led to feel guilty for their economic and military strength and keep apologizing for their existence. This goes for both the US and Israel.
The irony can’t be kept up indefinitely. Either Israel “gets religion” or it faces an ignominious self-extinction.
So... you mean these brilliant, Nobel Prize winning Jewish people were duped by communist teachers and professors and became Leftists in spite of their brilliance?
My educated-redneck guess is that these brilliant stars, if not religious themselves, were the direct recipients of a religious family heritage that prized traditional ideas of what constituted useful knowledge. However their children will probably not be as fortunate unless they pick up the godliness ball themselves.
And then when the Czar does beat on them, they either get religion (again) or die out. This isn’t anything really new. The biblical accounts of Jewish history show this same kind of cycling between good and evil.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.