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 ...
The reason why they aren’t just like hey man, GONE, is the divine promise. God doesn’t make promises only to welsh on them later. The human side of the equation is seen as returns to godliness.
It’s worth looking into, realizing that intelligence is a tricky thing to measure. I don’t know if Jews have been blessed with a smartness gene clear from Abraham, but if nothing else a sort of darwinian selection might apply with the worse kinds of foolishness getting slowly weeded out.
(Realizing too that intelligence is a sword with dual edges. Too much at the disposal of a morally foolish man can prove particularly destructive.)
Let us not forget that one third of the Jewish population worldwide was killed during WWII. Our numbers have still not recovered. Many were forced to move into other countries. This has been a challenge for us, many people who are still alive from that time remember the camps. Many turned away from G-d in their grief. The lives of their children reflect these conflicts: separation from faith, from heritage, from family. My husband for example has only two relatives left from “the old country” everyone else - and I do mean EVERYONE ELSE in his father’s family was murdered. It is difficult and it takes time for the wounds to heal. Many Jews blame G-d, in the feeling that if we were the same as everyone else - it never would have happened. When you choose to judge Jews - judge gently.
I’m not really an expert on this, but I believe Jews are genetically quite closely related to the Arabs, aren’t they? And yet, look at the difference. I think this has a lot more to do with culture than with genes.
It’s pretty simple, in Gen 12:3 The LORD had said unto Abram, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed”
European civilization basically died in World War II. It’s still stumbling onward but is largely in decay; many say an unrecoverable state of decay.
In its sixty-one years of existence, the State of Israel has already established a higher standard-of-living than much older nation-states such as Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. What might the difference(s) be that fosters such prosperity?
The Holocaust would certainly make one question G-d's existence, or at the very least his intentions.
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Some are, but most Jews are Ashkenazi Jews, from Europe, which are not Semitic.
Let’s not forget the sex gum we’re selling to Gazan teenagers, so we can kill them later and steal their corneas.
I would disagree with that. There are definite genetic and cultural similarities, even between Ashkenazik Jews and Arabs, although it’s less aparent in some than in others.
Easy to explain. It’s all a conspiracy.
Not all.
Educated people tend to underestimate the stupidity and sloth of people.
Israel has some pretty socialist issues, but works OK.
We are certianly both a semetic peoples, yes.
And arabs purport to (and probably are) descendants of Ishmael.
I’m not an expert either, and yes they were related back in the biblical times, but culturally they’ve been separated for over 2000 years. I wonder to what extent cultural traits become genetic through selective breeding. If a culture puts a premium on mates that are smart, successful, analytic and if those traits have genetic components, wouldn’t they after some generations start to show up more often in the population?
After all, look at dogs and the variety that’s been created over a short period of time, and I’m not talking about their “physical” appearance but also their various “talents”, such as hunting, herding, watching, etc.
“Some are, but most Jews are Ashkenazi Jews, from Europe, which are not Semitic.”
That is incorrect information, repeated by Hamas and Stormfront.
There have been a number of genetic studies, down to tracing “Y Chromosome Cohen” (descendants of Aaron) in both the Ashkenazi and Sephardi groups. All the same.
Kindly avoid repeatedly this lie.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10801975
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8101437?dopt=Abstract&holding=npg
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10801975?dopt=Abstract&holding=npg
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