I have noticed the striving for achievement and acceptance and sometimes wondered if it was the result of a conditioned inferiority complex because the whole world seemed determine to kill them through the years.
Partially. But there's an ambition that is conditioned into us. Not really an inferiority complex (that manifests itself more as the fear that neo nazi in the right wing are going to start burning our homes at any moment like they did in the past. Much more prevalent in the older generation. Hence why more and more Jews are moving towards the right, especially under Bush. Not in rushes, but in a steady trickle of families who pretty much say "enough hypocrisy from the left. We know the real Christians are our real friends, and have stood up for us for centuries."