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This is a guest essay by Vanessa Berg, who writes about Judaism and Israel.
You can also listen to the podcast version of this essay on Apple Podcasts, YouTube Music, YouTube, and Spotify.
If Jews really controlled the world, we would probably have figured out how to get everyone to agree on the temperature of the synagogue by now.
Yet, for centuries, Jewish success has inspired some of the most elaborate conspiracy theories in human history. Apparently, the only plausible explanation for why a historically persecuted minority has produced a disproportionate number of successful entrepreneurs, scientists, doctors, lawyers, academics, artists, and Nobel Prize winners is that we must be secretly running everything.
Never mind that we cannot even agree on what constitutes a proper bagel.
The truth is considerably less sinister, although admittedly less exciting for people who spend their evenings connecting photographs of Jewish bankers with red string.
Jewish success, particularly in the United States, is not the product of some mysterious ethnic superpower or international conspiracy. It is largely the result of cultural habits, historical circumstances, family expectations, community institutions, and an extraordinary capacity to adapt without abandoning our identity.
And the most interesting part? None of these habits is exclusively Jewish. Much of the formula is available to anyone willing to adopt it.
Education: Our First Competitive Advantage
Ask a Jewish parent what they want their child to become, and there is a decent chance the answer involves medicine, law, engineering, or some profession that requires at least seven years of complaining about school.
For generations, Jewish families have treated education not merely as an opportunity but as something approaching a religious obligation. Sure, Jewish tradition places enormous emphasis on learning, questioning, interpretation, debate, and intellectual achievement. Studying sacred texts is central to Jewish religious life, while the ability to argue about those texts is practically a competitive sport.
But that is not only why Jews prioritize education. For centuries, Jews in many parts of the world were denied opportunities that others took for granted. They were prohibited from owning land in certain places and periods, excluded from agricultural occupations, barred from joining trade guilds, and restricted from entering numerous professions.
These restrictions forced many Jewish communities to find alternative ways to earn a living, often through commerce, trade, finance, and other occupations that depended on knowledge, literacy, and specialized skills.
Unlike land or property, which could be confiscated whenever a ruler decided Jews were no longer welcome, education was something Jews could carry with them wherever they went. When your people have spent centuries being expelled from one country after another, investing in something that cannot easily be taken away becomes more than a cultural preference. It becomes a survival strategy.
This emphasis did not magically produce modern Jewish success, but it helped create a culture in which knowledge was prized, intellectual ambition was encouraged, and parents invested heavily in their children’s education. And education is among the most powerful vehicles for social and economic mobility.
But Jews are hardly unique in this regard. Many Indian families and Asian communities place similarly intense emphasis on education, academic achievement, and professional accomplishment. Their success in fields such as medicine, engineering, technology, and business reflects some of the same cultural priorities, alongside important differences in immigration patterns and socioeconomic backgrounds.
In other words, Jews did not discover some secret educational formula. We simply took the relatively obvious idea that educated children tend to have more opportunities and turned it into a multigenerational obsession.
Our parents did not need to bribe college admissions officers. They simply made us feel guilty about getting a B-plus.
The Immigrant Mentality
One of the most underappreciated explanations for Jewish success is the immigrant mentality.
For much of Jewish history, stability was temporary, prosperity was fragile, and acceptance could disappear almost overnight. Jews learned repeatedly that political circumstances could change, property could be confiscated, businesses could be destroyed, and entire communities could be uprooted.
When you grow up understanding that everything you possess can potentially be taken away, you develop a particular appreciation for what cannot easily be confiscated: knowledge, skills, relationships, resourcefulness, and the ability to start over.
Many Jewish immigrants arrived in Western countries with little money, limited understanding of the country’s language, and an enormous determination to build something better for their children. They worked in factories, opened small businesses, entered the trades, and pursued opportunities that previous generations could scarcely have imagined.
Their children went to college. Their grandchildren became professionals, entrepreneurs, and business owners.
This trajectory was neither universal nor automatic, and Jewish immigrants benefited from opportunities that were not equally available to every minority. Nevertheless, the broader pattern illustrates something important: The immigrant mentality can be an extraordinary economic advantage.
People who have experienced insecurity often value opportunity differently from people who have always taken it for granted. They are willing to work difficult jobs, accept short-term sacrifices, save aggressively, and invest in the next generation.
This is hardly exclusive to Jews. Indian, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Nigerian, Iranian, and other immigrant communities have demonstrated similar patterns, although their circumstances differ considerably.
The common denominator is not ethnicity. It is the determination to build a better future, often fueled by firsthand knowledge of what a worse one looks like. And Jewish parents have mastered the art of making sure their children never forget those sacrifices, usually over dinner.
Community: The World’s Oldest Networking Strategy
Jews have another advantage that conspiracy theorists love to misunderstand: We know other Jews. Shocking, I know.
Jewish communities have long maintained dense networks of synagogues, schools, charities, professional organizations, cultural institutions, and extended families. These institutions create relationships, establish trust, facilitate introductions, and provide support when people encounter difficulties.
A Jewish entrepreneur needs advice? Someone in the community probably knows an experienced business owner. A young graduate needs a job? A family friend might be able to make an introduction. Someone falls on difficult times? Community organizations may be able to provide assistance.
This is not some shadowy conspiracy. It is social capital, one of the most extensively studied advantages in sociology and economics. And it operates in practically every successful community.
Chinese immigrant communities have business associations and family networks. Indian Americans maintain professional organizations and extensive community ties. Armenian, Greek, Korean, and other ethnic communities have similar institutions. Even Americans who proudly reject ethnic affiliations benefit from networks built through universities, fraternities, country clubs, churches, and professional associations.
The difference is that when people from certain communities help one another, it is called networking. When Jews do it, somebody inevitably starts a podcast about the Rothschilds.
Of course, connections alone do not guarantee success. Knowing someone who can introduce you to a potential employer is useful only if you have developed the skills to do the job.
But relationships reduce friction, open doors, circulate information, and create opportunities that might otherwise never materialize. Strong communities make it easier for individuals to succeed, and successful individuals can then strengthen those communities.
It is a virtuous cycle, not a criminal enterprise.
Assimilation: Being Jewish and Western is not a contradiction.
One of the most important explanations for Jewish success in Western countries is our ability to integrate into the broader society without completely surrendering our distinct identity.
Jewish Americans, for example, have generally not regarded being American and being Jewish as mutually exclusive propositions. The same goes for Jewish Europeans, Australians, South Africans, Argentinians, and so forth.
We can celebrate Thanksgiving and Passover, watch the Super Bowl and observe Yom Kippur, serve in the military and support Israel, speak English at work and Hebrew at synagogue, and feel deeply connected to both our country and our people. There is no inherent contradiction.
This is an important distinction from certain strands of identity politics that portray assimilation as cultural betrayal or participation in mainstream institutions as surrendering to somebody else’s identity.
Similar arguments have surfaced within parts of Black American political discourse, for instance. Many Black Americans explicitly reject Americanisms and embrace the “counter-culture,” such as not speaking proper English, being proud of having children with multiple women, and promoting violence and other obscenities in Black music. Maintaining a distinct cultural identity should not require defining oneself in opposition to the country in which one lives.
Western Jews have often pursued integration enthusiastically. We entered mainstream universities, built businesses serving customers of every background, participated in civic institutions, and became active in politics, entertainment, science, and other fields.
We did not insist that becoming successful in the West required the West to become Jewish. We learned how the West worked and found ways to participate in it. At the same time, Jewish institutions helped preserve religious practices, cultural traditions, communal bonds, and a sense of collective responsibility.
Assimilation, at its best, does not mean abandoning who you are. It means expanding the world in which you can operate without losing yourself in the process.
There have certainly been trade-offs, including declining religious observance and concerns about continuity. But economically and professionally, the willingness to participate fully in American society while maintaining strong internal community ties has been enormously beneficial.
We learned to be part of the larger society without forgetting that our grandmother would be extremely disappointed if we married someone who had never heard of Shabbat.
Success is also about expectations.
There is another cultural ingredient worth discussing: expectations. In many Jewish families, achievement is not treated as an extraordinary accomplishment. It is treated as the baseline from which parents begin asking why you have not accomplished more.
You became a doctor? Wonderful. Your cousin became a surgeon. You started a business? Mazel tov. Does it make money? You won a Nobel Prize? That’s lovely. Have you met anyone nice?
Behind the humor is a serious point: Children tend to internalize the expectations of the adults and communities around them. When education, professional ambition, financial responsibility, and intellectual curiosity are consistently celebrated, those values become normal rather than exceptional.
Jewish families are obviously not uniform, and plenty of Jewish parents are supportive without being demanding. Still, cultural expectations shape what children imagine is possible and what they believe is required of them.
A child raised in an environment where college is assumed, professional achievement is encouraged, and entrepreneurship is respected receives a different set of signals from a child who rarely encounters those expectations or opportunities. That does not mean the first child is smarter, more deserving, or destined to succeed. It means that culture, resources, role models, and expectations all influence the opportunities people pursue.
And when those advantages accumulate across generations, they become extremely powerful.
The Part Conspiracy Theorists Conveniently Ignore
Jewish achievement has not protected Jews from hatred. In fact, success has frequently become another excuse for it.
When Jews were impoverished, we were portrayed as parasites. When Jews accumulated wealth, we became exploiters. When Jews remained separate, we were accused of refusing to integrate. When Jews assimilated, we were accused of secretly infiltrating society.
Apparently, the one thing Jews cannot do is exist in a way that satisfies people determined to hate us. Rather than asking what successful communities might teach us, they search for reasons to resent them.
The secret is that there is no secret.
The most remarkable thing about Jewish success is how unremarkable its underlying principles actually are. None of it requires being Jewish. Indeed, many of the world’s most successful immigrant and minority communities have embraced similar principles. Their experiences offer valuable lessons about the relationship between culture, opportunity, institutions, and achievement.
That is a much more productive conversation than inventing sinister explanations for why certain groups appear disproportionately represented in particular professions or industries. The question should not be, “How do we stop those people from succeeding?” It should be, “What are they doing that we can learn from?”
Because the supposed Jewish secret to success is not hidden in a Swiss bank vault, guarded by the Mossad, or revealed during a secret ceremony at a synagogue. It is hiding in plain sight.
And for goodness’ sake, call your mother back.
Here's another reason: successful people focus on their own advancement. As opposed to obsessing on why other people are more successful.
Vanessa, Jews control the universe. Why do you underestimate our power?