A good essay with so many valid thoughts. I'd add that the core reason is even simpler. God's promise to Abram (Gen 12:2,3) was to bless him and make him a blessing and bless all people through him. That promise was unconditional and timeless.
An excellent piece thanks, and on a topic I have long mused over. You made many valid arguments for the statistically (almost) impossible ratio of Jewish Nobel Prize Winners. I have also pulled up lists of (for example) Muslim scholars, and the list is somewhat (!!) shorter. I have not crunched the numbers, but wonder if the scientific disciplines are even more highly stacked for Jews?
My thoughts? Well, not my own tbh, but the late genius Prof Stanley Jaki made an excellent case for the development of modern science and its absolute dependency on a 'correct' worldview. Something I investigated further during my theology degrees. One's worldview determines so much. And we certainly have the Jews to thank for 'desacralising' the world and sharing with Christianity a world which was created, stands 'independently' and obeys (at our normal level of existence anyway) a set of consistent and discernable rules. Within such a world, science can thrive. And did. Jews likely found refuge in universities, once upon a time caring and open to free thinking establishments (sadly no longer it seems...) and when you add in all your other valid factors, suddenly mankind is blessed with all kinds of advances that have given us the amazing quality of life we take for granted today.
So thank you Israel, thank you God for an intelligible universe, and thanks to all those brilliant Jews (& Christians!) whose faith underpinned their scientific endeavour. For science and theology are not just compatible, but the latter has to be right to enable the former.
Thank you so much for your interesting article. Us, Jews, do have an inquisitive mind (even if didn't attend the Yeshiva to study the Talmud ) Also many European Jews inmigrated to South America
I was born programmed to help others. My parents cultivated the propensity. A certain amount of serendipity allowed me to exercise my potential. In other words I was blessed.
You definitely touch on this, but I have to dwell for a moment on the DESIRE to be productive, to excel if possible, and the supportive community and network that enables that. No time for a pity party, as some mother groups tend to focus on. Jews have a certain 'get on with it-ness" to coin a terribly cumbersome phrase. But I think it's really important.
Not much of a story to tell. Many Jews in Western Europe provided useful services to fledgling states as merchants, money lenders, tax officials, doctors, scribes and more. Indeed they were forbidden from agriculture and most trades. All numerate and literate roles which explains a generally higher level of education and more Nobels later. In Eastern Europe by contrast, Jews lived in countryside shtetls, living much poorer and less educated lives like most Christians. Hence fewer Nobels.
As an interesting side note, the Japanese had a similar phenomenon because they prized agriculture over trade for Confucian reasons. Fast forward to the Modern era and many samurai are deep in debt to ex-peasants because they clung to their land rather than go into profitable industries.
Thank you. Below is a self-indulgent monologue. Albeit, one stimulated directly from your essay and my coffee. I clicked 'Like". Even though I like the subject and your paragraph-ical tidiness... as a chevrusa(?) (study partner) my feeling was that nearly every tidy paragraph felt like a paradoxical coverup for what you 'really' think. What you really think does eek and leak out at least every few paragraphs. It's as if you are a Doubting Thomas who is seeking something other than doubt. Those are I my words, thoughts, feelings, knee-jerk reactions which can all be summed up as suspicion. Us Jewish folks have decades of attempting to soften suspicion that we may act or seem 'too Jewish' even amongst Jewish people. I am now taking my pointing finger and if it wasn't obvious in my accusatory first lines... I adhere to the adage that if I point one finger at others then three fingers are at the same time pointing at me. I'm lost on a meandering deadline lacking 'research' process as a retiree. I started off wondering about the general theme(s) of your essay. Starting with the proverbial 'Why are there so many Jewish people who are....' and one can add in so many fields including Nobel winners (and maybe runner ups??). I DID and DO ... REALLY like your short list of general attributes of Success in any field. My fields are all within the performing arts. So my research began with one of those cloistered fields. But in the process I found a lot more evidence in the secondary successes rather than the most famous or top prize winners. The second tier is much more remarkable. That is normal industry success rather than winning the big kahunas. In fact I found or figured or estimated that Jewish people are phenomenal at helping others to succeed. For example we all know or think we know how the Jews created Hollywood. They didn't. Well, they certainly did not do it alone or only with Jewish colleagues. In the Silent Comedies the kings of such comedy were Mack Sennett (who first hired Chaplin from stage work to try out screen work) and Hal Roach. But... the first four films Chaplin acted in were Directed by Henry Lehrman. As with MANY of that era as mentioned in wikip. Lehrman was "born of Jewish parentage". That has evolved via wikip. to be the politically correct way to mention that someone is Jewish. Jewish can mean 1000 different variations so "of Jewish parentage" is understandable though I don't really accept that with any generosity. It's a type of jihad we could call Jew-had i.e. ways that Jewish people themselves try to wipe the slate clean. Most likely them thar 'born of Jewish parentage' Nobel winners would be Devotees of what I named as "Denialism - the new religion (sic)" in 2012. So assuredly as you point out with the mini list of attributes of Success which one can speak of openly and generously, the unspoken is that there is likely 'something suspiciously' dominant as a positive attribute for success in any field from running a junk yard to collecting "remnants" around Hester Street, Lower East Side NYC. "Remnants..." is the working title of my 'research' and possible book. Little did I know how often 'remnants' is mentioned in our morning schachrit service. Bottom lines are: A) our remnants are as potent as our provable genes, DNA, or basics of success adhered to by many Ethnic immigrant groups; and, or B) our Sources meaning Torah, Tanach, Talmud, Zohar, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld so to speak. My bias is that our Sources somehow are the remnants within every Jewish person. Madness? Why not. We do live in a world gone quite mad yet some remarkable things are appearing as if pushed upward from flooded mud that is now drying.
What a wonderful essay with so many aspects of it I haven't thought about. I always appreciate and look forward to your essays.
Jews win so many Nobel Prizes because we are awesome. That's it. Mic drop.
A good essay with so many valid thoughts. I'd add that the core reason is even simpler. God's promise to Abram (Gen 12:2,3) was to bless him and make him a blessing and bless all people through him. That promise was unconditional and timeless.
An excellent piece thanks, and on a topic I have long mused over. You made many valid arguments for the statistically (almost) impossible ratio of Jewish Nobel Prize Winners. I have also pulled up lists of (for example) Muslim scholars, and the list is somewhat (!!) shorter. I have not crunched the numbers, but wonder if the scientific disciplines are even more highly stacked for Jews?
My thoughts? Well, not my own tbh, but the late genius Prof Stanley Jaki made an excellent case for the development of modern science and its absolute dependency on a 'correct' worldview. Something I investigated further during my theology degrees. One's worldview determines so much. And we certainly have the Jews to thank for 'desacralising' the world and sharing with Christianity a world which was created, stands 'independently' and obeys (at our normal level of existence anyway) a set of consistent and discernable rules. Within such a world, science can thrive. And did. Jews likely found refuge in universities, once upon a time caring and open to free thinking establishments (sadly no longer it seems...) and when you add in all your other valid factors, suddenly mankind is blessed with all kinds of advances that have given us the amazing quality of life we take for granted today.
So thank you Israel, thank you God for an intelligible universe, and thanks to all those brilliant Jews (& Christians!) whose faith underpinned their scientific endeavour. For science and theology are not just compatible, but the latter has to be right to enable the former.
Again, thanks for a great article.
Thank you so much for your interesting article. Us, Jews, do have an inquisitive mind (even if didn't attend the Yeshiva to study the Talmud ) Also many European Jews inmigrated to South America
400 years of selective breeding by the Egyptians will do that, eh? Hahaha...
I was born programmed to help others. My parents cultivated the propensity. A certain amount of serendipity allowed me to exercise my potential. In other words I was blessed.
Thanks for the thought provoking essay.
You definitely touch on this, but I have to dwell for a moment on the DESIRE to be productive, to excel if possible, and the supportive community and network that enables that. No time for a pity party, as some mother groups tend to focus on. Jews have a certain 'get on with it-ness" to coin a terribly cumbersome phrase. But I think it's really important.
See also https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/contra-smith-on-jewish-selective
https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/05/29/four-nobel-truths/
etc etc
It’s genetics
LKY was right, it's genetics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GexZF5VIMU
Not much of a story to tell. Many Jews in Western Europe provided useful services to fledgling states as merchants, money lenders, tax officials, doctors, scribes and more. Indeed they were forbidden from agriculture and most trades. All numerate and literate roles which explains a generally higher level of education and more Nobels later. In Eastern Europe by contrast, Jews lived in countryside shtetls, living much poorer and less educated lives like most Christians. Hence fewer Nobels.
As an interesting side note, the Japanese had a similar phenomenon because they prized agriculture over trade for Confucian reasons. Fast forward to the Modern era and many samurai are deep in debt to ex-peasants because they clung to their land rather than go into profitable industries.
Thank you. Below is a self-indulgent monologue. Albeit, one stimulated directly from your essay and my coffee. I clicked 'Like". Even though I like the subject and your paragraph-ical tidiness... as a chevrusa(?) (study partner) my feeling was that nearly every tidy paragraph felt like a paradoxical coverup for what you 'really' think. What you really think does eek and leak out at least every few paragraphs. It's as if you are a Doubting Thomas who is seeking something other than doubt. Those are I my words, thoughts, feelings, knee-jerk reactions which can all be summed up as suspicion. Us Jewish folks have decades of attempting to soften suspicion that we may act or seem 'too Jewish' even amongst Jewish people. I am now taking my pointing finger and if it wasn't obvious in my accusatory first lines... I adhere to the adage that if I point one finger at others then three fingers are at the same time pointing at me. I'm lost on a meandering deadline lacking 'research' process as a retiree. I started off wondering about the general theme(s) of your essay. Starting with the proverbial 'Why are there so many Jewish people who are....' and one can add in so many fields including Nobel winners (and maybe runner ups??). I DID and DO ... REALLY like your short list of general attributes of Success in any field. My fields are all within the performing arts. So my research began with one of those cloistered fields. But in the process I found a lot more evidence in the secondary successes rather than the most famous or top prize winners. The second tier is much more remarkable. That is normal industry success rather than winning the big kahunas. In fact I found or figured or estimated that Jewish people are phenomenal at helping others to succeed. For example we all know or think we know how the Jews created Hollywood. They didn't. Well, they certainly did not do it alone or only with Jewish colleagues. In the Silent Comedies the kings of such comedy were Mack Sennett (who first hired Chaplin from stage work to try out screen work) and Hal Roach. But... the first four films Chaplin acted in were Directed by Henry Lehrman. As with MANY of that era as mentioned in wikip. Lehrman was "born of Jewish parentage". That has evolved via wikip. to be the politically correct way to mention that someone is Jewish. Jewish can mean 1000 different variations so "of Jewish parentage" is understandable though I don't really accept that with any generosity. It's a type of jihad we could call Jew-had i.e. ways that Jewish people themselves try to wipe the slate clean. Most likely them thar 'born of Jewish parentage' Nobel winners would be Devotees of what I named as "Denialism - the new religion (sic)" in 2012. So assuredly as you point out with the mini list of attributes of Success which one can speak of openly and generously, the unspoken is that there is likely 'something suspiciously' dominant as a positive attribute for success in any field from running a junk yard to collecting "remnants" around Hester Street, Lower East Side NYC. "Remnants..." is the working title of my 'research' and possible book. Little did I know how often 'remnants' is mentioned in our morning schachrit service. Bottom lines are: A) our remnants are as potent as our provable genes, DNA, or basics of success adhered to by many Ethnic immigrant groups; and, or B) our Sources meaning Torah, Tanach, Talmud, Zohar, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld so to speak. My bias is that our Sources somehow are the remnants within every Jewish person. Madness? Why not. We do live in a world gone quite mad yet some remarkable things are appearing as if pushed upward from flooded mud that is now drying.
Fascinating article!
What an enjoyable exploration. Thank you for this article.