A Culture of Jewish Achievement^©

The preceding and subsequent chapters demonstrate the stunning levels of Jewish achievement and contribution relative to their small numbers. This one delves into possible reasons behind the phenomenon. It does not presume to provide the definitive explanation. Instead, by identifying likely causes, it intends to stimulate discussion in hopes the ensuing dialogue will yield insights beneficial to us all.

So, why has it happened? What is behind the talent and drive that led to such a disproportionate performance?

Consider . . .

Chance

The notion that Jewish achievements might simply be attributable to good fortune can be dismissed out of hand. While anomalies do occur, it is statistically and logically impossible to conclude the disproportionate achievements of Jews arose from chance. It would be akin to explaining the thousands of years of Diaspora, anti-Semitism, and Holocaust as simply "bad luck." It did not happen that way.

God's Chosen People

The conception of Jews as "God's chosen people" is an explanation some might find plausible. Abraham entered into a "covenant" with God, who promised to protect and revere his people if they obeyed his commandments. "'Now Adonai' (the Lord) said to Avram (Abraham), 'Get . . . out of your country, away from your kinsmen . . . and go to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, I will bless you and . . . make your name great.'",

The covenant with Abraham was reaffirmed in B'resheet (Genesis) 17:2-7, and with Moses in Sh'mot (Exodus) 19:5. "Now if you will . . . keep my covenant, then you will be my own treasure from among all peoples."

Being "chosen" might explain Jewish achievement were it not for the unbelievable hardships Jews have also endured. For 2,534 years until Israel was created in 1948, Jews were forced to live as tiny minorities in widely dispersed enclaves over much of the world. With a few notable, usually brief, exceptions, wherever they lived, they were persecuted.

One further aspect of "chosen" deserves mention. This is the notion of tikkun olam, which is taken to mean chosen by God for the special responsibility of helping "repair a broken world." For some, the obligation of tikkun olam arises from the Jewish response to original sin. For others, it involves a mystical conception of the need to reunite sparks of divine light shattered when God created the world. In either conception, Jews must help heal the world for the benefit of all mankind.

Genes

Might genetics or natural selection help explain disproportionate Jewish achievement? An interesting theory arose some years ago bearing on that question. It noted that in feudal Europe, where most were born to their station for life, the Roman Catholic priesthood was the one meritocracy. There, a person of talent could rise to a position of power in the one institution unsullied by nepotism. The downside was that some of Europe's best and brightest were choosing a career in which their genes would not be passed on.

Jews had a different arrangement. They selected rabbis for their knowledge and intelligence, but generally required them to have a wife and children. Unlike priests, rabbis could multiply, and they did.

Perhaps this "natural selection" made a difference, but celibacy did not exist in the Eastern Orthodox Church, nor in the cultures of Asia or Africa. And, following the Reformation, celibacy had ever less effect on Protestant Europe and North America. Further, some commentators have observed the greatest flowering of Jewish achievement commenced well after the Reformation. Thus, while interesting, the theory is not yet compelling.

Others suggest a different form of natural selection. Namely, over the thousands of years Jews have endured, the weak have been culled while the strong survived. Esther Rantzen, a prominent British (BBC) personality says: "The slow often got wiped out. You always had to be a jump ahead of the pogrom. I am casting no aspersions on those who died, but, if you are persecuted for thousands of years, it is a very tough form of the survival of the fittest." One would be hard pressed to imagine circumstances more challenging and more likely to distill the best from the rest than what Jews have been through. Diaspora, anti-Semitism and the Holocaust were devastating for families and individuals.

Perhaps equally or more important than the early "culling" of Jews (and the temptation to assimilate) was the wisdom of early rabbinical leaders. Aware of the loss of the ten tribes in the first Diaspora and the continuing threats to their widely scattered throng, they had the foresight to think through, write down, and communicate the vital religious tracts, customs, and culture of Judaism to their dispersed brethren. In doing so, they kept Judaism alive and helped avert assimilation. They ensured the survival of their people.

The astonishing fact is that this 4,000-year-old culture, a tiny fraction of the population whereever they settled, survived at all. But they retained their culture, developed the skills, and demonstrated the determination that continues to drive their achievements.

Going a step further, with today's greater scientific understanding of genes and chromosomes, is there evidence pointing to a Jewish genetic predisposition for achievement? The answer is "not really." Apart from distinctive DNA sequences of the Cohanin and perhaps the Levites, there are many different strains of Jewish DNA, some of which are very common among Middle Eastern Arabs including Palestinians, Syrians, Greeks, and other ancient Mediterranean lines., In the words of Dr. Robert Pollack, professor of biological sciences at Columbia University, "There are no DNA sequences common to all (Ashkenazi) Jews and absent from all non-Jews." Jews are genetically close to many other cultures, including those whose accomplishments pale by comparison.

Culture

Random House Dictionary provides two useful definitions for "culture": "5. the behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular social, ethnic or age group. . . . and, 6. Anthropol. The sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another."

In his book The Wealth and Poverty of Nations, Professor David Landes of Harvard defines culture as "inner values and attitudes that guide a population." He says, "If we learn anything from the history of economic development, it is that culture makes all the difference."

Jews are not monolithic. Generally in Judaism, differences in beliefs are not just tolerated, but seen as healthy." Followers of Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Hasidic, Reconstructionist, Kabbalist, and other Jewish denominations disagree, sometimes vehemently, but they have a family of shared views derived over a 4,000-year heritage. Generally, they agree on much more than they disagree about. In the same way that individual American Indian tribes have differences from tribe to tribe but share a common culture, so do "mainstream" Jews.

And while Jews share some values and beliefs with other cultures, they embrace a unique and distinctive combination.

What follows are the author's views on elements of Jewish culture that have contributed to their "need to achieve."

Ethical Monotheism

Jews were the first to believe in a single God. Their conception of ethical monotheism is a unique Jewish contribution to us all. From it came the Old Testament and much of Western civilization. Today, Christianity and Islam encompass half the world's six billion people, but they both began with Judaism.

David S. Ariel, president of Cleveland College of Jewish Studies, says: "There is no one authoritative Jewish conception of God, although all Jewish thinkers agree that God is one and indivisible." . . . "Judaism presents two interconnected sacred myths . . . The first presents God as transcendent . . . . a fearsome God who judges the world . . . The other . . . views God as an accessible personal being. . . . a nurturing and comforting parent . . ."

Whether transcendent or personal, both conceptions imply an absolute connection between ethical behavior and divine action. For Babylonians, Greeks, Romans, and other pagans, the "gods" were capricious, dealing a random, arbitrary fate to humans. As Ariel says, "The moral God of the universe is the fundamental axiom of Jewish belief." Humans' lives are not shaped by unpredictable, mercurial gods, but by their own actions. In Judaism, actions have consequences.

Progress

"In the beginning . . . " These are the first three words in the Bible. They envision a single point (perhaps a "big bang") from which history began. Time is an arrow, not a circle. History does not repeat for Jews as it does for Hindus. Buddhist and Eastern passivity is transcended. Islam ("submission") and Inshah Allah ("God willing") involve theistic determinism most Jews reject. As Paul Johnson wrote in his classic, A History of the Jews, "No people has ever insisted more firmly than the Jews that history has a purpose and humanity a destiny." Jews believe in a future different from, and better than, the past, and that God has given them a role in shaping that future.

Choice, Action, and Accountability

Belief and action are cherished in Jewish culture, but belief does not trump action. Admission to heaven is not based on faith as in some religions. Choice and action are what counts. In the words of the ancient rabbis, "Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given." God creates options, but does not direct responses. From this flows freedom and accountability, a linkage that both ennobles and inspires as it mitigates victimhood. Almost no culture has more basis for feeling persecuted - and Jews do not forget their tortured history - but they rarely demonstrate the propensity of some cultures to see themselves as victims. They take responsibility for themselves.

Rationality, Modernism, and Verges

Though some Jewish denominations are traditional, even backward-looking, mainstream Judaism, particularly since the Jewish Emancipation, has been pragmatic and forward-looking. "What works?" "What makes sense?" "How can this problem be solved?" As Johnson said in A History of the Jews, "The Jews were the first rationalizers in world history. This . . . was to turn Jews into problem solving businessmen." "Above all, the Jews taught us how to rationalize the unknown." Great Jewish thinkers from the Middle Ages to the age of Jewish Enlightenment, Maimonides, Spinoza, and Mendelssohn, were all rationalists.

A small example. Jews rationalized charging interest for loans among themselves (usury) long before Christians did. Islam still struggles with the issue. Thus, Jews could practice finance while others could not. Dispersed from Argentina to India and North America to China, they had networks of family and "landsmen" around the world they could work with and trust. This was a huge advantage in international trade.

Throughout the Diaspora, Jews lived on what former Pulitzer Prize winning historian Daniel Boorstin called "verges." He attributed much American creativity and success to the country's being a place where different cultures, technologies, and political views encountered one another. Each experienced interactions impossible in their own insular worlds. Those encounters challenged their thinking, and therein stimulated change and growth. "In ancient, more settled nations, uniformity was idealized. . . . The American situation was different. The creativity, the hope of the nation was in its verges."

No culture has experienced more verges than Jews. They traversed the world. Thomas Sowell's book, Migrations and Cultures, speaks of Jews during Spain's Golden Age "standing at the crossroads of two great civilizations (The Moorish Islamic and Spanish Catholic Worlds), Jews were peculiarly well situated to deal in the ideas and cultures of both the Islamic and Christian worlds, . . . to advance themselves culturally and materially. . . . They received knowledge from different directions (which) . . . stimulated their own thinking and development of . . . Jewish culture. . . . Maimonides, was a product of such cultural crosscurrents."

Jews processed new ideas by integrating dissimilar facts and cultures and developing new insights that added to their collective knowledge and capabilities.

Tolerance for Competing Views

As the title of a collection of Jewish quotations says, Two Jews, Three Opinions. In his book What Is a Jew, Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer notes, "The most distinctive feature of the Jewish religion has been its hospitality to differences. In all of Jewish law will be found both an austere interpretation and a liberal one - and the rabbis have ruled 'both opinions are the word of the living God.'" Hillel the Elder (70 BC to 10 BC) and his contemporary Shammai (50 BC to AD 10) disagreed strongly about Judaism. And, though many prefer Hillel's views, Shammai's are also accepted as correct.

A further aspect of this phenomenon deserves comment. This is the frequent role of Jews as leaders on different, often opposing, sides of major issues. Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson was a leading Keynesian when he wrote his classic college textbook Economics. It was fellow Jew Milton Friedman, also a Nobel Laureate, who became the foremost economist to discredit much of the Keynesian dogma. Paul Ehrlich made his reputation forecasting a dismal Malthusian future as the world became overwhelmed by its burgeoning population. Ehrlich lost his famous $1,000 bet in a ten-year test of his hypothesis to economist and fellow Jew Julian Simon, whose outlook was decidedly more optimistic. Marx and Trotsky were among prominent Jews to theorize and devote their lives to Communism. Yet among their fellow Jews are some of the most successful capitalist entrepreneurs of all time. Noam Chomsky is a shrill critic of nearly everything done by the Israeli government. Two of his constant adversaries are Alan Dershowitz and David Horowitz. At The New York Times, Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman are strident critics of President George W. Bush. William Safire and David Brooks have countered their arguments, presenting their own strong case for a more conservative view. J. Robert Oppenheimer ultimately opposed nuclear weapons, while his former colleague, Edward Teller developed the hydrogen bomb and supported the Star Wars missile defense program. Herbert Marcuse, I.F. Stone, Noam Chomsky, and many fellow Jews strongly criticized the United States, often defending socialism, while Norman Podhoretz, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Charles Krauthammer and other "neo-conservatives" defended America and argued for a more muscular approach to the threats facing our country.

Such contrasts could fill a book. In the end, they demolish simple-minded anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews as monolithic, single-issue advocates of one dogma or another. On the contrary, what seems to engage them is an energetic involvement in all sides of most issues.

Assertiveness and Verbal Skills

Abraham challenged God. God said he would destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for their wickedness. Abraham responded: "Will you actually sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Maybe there are fifty righteous people in the city . . . Shouldn't the judge of all the earth do what is just?'" Heresy in most religions, such "chutzpah" began with the first Jew.

For most Jews, standing up and speaking out is valued. To see a wrong and not work to change it is irresponsible. Jews have a sense of duty and confidence about sticking up for their beliefs.

Such assertiveness is complemented by the premium placed on verbal skills and verbal self-confidence. One must be capable of thinking and reaching conclusions, and that skill must be coupled with a willingness to air those views, have them challenged, and challenge others in return. Yeshivas and Talmudic education stress thought and debate. Such skills were thought, by some classmates, to confer an unfair advantage on Scott Thurow when he was a student at Harvard Law School.

Bar mitzvahs and bat mitzvahs transition boys and girls from childhood to adulthood. In both, the thirteen-year-old must stand before family and friends to publicly assert, "Today, I am a man" or "woman."

Speaking out and speaking well is important in Jewish culture. And in the significant numbers of Jews who practice in major law firms, hold political office, work in journalism, literature, the media, and entertainment, we see those skills manifested every day.

Education

By the time Mohammad called Jews "The People of the Book." "the Books" in question already included all 39 books of the Hebrew Bible, plus the "Oral Law," written into the Talmud and Midrash. Especially after the Romans killed hundreds of thousands of Jews and dispersed the rest into small scattered enclaves round the world, the need to write it down and the ability to read and understand this trove was fundamental to keeping the religion and culture of Judaism alive.

Jews believe in an absolute duty to educate and be educated. Maimonides, the twelfth-century Jewish philosopher, said, "Appoint teachers for the children in every country, province and city. In any city that does not have a school, excommunicate the people . . . until they get teachers for the children."

Though circumstances made education difficult in Eastern Europe in the 1700s and 1800s, the relatively illiterate Jewish population craved education. Thomas Sowell's book Ethnic America notes that roughly half the Eastern European Jews were illiterate when they arrived in the United States. Once here, however, they "seized upon free schools, libraries and settlement houses in America with a tenacity . . . seldom approached by others. They not only crowded into public schools, but adult night schools as well (after long days of work). . . . And still, the Jewish daily newspaper, Forward, castigated them for not doing enough."

Though destitute and testing poorly on IQ tests when they arrived from Eastern Europe, "Jews rose to have not only higher incomes than other Americans, but also more education and higher IQs. By the mid twentieth century, more than one-fourth of Jewish males had four or more years of college, less than 10 percent of the U.S. population . . . had that much education." "As of 1990, most Jews over age 25 had at least completed college, with about half having gone to graduate study. By contrast, only 12 percent of the corresponding . . . (U.S.) white population completed college. Further, Jews not only have more education, but better education - from higher quality colleges in more demanding and remunerative fields such as law, medicine and science."

The same happened wherever Jews had the opportunity. In Australia, "Among young people between the ages of 16 and 22, nearly three-quarters of the Jews were full time students, compared to about 20 percent of . . . the general population." In Argentina, "While Jews were only about one percent of the . . . population in 1980, they were 20 percent of the university student body." And in early twentieth-century Germany, "One fourth of all law students and medical students . . . were Jews, though Jews were only one percent of the population."

Family

Marriage and family have long been indispensable in Jewish life. A man without a wife was seen to be "without joy, without blessing, and without good." In Ethnic America, Sowell said, "Jews are more likely to marry . . . than others and less likely to divorce." Jewish fathers were also less likely to desert their families. Fathers have a duty to support their children, educate them and teach them a trade, and children have a duty to honor their parents. Scores of Jewish family rites link religious duties to love of home. These traditions strengthen both home and religion. Family support was critical in an environment where discrimination reinforced the need to take care of one's own.

Jewish families also inculcated a drive to succeed into their young. Both "Italians and Jews," notes Sowell, "have had highly stable families, but the values of the Jewish family drive the individual toward upward mobility."

In many Jewish families, the day-to-day job of raising kids, instilling values, and encouraging academic performance has been the job of a loving - even demanding - Jewish mother. In a recent biography, Sherwin Nuland, author of How We Die, reflected on how vitally important his mother was. He perceived that she lived only for him. Even Meyer Lansky found his mother critically important in his life. She was the one person he did not want to disappoint.

Skills, Autonomy, and Independence

Diaspora Jews were rarely farmers or landlords, and they were unwelcome in many established trades and industries controlled by locals. Still, they had to survive. If they were to provide for their families in a hostile world, skills were vital, even doubly important for Jews since those who dislike you will pay for your services if what you do is valuable, you do it very well, and they have no better choices.

Historically, Jews shied away from large organizations. Anti-Semitism made it unwise to trust the goodwill of others, or serve an institution where a change in sentiment could put one at risk. Better to control your own destiny and succeed or fail based on your own performance.

The major paths open to Jews were the professions (such as doctor, lawyer, scientist, or entertainer) and working as merchants, financiers, and entrepreneurs. In each such field, skills are distinguishable and excellence is valued. Professions typically allow one to function outside large organizations and to relocate if threats arise. Merchant and middleman skills were viewed as "beneath" most locals, while finance and lending were needed, but prohibited by some religions. Jewelry and precious metals had the further advantage of being quite compact in relation to their value. They could be moved quickly and quietly if circumstances warranted.

Jews created new industries where there were no established barriers. Their European legacy in the clothing industry had no peer in early nineteenth-century America where they created the "ready-to-wear" industry from scratch. The feature-motion-picture business never existed before they started or shaped every major studio except United Artists. More recently, they have created a huge number of new high-tech companies. When banks and law firms were already staffed by old-line, white-shoe Gentiles, Jews started their own firms - and later started their own country clubs as well, when they found doors closed to them.

Even the religion embodies autonomy. There is no pope, Christ or priest serving as a religious intervenor between the individual Jew and God, and each synagogue selects its own rabbi.

Hard Work, Tenacity, and Excellence

Jews rarely had family wealth to fall back on. Parents had to instill awareness that life was serious, play was not a priority, and tenacity mattered. Hard work and determination would complement superior skills. As Paul Johnson noted, "The Jews are the most tenacious people in history." Tenacity and superior talent made you valuable and discrimination costly.

Excellence provided a sense of achievement. Financially rewarding, it was also a ticket to respect. But more, it was psychological compensation for the world's false view that you might be unworthy. In any meritocracy, Jews excelled.

Willingness to Be Different

Judaism began with Abraham's willingness to be different. In the covenant, ". . . the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee." It was an astonishing thing for a person to do 4,000 years ago. Abraham packed up and left virtually everything he knew. He had confidence in God and in himself, enough to leave his home and go where God directed him.

Later, Moses defied the comfort and security of the pharaoh's household to champion slaves and lead them from Egypt. Most prophets defied conventionality. Jesus and Paul demonstrated remarkable tenacity at standing apart, dedicated to their beliefs despite the humiliation and risks involved.

From inception, Jews have followed seemingly strange religious practices. They dressed and ate differently, spoke their own languages, kept to themselves, performed work no one else was willing to do, and generally refused to assimilate. They may not have wished to be different, but for 4,000 years they have been.

Being perceived as "different" can be as liberating as it is uncomfortable. While the comfort of being in tune with the larger society may be absent, being different conditions Jews to stand apart and to live by their wits. They may as well "get over it," since conforming is impossible. Being viewed as an outsider only spurs a compulsion to demonstrate superiority, thereby overcoming negative stereotypes through superior performance.

In 1905, when Einstein proposed that the speed of light is constant, and because of that, both time and motion are relative (to the observer), the concept was so revolutionary, so remarkably different from conventional wisdom, that years passed before his notions were accepted. E = mc² was equally revolutionary and hard to comprehend in the Isaac Newton paradigm of the times. Indeed, though Einstein developed four papers in 1905 and completed his general theory of relativity by 1916, it wasn't until 1922 that he received a Nobel Prize, and that was principally for his work on the photoelectric effect. Indeed, virtually every Nobel is an award for being different, for having thought through a problem in a new way that yields dazzling new insights. Jews have won 163 of 750 Nobels awarded to individual through 2004.

Money

Jewish culture comes in for a good deal of both respect and derision when the subject is money. While a Scot may be kidded about being frugal in a charming sort of way, Jews come in for a rather more broad-brush, often pejorative, treatment. To some, Jews are miserly or hoarding. Others see them as ostentatious. Still others see them using money as an instrument of control. Envy and anti-Semitic stereotypes come into play.

In a meritocracy, however, money is the reward for success, the scorecard of achievement, a proxy for status, and an insurance policy for survival. It goes to those with talent who work hard to earn it. It also provides the means to survive if, as in the 1930s, there is risk to you and your family. Threatened for as long as Jews have been, they may need wealth as insurance. Money helps compensate for discrimination. You can do business on a mutually beneficial basis with those who dislike you if you have something they want and the means to say no.

Finally, money is the tool for providing charity. Many Jews feel a special duty to help those in need. Wealth provides the means to fulfill that responsibility and they do.

In the end, money is important in Jewish culture in ways less true for other cultures.

Moderation in Diet and Drink

Traditional Jewish culture follows kosher dietary practices arising from Biblical injunctions about what Jews should eat and drink and how food should be prepared and served. All vegetables are kosher. Pork is prohibited, as are certain kinds of seafood. Blood must be removed, and dairy products must not be served with meats. Because they are creatures of God, animals must be killed in a humane fashion. Their death should not be taken lightly.

For many non-Jews, some kosher practices seem strange. Presumably, even if there were safety concerns about eating pork and shellfish 2,000 years ago, those concerns are no longer justified.

Orthodox Jews would respond that today's safer food is irrelevant. The Torah calls for kosher. Kosher "disciplines Jews towards holiness" in satisfying a basic need: food. It cultivates respect for the distinctive requirements of being Jewish, and once more we are drawn back to the covenant. God requires it, and being Jewish means being different.

Many have observed that most Jews enjoy wine and some alcohol, but they avoid excess. Recent research suggests there may be a genetic basis for that restraint. Drinking only in moderation is also both healthy and a survival skill. In his book Ethnic America, Thomas Sowell notes, "Like the Italians, Jews served wine with meals but seldom became drunkards. Drunkenness, boisterousness or recklessness induced by drink could easily have become fatal in the precarious situation of most European Jews." He goes further in Migrations and Culture, noting," . . . the unusually low rates of alcoholism . . . found in studies of Jews in Poland, Canada, Prussia, Australia, and the United States."

Justice and Charity

In 1987, Thomas Sowell wrote a remarkable book titled Conflict of Visions. In it he posited the notion of two prevailing social or political visions. Both want the best for everyone but differ sharply in their view of how the world works and how best to effect change. The "unconstrained view" sees a world where people can intervene directly to bring about desired social goals. This view believes results can be directly prescribed. If you see an injustice, you can and should intervene to make things better.

The "constrained view" sees a nuanced world complex beyond comprehension. It shares the unconstrained view's value for what is being sought, but sees most interventions as counterproductive, yielding unintended consequences that typically make things worse rather than better.

For those in the constrained camp, the unconstrained view is well-meaning, but flawed and elitist. It attempts to manipulate levers that don't work the way they are thought to work. For them, the world is both more complex and often self-corrective (Adam Smith's "invisible hand," the body's natural healing process, etc.). Intervention, if drawn upon at all, should complement the natural order rather than challenge it.

For the unconstrained, the constrained view is uncaring and aloof, ignorant of what can be achieved and, in not intervening, irresponsible in abdicating responsibility. While the analogy may do a grave disservice to Sowell, the unconstrained would find and give fish to the poor because they are starving; the constrained would help them make a fishing rod.

Perhaps arising from the long history of anti-Semitism, Jewish culture strongly identifies with the underdog. Many Jews believe they have a duty to care for, and demand justice for, others as much as for themselves. And in tikkun olam, they were "chosen" to take action. The world and injustice will not heal themselves.

Jews are remarkably generous. As noted earlier, only 2 percent of the U.S. population, they were 19 (38 percent) of Business Week's 2004 list of the 50 most generous philanthropists. They donated almost $10 billion over less than five years to mostly secular causes. Since "Temple times," the kuppah, or collection box, has been the community welfare box to which Jews were obligated to donate. Many Jews think of charity as an item to budget, just as they would the mortgage payment. It is an obligation, not an afterthought. One reason for accumulating great wealth is to help those in need.

In short, one sees in the activist liberal orientation of many Jews the consequence of long-standing cultural values akin to Sowell's "unconstrained view." By intervening, they established trade unions, helped get blacks the right to vote, cured polio, created birth control pills, split the atom, created Israel and thousands of other interventions that benefit us all. They act.

 

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In the end, luck had nothing to do with Jewish achievement. A self-perception of being "chosen" may have contributed, as may natural selection or some other not yet understood aspect of genetic predisposition. More likely, however, it is the unique, remarkable, and ever-evolving 4,000-year-old Judaic culture that has driven, and continues to drive, the performance.