One fringe benefit of being a International Humanitarian Physician who is an Anthropologist and is Jewish, is that the Jewish aspect is stressed a lot in countries where the inhabitants have only vague knowledge or lukewarm feelings towards Jews and Israel or downright anti semitic.
One of the first questions, invariably, is, Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes?
For a group of people who comprise 0.2 per cent of the world's population, it is an impressive achievement to win nearly 20 per cent or more of all Nobel Prizes! the Jewish population of the world stands at best at 15 million whereas the population of the planet is approaching 7.5 Billion!
This year, one of the Nobel Prize winners in Physics was not only Jewish but also the oldest to win Nobel Prize at 96 years of age!
While many of our enemies accuse us of being controllers of the economies and conspiring businessmen, the fields Jews excel in the Nobel Prize arena is Medicine, Physics and Chemistry!
here is an quote from an Israeli newspaper in the year when 6 out of 8 Nobel Prize winners were Jewish, one of them Israeli.
The real explanation of Jewish success in science lies elsewhere. The 20th century began with massive migrations of Jews, to the United States, to the cities of Russia (and then the Soviet Union), and to Palestine. In each of these new lands, Jews turned to science in great numbers because it promised a way to transcend the old world orders that had for so long excluded most Jews from power, wealth and society. Science, based as it is on values of universality, impartiality and meritocracy, appealed powerfully for Jews seeking to succeed in their new homes. It is not so much what Jews were (smart, bookish) that explains their success in science, as what we wanted to be (equal, accepted, esteemed), and in what sorts of places we wanted to live (liberal and meritocratic societies).
So when I was interviewed for a radio programme in Malaysia by my good friend, Arlene T, her first question was: Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes.
Certainly it is not due to the fact that Jews are smarter than other people, there are very clever people in all parts of the world, but may be we are a just a bit more curious about the world. I am still very curious about what is happening anywhere and everywhere, my father used to be glued to the radio learning about what is happening in places that he would never visit. On a recent visit to Israel, at the dinner table where there were 6 children/adolescents aged between 7-14 years I was amazed at the depth of their knowledge, curiosity about the world and interest in knowing things for the sake of knowing things. You cannot but be impressed when the 7 year old talks about microbiome or the life stories of famous women (In Hebrew there are so many books written about Famous people for children to read and follow)
• Of all authors and writers, only 35% are women. According to population groups, 48% of the prose writers and children's literature in the Haredi community are women, compared to 40% of women in the general public.
One of the first questions, invariably, is, Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes?
For a group of people who comprise 0.2 per cent of the world's population, it is an impressive achievement to win nearly 20 per cent or more of all Nobel Prizes! the Jewish population of the world stands at best at 15 million whereas the population of the planet is approaching 7.5 Billion!
This year, one of the Nobel Prize winners in Physics was not only Jewish but also the oldest to win Nobel Prize at 96 years of age!
While many of our enemies accuse us of being controllers of the economies and conspiring businessmen, the fields Jews excel in the Nobel Prize arena is Medicine, Physics and Chemistry!
here is an quote from an Israeli newspaper in the year when 6 out of 8 Nobel Prize winners were Jewish, one of them Israeli.
The real explanation of Jewish success in science lies elsewhere. The 20th century began with massive migrations of Jews, to the United States, to the cities of Russia (and then the Soviet Union), and to Palestine. In each of these new lands, Jews turned to science in great numbers because it promised a way to transcend the old world orders that had for so long excluded most Jews from power, wealth and society. Science, based as it is on values of universality, impartiality and meritocracy, appealed powerfully for Jews seeking to succeed in their new homes. It is not so much what Jews were (smart, bookish) that explains their success in science, as what we wanted to be (equal, accepted, esteemed), and in what sorts of places we wanted to live (liberal and meritocratic societies).
So when I was interviewed for a radio programme in Malaysia by my good friend, Arlene T, her first question was: Why do Jews win so many Nobel Prizes.
Certainly it is not due to the fact that Jews are smarter than other people, there are very clever people in all parts of the world, but may be we are a just a bit more curious about the world. I am still very curious about what is happening anywhere and everywhere, my father used to be glued to the radio learning about what is happening in places that he would never visit. On a recent visit to Israel, at the dinner table where there were 6 children/adolescents aged between 7-14 years I was amazed at the depth of their knowledge, curiosity about the world and interest in knowing things for the sake of knowing things. You cannot but be impressed when the 7 year old talks about microbiome or the life stories of famous women (In Hebrew there are so many books written about Famous people for children to read and follow)
Some interesting data points
• According to the National Library's estimate, about 7300 books were published in print in 2016. Of them, 89% were published in Hebrew and approximately 3% were published in Arabic. (close to 9000 in the recent survey)
• Of all authors and writers, only 35% are women. According to population groups, 48% of the prose writers and children's literature in the Haredi community are women, compared to 40% of women in the general public.
It is interesting to note that Israel publishes nearly as many books as Egypt which has a population 15 times as many. Iran publishes more books than Egypt but it has ten times the population of Israel, and like all the other Jews, I respect the Iranian population for its education (especially of the women comprise 52 % of the university graduates)
Curiosity about Knowledge and other people, which brings with it a tolerance and cooperation, a healthy scepticism about rules and regulations including the religious ones.
It is interesting also to note that of all the religions, the Jews are the least observant religious people. While we are proud of being Jewish, only a small percentage of us are actually religious.
So there is no good answer why Jews win so many nobel prizes 10,000 % their share in the world population !
from wiki:
As of 2017, Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 892 individuals, of whom 201 or 22.5% were Jews, although the total Jewish population comprises less than 0.2% of the world's population. This means the percentage of Jewish Nobel laureates is at least 112.5 times or 11,250% above average.
