Answers to Questions by Yair Davidiy
Query:
How are Jews so smart, and how did they make Israel so developed and powerful?
https://www.quora.com/How-are-Jews-so-smart-and-how-did-they-make-Israel-so-developed-and-powerful/answer/Yair-Davidiy
As an Indian we comprise of more than 1.33 billion but still we deep in troubles and we still are thriving to move out from developing nation to develop nation. How did you cope up in such harsh neighborhood and still became develop nation while we are fighting to do so.
Answer by Yair:
Tests show that Scandinavian Kindergarten children are possibly a little more gifted than comparable Ashkenazi Jewish ones.
The Scandinavians grow up to produce nice socialist societies with high suicide rates, good engineers, quality furniture, and an elevated level of mediocrity.
There are exceptions: For instance,
Norman Ernest Borlaug was instrumental in forwarding the Green Revolution which has kept much of the world population alive.
He was an American of Scandinavian origin.
The Scandinavians do produce exceptional achievers and under pressure they can do a lot. On an every-day basis however such is not the case.
The Jews do more.
For example, see:
Jewish Accomplishments by Lisa KatzÂ
https://www.thoughtco.com/impres...
Between 1901 and 2015, 194 Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews, accounting for 22 percent of all Nobels awarded.
The list could be complemented by adding recent Israeli inventions giving us vital components now found in nearly every computer, telephone, and all related apparatus in existence.
Most medicines contain an Israeli contribution.
See Also:
Breathtaking stats from a recent NY Times piece by David Brooks:
https://danielmiessler.com/blog/...
Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.
A lot of information is available on these matters.
We should not have to repeat them.
Where does all this come from?
From the Bible.
Deuteronomy (NASB) 4:
5 See, I have taught you statutes and judgments just as the LORD my God commanded me, that you should do thus in the land where you are entering to possess it.
6 So keep and do them, for that is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.
7 For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as is the LORD our God whenever we call on Him?
8 Or what great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law which I am setting before you today?
Rabbinical Torah learning encourages learning for its own sake, makes it enjoyable, elevates the status of those who learn, encourages learning from infancy, in at least two languages (Hebrew and Aramaic), as well in some cases as Yiddish and English.
It trains the memory, teaches to compute in numbers and images, to use abstract logic, to challenge every assumption, to dissect and reformulate, and to do all this with exhilaration, and stamina for long uninterrupted sessions.
There is a direct connection between Torah learning and Jewish achievement.
In every generation a good portion of the Jews stray from the pathway. They have been doing this for centuries.
Nevertheless, relatively few Jewish achievers are more than three generation off the track.
Even today, the IDF invests a lot in retraining Torah students for its specialized computer programming. There are aspects of deductive reasoning for which they have an aptitude.
With all of the above the wonder is not how much the Jews have achieved but why they have not done much more.