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Why are Jewish people normally so successful?

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22% of American Jews are agnostic or atheist. If you include reformed Judaism who believe in God (of the Tanakh) but aren't too observant or practicing, what you might call the Jewish equivalent of the "lapsed Catholic", it goes to well over 1/3.

One reason Jews are overrepresented in professional careers is because they have LONG tradition of literacy as more than just a good thing but rather a duty or obligation of Jews. Primarily, the end-purpose of this duty to literacy was for religious education and study. i.e. so that all Jews could read their Bible, rabbinical teachings and decrees, and that sort of thing. But obviously, once you have a tradition of literacy, it lends very easily beyond religious tracts.

Still, the orthodox and especially the ultra-orthodox can be highly literate in matters of religious study (e.g. the Talmud, rabbinical teachings, etc) but often are fairly deficient in secular subjects. Israel has a significant population of orthodox and ultra-orthodox Jews living on the dole, at or below the poverty line, who basically do not work. They just hang around synagogues, praying, mentoring young Jews, reading the Talmud or whatever, participate in community affairs, like church deacons or elders but not actual rabbinical clergy. And of course, have lots of children.

I've read that the Jewish people in Israel have a difficult time financially than their counterparts in America. There are a lot of poor Jews in Israel. I even saw a tv commercial a few weeks ago that was asking donations for starving Jews in Israel .

I should have said American Jewish...
 
I didn't state that it did.

Then how the hell are they "responsible" for the "curse" of monotheism? If you knew anything about Christianity you would realize that 1) it is far older than Judaism and 2) it is monotheistic not unlike any other religion.
 
Then how the hell are they "responsible" for the "curse" of monotheism? If you knew anything about Christianity you would realize that 1) it is far older than Judaism and 2) it is monotheistic not unlike any other religion.

WAT?

Jesus was a Jew.
 
and the jewish vote is exclusively democratic 🙂

Orthodox Jews are the fastest growing segment of Judaism, and they mostly vote Republican. Romney actually got 30% of the overall Jewish vote this last presidential election, and that's the most since Reagan (nearly 40%).
 
WAT?

Jesus was a Jew.

Whatever. There were always two Jesus(es???). One was the mythical and the other was the historical. The mythical did all the miracles and supposedly died on the cross. The historical was killed after returning from Egypt seeking light (knowledge). He was tried and killed by the powers-that-be.

A lot of the stories in the Christian Bible were written hundreds of years after the supposed death of their Christ and served as advertisements to recruit new followers. They were just stories, nothing more, that were derivatives of far older stories. The story of the Christ can be found in many many religions, including the major mother religion in the West (Egyptian Rituals) and the East (Hinduism).
 
discipline... jews have 613 laws (though i haven't met anyone that follows them all). when this is engraved into your mind from a young age, everything else like school and work seems simple. a culture groomed for success for over 5 thousand years...

Jews have a lot more than 613 laws. The 613 laws from the Torah cannot even be followed in this day and age as many have to do with sacrifices and such which cannot be done without a temple. As for having many more that 613, heck, just the Sabbath laws alone number in the hundreds as you have the main categories and then the subcategories. Sometimes I regret having gone to Yeshiva.
 
Then how the hell are they "responsible" for the "curse" of monotheism? If you knew anything about Christianity you would realize that 1) it is far older than Judaism and 2) it is monotheistic not unlike any other religion.

Interesting. How could christianity predate judaism? Please explain.

Hard to make sense of your second point. I don't know how you could argue that all religions are monotheistic. Subtle joke? I'm a little slow this morning.
 
Interesting. How could christianity predate judaism? Please explain.

Hard to make sense of your second point. I don't know how you could argue that all religions are monotheistic. Subtle joke? I'm a little slow this morning.

You're new here, allow me to speed things up a little for you. It's Dari.

Author of such works as:

"Hello God it's me Margaret"

and:

"I spaketh unto God and God sayethed unto me: 'Lol yer brain ain't workin right, son' "

Also:

"Has anyone else eaten scrambled eggs and thought: Hey, this looks like my thoughts?"

let's not forget:

"51 cards in a deck? Sure, that sounds about right!"

and finally:

"Ok maybe Dari didn't come up with any of those. Maybe Dari couldn't."
 
Interesting. How could christianity predate judaism? Please explain.

Hard to make sense of your second point. I don't know how you could argue that all religions are monotheistic. Subtle joke? I'm a little slow this morning.

The story of the Christ is as ancient as man itself. It is found in almost every religion in the world. It serves as the bedrock of the Egyptian Rituals and Hinduism. This is a story of death and rebirth (the Egyptians were obsessed with death). Even the names are too similar to ignore. Krst/Karast is the same as Christ-Na, which are both the "Christ" of their respective religions. There are many books on the subject and even an excellent documentary I saw as a child called the History of Christianity (on The Learning Channel when it was actually good back in 1991).

As for all religions being monotheistic. Just think of it as how we are represented on these forums. As avatars. But behind that avatar is a person, a real person. It is the same with these religions. In the Egyptian Rituals or Hinduism (again, I am using these religions because they serve as the origin of all religions in Africa, Europe, and Asia and Hinduism may even have come from the Rituals) there are hundreds of thousands of gods. But they are all avatars of the supreme god. It's not unlike the Trinity. In fact, the name of the supreme god, Om/Aum/Am, is so holy that is serves as the basis of all good words in our languages. The prefix Om-/Aum-/Am- (however you want to pronounce it) is found in many Indo-European and non Indo-European languages. The supreme Egyptian God Ammon/Amen (that is whose name you say at the end of every prayer) is one example of it being used. Others are amir, ambrosia, omni, omen, Amma, Amaterasu, etc...
 
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It comes from the persecution the Jews endured over the centuries in exile. They had to evolve cultural ways of coping with it. And one of the ways was to focus on education so that you had portable skills that could not be taken away from you in a pogrom or expulsion. That got culturally ingrained, and in a modern society became highly beneficial. Education is priority #1 in most Jewish families. Not going to college is out of the question. B's are failing grades, especially in Math and Science. It's not a religious thing, but a cultural and historic one.
 
Dari is right, but i think the whole argument was a misunderstanding...

the guy who said christianity can't predate Judaism, is correct..... he meant Modern christianity, the modern church


and that's actually kind of what Judaism is about, in a sense, christ, false prophet, not God....

Jews are under the old testament... which is also the same story....but on a much larger scale.
 
They are 2% of the population but yet they own over 50% of America's wealth. That is amazing! When I read that Steve Ballmer and a few other investors were in discussions to buy the Clippers I noticed that they are all Jewish. Most of today's top entrepreneurs are Jewish. Google, Facebook, Starbucks. All started by people whose religion is Jewish.

Obviously not all Jewish people are wealthy. I know it's not good to stereotype people. I find it remarkable that a culture that only represents 2% of the American population can have such a huge impact.

What are they doing differently that the majority of Americans aren't doing?

*Do they have a greater sense of community?
*Do they value education more than most cultures?
*Do they have a certain toughness that comes from being persecuted for centuries?
*Are they better at finances than most people?
*Are they really the chosen ones?

So what is it?

Their secret is education, hard work, thrift and sacrifice and promoting those ideals in their young people. Not all Jews, mind you, but a much larger percentage value those ideals when compared to the average American.

Critics often like to think that groups of peoples who are more successful than others have some unfair advantage, but it's almost always that they work harder.
 
Critics often like to think that groups of peoples who are more successful than others have some unfair advantage, but it's almost always that they work harder.
Well at least when the group in question has inferior political power, it turns out to be the case. e.g. Iraq and Sunni Muslims under Saddam Hussein. But Jews had no political power or seat at the table in the USA or Britain or pretty much in any Western European country until very recently.
 
I've read that the Jewish people in Israel have a difficult time financially than their counterparts in America. There are a lot of poor Jews in Israel. I even saw a tv commercial a few weeks ago that was asking donations for starving Jews in Israel .
It's not that they have a more difficult time 'making it' financially than in America, per se. It's that Israel is the mecca for real believing fundamentalist orthodox and Zionist Jews, who are more likely to eschew materialistic, secular, economic pursuits in favor of pious and devotional lifestyles. Sorta like the Jewish equivalent of the Amish, except the Amish actually are pretty good capitalists.
 
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>2m years...

Don't know about that. Everything I can find claims we're about 200 000 years old, with the rise of language/culture about 50 000 years ago. Hard to say really, but it's clearly older than egyptian rituals, so the "story of christ" can't be as old as mankind. Where do you get your 2m years from?
 
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Dari is right, but i think the whole argument was a misunderstanding...

the guy who said christianity can't predate Judaism, is correct..... he meant Modern christianity, the modern church


and that's actually kind of what Judaism is about, in a sense, christ, false prophet, not God....

Jews are under the old testament... which is also the same story....but on a much larger scale.

Sorry, but what was dari right about? hehe
 
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