The Jewish People

The Jewish People

The Torah tells us that G-d elevated the Jewish people at Sinai and appointed them to be the light unto the nations. Let us look whether there is anything peculiar about the Jews which supports this claim.

Unique Intellectual Abilities - Jews have received an extremely disproportionate number of Nobel prizes. Their contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, etc. are uniquely way out of proportion to their numbers (ex. 36% of US recipients despite being 2% of the population and 22% worldwide despite being 0.2% of the population. Among women laureates it is 50% US and 33% Worldwide^[1]). Likewise, the concentration of Jewish minds in Israel has produced a global research and development monster in only a few decades. (ex. recently the Intel VP, Ran Senderovitz, said in an interview that "the most advanced technologies are developed in Israel"^[2])
Unique Physical Survival of the Jews - On this Mark Twain (a non-Jew) wondered in an essay:
"The Egyptians, the Babylonians and the Persians rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greeks and Romans followed and made a vast noise, and they were gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, and have vanished.

The Jew saw them all, survived them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmaties, of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert but aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jews; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"
This is all the more amazing when you consider that the Jews are the most persecuted^[4] and most defenseless of all nations. Can you imagine 2000 years without the Israeli army?
Unique Influence - although Jews have rarely had missionaries, they have had more influence on humanity than any other people. Among many others, John Adams, a non-Jew and the second president of the United States said:
"I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations ... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. They have given religion to three-quarters of the globe and have influenced the affairs of mankind more and more happily than any other nation, ancient or modern".
A nice short movie on the Jews was made on this. see here.
Unique Hatred and Demonization of the Jews - throughout history the hatred of Jews has been consistent, universal, and predictable. Even in our times (2013), the UN general assembly passes more resolutions against Israel than the entire world combined. Something about the Jews' very existence arouses profound animosity. In every generation there are those that fanatically rise up to annihilate them^[4]. Hitler gave higher priority to the trains to Auschwitz than those to reinforce his own struggling troops. The Muslims claim their time will not come until the Jews are destroyed (Bukhari 52:177). The Christian bible claims the Jews are "sons of the devil" (John 8:44) and "sons of vipers" (Mathew 23:33). There has also been tremendous hatred of Jews from within. Throughout history, dissident Jews have often been the biggest and most bitter enemies of religious Jews. All this unique irrational hatred and demonization of the Jews indicates to those who examine with candid eyes that there lies the painful truth. Not surprising that those who hate the Jews are often the most wicked and depraved people in history.
Unique Financial Success - historically, after the Jews are expelled and arrive at another country they rapidly take over and prosper more than the native population. On this Rabeinu Bahye writes (almost 1000 years ago) in Duties of the Heart (Gate 2 ch.5):
"If any one seeks evidence at the present day similar to those just mentioned, let him look with objective eyes at our position among the nations since the Exile began and our orderly condition in their midst, notwithstanding that we do not agree with them in belief or practice - of which disagreement they are aware. Observe that even so, our financial situation is close to theirs, and perhaps even better than theirs. You will see that an average person among them must toil more for his livelihood than an average or even a below-average among us. This is like our Creator promised us: 'And yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them...' (Lev. 26:44)". End quote.
This strange phenomena has led to many conspiracy theories such as the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" which purports to describe a Jewish plan for global domination.
Different Makeup - spiritually and in their outlooks Jews are different. One needs to speak to many Jews and non-Jews to arrive at this conclusion. Jews are by nature, merciful, seeking beyond the superficial, seeking absolute truth. One can see today in Israel how in hospitals they treat terrorists and victims alike (of course there are many good non-Jews. the point is Jews have a disproportionate tendency to be merciful,etc).
Unique Spiritual Searching of the Jews - we find a disproportionate number of secular Jews in the world who don't know what to do with themselves. It's not an exaggeration that although Jews are less than 2% of the general population in the US, at the same time they are over 40% of all the cults. Likewise, there is an enormously disproportionate number of secular Israelis seeking spirituality in Tibet or India. In some towns there, the shops advertise their wares in Hebrew. The phenomenon of secular Jews seeking spiritual meaning in Buddhism has become so common that it has a name "Jew-Bu's". Where does this spiritual yearning come from?

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Footnotes

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