|
Since January 2006 |
|
Visitors: 705347
|
|
|
|
|
Page 7 of 8 JEWISH EXCELLENCE IN ACADEMIA, POLITICS, SCIENCE AND THE ARTS
In Europe and the USA Jews have never reached higher than some 3% of the population and generally as in England more like 0.5%. (The exception might be Poland, before the Holocaust, particularly in some cities were the Jewish population was sometimes more than 50%)
However, although small in numbers, Jews, where permitted, have contributed well ahead of their numbers to the wealth and culture of their adopted countries. Indeed 20% of the total number of Nobel Laureates have been Jews.
In the US, 3% of the population are Jews but 27% of the US Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews. Also if you are an American Jew compared to a non Jew you are twice as likely to be a doctor, 5 times as likely to be a psychiatrist, 3 times as likely to be a dentist, twice as likely to be a mathematician and twice as likely to go to university. The following roll call confirms the point and makes one think why? The reason given for this is not something inherent in the genes of their race but their background of centuries of diligent education well ahead of most, and years of thought provoking social hardship both brought about by a strict adherence to the rules of Judaism.
This list only includes a few well known contributors, a few although Jewish, were not practicing Jews at the time.
Europe in Social/political fields
- Karl Marx (1818-1883) produced the foundations to modern socialism and Communism in his work (In German) Das Kapital. Born in Germany he soon became a revolutionary and had to flee to Paris where he was expelled and eventually he settled in London, England where he was free to write, speak and publish as he liked. Marx renounced Judaism early in his life.
- Leon Trotsky (Lev Bronstein, 1879-1940) Russian revolutionary who became a Marxist before he was 20, played a significant part in the Russian Revolutions of 1905 and 1917 were he reported directly to Lenin as leader of the Red Army. On Lenin’s death he lost a power struggle with Stalin and fled to Mexico where he was murdered by a Stalin hit squad. Trotsky had also renounced Judaism.
- Ferdinand Lasalle, (1825-1864) a German Jew who associated with Marx but who wanted things to change through democratic means. Founder of the German Social Democratic party.
- Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) A polish lady who founded the German Communist party after the First World War. Murdered by the German Military.
- PRIME MINISTERS. The following Jews reached the highest rank in European politics. Benjamin Disraeli, England, Leon Bum, Pierre Mendes-France and Rene Mayer in France, Luigi Luzzatti in Italy and Bruno Kreiski in Austria.
Europeans in Science
- Albert Einstein 1879-1955. Pacifist and Physicist. Born in Germany, had to move to Switzerland and then to the USA. Perhaps the most famous scientist of all time with his Special Theory of Relativity and the relationship between mass and energy which showed the route to the Nuclear energy industry.
- Sigmund Freud 1856-1939. Founder of Psychoanalysis. Born in Austria but had to move to London, England with the German Nazi takeover of Austria in 1939. The Freud family remain in England with daughter Anna the founder of child Psychoanalysis, grandsons Lucian, painter famous for extremely detailed and accurate portraits of nude women and Sir Clement Freud Liberal MP and television personality.
- Claude Levi-Strauss, pioneer in anthropology.
European Jews in Arts
- Max Liebermann, Jacob Epstein, Lucian Freud and many others
Europeans in Literature
- Nelly Sacks, Nobel Laureate poetess and many others
Europeans in Music
- Felix Mendelssohn, Jacques Offenbach, Gustav Mahler, Otto Klemperer, Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Vladimir Horovitz and Arthur Rubinstein.
Europeans in Banking and Money Lending
- Oppenheimer, Rothschild, Lazard, Hambros and Goldsmid.
Business leaders in England
- Lord Seif the man who made Marks and Spencer into the largest and best clothes supermarket in England. No longer such a success story after his retirement.
- Lord Weinstock, the man who created Britain’s largest industrial company. Almost collapsed after his retirement.
In the USA we have this astonishing list:
USA Public Life
- Henry Kissinger (Secretary of State); Benjamin Cardozo, Louis Brandeis, Felix Frankfurter, Arthur Goldburg and Abe Fortas (US Supreme Court Justices)
USA Labour Movements
- David Dubinsky (International Ladies Garment Workers Union), Sidney Hillman (Special Advisor to President Roosevelt on labour matters and Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America), Samuel Gompers (architect of the American Federation of Labour.
USA Nuclear Science
- J. Robert Oppenheimer, Isidor Rabi, Edward Teller.
USA Medical Science
- Jonas Salk and Albert Salin (Polio Vaccine), Selman Waksman (Antibiotics)
USA Playwrights
- Arthur Miller, Clifford Odets, Lillian Hellman, Moss Hart and Ben Hecht.
USA Song Writer
Movies (Films) and Musicals
This is a most astonishing list by virtue of the strength of Jewish success in these fields.
Movie studios.
- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (Hollywood studio founded by Sam Goldwyn and Lewis Mayer)
- Warner Brothers (Hollywood studio founded by the four sons of an immigrant family from Poland)
- Paramount Pictures (Adolph Zukor)
- Universal Studios (Carl Laemmle)
- 20th Century Fox (William Fox and Sol Brill)
Musicals
- Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein (Oklahoma, South Pacific, The King and I, The Sound of Music), George Gershwin (Porgy and Bess), Lerner and Loewe (My Fair Lady), Frank Loesser (Guys and Dolls), Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story), Gerry Block and Sheldon Harnick (Fiddler on the Roof)
|
|
|
 |
