Why are 20% of Nobel Prize winners Jewish?

[Nine_Two]

Question: “How does this group do so well for itself?”

Liberal Answer: “Racist!”

Answering the question of why minorities are over represented is the only way we can ever work toward equality, and to answer it, it must be asked.

 

[kch86]

This isn’t offensive. Perhaps some are just overly sensitive.

Overly sensitive is an understatement. What happened to “Judge not”? Why must some people immediately impute impure motives onto others?

No, it’s not legitimate at all. It’s offensive.

Are you kidding? That’s insane! What is offensive about it? Is asking why do over 90% of Americans live in America offensive? And how is this different from asking why the sky is red at sunset?

The sky is red at sunset. Why?

20% of Nobel Prize winners are Jewish. Why?

One is an interesting phenomenon, the other an interesting statistic. What is wrong with wanting an explanation and asking a question in the hope of getting one? Is truth-seeking forbidden now?

 

[Nine_Two]

Perhaps these posters who find it offensive are interpreting the question as implying there is some sort of Jewish conspiracy theory to give the nobel prize to Jews.

That is of course a silly interpretation, but an offensive one, if that’s how they’ve taken it.

 

[Hokomai]

Do we mean they have Jewish ancestors? If so, do we accept them only on the female line, or ont he male line also? Is a Jew who is an atheist a Jew? What about Catholics of Jewish descent? What about a convert, or the descendants of converts to Judaism? Are they Jews? Classifying people into such a broad religious-ethnic-national category is at the least not scientific, and even if there is some point in doing it, the classification is too broad to allow there to be any one answer to why ‘Jews’ do anything in greater or lesser numbers than anyone else.

 

[kch86]

Perhaps these posters who find it offensive are interpreting the question as implying there is some sort of Jewish conspiracy theory to give the nobel prize to Jews.

That is of course a silly interpretation, but an offensive one, if that’s how they’ve taken it.

That’s a horrible assumption to make about another person’s motives without corroborating evidence. What happened to the benefit of the doubt? Innocent until proven guilty?

And even if the OP did have some sort of Jewish conspiracy in mind, there was nothing in the wording of the question that could have suggested it.

 

[Alder]

Do we mean they have Jewish ancestors? If so, do we accept them only on the female line, or ont he male line also? Is a Jew who is an atheist a Jew? What about Catholics of Jewish descent? What about a convert, or the descendants of converts to Judaism? Are they Jews? Classifying people into such a broad religious-ethnic-national category is at the least not scientific, and even if there is some point in doing it, the classification is too broad to allow there to be any one answer to why ‘Jews’ do anything in greater or lesser numbers than anyone else.

I’d imagine they mean people who self-identify as Jews.

 

[In_Spiration]

Ashkenazi Jews have an average IQ that is significantly higher than that of any other ethnicity. Not offensive at all.

economist.com/node/4032638?story_id=4032638

 

[havana1]

How is it offensive? It is factual. I’ll point out an anti-Semitic canard when I see one, which has been a total of twice on this forum.

It’s offensive because the question generalizes an entire segment of the population based on one category alone. Would you care to give equal consideration of Jews in other areas of acclaim, such as how many Jews are Heisman trophy winners or Pulitzer prize winners, too? If your underlying assumption (which isn’t exactly the most subtle) is that Jews are awarded world renown at more disproportionate rates than the rest of the population, a more well-rounded sampling would be beneficial to your case. I’m just sayin’…

 

[Alder]

It’s offensive because the question generalizes an entire segment of the population based on one category alone. Would you care to give equal consideration of Jews in other areas of acclaim, such as how many Jews are Heisman trophy winners or Pulitzer prize winners, too? If your underlying assumption (which isn’t exactly the most subtle) is that Jews are awarded world renown at more disproportionate rates than the rest of the population, a more well-rounded sampling would be beneficial to your case. I’m just sayin’…

I thought 20% of Nobel Prizes winners are Jewish meant 20% of Nobel Prizes winners are Jewish. People are reading too much into this…

Perhaps Jewish Pulitzer prize winners and Heisman trophy winners need their own thread.

 

[Nine_Two]

It’s offensive because the question generalizes an entire segment of the population based on one category alone. Would you care to give equal consideration of Jews in other areas of acclaim, such as how many Jews are Heisman trophy winners or Pulitzer prize winners, too? If your underlying assumption (which isn’t exactly the most subtle) is that Jews are awarded world renown at more disproportionate rates than the rest of the population, a more well-rounded sampling would be beneficial to your case. I’m just sayin’…

You PCers are too hard to understand anymore.

No one is being generalized. A generalization would be “All Jews are nobel prize winners”, rather a verifiable statement has been given: “20% of all Nobel Prizes are won by Jews”. The question, “why is this”, is one that should naturally occure to anyone. Anyone with half a brain when they see a disproportionate figure, should be expected to ask why that is.

An example: Many of you liberal types make a big difference about the over-representation of blacks in the American prison system.
Why is it alright to question this number? Isn’t this doing the same thing to blacks, as the other question does to Jews, except in this case instead of implying they are smart, as the OP did toward Jews, the implication is of criminality?

 

[Bob_Crowley]

Richard Wurmbrand, Romanian Jewish convert to Christianity, and who suffered for it, had a fairly powerful passage on the influence of the Jews in his book, “The Answer to the Atheist Handbook” (formerly “The Answer to Moscow’s Bible” when the Cold War was still on). Bear in mind he wrote this during the Cold War, after years in a communist prison and was well aware of the heroes and anti-heroes of the Soviet Union at that time.

He wrote -

The prophecies about the Jews begin with a promise made to Abraham, the first Jew, some 4,500 years ago. Listen to it, “I will make you a great nation.”

The Christian world bears the name of a Jew, Jesus Christ. The Communist camp was founded up the name of another Jew, Karl Marx. The universe as a whole bears the name of another Jew, Einstein *(Aside - And before that, another Jew, Isaac Newton). *Over sixty percent of the Nobel Prize winners are Jewish, among the lamented Soviet writer, Boris Pasternak. Jews played a tremendous role in the Communist revolution - men like Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev. Lenin was half-Jewish. Jews played a big role in the anti-government fight within the Soviet Union. Litvinov, the writer Daniel, Krasnov-Levitin, and other freedom fighters who have suffered imprisonment, are Jewish. Jews are active in the economic and political life of the United States (aside - do a search on Jewish influence in Hollywood - you’ll be surprised) and many other countries. They hold government positions in many Western nations *(Aside - probably the most recognised general in Australian military history was the WWI General Sir John Monash, a Jew who now has a university named after him). *The Jew Teller is called “the father of the nuclear bomb”.

Dr Sale Harrison in his book “The Remarkable Jew” writes, “No one will doubt that the Jews of today hold the money chests of the world. Wherever they have gone, they have become the wizards of finance.”

Basil Mowll says in his book “Bible Light in Present Events”: " A careful computation of the university professors of Western Europe, apart from Great Britain before the First World War, showed that about seventy percent were of Jewish birth and persuasion."

For the first time in history, a woman has been employed by the Roman Curia. She is a Christian of Jewish persuasion.

Simone Weil, a Jewess, was one of the most profound theologians of Catholicism.

The Hebrew language is the only old language that has been revived and is now spoken currently in Israel. This has not happened with Latin, old Greek, Slavonic, Irish, Welsh, or any other old language.

Thus, the prophecy has been fulfilled. A small Bedouin tribe has become a great nation - great in all aspects, for good or ill. Even Yarovslavski, founder and president of the League of the Godless and the great leader of this movement, was Jewish…

… Long after Abraham’s day there were predictions that the Jews would be scattered among the nations. Today there are three scattered races - the Gypsies, the Armenians, and the Jews - but it is the Jews who are the most widely scattered. There are few countries without Jews…"

There’s more, but I think the general tenor is clear.

I am not one of those who believes in a triumphant revival of Israel. I personally think the Jews have carried out their role, and their days are, in a sense, numbered. It is to the Church the baton has been handed by God, through Christ. But that doesn’t mean I don’t admire their enormous contribution to the human race, considering their very small numbers. They’ve had a phenomenal influence.

 

[triumphguy]

I think the question might be “offensive” on other forums, but on this forum we got a lot of fair minded responses.

 

[kch86]

Over sixty percent of the Nobel Prize winners are Jewish, among the lamented Soviet writer, Boris Pasternak.

So the proportion has gone down from 60% to 20%?

DISCRIMINATION!

More seriously, people are really reading way too much into the question and looking for offence where there isn’t any.

 

[Bob_Crowley]

So the proportion has gone down from 60% to 20%?

DISCRIMINATION!

More seriously, people are really reading way too much into the question and looking for offence where there isn’t any.

The book I quoted was first written in 1975, nearly forty years ago. There may have been significant changes since then. Since that time, education has expanded greatly in Asia and probably South America also, thus increasing the probability of those areas to gain Nobel Prizes.

This is a link to Jewish Nobel Prize winners for interest’s sake.

jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html

And this is a prediction that America’s dominance in Nobel Prizes for science may soon be eclipsed by that of Asia.

guardian.co.uk/science/2011/oct/01/nobel-prizes-asian-scientists-us

 

[Khalid]

It’s offensive because the question generalizes an entire segment of the population based on one category alone. Would you care to give equal consideration of Jews in other areas of acclaim, such as how many Jews are Heisman trophy winners or Pulitzer prize winners, too? If your underlying assumption (which isn’t exactly the most subtle) is that Jews are awarded world renown at more disproportionate rates than the rest of the population, a more well-rounded sampling would be beneficial to your case. I’m just sayin’…

Not about world renown in Heismanism (?) or journalism, about the Nobel Prize, which is world renown in academic research.

 

[jakasaki]

Oy ~ vey

 

[MJE]

During the 2008-09 season, almost 82% of NBA players were black. 12.9 % of the American population is black. You believe this statement is racist?
I find the stats re: Jewish Nobel Prize winners cause for admiration. And the black NBA players have reached the top in their sport; admirable.

Fear of statistics have a name?

 

[Mystrx]

Cultural emphasis on knowledge and wisdom I would guess.

 

[Hokomai]

Pastor Wurmbrand’s definition of a Jew seems to be ‘someone descended from someone of the Jewish religion(s)’. Marx was not Jew. he did nt identify as a Jew, was not raised as a Jew, and his parents were Christians. As for Lenin being a 'half-Jew" - How can you be a half-Jew?

 

[Catholic90]

More seriously, people are really reading way too much into the question and looking for offence where there isn’t any.

Agree.

People cannot ask questions anymore for fear of being being called offensive or discriminatory or racist!