Why Are Jews Not Dummies?

Often I have wondered why there seems to be so many successful Jews? It may be easy for many people to name name multiple successful Jews. Most historically have been democrats and a few Republicans. I see it daily in columnists in the media and radio. Voices of respect are three of my favorites; Charles Krauthammer - Washing Post columnist, Dennis Prager and Michael Medved - both syndicated radio hosts.

While Prager and Medved are conservative and I have little doubt Republican, Charles Krauthammer I do not believe professes himself to be Republican.

Let us get away from their political aisles and focus on their success.

I believe theie success comes from intelligence grown from years of living in "survival mode." Whether the Jewish person lives in Israel or elsewhere, they might feel this same survival mentality.

The ability to be intelligent may be largely inherited yet I think it is reasonable to ascertain how much someone learns is a) up to their motivation and b)environmental. I do not imagine there is any proof of one country's citizens have more inherintly intelligent people than another. Every nations bell curve of intlligence is likely similar. There are dummies, average folks and brilliance. The difference comes in when all members of the population are exposed to and compete for learning and use the knowledge productively. The raises the whole of a nation so even the dummies can become smarter dummies.

Adding the above theory to Israel's small size, small population (7 million in Israel) and their years of "surviving" with enemies at the front step and back porch, they have all learned to be a little more crafty, work harder, learn more... The nation has been pushed by outside pressures to succeed and keep up with the big boys. It is analogous to a small aluminum manufacturer competing with a titan manufacturer. The large Alcoa, for example, has competitive advantages in nearly all categories compared with a smaller company. If a small business wants to compete, I would think each employee must work harder, smarter and longer to develop the product and get awarded the contracts. A larger company nearly always has the advantage. But not everyone in the titan has to be intelligent or work hard. By and large the bigger company must have a good product, cost effective and a solid team. But there can be some laggerds who do not pull their wait and the company will still survive.

A small firm must have all employees firing on all cylinders. Their team is smaller, they each may do more than one specialized job and the impact felt by each employee is more easily seen and felt. The lead engineer may have to write contract proposals one day, an office manager take a sales call, while the President brews a new cup of coffee. A week link in the small firm is a more critical problem. So it is with the nation of Israel with few people, expected to wear many hats (each male must spend 2 years in the military). They must care for their families, be successful at business and all the other "normal" problems in a typical life. Add to this the constant pressure of knowing millions of people would like nothing more than to see you and your family dead with no rationale.

Pressure and stress motivates people to improve. Too much stress can be a bad thing, but too much stress is relative. Jewish folks have succeeded like any other nation, while living with higher levels of stress than most any nation.