Jewish giftedness is a real phenomenon. Why does it exist?
Are Jewish genius and giftedness in so many fields today just a fluke of history? Or, despite all their suffering and the persecution against them through the centuries, are they a sign of God's blessing upon the Jewish people and His promises to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? What do the scholars say? Is it a phenomenon simply based on traditional Jewish devotion to education, the result of good 'Jewish mothering'(!) or the guilt of always striving to achieve or to prove oneself in a non-Jewish world, as some have claimed? While these factors and others have played some role, they all fall short of adequately explaining the phenomenon. What does the Bible say?
Samuel Reshevsky, age 8, chess prodigy, defeating numerous chess masters in France in 1920
Mark Twain was astonished not only at Jewish survival but also because the Jewish people have thrived despite all the factors arrayed against them...
"If the statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one per cent of the human race. [Ed.: That was in 1899 - today, the proportion is even far less than 1%].It suggests a nebulous dim puff of star-dust lost in the blaze of the Milky Way. Properly the Jew ought hardly to be heard of; but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk.
"His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers.
"He [the Jew] has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and has done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself and be excused for it. The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished.
"The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?"
Mark Twain, "Concerning the Jews," Harper's Magazine (September, 1899)
Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) - 1909. Photographer: A.F. Bradley in his studio.
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