Cornucopia

Chosen People

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I thought this was interesting.

Thoughts:

(1) I can’t vouch for his data, of course, but I sense that the proposition that Jews are disproportionately represented in the corridors of money and power is sustainable. The presentation of the data gave me a little bit of an ick because normally that kind of evidence is marshaled by someone out to show how evil Jews are.

(2) I couldn’t help thinking of two recent T & S posts as I read it: Margaret’s reflections on the lack of LDS artists and Frank’s comments on statistics in the LDS Church.

(3) Does the disproportionate prominence of Jews reflect historical accident or the hand of God? If the latter, (how) should that inform our thinking about the concept of being a chosen people?

25 comments for “Chosen People”

  1. I always understood that all it reflected was the tendency of the Jewish people to emphasize education.

  2. Although it is terribly unpopular to say so in some circles, apparently there was at least some genetic basis for it in Jews of European descent. I forget, though, what that basis was…

  3. I imagine the residents of the shtetls would be saying “We should be so lucky!”

    It strikes me as odd, but I suppose counting the failure of several empires and dictators to exterminate or permanently expel every last Jew as a blessing is one way to make lemonade out of life’s lemons: “Sure, by 1950 98.5% of Jews in Poland, 95% in Czechoslovakia, 93.5% in Germany, 93% in Austria and 57% in Hugary were no longer there, but think of all of all those in the Soviet Union and the US! And now they’re even getting their art back!”

  4. One more version of “I always heard that …” : Weren’t Jews prohibited for centuries in Europe from owning real estate, so that effort and investment tended to be in portable wealth like arts, education, and specie? (Sheesh — the PC trumpets are blowing so loudly in my ears that it feels icky even to speculate …)

    If so, Mormons have a handy excuse for our failure so far to produce many of the same achievements: Our early generations focused on building the physical kingdom of God, where putting up a fence or cutting a granite building block were more sacramental than reading poetry. That, plus the tendency to devalue secular education as “the philosophies of men,” gave us a late start in the field of arts.

  5. “One more version of “I always heard that …” : Weren’t Jews prohibited for centuries in Europe from owning real estate, so that effort and investment tended to be in portable wealth like arts, education, and specie?”

    I’m not sure why any notion of political correctness ought to come into play in this matter; it’s plainly attested by the historical record. Christians were not, by edict of the pope and widespread interpretation of scripture, supposed to collect interest; it was usury. Thus the Jews, who were regularly run out of various European states (Spain, Great Britain, etc.) and were generally forbidden to own much property anyway, found a niche: they became bankers. Shakespeare’s Shylock is a horrible caricature, but he didn’t just dream the character up out of the blue; the Jews were medieval and early modern Europe’s money-lenders.

  6. In addition to the emphasis on education that has already been mentioned, some segments of Jewish culture place a high value on political giving (both of money and of time), which could have something to do with the fact that Jews tend to be a bit over-represented in political circles.

  8. The one I’ve always heard (grin) is that the Scots have been far overrepresented in some creative fields – literature, philosophy, invention, etc – particularly in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, when there was something of a Scottish renaissance. Duns Scotus, Carlyle, Hume, Conan Doyle, MacIntyre, Smith, Bell, Watt, Reid – all Scots.

    I’m not sure what this says about their theological significance.

  11. With about 15 million Jews and 12,5 LDS in the world at the end of 2005:
    * 6 millions Jews killed in the Holocaust was a horrendous part of them
    * LDS are numerically sufficient to be a world religion.
    * 5.6 million Jews live in the USA and 4.4 million live in Israel . This is about the same number in the US as LDS have. We can say that ours is no more an American religion (any more) than is Judaism.

    Someone asked Golda Meir whether she believed that God favors the Jews. Her answer was that God led Moses in the desert for 40 years to settle in the only part of the Mideast that does NOT have oil.

  12. Daniel Lazare wrote for The Nation a worthwhile review of Yuri Slezkine’s The Jewish Century. (The title of the review is almost the same as that of this post.) The review starts by considering the many peoples across the world similar to the Jews: transnational, commercial clans (“Mercurians”) working the interstices of settled, agricultural host nations (“Apollonians”). The unique development for the Jews is that in late 19th Century Europe, the Mercurian qualities that had been the survival strategy for a marginal people dominated civilization for the first time anywhere.

  13. Regarding Brother Frank’s comment on genetic factors, here’s a NY Times report on Greg Cochrane’s work:

    The most recent example of a society’s possible genetic response to its circumstances is one advanced by Dr. Cochran and Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah. In an article last year they argued that the unusual pattern of genetic diseases found among Ashkenazi Jews (those of Central and Eastern Europe) was a response to the demands for increased intelligence imposed when Jews were largely confined to the intellectually demanding professions of money lending and tax farming. Though this period lasted only from 900 A.D. to about 1700, it was long enough, the two scientists argue, for natural selection to favor any variant gene that enhanced cognitive ability.

    One theme in their argument is that the variant genes perform related roles, which is unlikely to happen by chance since mutations hit the genome randomly. A set of related mutations is often the mark of an evolutionary quick fix against some sudden threat, like malaria. But the variant genes common among the Ashkenazi do not protect against any known disease. In the Cochran and Harpending thesis, the genes were a response to the demanding social niche into which Ashkenazi Jews were forced and the nimbleness required to be useful to their unpredictable hosts.

    No one has yet tested the Cochran-Harpending thesis, which remains just an interesting though well worked out conjecture.

  15. 5: It’s taken me a few hours to figure out why PC comes into play and made me uncomfortable for posting as I did. One, I was speaking out of ignorance, merely repeating what I had heard without knowing whether it was true — regardless of whether the comment was neutral or even positive, it was still ignorant. And two, I slapped a general label on an entire group. I hate it when people write in the same way about Mormons.

  16. The unique development for the Jews is that in late 19th Century Europe, the Mercurian qualities that had been the survival strategy for a marginal people dominated civilization for the first time anywhere. . .

    An interesting question may be what qualities will be important during the period ahead. I occasionally think that people who are organized in ways that allow them to continue working in concert, even if established forms of governance falter, will do okay.The people that come to mind include Mormons, Crips and Bloods, along with some Indian tribes.

  17. No, MLU, power in the future belongs to those who can work on a computer without checking email and blogs every 10 minutes. I wonder which gene selects for that?

  18. Perhaps suffering, persecution, and trials really are the refiner’s fire building a resilient nation. Perhaps our numbers would be just as impressive with a similar tragic history.

  19. Re #2 and #13 —

    Another explanation that has been offered for a genetic basis for Jewish intellectual prowess (at least in comparison to most European peoples) is that for almost two millenia among both Christians and Jews the smartest people were encouraged to become clerics. However, rabbis were also encouraged to have many children whereas Christian priests and monks were encouraged to be celibate. As result over centuries and centuries, more smart Jews reproduced than smart Christians.

  20. I always understood Jews to be the chosen people. By not accepting Christ they became the prodical son. As Latter Day Saints we will be the son who stayed true and faithful and yet when the Jews come to accept Christ when he returns they will be welcomed back. How will we feel then?

  21. I always understood Jews to be the chosen people. By not accepting Christ they became the prodical son. As Latter Day Saints we will be the son who stayed true and faithful and yet when the Jews come to accept Christ when he returns they will be welcomed back. How will we feel then?

  22. The article’s list of famous Jews did not contain the name of the most famous Jew of all.

  23. This is all very flattering, but us Jews have nothing on the Parsis in India. These descendants of Zoroastrians who fled the Muslim conquest of Persia hold hugely influential social and cultural positions in the world economy. Many of the major Indian tech firms are owned by Parsis and their cultural contributions range from Queen’s lead singer the late Freddy Mercury to Zubin Mehta. And oh yeah, Zoroastrians probably were the first monotheists, came up with concepts like heaven, hell, judgement day, and the devil which later made their appearance in another religion. And then, of course, there are the Armenians, and the Chinese in South East Asia etc. etc.

  24. Why can’t a Baptist wonder about this doctrine? Sure, not one running for public office–similar that old saw about not discussing religion or politics in polite company. (Which convention Ann Coulter breaks on purpose, as, for example, when she didn’t unequivocate, when discussing the subjuct in a broadcast discussion, to state her personal belief that Christians are perfected Jews, or something like that).

    I mean I understand that the LDS are sensitive to sensationalism, still, the doctrine in question clearly is a long held orthodoxy in the Church. (See the June 1986 Ensign’s “I have a Question” column is this statement of Mormon theology by Institute director Jess L. Christensen):

    On first hearing, the doctrine that Lucifer and our Lord, Jesus Christ, are brothers may seem surprising to some, especially to those unacquainted with latter-day revelations. But both the scriptures and the prophets affirm that Jesus Christ and Lucifer are indeed offspring of our Heavenly Father and, therefore, spirit brothers. Jesus Christ was with the Father from the beginning. Lucifer, too, was an angel who was in authority in the presence of God, a ‘son of the morning.’ (See Isa. 14:12; D&C 76:25?27.) Both Jesus and Lucifer were strong leaders with great knowledge and influence. But as the Firstborn of the Father, Jesus was Lucifer’s older brother. (See Col. 1:15; D&C 93:21.)

    —

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