Yesterday, I wondered how many of the three winners of the Nobel prize in economics were Jewish.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science to Leonid Hurwicz, 90 years old, a retired professor at the University of Minnesota, who told reporters he thought his chances at the honor had faded; Eric S. Maskin, 56, of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.; and Roger B. Myerson, 56, of the University of Chicago.
The answer: All of them. I’m not quite sure why Wikipedia finds it important to point out in the first sentence of a biography whether you were “born to a Jewish family.” (I have yet to find a reference to someone being “born to a Christian family” or “born to a Muslim family,” but hey, perhaps it’s not nearly as important to know if someone was a Christian or a Muslim than it is to know they are Jewish.) Digressions aside, all three of our boys are Jews. In fact, they’re all three American Jews.
That makes 155 Jewish Nobel prize winners in total, most of them American Jews. And of the ones who were born in other countries, well, a large percentage of them wound up here, too. Europe has been giving itself a lobotomy, as they say, for many, many years.
Hurwicz was born in 1917 to a Jewish family from Poland, World War I refugees from the Congress Kingdom displaced to Moscow, a few months before the October Revolution. Shortly thereafter, the family returned to Warsaw. In 1938 he received his LL.M. degree from Warsaw University. In 1939 he studied at the London School of Economics, then went to Geneva and studied at the Graduate Institute of International Studies.[5] After World War II began, he was forced to move to Portugal, and finally in 1940 to the United States.[6] He continued his studies at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.[7] His parents and brother fled Warsaw, only to be arrested and sent to Soviet labor camps.
People talk about the brain drain of various nations’ top scientists and doctors coming to the U.S. because here’s where the action is. But let’s not forget the incredible addition of talent America has received due to the persecution of European Jewry for the last few centuries. The waves of Jewish immigrants from Europe brought America a lot more than the Hollywood studio system. It brought us top scientists, thinkers, doctors, technologists, and authors.
This is what I like to call an in-your-face moment for the David Dukes of the world. The convicted felon, whose only contribution to the world is the spread of hatred and bigotry, goes to Iran to be feted by his fellow bigots at the Holocaust denial conference, while back in America, the Jews that Duke hates so much are working hard at their respective crafts, and being recognized by the rest of the world for the valuable contributions they make. The fact that envy makes up a great part of the world’s Jew-hatred simply cannot be denied.
But there’s one country that has never expelled her Jews. And while there has been (and continues to be) anti-Semitism in America, there have never been pogroms, and Jews are safer, more protected, and more a part of society in America than they have ever been in Europe.
So let’s hear it for America, the nation where Jews have carved out one of our greatest successes since Biblical times. Let’s celebrate the nation of true diversity, not the faux diversity that is the European Union.
And while we’re on the subject of America: Two more Americans won the Nobel prize in medicine. Add five more Americans to the tally, one who was born in Italy, and the other in Great Britain. Our nation of immigrants just keeps on truckin’.
Welcome, Instapundit readers. An update to the post: There’s one in every crowd, of course, and when it comes to Jews, far more than one. From a comment that was not approved:
Maybe Jews are just better at self promotion
Hype , hype ,hype hype,, It’s the Jews creed
Say, thanks for illustrating my point about envy, anonymous schmuck. And may I point out to you that hype doesn’t get you a Nobel prize for economics.
Australia, also, has always blessed its Jews and been blessed in return, giving a large percentage of them homes after WWII.
The other day I met my first ever Holocaust survivor – an elderly lady who was in Belsen from 10 years of age, and came to Australia in 1948 [after losing her family.]
I said ‘It’s an honour to meet you’.
One of the first things she said was
‘I can’t understand why so many people hate the Jews’. Go Israel!
Re: #24
I think you’re confusing social justice with diversity, because that’s what the riots were about. They were not about race or religion. The underlying reasons for the situation that led to the riots were many and diverse, and they probably included failure in integrating these people into society. On the whole, racial and religious equality is done a lot better in the US than in Europe. I fear that we’re repeating the mistakes made here in the 30s (and the centuries before that) now, only replacing the jews for the muslims as the cause of society’s problems. This is not limited to Europe, however, and I see much of the same hate or intolerance directed towards muslims coming from the US.
The comparison of Gitmo with Auschwitz was perhaps very inappropriate, but it’s not a holiday resort either. Americans have come to Europe to illegally kidnap people right off our streets. They have run secret prisons on our soil and used our airports and airspace to transport other kidnapped people. These people have no rights, they don’t get a trial, they’re guilty until proven otherwise (how they would prove this I have no idea). Some are flown to countries where torture is used to extract information from them, and you turn a blind eye to it.
Anyway, I’ve got better things to do than lecture people on their wrongdoings. I just wanted to say get off your high horse, or (perhaps from the wrong testament, but fitting nonetheless): “Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye, and not notice the beam which is in your own eye?” We’re all idiots, it’s part of what makes us humans. It’s when you start claiming you’re not that you get into trouble.
The comparison of Gitmo and Auschwitz isn’t inappropriate. It is completely wrong. Auschwitz was a prison camp set up for the eventual extermination of Jews. Gitmo is a camp for people who were captured while waging war against the U.S.
The riots in Europe are not about social justice? Not diversity? Really? So why are Muslim “youths” torching cars all over France, Belgium, and other nations in Europe? Why do the “youths” not feel like they are French? Why are there large sections of your inner cities where the police, fireman, and emergency services cannot go for fear of their lives? Firemen? How is it a reflection on social justice that the “youths” try to stone and shoot at people who come to their homes to put out a fire and save lives?
Your Muslim problems are very deep, and there is no comparison with the Jews of the 1930s. Jews were not rioting. Jews were not complaining of “social injustice.” Jews were not burning down your cars and buses and property. It was, in fact, the opposite. The riots were against Jews. Perpetrated by your countrymen, the tolerant and diverse Europeans.
Please. Save the bullshit for someone who will buy it. No sale here.