Contributions of Jews

[plural]

The global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000 or about 0.02% of the world population.

They've received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature: (10)
1910 - Paul Heyse
1927 - Henri Bergson
1958 - Boris Pasternak
1966 - Shmuel Yosef Agnon
1966 - Nelly Sachs
1976 - Saul Bellow
1978 - Isaac Bashevis Singer
1981 - Elias Canetti
1987 - Joseph Brodsky
1991 - Nadine Gordimer World

Peace: (8)
1911 - Alfred Fried
1911 - Tobias Michael Carel Asser
1968 - Rene Cassin
1973 - Henry Kissinger
1978 - Menachem Begin
1986 - Elie Wiesel
1994 - Shimon Peres
1994 - Yitzhak Rabin

Physics: (22)
1905 - Adolph Von Baeyer
1906 - Henri Moissan
1910 - Otto Wallach
1915 - Richard Willstaetter
1918 - Fritz Haber
1943 - George Charles de Hevesy
1961 - Melvin Calvin
1962 - Max Ferdinand Perutz
1972 - William Howard Stein
1977 - Ilya Prigogine
1979 - Herbert Charle s Brown
1980 - Paul Berg
1980 - Walter Gilbert
1981 - Roald Hoffmann
1982 - Aaron Klug
1985 - Albert A. Hauptman
1985 - Jerome Karle
1986 - Dudley R. Herschbach
1988 - Robert Huber
1989 - Sidney Altman
1992 - Rudolph Marcus
2000 - Alan J. Heeger

Economics: (13)
1970 - Paul Anthony Samuelson
1971 - Simon Kuznets
1972 - Kenneth Joseph Arrow
1975 - Leonid Kantorovich
1976 -! Milton Friedman
1978 - Herbert A. Simon
1980 - Lawrence Robert Klein
1985 - Franco Modigliani
1987 - Robert M. Solow
1990 - Harry Markowitz
1990 - Merton Miller
1992 - Gary Becker
1993 - Robert Fogel

Medicine: (46)
1908 - Elie Metchnikoff
1908 - Paul Erlich
1914 - Robert Barany
1922 - Otto Meyerhof
1930 - Karl Landsteiner
1931 - Otto Warburg
1936 - Otto Loewi
1944 - Joseph Erlanger
1944 - Herbert Spencer Gasser
1945 - Ernst Boris Chain
1946 - Hermann Joseph Muller
1950 - Tadeus Reichstein
1952 - Selman Abraham Waksman
1953 - Hans Krebs
1953 - Fritz Albert Lipmann
1958 - Joshua Lederberg
1959 - Arthur Kornberg
1964 - Konrad Bloch
1965 - Francois Jacob
1965 - Andre Lwoff
1967 - George Wald
1968 - Marshall W. Nirenberg
1969 - Salvador Luria
1970 - Julius Axelrod
1970 - Sir Bernard Katz
1972 - Gerald Maurice Edelman
1975 - Howard Martin Temin
1976 - Baruch S. Blumberg
1977 - Roselyn Sussman Yalow
1978 - Daniel Nathans
1980 - Baruj Benacerraf
1984 - Cesar Milstein
1985 - Michael Stuart Brown
1985 - Joseph L. Goldstein
1986 - Stanley Cohen [& Rita Levi-Montalcini]
1988 - Gertrude Elion
1989 - Harold Varmus
1991 - Erwin Neher
1991 - Bert Sakmann
1993 - Richard J. Roberts
1993 - Phillip Sharp
1994 - Alfred Gilman
1995 - Edward B. Lewis

Physics: (31)
1907 - Albert Abraham Michelson
1908 - Gabriel Lippmann
1921 - Albert Einstein
1922 - Niels Bohr
1925 - James Franck
1925 - Gustav Hertz
1943 - Gustav Stern
1944 - Isidor Issac Rabi
1952 - Felix Bloch
1954 - Max Born
1958 - Igor Tamm
1959 - Emilio Segre
1960 - Donald A. Glaser
1961 - Robert Hofstadter
1962 - Lev Davidovich Landau
1965 - Richard Phillips Feynman
1965 - Julian Schwinger
1969 - Murray Gell-Mann
1971 - Dennis Gabor
1973 - Brian David Josephson
1975 - Benjamin Mottleson
1976 - Burton Richter
1978 - Arno Allan Penzias
1978 - Peter L Kapitza
1979 - Stephen Weinberg
1979 - Sheldon Glashow
1988 - Leon Lederman
1988 - Melvin Schwartz
1988 - Jack Steinberger
1990 - Jerome Friedman
1995 - Martin Perl


In contrast:

The global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of the world population.

They've received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature (1)
1988 - Najib Mahfooz.

Peace: (2)
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1994 - Yaser Arafat

Physics: (2)
1990 - Elias James Corey
1999 - Ahmed Zewail

Medicine: (2)
1960 - Peter Brian Medawar
1998 - Ferid Mourad

interesting to be sure
but somehow I feel kind of dirty
posting this

Comments

Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[madbard.livejournal.com]

Are non-Americans eligible for Nobel Prizes? Muslims are far less represented in the US population than that of the world as a whole.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[plural.livejournal.com]

yup

Nobel (whose name the nobel prize bears) was a swedish (I think) munitions manufacturer and individuals of all nationalities are eligible to win a nobel prize.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[madbard.livejournal.com]

I don't really disagree with the spirit of your post, but felt the need to be as fair as possible.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[plural.livejournal.com]

its interesting information to be sure
however something is bothering me
of course
being quite drunk as I am
I can not exactly place my finger on it

I suspect it is the lack of a direct point
instead going for the passive agressive of
look how much better we are

which bothers me
I've no problem killing people
[though its always something to be avoided when possible]
the reality is that
some people just need killing
however dehumanizing or degrading people
bothers me immensely

it reeks of weakness to me
pathetic excuses
instead of saying
"sorry, this guys gotta die for x & y reason"
which at least has intellectual honesty
about it

again I'll hide behind the shield of drunkeness
as
I have a feeling
I'm babbling about irrelevancies
and reading too much into shit

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[vaquera.livejournal.com]

some people just need killing

You do realize that this is a perfectly acceptable defense in the Great State of Texas?

[jenniegoesxo.livejournal.com]

I think Haber might have been for Ammonia (Chemistry), and I believe he was German, but... when the Nazis ordered him to fire all his Jewish staff, he no less told them to fuck off, something to the extent of how he "hired his scientists and co-workers on the basis of their intelligence, integrity, and ability, not on the basis of their grandfathers."

A lot of people thought he shouldn't have, because Nobel stood for peace, and Haber had been a fixture in the development of German gas weapons.

[plural.livejournal.com]

I've always thought the idea of a nobel "peace prize"
was always a bit odd

I mean the money for the prizes
was endowed by Nobel
a man who made his money by making things
with no other purpose than killing people

[jenniegoesxo.livejournal.com]

welll.... dynamite has been pretty invaluable in construction :)

I think the Prize is a good idea, to remind scientists that their ideas can be used for peaceful purposes and not just for killing. I think in order to win a Nobel, you have to show that your ideas benefit mankind somehow, don't you?

Almost anything that can be used in good intentions can be used in bad ones also, the Nobel prize is sort of a reminder that people can choose to do good.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

If you feel dirty why post it? I've seen it before to be sure...its one of those forwards that has found its way into my email inbox a few times. while it's obviously nice that us jews are so overrepresented in terms of contributions to science, the arts, and the betterment of mankind I didnt feel it made any terribly valid point other than the vague suggestion that we are somehow better than other people which I think is a rather silly thing to suggest for a large number of reasons.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[vaquera.livejournal.com]

I think that a lot of people, both Jewish and non-, feel that there is more than just a vague suggestion that Jews are better than other people. I mean, as a child in Christian Sunday schools and churches I grew up hearing "Jews are god's chosen people" and not really understanding what that meant or what a Jew was.

I asked a strict Kosher Jewish friend about this once and he explained to me that he viewed it as a commandment regarding stewardship and setting examples, but acknowledged that others hold other views on it and a long discussion ensued.

It honestly wasn't until I was in my 20s that I even started to recognize a Jewish last name from any other non-Latino names and that was only because my (athiest Jew-bashing*) Jew friend gave me a primer in all things Jewish. And he pointed out to me that the reason I never had any Jew-awareness is because I grew up in an economically disadvantaged area. Ha!

*When I call him a Jew-bashing friend, I mean that he points out the ridiculous in the religion/culture of his upbringing the same way I point out the ridiculous in my own. One of my favorite conversations was the one we had about the scripture that references God smearing dung on someone's face.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

well in this case its technically incorrect that the jews contributed more to humanity than the islamic world, particularly the arabs. half of what jews were even able to contribute from the middle ages on up through the rennaisance was because of arabs in the first place. there's a reason they call our modern number system the "arabic numeral system" for instance. and back when we considered it blasphemous to carve up bodies for science they had detailed anatomical charts. modern day iraq was "the fertile crescent", the cradle of modern civilization. you can't legitimately judge a people from a pissing contest based on who won more nobel prizes.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[vaquera.livejournal.com]

In my case I wouldn't recognize that as a list of Jews anyway. As I said, I have no Jew-awareness.

But really, to your point, isn't anyone who accomplishes something as laudable as a Nobel standing on the shoulders of giants?

Why's it got to be a Jew/Arab thing? (No, really, don't answer. That's just a rhetorical question.)

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

that's kinda what I'm saying. the point it makes or attempts to make rather is a particularly nasty and insidious one for that very reason.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[vaquera.livejournal.com]

You know something else? I'm so tired of every (ok maybe not every, but you know ... ) conversation about Israel having to be prefaced by, "I'm not anti-semitic." I just think it's ridiculous that you have to disclaim that you are a bigot because you have a contrary opinion on a state's actions. Gah. It's annoying. I have contrary opinions on my own government's actions, it doesn't mean I hate Americans.

It's sad that we can't talk about solutions in a more rational and objective manner, on all sides.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[ikilled007.livejournal.com]

Well granted, you're not better than a cockroach with dandruff.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

says the worthless layabout who has decided he has nothing further to contribute to the benefit of humanity at age...what...30? how very sad.

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[ikilled007.livejournal.com]

I am 35 and just a year ago I contributed the most popular blog in the history of LiveJournal to humanity. What more do you want?

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[vaquera.livejournal.com]

A book tour.

[plural.livejournal.com]

bourbon, in a glass, easy on the ice

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[plural.livejournal.com]

cause I was drunk and couldnt figure out what bothered me
so I defaulted to the standard drunk rule

when in doubt
do it anyway

and I agree with you, hence my comment to madbard above...

Re: Because I always have to play devil's advocate

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

the thing to do when you are drunk is to leave belligerent drunken comments on politicsforum. that is what I do. I'm sure that's what ikilled007 would do if I hadnt banned his ass HAHAHAHA!

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

Two things:

1) what did you expect when you people control all the money and media? No one else has got a chance...

2) Seriously... That means given there have been 776 nobel prizes (NP)awarded, Jews have recieved 16.8% of them. But you analysis is actually really warped, as you'd actually have to condition on the probablity of being from the west (either European or American) which by the nature of thier culture they embrace the sort of analysis that is necessary to actually win a NP, then work on the probability of being a jew, given a person is from the west. It's sort of interesting to note the gaps during the war, in the sciences (Germany was THE scientific mecca pre-war) but not medicine.

[thawaltzingfool.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that I would ever post something like this. I guess I could post the accomplishments of white women versus black women and I know that white women would be on top. However, I'm not that much of an asshole and I also understand differences in culture and advantage.

Also, I'm not saying you're an asshole (because I believe that you are not), but this post sure makes you look like one. Why don't you post one that lists the Nobel prizes for men versus women too. Or white men versus Hispanic men. Or income comparisons for those living in poverty versus the people you spend your time with.

[sonicblue.livejournal.com]

Ok, let's talk about differences in Jewish and Islamic culture.

[budhaboy.livejournal.com]

And then you can talk about the differences between Jewish and Asian cultures.

I had a professor in graduate school who was Chinese (I was in statisics, big surprise there), who was a GOD in the field of Statistical Genetics. Nobel prize for the field? not likely.

My point?

She REFUSED to EVER go to a western doctor. She ONLY would get treatment from an herbalist/accupuncturist, on one of her four trips per year home. She said that IF she ever needed surgery, she'd be happy to let a doctor work on her... but for actual run of the mill medical questions? NEVER.

Now wonder why the proportion of Chinese Nobel prize winners for medicine is so small with proportion to their share of the world's population. In fact, I'd lay dollars to donuts that asians in general (that would be asia as in the continent and including India) is WAY less than one would guess given the relative size of their population.

[doc-neuro.livejournal.com]

let's not and say we did, particularly considering our main contributions from the middle ages to the rennaisance were made possible by Islamic culture (particularly in the realm of medicine).

[sonicblue.livejournal.com]

Anything from the past few hundred years?